MOD for 1 mm extruder nozzle - You'll want one!

Just a heads up - I succeeded at this mod - drilling out the prusa makergearv2 nozzle (plastistruder) to be 1mm diameter. Then smooth the nozzle by brushing it against a flat brass surface (acts as superfine sandpaper). Nothing shockingly new here, but the take-home-message is that it was totally unintuitive before doing the mod how much easier plastic would flow, and how much stronger and faster the parts print.

I will share much more eventually but here are the key details:
Requirements

1. You will need to have optimized the pololu RAMP output for the plastistruder to maximum amperage for maximum force
2. You need to balance the force on the filament - too much and the bearing roller won't turn. Too little, and the filament won't move.
3. In my case, I drilled and tapped the plastistruder so that i could use screws with stronger springs and to be able to remove them more conveniently.
4. You need to understand that for PLA, the filament does not behave normally when it has been sitting hot in the hot end for more than 5 minutes. Even if it doesn't flow out, it will get "sticky". Once you push it through (about 50mm filament) you will not believe how effortlessless filament flows through.
5. You should know that for 1mm, even though 4 times the material can go through, there is exponentially less resistance to flow through the nozzle, so the plastistruder can keep up. Also, technically, the layers only print twice as fast because slicer prints based on diameter, not diameter^2. I'm not quite sure why that is.
6. You will print about 1.15 mm in reality.
7. For a strong part, you have to let slicer overlap
8. I'm also assuming you optimized firmware for max acceleration and 350mm/s between print moves (prevents ooze)
9. There are some obvious modifications for slic3r. I am printing around 55mm/s for the part linked here. I also print onto cardstock paper to help set the first layer.

Advantages as compared to 0.5 mm nozzle

1. Because more comes out of the nozzle per second, your prints will be more consistent on the first layer, and stick well.
2. Less nozzle ooze (wow!)
3. Infill
4. Stronger parts
5. Much (MUCH) faster prints. I am printing 3 ounces of plastic per hour right now...way faster.
6. Ability to do 0.5-.75 mm layers with success
7. Fewer "stringy polymer hairs" loose between distant prints
8. Much cleaner top surfaces (overlaps between lines look better)
9. Bridging seems slightly more reliable.

Disadvantages

1. You will loose sharp edges (slightly). This is noticeable (and may be an advantage)
2. Minimum resolution is 1.15 mm (instead of 0.55 before) is somewhat noticeable, especially if you manage to print 0.5mm layer thickness. However, resolution is not really lost much. The reason is you can still print 0.1 mm layers. Your steppers also have 10-20 microns of accuracy, so the ability to print lines instead of individual points (like an inkjet) really allows you to potentially do 2, 3, even 5 mm diameter if you wanted, you just need thicker objects to print a small hole. Also, if really needed desperately small feature sizes, you can rely on your Z-axis for accuracy (like you do now).
3. When you get "stringy hairs" coming off the nozzle, they will be thicker and harder to remove
4. Anything else obvious I'm missing?

So I MUST pose this question. Everyone is trying to go smaller and smaller. Whats the big deal? I would go for 1.5-2mm if

To see the picture about this please click on my blog link for Armani Creations Printing with a 1 mm diameter nozzle

Just an update - Printing 0.75 mm layers at 1 mm diameter at 30 mm/s no problem. Compare against 0.25 mm x 0.1 mm X 50 mm/s = about 10 X overall print speed.

Got any photos or a video? Sounds like a great way to quickly make uncomplicated parts.

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Richmond, New Zealand
Thingiverse ~ YouTube

Wired1: awesome! That what i'm saying : )

I followed up on a request on another one of my posts to print single-wall parts, and complex small parts.

Obviously you are limited by a minimum nozzle width, but you can EASILY trick slicer to print smaller than 1-mm nozzle width parts using the "default extrusion width" (otherwise it wont infill perimeters or places them strangely). For example, I used a default extrusion width of 0.6 mm to print this very very small part here. I was shocked how clean the print came out.

