Changing nozzle size

If I change my nozzle from the standard .4 to a .6 or .8 ETC., for larger prints, then what else is required to get good prints. I would think that an extruder calibration would be necessary but what else.

Nozzle temp increase?

Print speed?

Other calibrations?

yes yes and yes. with the .6 you might be able to print with a higher speed , any bigger and it might have to be slower it depends on your hotends ability to supply melted material in time. the upside is once you know you’ll just be able to make slicer defaults for each size. the biggest nozzles print very quickly with the same or slower movement speed. each pass means more material but there are a lot fewer passes both to make up the thickness of a wall and layer height.

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I usually have to change the z offset. Some nozzles are longer than others. I scratched a magnetic bed beyond help learning that one.

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I have found that yes @Ted a different z off set was needed. I found I needed about another 10º more to temp. In my case I had already slowed the print speed down as the ringing was a train wreck. I didn’t change speeds but they are already 60 mm/s I also have a volcano hot end.

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If i can add a note on quality: while smaller nozzles definitely produce sharper details on figurines ect, fine detail is not the last word on quality.
If you are printing mechanical parts, woodworking jigs, brackets or architectural details like I do, fine detail is moot. You want crisp lines, minimal artifacts from ringing, 90 degree corners, elephant foot etc.
Most of these issues can be addressed in the modeling and slicing stage regardless of nozzle size.
I find that bigger nozzles improve the layer adhesion and overall mechanical properties of the print, with the added bonus of less squishing time.
Work in multiples of 0.4 in your models and your slicing layers to sync with stepper geometry, and make your first layer 0.4mm shorter than your overall layer height for foolproof plate adhesion.

This is an interesting discussion on the topic.

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I had already seen that vid and he makes some valid points but I still wonder if it is worth changing everything to achieve a little. My printer is running with near perfection at the moment so I am not sure I would see enough benefit to jeopardize screwing it up .

I gotta wonder about the assertion that larger nozzles can do fine detail better than small ones, then the dude prints a bunch of benchies. This is self evident malarkey.

I think that is fair. I have one printer with a 0.6 and the other with a 0.4. sadly they print about the same speed as the bigger printer with the 0,6 is slower. I think it depends what you are printing like Ted suggested. The 0.6 makes stronger prints generally speaking. I find the details not to be quite as good but if you need it it isn’t bad. Depending on the model. The big gain is speed. if you had it on a good fast printer it would be significantly faster. in my case it means the two printers are about the same speed. It is hard to see the difference between them on not very detailed prints.

Thank you for posting this.

I always like to see people challenging the status quo and it probably makes sense to test different parameters.

It seems to me, however, that there is still a lot of work that can be done on slicers.

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So I printed a ‘pellet pusher’ I designed a while ago. They are both the same file and printed with a galaxy silver and a galaxy black, the galaxy filaments have sparkles in them. They are both 0.2 layer height and one, the silver, is a 0.6 mm nozzle and the black is a 0.4. The 0.4 (Black) is on a Prusa the silver on the X1. The X1 took 55 min to print at 50mm/s The Prusa took 1 hour at 70mm/s. The X1 is 23 gm and the Prusa is 19 gm. They are 27mm tall.

The silver is very slightly rougher, and slightly blurred edges. They are very similar. I rarely print the 0.6 at 0.2 typically 0.4-0.56 my desire is speed not fine quality typically.

At 0.56mm it prints in 22min.

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