I am looking to buy some additional hot end tips and was curious if anyone has used a different sized variant to the standard 0.4 mm? What would be the pros and cons to going smaller besides longer print times?
Hey Tanya,
I’ve tried the following Nozzle sizes:
.25 --
Clogged way way too easily. When it wasn’t clogged produced beautiful results. But in my experience wasn’t worth the effort required to maintain it.
.35 --
Tinkerine’s 3D printers use these out of the box, and I’ve got quite a bit of runtime on a Ditto Pro+ with one. They seem to be just as reliable as a .4 in terms of clogging. Resolution is notably finer, all in all as long as you aren’t mostly printing big things it’s a better choice than .4 in my opinion.
.4 --
The Standard…it’s serviceable small enough to get decent resolution and big enough that you can stick a pintip into the nozzle tip to help clear a clog.
.5 --
Notably less resolution than a .4mm nozzle but when you are printing big things it’s so much after, I’ve run these with .42mm Z layers for very quick prints…
*Note I used 1.77mm filament for everything but the .5mm nozzle which was 3mm filament. I think you could probably find a happy medium between .25 and .35 where you’d get really high res results without the clogs but I haven’t gotten around to testing it.
Dan.
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Appreciate the response. What was the primary filament type you were using? Be interesting to know if ABS clogs more than PLA on smaller nozzles or if it is about the same. Or if metal vs ceramic nozzles have any influence on the prints?
All the Nozzles I’ve used are Brass turned on a lathe…I’d love to try Ceramic if I can get my hands on one. If you do I’d love to here the results.
I’ve used ABS and PLA on all the nozzle sizes. Of course PLA does much better at printing large things without cracking or warping so most of the .5mm prints were PLA…but with the other sizes I’ve done a faire mix. All in all I would say PLA is more prone to clogging than ABS. PLA burns much easier, with ABS it’s really hard to do because it’s a polymer. Honestly though most of my clogs have resulted from one of two things both caused by buying cheap plastic (which is why I don’t buy no-name brand plastic any more):
Spool knots where the plastic runs underneath itself. I print a lot, and often have 8hour prints running while I’m sleeping or at work…If the printer jambs like this and the same plastic sits baking in the head for 8 hours it will almost always cause some bad clogging.
Impurities in the plastic. Usually this takes the form of grime and dirt which can build up in the head but I’ve found bits of metal, wood, and hair jammed in the nozzle before too.
How small of a nozzle diameter were you thinking of getting?
Dan.
The smallest diameter I can get is a 0.2 mm. Highest is a 1.0mm. I’m planning to order another 0.4 tip for my printer so in case I ever get another bad clog like the one I ran into today I can continue printing without interruption while the dirty one gets de-gunked.
I noticed this morning while browsing the printrbot website that smaller nozzle diameters were offered so I was curious if there was any benefit. I may order a 0.2mm to experiment with.
I use a propane torch to de-gunk mine when they are really bad…It only takes about 5 minutes and then you are back up and running again. That said it’s good to have spares…
I’ll be interested to know if you get the .2mm nozzle What you think…I just looked at the printrbot Website, and they use a different style nozzle than my makerbot, maybe it will be less prone to clogs. 60$ is also a very good price for 6 tips so it’s worth buying the set. I’ve paid closer to 20$ each for my nozzles.
Dan.
I don’t have access to a torch at work. I’ll have to wait til I get home to clean the clogged nozzle. I was trying out a cheap ABS filament that may have impurities in it when the clog happened.
Went ahead and ordered. It was cheaper to order singles than the 6 tip pack. So I ordered a couple of 0.4 mm and two 0.2 mm so I could try one out on my home printrbot too. Thanks for giving me some insight into the different diameters and what to possibly expect.
About two weeks of using the 0.2 mm Nozzle and all I can say is WOW! Takes twice as long to print a object which is fine as I am printing parts for work to check fittings but the resolution and accuracy is great. Can currently print at a 0.04 layer height with the new nozzle which I was unable to do with a 0.4 nozzle. I’ve been printing nearly non stop with the 0.2 nozzle and no clogs yet. Going to try lowering the layer height again soon to try and see if the printer and nozzle can handle it.
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That’s awesome. Definitely not the experience I had…I wonder if my nozzle has deformities inside, or if it’s the way it screws into my heater block that caused me issues.
before the last 2 years, the standard was 0.35mm for the tips… my best print was with this size (standard on all solidoodle first generation and a lot of other printers…), but you need clean filament. it’s more easy to clog than a 0.4mm, and you can’t print with special filament like wood filament… i switch to 0.4 when i began to extrude my own filament as the 0.35mm was too easy to clog if some dust was meleted in the filament…
the 0.4mm is the standard since 2 years because it’s the best ‘medium at all’ tips… if you goes up, you can get a lot faster print… but with less fine details… (ideal for big piece like vase…) … under 0.35, you will need to get slower, (good for very little models), even use a not direct drive for the extruder under 0.2mm if you want to stay in control of your extrusion… and a filament cleaner is a ‘must have’… (even at other size)
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@fantasygraph That’s interesting that you mention the filament cleaner. I assume you mean something before the feeder than wipes the dust/moisture off as it’s printing? We have a couple laying around the office but haven’t used them. Might be time to start!
I cut a piece off a sponge and just zap-strap it around the filament right before it enters the guide tube…It always surprises me how much gunk it takes off a clean looking spool of white filament.
yes… that’s it… NEVER print without a filament cleaner… or you will regret it one day…even more if you use extruder tips with fine hole 0.35 and under… (like dan say, it’s incredible how much dust/hair/little thing a filament can collected…and then you put that in your extruder…)
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All this talk about filament cleaner… we definitely have to stop printing until we put those on. Right now our printer’s a little…broken, and filament keeps getting stuck. This may very well have to do with the fact we’ve never used a filament cleaner on it in our lives. 
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@fantasygraph Thanks for the tips.
I did find out quickly I had to slow the print down so it could adhere to the bed better when I first applied the new nozzle tip. Found a unused foam brush. Ripped the foam off and tied it to my spool line. We shall see what it picks up. 
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Hello Dan
Can you advise any good material brand for 0.2 mm nozzle?(PLA)
Hello Tanja
Any advice for 0.2 nozzle fdm material?