Help with drilling out nozzle

[Blizz 53]

I'd like a larger hole in my nozzle to be able to print laywoo-d3 and laybrick etc (probably .6mm?) without clogging.

Unfortunately I really don't have the equipment.

Is there anyone here (within driving distance of Antwerp, Belgium) who can and wants to help me out? Would be much appreciated!

 

[peggyb 169]

 

put the drill in the machine at high speed and hold the nozzle in your hand.

Mount the nozzle back and put some fine sand paper on the build plate and move the nozzle by hand.

 

[meduza 191]

Is it a UM1 or a UM2 nozzle?

 

[jonnybischof 60]

Afaik the nozzle and heater block are one part on the UM2, right?

That makes it a bit more complicated to drill out (since most 0.6mm drills would be only a few mm short).

Ideally, this should be done on a mill with a precision x-y-table. With this, you could drill through the nozzle from the tip instead of going through the whole block.

Should also work with a drill press, but it takes a bit more finesse to align the nozzle correctly.

I have a mill, but I'm not even in Europe :(

 

[Blizz 53]

Yeah I definitely don't want to start drilling the way the linked video above shows. That's why I started a new topic about it instead of just reacting in the one where that video was already posted

The weight of the entire block is completely unbalanced, as the heater block sticks out to the side of the nozzle. It would never rotate without hopping all over. You can pretty much forget centering your drill that way.

In this case it's the drill that will need to rotate.

 

[meduza 191]

I did it with a stationary drill and a rotating nozzle assembly, but that was with both the block and the drill clamped securely in a lathe

I really recommend to use a lathe or a mill (or a really good precision drill press if you are lucky to have one of those) to do this operation (could be accomplished with either one, just different way of mounting the nozzle assembly and what part that is stationary)

 

[Blizz 53]

As I said, I don't have any of that material nor the place to put it if I were to purchase it.

Hence the question for someone who would be able to help me in this matter:)

 

[meduza 191]

Have you checked with your local Makerspaces / Hackerspaces / Fab-Labs if they have the equipment?

 

[gr5 2,071]

I would go with .7mm or .8mm. The thicker the drill bit the stronger it is and it's less likely to break off inside. Also I recommend drilling from the back and *not* the tip side. I have a .7mm drilled hole (UM2) and it was done by a friend with better tools than me in new york city.

This is why you should have bought a UM Original. The UM Original is easier (and cheaper) to customize. You can buy sets of 10 nozzle diameters on ebay for UM Original.

 

[eldrick 64]

Well, that was easy.

After going through the agony of obtaining a spare nozzle for my UM2 so I'd have a backup, I cleaned out my existing nozzle thoroughly, polished the inside shiny with Brasso and a q-tip, and drilled it out with a .5mm carbide drill bit with an 1/8" Shank = http://www.mcmaster.com/#2841A81.

I used my inexpensive drill press at 3100rpm, held the nozzle by hand on top of a machinist's vise to keep it level but allow a bit of slop for self-centering, and slowly drilled it out from the inside. Since the inside of the nozzle is tapered before the actual orifice, the bit centered itself easily, and drilled a perfectly round hole (under 8X magnification), or close enough to perfect for me.

I re-mounted the nozzle, and used 600/1500/2000 grit sandpaper successively along the back edge of the printbed (adjusting the height with the bed-leveling) to open up the flat on the tip a bit and polish it, and it's presently printing .8mm lines perfectly in .16mm layers. The tip looks flat and round, as does the hole, and it is printing smooth even lines.

Printing is a Lot faster, as I can now use one external loop where I needed two before (or two instead of three), and the parts I manufacture will be structurally stronger because of fewer wider loops. The .51mm nozzle also moves about 60% more plastic, and with less back-pressure on the feeder I expect fewer skips at the same temperatures.

Well worth the annoyance of procuring a spare .4mm nozzle, and an easy project - I could have done it easily with a hand drill or a Dremel if I didn't have a drill press.

 

[gr5 2,071]

Yay! :-)

I have a .65mm nozzle (on UM original) and I love it. It prints nice and fast.

So do you still plan to sell your UM2?

