Nozzle size? The effect of it?

I am running a chinese .4mm j-head clone with great results. I have nothing bad to say about the jhead design or the chinese clone. I also do not cool the jhead at all and it is mounted to an home made aluminum piece so the effector does not warp.

With that being said. I am thinking of trying different sized nozzles. I like the .4mm head. I will be buying an all metal j-head with three different nozzles (.3mm, .4mm, & .5mm) so I can test out the print speeds and the viability of using an all metal j-head.

Before I ask the important question. I will say the following.

1 - I only print in ABS
2 - for now I have no interest in printing in PLA at the present time.
3 - yes I use a heated bed (soon to have a pid controlled heated chamber)
4 - I am setup to use 1.75mm filament.

What is the largest nozzle orifice nozzle I can use? I have seen .6mm nozzles but no larger. Do they exist? I am not beyond buying two or 3 different .5mm nozzles and using a fine drill to step up their size. What are the downsides to using a larger nozzle?

I am aware that the resolution will somewhat be hindered by larger nozzles, however I am not sure what other things I need to take into account. Temperature? etc etc.

Educate me if you have any clues.

The goal for me is to have a .4-.5mm layer height so I can print larger parts at lower resolution faster.

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I wouldn't go more than 50-75% of your filament diameter for max nozzle size, however that's just a guess. You need some back pressure I would think.

As for what to take into consideration, you will need a bit extra heat since you are pushing more filament.

As far as differences, here has been my experience.
.5mm low back pressure (High speed), and very hard to clog.
.4mm medium back pressure, rarely clogs.
.35 high back pressure and very easy to clog.

Once you cross the .4mm head jams become much more common. Some of this is due to being such a small orifice, but also most extruders can't push past small particles that jam. If you get an extruder/hobb that can REALLY push, they jam a lot less, unfortunately on 1.75, I only know of two... Ultibots 1.75mm and Griffin 1.75mm hobbs*.


I'm part owner of Griffin, but not affiliated with Ultibots.

I am thinking of 50-60% of the orifice size is doable. However that would require me to run .8mm filament. probably have to ramp up the temps in the 260c range or higher to do so as well as increase speed.

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Quote
jaguarking11
I am thinking of 50-60% of the orifice size is doable. However that would require me to run .8mm filament. probably have to ramp up the temps in the 260c range or higher to do so as well as increase speed.

I was thinking it was the other way. So 50% nozzle size would be 0.8 or 0.9 for 1.75mm filament, 1.4 or 1.6 for 3mm filament.

I could be misunderstanding though.

This is all 1.75mm talk to follow....

Depending on the part, keeping in mind you can have a 0.15mm layer height with most nozzle sizes, the end product could look almost identical with a .3, .4, or .5 nozzle. Lots of factors to consider, but it is important to remember the small increase in diameter of the nozzle makes a much larger increase in area of the opening (or volume as it is extruding). Sounds like most of the other posters already realize this, so this is more for those reading this stuff the first time perhaps.

What I noticed early on, is that you can print a 0.5mm nozzle with 0.25mm layer height print in around 25-75% of the time of a 0.3mm nozzle/0.25mm layer height. Varies widely, but its just a lot quicker in most cases.

I've heard some people just get a fine point and make the nozzle bigger, but then you'd be left guessing the size and would need to do some (perhaps lengthy) calibration. Still, I don't see 0.6mm nozzle size for sale all that much. Keep in mind the plastic should expand a bit when extruded, so a 0.5mm nozzle will spit out a larger size (0.51 or 0.66, not sure, but it should be a bit bigger).

If you are making 3d parts for other printers, I think doing them in 0.25 or even 0.35 nozzles may just be wasting time. Then again, if I had it to do over again I might have just gone to 3mm filament to begin with, so I could get super large nozzles.

If you get a non-jhead, you'd only be wasting $3-5 to drill or poke a larger hole in a removable nozzle. I bet 1/2 is a good rough starting point.

The reason I went with 1.75mm filament is because its becoming the standard. With a proper drive mechanism its reliable, light and has more options as of today.

I think I may just buy a all metal j-head that has brass removable nozzles and a few nozzles/drill bits as well varying from .6mm to .8mm or even 1mm. That should make it easy to replace the nozzles and speed up my prints while layering .4mm and above.

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Quote
jaguarking11
The reason I went with 1.75mm filament is because its becoming the standard. With a proper drive mechanism its reliable, light and has more options as of today.

I think I may just buy a all metal j-head that has brass removable nozzles and a few nozzles/drill bits as well varying from .6mm to .8mm or even 1mm. That should make it easy to replace the nozzles and speed up my prints while layering .4mm and above.

All metal j head?? Who makes those?

The original j head wasnt designed to be metal. I'd imagine a metal version of the same exact design would not deliver the same results as the standard version.

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The all metal j-head I was refering to is more like the e3d v5. Still a j-head style design, except instead of using a peek barrel they use an aluminum barrel with fins. I will order one sooner or later and evaluate and tweak it. If not satisfied I will be designing my own passively cooled extruder and call it a day.

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I bought a "all metal hotend". It is an Hexacon hotend D175 on RepRapteile.de
So it's exist.
I used different hotends and this is the most sucessfull hotend. Still id o have some questions
What is the calibration for repsnapper or kisslicer for the minikossel?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2014 09:04AM by okkie.

I acidentaly killed my j-head. The head cloged and I heated it up and started removing sludge from the back of it with a 1.54mm drill bit. Guess what? I got a bit too harsh with it and now have a 1.75mm jhead with a 1.54mm-1.6mm nozzle. Holly hell I should have just soaked it in acetone. Guess I will be buying the new head now rather than later. Now to figure out if I want to buy the nozzle and block and design a pasively cooled all metal head, or just buy an all metal head. Decisions, decisions.

I may try printing with the 1.6mm nozzle and see what kind of results I get though.

Edit I ordered this [www.aliexpress.com]

I just ordered this. I do not need the heater or the temperature sensor. This should work for me. It includes 9 nozzles 3x.3mm, 3x.4mm & 3x.5mm. This gives me the ability to experiment as well as drill out the nozzle if I wish to go bigger. I may drill one of the .3mm nozzles to .6mm or so if I find the .5mm one not good enough.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2014 11:29AM by jaguarking11.

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Well while waiting for a new hot end. I decided to try to print with the huge nozzle. The ID I estimate is around 1.5mm to 1.6mm. I tried setting cura to do the slicing and it honestly did not work out too well. At least not the first time. However with tweaking I think I can get this printer to print properly. Here are the first results with a severely oversize nozzle. This is a first print. I also have the video embeded on the bottom of my blog entry about heated chamber.

[youtu.be]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2014 10:29AM by jaguarking11.

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