Bear in mind, the prints come out SO much fast, for a small part, you net even, because you'll have to print 15 mm/s, even with a fan on, to keep heat from evolving too much and making squishy parts! But net even for small parts + way faster and stronger large parts seems like a win to me : ) .

I'm printing another 100 mm wide + tall bunny today - the previous one took 6 hours with 0.5mm nozzle and was only 3 exterior perims with no infill. will post the results.

This is a better comparison between 1 mm and 0.5mm, with the better looking print taking less time and being much heavier and stronger even with thinner layer height: [armanicreations.com]

Its explained at the gallery here:
[armanicreations.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 04:16AM by Simba.

Simba Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So I MUST pose this question. Everyone is trying
> to go smaller and smaller. Whats the big deal?

I need to routinely print things where the loss of sharp definition just from using a 0.5 mm nozzle instead of a 0.35 mm nozzle can cause the prints to end up in the trashcan. Going to a 1.0 mm nozzle would be much worse. No, increasing the Z-definition does not help, it has no effect when printing critical gear profiles, for example. Would you mind showing how the standard Greg's/Wade's extruder gear set looks and meshes together when printed with the 1.0 mm nozzle?

I would love to try, and I will as soon as I get the time... What is a good measure of performance though? we need a way to rate the consistency, smoothness, etc. It may looks like it fits but that doesn't mean it runs 100% the same.

As of right now, my quams are with Slicer. It is a great program, but it locks you into one nozzle width per area type (perimeter, infill, etc). If you want to for example, the 1mm nozzle can extrude between 0.75mm and 1.5 mm. That would be ideal for closing the gap for any size smaller than 2.25 mm, for example:

2 mm = 1 mm + 1mm
1.6 mm = 0.8 mm + 0.8 mm
1.4 mm = 1.4 mm (one line).

However, slicer doesnt have this capability. It will instead omit part of the part, or it will infill in a hectic sorta way that causes overflow. I imagine the software is the major reason it is hard to even get it right with 0.5 mm nozzles.

I am really interested in your approach to 1 millimeter nuzzle, big and fast prints... can you publish your settings in slicer3r?... i am having problems with it.... Thank you in advance...

Hi,

I am sorry I don't that extruder anymore but I would still use it if build speed and strength are a value to you. Let me know what problem you're having exactly and I think I can help.

Basically, the non-intuitive aspect was realizing that per pass the nozzle adjustment is only a factor of two (1mm vs .5) not the factor of 2^2 you may be thinking to compensate for filament flow out of a nozzle 4 times larger.

The only setting you need to change is extrusion ratio and nozzle diameter. Set nozzle diameter to 1mm (from what it was at 0.5mm) and then it will flow 4 times faster.... but you only need 2 times faster in reality. So adjust the extrusion ratio by 0.5 factor.

So looking at the files, apparently I chose extrusion width back then to be 1.6mm... Sorry but this stuff was old.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2013 11:52PM by Simba.

Apparently I lie...
I'm so proud I could even find this
...so much happens in a year

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2013 11:42PM by Simba.

This may be an old thread, but thank you for posting this info! I've been working on my 1mm nozzle, trying to get it to keep from extruding too much plastic. I calibrated my e-steps, measured my filament in multiple places and still have trouble with too much plastic. it was to the point that my nozzle was dragging through the previous printed line right next to it because it was too wide. some of the widths of my printed lines are as much as 1.7 or 2 mm in width.
I will try to modify my width ratio % and see if that helps any.

Nowadays, you can make the slicer do volumetric extrusion calculation.
I wonder why Simba said, he expected 2^2 factor, where IMHO it would be a factor of " 1/2 x pi^2 " ?
-Olaf

I've been using volumetric extrusion for a few months and have had no issues with it. The best thing about it is not having to relslice a file because I want to print it in a different color and the different color filaments aren't the exact same diameter. If you use volumetric extrusion, enable cooling fans, and set bed and extruder temps to "0" when you slice, you can change colors and materials without reslicing. You have to enter all that stuff when you start a print (and manually disable the cooling fan(s) if you're printing ABS).