 

[eldrick 64]

So do you still plan to sell your UM2?

 

Remains to be seen. RPW declined to produce Ultimaker nozzles, as he is just too busy with J-head manufacture. I'm a lot happier with the .5mm nozzle than with the .4mm - .4mm is just too stinking slow, and too fussy about clogging.

If my UM2 remains reliable (600+ print-hours so far according to the Advanced settings), I may keep it and the Zeni Kinetic. I certainly don't Need two printers, but it sure would be nice to have one available when the inspiration strikes while something else is running...

Does anyone know what the increment is for one notch on the rear bed-leveling procedure? I'm curious how much I shaved off the flat on the .5 nozzle.

 

[Daid 304]

I'd like a larger hole in my nozzle to be able to print laywoo-d3 and laybrick etc (probably .6mm?) without clogging.

Unfortunately I really don't have the equipment.

 

Ah man. If I had known that, I would have put one of the nozzles in our lathe. Your best bet would be a workshop with a lathe.

2nd best would be a drill-press. Those are much more common (I even have one at home) And manually center the nozzle in a large clamp while the spinning drill hovers over it. Won't be 100% perfect, but should be do-able. Just take your time to center it.

 

[Blizz 53]

Daid I thought that my current nozzle was going to be unusable. Since the filament creeping upwards is not a direct consequence of the cut I have, I just figured I might as well try to drill it out.

I didn't even know yet when we were at the Ulti-Evening.

Can they do that at ProtoSpace btw? Otherwise I'll just bring it with me next time I am certainly prepared to pay for the effort, either in cookies (if they accept that currency) or plain ol' cash

 

[ultiarjan 1,222]

I did it :-P

Drilled my old UM2 nozzle to 0.6.

First cleaned it out with a gasburner, then just put the nozzle in a workbench and drilled out by handheld dremel ....

Very easy no problem at all, don't put any pressure, just let the dremel do the work (just seconds) and the inside shape of the nozzle will guide the drill to the centre ...

Did no sanding or cleaning, just heated again with the gasburner and pushed some PLA through for cleaning of any metal parts ....

Also had to replace my heating unit (broke the housing some time ago), this was a bit of a pain, getting the wire in the black sleeve again (I was smart enough to attach a wire to the old one before pulling out, and used the wire again for pulling in the new cable)..

Unfortunately I don't think you can change the nozzle frequently, to be honest i'm really starting to dislike the design, specially the small setscrew in the nozzle is extremely easy damaged...

First test is very good if you ask me ...

Spiral cilinder, 0.6 wal, started at 3 mm3/s moving up to, 6, 9, 10.5, up to 12 mm3/s no problem with extrusion at all. And this at 210 celsius....

 

[Blizz 53]

Nice. So how much work is it to swap nozzles?

 

[ultiarjan 1,222]

real easy and fast (if you don't have to change the heater unit as i had to do).

but ..... I think you can only do it a few times and throw away your nozzle, the setscrew is really easy to damage... this thing is just not made for regular changing....

 

[ultiarjan 1,222]

Doing a test print now of a well known thingiverse elephant, scaled to 15 cm.. in my normal setting 0.1 > 15,5 hours, now 4,5 hours .... I'm curious how it will turn out...

 

[Blizz 53]

Yeah me too. Thanks for the help. I agree with the too much changing so I'm not going to do it at this point. If they ever release the dual extrusion thing I might put a .6 in that one

 

[ultiarjan 1,222]

As you see the quality is specially lower on the rounded parts. Think the 0.6 is specially usefull for larger furniture parts or more functional parts .... but all in all not to bad...

Printed with 0.6 nozzle, 0.2 layer, 50 speed (50x0.2x0.6 = 6mm3/s), while I would normally print high quality at 35x0.1x0.4=1.4mm3/s... And on top this was the last part of fillament on the reel, so very curved ...

As a negative, if you need a certain infill to be able to create decent top layers, you'r waisting a lot more fillament with the 0.6 nozzle ....

 

[leon-knook 4]

Very nice result. There should be some cheaper nozzles out there for the UM2 to experiment with :wink: