Just asking out of curiosity. Until now, I have only used a hardened 0.4 nozzle on my P1S. However, I recently purchased a PAHT CF for testing and bought the recommended 0.6mm nozzle to go with it. I assumed that I would use the 0.6 mainly for this filament and perhaps I will use it in future for some large prints.
However, I then saw several YouTube videos claiming that the 0.6mm nozzle may actually be a better universal than the commonly used 0.4mm, especially when using the Arachne generator. The arguments used seemed quite reasonable to me, so now I’m thinking about whether it would actually be a good idea (or not) to make the 0.6 a universal nozzle or to go back to 0.4mm for most common prints.
I would be interested to know how many people here actually use the 0.6 as their “basic” nozzle? What are your reasons for doing so, what experiences have you had with it, what limitations have you encountered? Appreciate if you can share your experiences and opinions. And what moment/reason is decisive for you to return to 0.4 mm for a given print? Probably I should mention that I practically never print miniatures, and if I am interested in details, it is only from a purely functional point of view—threads, etc. Thanks in advance for all your answers…
BTW… is there anyone here who uses 0.4 for PAHT CF printing? And have you had any major problems with it?
I only tested that if I leave CF or wood filament loaded for days of inactivity, there’s a risk of insta clog the next time I try to extrude it. If it happens I just do a preventive cold pull cleaning
So far I printed a little bit of PETG CF (about half a spool) on a 0.4 mm nozzle without any problems (as far as I could notice). I just had to clean it thoroughly (cold pull) after finishing before I started printing with “normal” materials…
But the warning from PAHTCF technical sheet seemed so “urgent” to me that I bought the 0.6 …And now I’m thinking about how best to use it
If the model uses over 200 grams, usually I ask myself if 0.6 is appropriate
Lazy me usually responds “no, im not switching the nozzle anyways, push send”
@blaster - I’ve run hundreds of kg of tinmorry petg-cf thru 0.4mm nozzle, both on an A1 and elegoo centauri carbon. Its no worries. probably vendor dependant on how finely they mill their particle.
@Bullocks nice, I had read that also lord satan did it continuously without issues, maybe one day…
I once tried a TPU print with a 0.6 nozzle dirty of black CF. It spitted black stuff for 2 hours and a later cold pull extracted more black CF powder probably. CF is really dirty
I have also seen this argument that you can achieve same details with a 0,6 nozzle on arachne as with 0,4 nozzle on classic. But I rather use 0,4 on arachne for increased detail. with a 0,4mm HF nozzle, I can already achieve a flow of > 35mm³/s , printing 0,8mm wide lines also works perfectly with a 0,4 nozzle. So I really don’t see any benefit in using a 0,6 nozzle instead, except maybe for printing CF.
I use 0.6 high-flow for stronger parts, even with some details. If the filament oozes too much, I’ll switch to 0.4. I am using 0.6 mainly for strength, not pushing speeds. The high flow version might even heat up the filament better than a standard 0.4 nozzle, which also should be good for strength.
I think I’m in @Bullocks camp. I have used .4 on nearly everything until recently. H2 allows for much easier nozzle changes and puts a dent in my “lazy” excuse. So I started using the .6 a little more.
I’m not sold to be honest. So I printed a drawer system with .4 yesterday, doing another with the .6 today. This will settle it until I’m comfortable and don’t want to get up.
btw, apparently smaller layer heights tend to warp more, so that could be an important factor. I have more 0.4 nozzles than 0.6 in my H2C, so I don’t avoid them, but I like the 0.6 HF variants for functional parts.
I’m surprised. How does the larger nozzle make prints stronger? I fully support high-flow nozzles for better melting and therefore better layer adhesion. I even did measurements that clearly show the advantage. But I haven’t haven’t heard yet that nozzle size has an influence on strength.
I have a 0,4 mm high flow nozzle in use almost exclusively. Sometimes I increase line width up to 0,8mm when I want to print fast and make use of the higher flow rates and even then don’t see an advantage for a bigger nozzle.
Weak points in most 3D prints are along layer lines. Bigger nozzles allow thicker layers, fewer layers for a given height means fewer weak points.
Weak points can also occur where one line of filament “squishes” into the line next to it. Again, bigger nozzles allow wider lines, potentially fewer weak points.
Ideally, strong plastic items should be made without relying on adhesion between layers and lines of filament, but that is known as injection molding, and is out of reach for most of us.
I still doubt that this makes a difference. The part will break where a weak point and highest stress come together. Why should a few more extra layers around that point change anything?
Maybe I’m wrong. Next time I do adhesion tests, I will compare at least different layer heights and report here!
I think the idea is higher flow per line means more thermal energy laid down; means more interlayer bonding means stronger stuff. And the plane oriented with the plate will be even stronger by being thicccc, although that is usually sufficient at 0.4.
cross sectional area of the line being extruded = 0.6 at 0.3layer=0.15mm^2 vs 0.4 at 0.2layer=0.08mm^2. Pretty much double the stuff comin out the nozzle, carrying all the energy.
edit: this math isnt as simple or linear as that, correct modeling would include the contact patch below’s area, which gets bigger as well, yadda yadda.
All of the above, couldn’t explain it better. Mind you that I did not test myself, and my intuition would have told me that thinner layer lines were stronger for example.
There is an older test by CNC Kitchen which compared nozzle sizes and the effect of increasing line width with 0.4 nozzles.
I really doubt this is true. But I will test it as soon as possible. I would only use higher layer height and reduce speed so that it’s the same flow as with 0,2 layers.
You could also achieve higher flow by faster printing and that definitely does not increase stability. But that probably isn’t what you mean, right?
And here I try to make the point that you can just as well do that with a 0,4mm nozzle. With default settings you are limited to 0,28 instead of 0,3 layer height, but that isn’t almost no difference and you could adjust the machine settings to also allow 0,3mm layers. Instead, I often use 0,8mm line width and 0,2mm layer height with the 0,4mm nozzle, especially for vase mode.
Instead, what really affects strength in my opinion is sufficient melting of the filament. that is mainly influenced by the melt zone, e.g. HF vs standard nozzle and the power of the heater, not by the size of the orifice.
Maybe maximum flow is a little bit higher with a 0,6mm nozzle, but then you are at a flow where strength is already compromised.
One thing I forgot to mention is: When using fiber-filled filaments, I prefer 0.6 high-flow instead of 0.4. Again I am assuming that a 0.6 high-flow will heat up the filament better than 0.4 standard (and not clog).
Good approach .. will remember it