0.25mm nozzle, great resolution

[darkcrash21 0]

Hey guys,

So i accidentally bought .25mm nozzles from makergear. I decided to see if it will work with the UM. I got the settings to work for simple objects with very little intricate turns, but with any 90deg angles, the first layer doesn't want to stick. The machine has to be very well calibrated or it wont work as the margin of error is very slim compared to the .4mm nozzle. Also print times are very long, as now you have to print even more passes per layer.

Top belt tensioner is the .25mm, bottom is the .4mm. You can see the thickness of each pass on the .4mm, but it's very thin on the .25mm.

[futurejames 0]

Very nice!

I'm doing some 3d printing of jewellery right now, so this is of great interest to me. I feel like the 0.4mm nozzle is way too big for making small, fine objects like that. I would be very interested in hearing if you could work out the problems with the first layer (90 degree etc)!

[ian 32]

what do you guys mean by 90 degree problem ?

Ian

[futurejames 0]

I think he meant a 90 degree corner (picture printing an L).

[alaris2 1]

I'm not sure why that should/would be a problem?

sticking to the bed is an issue with thin layers - I've printed at 50 microns and had to fine tune the z-height in the g-code to within 10 microns before I got the layers to stick properly.

I had toyed with the idea of a 0.25mm nozzle myself

[darkcrash21 0]

Sorry if i wasn't being very descriptive.

The issue comes down to the heat and the problem with extrusion. When i print with 220degC, I have no problems with the first layer sticking, however my print head gets plugs. It's plugs up really fast, less than 30 minutes! Due to the small nozzle opening, the plastic remains inside the print head longer than compared to the .4mm nozzle. Which means the heat starts to climb upwards on the print head.

I had to start printing with 190-200. Problem with printing at that low of a temperature is that the plastic doesn't want to stick to the platform.

The smaller nozzle also requires higher pressure to extrude the plastic. Which means the extruder would start slipping and create flat spots on the PLA. Of course the more friction you put on the PLA, the flatter it gets, and it would get stuck in the bowden tube :(. I would think, in order to use the .25mm nozzle properly, it would be best to use 1.5mm PLA as it would require less force to extrude 1.5mm to .25mm compared to 3mm to .25mm . If that makes sense.

I will keep playing with the settings until my V2 hot end comes in

[alaris2 1]

ahh! you need a Bertho extruder and an Alaris V3 metal hotend with active cooling then!

OK, i'm definitely getting one of these nozzles now. note that they are not compatible with V2 hotend incidentally.

shame only makergear sell them, the shipping to UK will kill me :(

[thedudevt 0]

I have a .25mm nozzle although I haven't tried it yet. Have you tried PVA wood glue on your bed to promote adhesion? I think Richrap posted about it. I've been using it to great success. I have a small glass jar with 1/4 cup water and 1.5 tsp (teaspoons) white glue (plain elmers wood glue) which I mix up. easy-peasy. I apply with a scrap of paper towel. After several applications, you'll need to completely clean your surface as it does build up over time. works great on glass, and was pretty good on kapton over aluminum (heated) as well.

I'm inspired to try my .25 nozzle now... thank you.

Kyle

[darkcrash21 0]

ahh! you need a Bertho extruder and an Alaris V3 metal hotend with active cooling then!

OK, i'm definitely getting one of these nozzles now. note that they are not compatible with V2 hotend incidentally.

shame only makergear sell them, the shipping to UK will kill me :(

Yes I will have to upgrade to the Bertho extruder one day. I haven't heard of the Alaris V3 hotend. I was thinking that cooling the hotend itself just below the PEEK would keep the PLA from plugging. It's great to have the high resolution prints, but it just takes too damn long to print. However, there are times when you need to print small high res objects, so this would be ideal.

Once i setup everything properly, I will post my settings.

I will try the glue to see if it helps with adhesion. I do have an aluminum plate that fits perfectly on the bed, but I dont have kapton tape. Do you really need the kapton tape even with the glue?

[alaris2 1]

see viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1389

but basically you're right - active cooling is the key. there's an additional advantage if you remove the PEEK, teflon and all those other meltable bits and replace with aluminum since you can now print NYLON.

I might try the glue idea too - i've used superglue in the past for emergencies, but it's a bit expensive.

[darkcrash21 0]

I'm actually printing an object right now and it's turning out well. All i did was wipe the blue tape with MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone), lower the print speed to 70% and raise the first layer temp to 215. Once the first layer was printed, I lowered the temp to 206 to keep it from plugging and raise the print speed back to 100%. I will have to figure out a way to machine out a heatsink to allow for active cooling below the PEEK.

I'm not interested in printing Nylon as of yet. I just want to print PLA and ABS for now, which means my next step is to get a heated bed going. Trying to decide on glass or aluminum bed...

[msurunner 2]

Somewhat related note... Anybody know of a good source for larger diameter nozzles? I'm looking for something in the order of .6 or bigger...

[joergen 2]

Somewhat related note... Anybody know of a good source for larger diameter nozzles? I'm looking for something in the order of .6 or bigger...

"Drill, baby, drill"

Otherwise, makergear.com sells larger nozzles

[msurunner 2]

Thanks, I was curious if we are using similar thread pitches and sizes on our(the 3D printing community) nozzles. Sounds like that's pretty much the case?

[Daid 306]

The makergear nozzles are compatible with the V1 hotend, not the V2 hotend. I do love that 0.25mm resolution print, so I'm going to bug people here to see if we can produce nozzles like that for our V2 hotend.

[darkcrash21 0]

Sorry for late updates. I made this piece couple weeks ago but didn't upload the pictures until today. Still some tinkering needs to be done for accuracy. +1 for someone who knows what it is