I am looking to switch from a 0.4mm to a 0.2mm nozzle in order to print smaller model sizes in order to save on filament.
I am not comfortable or confident enough to do this alone. I am looking for someone who has successfully made the switch and can help me adjust the settings and such in order to have as few issues as possible.
I also am planning on turning a 52x40 inch table into a large diorama. I intend to use files from a number of different creators and don’t know how to ensure that everything ends up to the same scale. This project will likely take years as I’m limited financially.
What part exactly are you looking for help with? Do you need help with physically taking the nozzle off or would you like help with some of the slicer settings? As for the sizing of the files, that will be tricky, there wont be a set scale as all the models will more than like be different sizes. So you will have to figure out the scale and re-size them accordingly.
I’m more than okay with the mechanical aspect of changing the nozzle and leveling the bed to work with the new nozzle.
It is most definitely the slicer settings I need help with. I know what adjustments can be made to some of them. I know some of the ones that would need adjusting, but I don’t know by how much or how to figure that out quickly. I don’t have the money to be wasting too many resources by constantly screwing up-which I know I would do.
If your printer is supported in Cura then when you change the nozzle size, in Cura, it should automatically change the settings over for a .2 mm nozzle. This assumes you are using Cura. Since Cura 4.11 the printer pre-set setting have been very good.
My printer is a Creatbot F160 PEEK. Not meaning to offend you, or anyone but simply stating that this is one of the reasons I’ve always disliked forums.
If the answer to my issue were that simple, I wouldn’t have posted this topic and asked for help in the first place. I am autistic and not very fond of dealing with people, so I only reach out for help on places like this when I feel I’ve exhausted every other possible option through many hours of research.
What I am looking for is someone I can share my relevant settings and information with and who, in turn, can help me efficiently dial in the right settings with a minimal amount of errors. I get extremely upset with trying to adjust things like this and keep ending up with trouble.
Have you ever heard the expression “Garbage in, garbage out”?
At the start of this thread, you ask for help in transitioning from a 0.4mm diameter nozzle to a 0.2mm one. No other information.
When you’re asked for more information you say you’re okay with the mechanical aspects but aren’t sure about the slicer. The reply you get is for Cura, which is the most common slicer used in 3D printing.
Now, your patience is exhausted as the answers you have gotten are not acceptable to you but only here are you telling everybody what kind of hardware you’re working with - although we don’t know what slicer you’re working with (I’m guessing that it’s CreatWare as you felt comments about Cura weren’t helpful).
Now, if this is the case, then can I suggest that you go to the CreatWare page, and fill out a request using the form at the bottom of the page:
If you’ve already done this and not gotten a helpful reply, then this is additional information that would have helped you get more effective replies and suggestions.
Chances are the answer to your question is very simple; on the CreatWare page, they say they support different extruders which tells me it’s most likely a parameter that is in a place you haven’t looked and I’m sure CreatBot support will be happy to tell you were to find it.
Look, it wasn’t my intent to offend anyone. My Autism affects my ability to communicate clearly and it also affects my ability to interpret what others are saying to me.
I have struggled with this since I was 5 years old and it always causes problems for me with regard to communication and ends up with people snapping at me…which upsets me and causes me to berate myself knowing it’s my fault.
I really wasn’t aware of what information would help and what wouldn’t and didn’t realize I forgot to mention that, yes, I am using Cura but, no, cura doesn’t support my printer.
Again, I apologize for offending people as this is never my intent but always seems to happen.
So, I am using Cura.
Thank you for mentioning I should check into creatware (as I never used it so don’t really know that much about it or its capabilities)
As I’m not sure what other information I might need to provide to get help with my issue, I would appreciate being informed of what details are needed.
When you’re asking for help, it is important to overshare and explain the situation as completely as you can. Too much information is infinitely better than not enough.
So, you’re not alone in asking for a Cura profile for your printer:
If you’re using Cura 4.x, there is a set of configuration files for your printer here:
I don’t know if it will work with Cura 5.
If you want a recommendation of what to do:
Try to figure out how to use a 0.2mm nozzle in the CreatWare slicer. If it isn’t obvious, contact CreatBot and ask for help using the form.
Create your own Cura profile for your printer. It isn’t very hard and I doubt there’s anything special about the CreateBot F160 PEEK. The big thing is to make sure you get the print envelope size right. I’ve done this for several printers, it’s not a lot of work.
Try installing the Cura configuration files listed above.
If you have problems or questions, please ask but remember to share as much information as you can.
Trying to get customer support from Creatbot is like trying to pull teeth out of someone who has none. They almost never reply to owners of their machines, only to the people who sell them. I’ve sent them over 17 different queries about different things and have never gotten a reply.
What is a print envelope?
Those files are for the Creatbot DX series, which is a whole different beast than the F160. The DX can have 1,2, or even 3 separate extruders that all work together. The F160 only has one.
I have a basic profile set up in cura, I think.
I went into the creatware software from creatbot and copied data regarding the opening and closing g-code, the build volume dimensions, and the distances mentioned with regards to the print head.
I then pasted them in the appropriate sections in the Cura custom printer section.
