I wanted to start printing smaller parts for one of my projects, so I ordered 0.25mm nozzle from E3D(I designed my hot end so that I can use them). It’s right in the picture. Left is one I made by myself and it’s 0.45mm.
I ran about ten calibration prints and was able to print with pretty good results. I was curious about how small parts I could really print, and scaled down my retraction test.
This part you can see does have bottom diameter of 6mm, 3.5mm height, and small piles are 0.75mm in diameter. This was first try to print parts this small, so I really didn’t tune it till the end and I was still very impressed to the result. It would be better with more cooling etc.
I ran to few problems with nozzle this small. Filament flow is so low that at first it jammed several times. I increased temperature and speed so jamming went away. Also bed needs to be exactly at correct place when print is starting. Print is PLA, 0.1mm layer height and printed at 215 degrees of celcius.
Nice test ! Iike to test the same… just ordered some wax filament from machinable-wax to see if we can go as small as possible with one of our Printrbot Plus. Printing jewelry for lost wax casting in resonabl details.
@Frank_Zottel Thanks! This small nozzle definitely increases ability to print small details. However, nozzle clogging is still problem for me atleast with PLA. Wax might not be so bad I guess?
Yes they suggest to print the wax filament at round about 140-160c. Celcius. I will keep you up to date and post some photos too. Best, Frank.
Why did you get the 0.24mm instead of the 0.1mm?
@Marcus_Wolschon I think E3D doesn’t have that small nozzles for sale? Also 0.1mm is so small that printing times would increase very much. I’m still having nozzle clogging problems with 0.25mm nozzle and I could just imagine what it would be with 0.1mm.
The Ultimaker II Olsson block was created to use the E3D nozzles and I have an 0.1mm nozzle in my kit. It worked very well on a small 52h print job last weekend (while I was away in another state). No clogging at all. Yes, print times are the price of a higher detail level but as you stated “smaller parts”, I thought that’s not an issue for you.
@Marcus_Wolschon So I could order 0.1mm nozzle from UM? Actually that sounds very interesting. If I print very small parts, print time wouldn’t be so much.
What kind of settings do you have when printing with that nozzle? What material, temp etc?
I’m currently experimenting with Moldlay.
Cura Ulti-Quality setting changed to 135°C and 20 micron layer height
@Marcus_Wolschon Are you printing with ultimakers stock bowden extruder? And have you tried ABS or PLA?
Yes, stock bowden extruder with Olsson Block. I have done PLA down to 15micron with the stock nozzle but not with this one yet.
I use one nuzzle only for one material and PLA/PHA only for technical parts where details are not a concern. So I’m not about to try that combination soon.