It’s been working very well (most errors and failures have been my fault) but I want to get more resolution in the x/y plane which is why I wanted to switch to a 0.2mm nozzle.
Printing a 32mm miniature with my 0.4mm nozzle and will see how it goes.
I also know how to use the ‘make solid’ feature of meshmixer to add a minimum thickness in order to make sure that no part of the model is too small for my nozzle size. I lose some detail, but maybe that’s okay.
In your previous replies, it didn’t sound like you had tried to contact CreatBot. Doing a quick search, it doesn’t sound like there are issues with CreatBot - how did you try to get support?
1.1. Did you try contacting the company you purchased the printer from?
1.2. This is a fairly high end printer, I would expect them to provide some kind of timely response. Especially if your question was “I have an F160 PEEK printer and am using your slicer; how do I change the nozzle size to 0.2mm?”
The size of the print area (I believe it’s 160mm x 160mm x 200mm for your printer).
When I did the search, I saw that the link came from somebody with an F160 printer who used them without any problem (although it was with Cura 4.3).
It doesn’t sound like you’re going to get a fast/easy answer and will have to do some work yourself - like create your own Cura profiel.
Yeah… I keep hearing that the company is very good at responding, however that hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve tried 3-5 methods of getting in touch with them. I didn’t mention this because I never tried reaching out about this as I never got responses to any other inquiry about anything.
With regards to contacting the company I bought it from… Their customer service is spotty at best.
I guess I’ll look into creating a full cura profile.
Here’s hoping it works as I don’t really have the patience to be constantly fiddling with a few dozen settings.
It would be nice to know, in general, what settings will most likely need changing as it seems like I can’t find a consistent answer to even that.
How did you try to contact CreateBot? As well as the support form at the bottom of their various web pages (which indicates that replies will be forthcoming in 12 hours):
Have you tried either of these two avenues to get your question answered and did you ask it like I suggested (“I have an F160 PEEK printer and am using your slicer; how do I change the nozzle size to 0.2mm?” You can even go on to ask if they have a Cura profile that they can share with you)? I’m very surprised that they haven’t responded to you.
Setting up a Cura profile for a printer isn’t a big deal. It takes about an hour and is outlined here:
Once you have a profile you can use the “Generic” material configurations and work from there. The biggest suggestion I have is to first print a “Temperature Tower” to see what is best for the material.
Now, PEEK isn’t listed as a material in Cura - is this something that you want to use? It’s good but hugely expensive and, as you’re a beginner, I would recommend starting with PLA as it’s much easier to work with and a fraction of the price.
If you’re going to be successful with 3D printing, you’re going to have to learn to work with multiple variables in an organized fashion to produce the best quality prints. It won’t be “a few dozen” but you’ll have to be comfortable with working through five or six values to figure out how to get the best possible models.
Subject: Question on using a 0.2mm nozzle on an F160 PEEK
Hiya,
I’m supporting a F160 PEEK user that wants to replace the standard 0.4mm nozzle with a 0.2mm one. They are using CreatWare right now and doesn’t know what settings to change for the new nozzle size to be recognized in the slicer. Can you give us a pointer to what needs to be changed?
Along with this, the user would like to use Cura with the printer, is there anything that needs to be done other than create a new printer configuration?
Thanx and I appreciate your help,
myke predko
And initially got back the reply:
Thanks for your email. We are on May day holiday and will back to work on May 3th. We will check emails from time to time and reply you as soon as possible.
Thanks advance.
Tonight I got the reply:
Hello Myke,
Glad to help you
Changing the nozzle requires modifying the nozzle diameter in the extruder settings of the slicing software,
Attached is the Cura configuration file for F160PEEK
I don’t know why you said “Trying to get customer support from Creatbot is like trying to pull teeth out of someone who has none.” This was a pretty good experience and really is better than a lot of other companies I’ve worked with.
I don’t know why they didn’t respond to me. Perhaps the subject line of my emails and messages gave the wrong impression or the contents of my messages weren’t communicated very clearly (you’ve clearly seen I can struggle with that).
Again, thank you for your help. This will make a huge difference in my plans to make a large scale diorama out of my dining table (which I don’t eat at). It will also save me filament which is a huge deal for me on my income.
So, I used a 0.4mm nozzle and printed a miniature scale figure with moderate detail and on a 32mm base - it was nice, but too many details were missing.
I then printed the exact same model (which is of a medium-sized creature) on a 50mm base. That came out much better with more detail and is a better size for me to paint (using paint pens as I am terrible with brushes).
Therefore I am going to start my scale with medium creatures on a 50mm base. It will mean less models in the diorama, but be much easier for me to work with.
Now I just need to figure out how to adjust that to find the sizes of the bases for the rest of the sizes in the scale (large, huge, etc)
Once I have those I can work at figuring out how I want to scale my creatures. I’ll have to assign sizes to many of the models I hope to use and then scale them appropriately.
@FenrirShadowfang in case you did not know you can scale in the slicer. Uniform or not. It could be an easy way to increase from 30mm to 50mm it will even show the measurements. One is at 100% its 79.16 mm (It is a lid but just for example) The next is 50MM diameter the last image is 30mm diameter. It is super simple to alter this way if they are already created.
