The default nozzle size on vast majority of
FDM 3D printers is .4 mm, a good middle ground considering both print speed and the level of detail. Changing the nozzle is pretty easy and it takes
just a few minutes. And different nozzle sizes can give you all
sorts of advantages. But in our survey just 20% of users answered
that they have tried a different nozzle. That’s like buying a DSLR camera and never
changing the lens. It definitely works, but you’re limiting
yourself. Smaller nozzles give you increased detail
at the cost of print time and bigger nozzles print fast, but not as detailed, right? Well, things are not that simple and we’re
going to look at real-life examples to see when to use what nozzle. But first, we have to take a look at the relationship
between the nozzle diameter and the layer height. The nozzle diameter directly limits the maximum
layer height you can print with. A general rule of thumb is to keep the layer
height below 80% of the nozzle diameter. Go higher than that and the layers will stop
bonding together well, because the nozzle won’t be squishing the current layer against
the previous one. Changing the nozzle diameter affects the resolution
almost exclusively in the horizontal plane, that is parallel to the print bed. On the other hand changing the layer height
affects the vertical resolution, so it’s mostly visible on the sides and angled walls
of your models. 3D printing isn't exactly a fast process. Even just a few inches tall print can take
hours to complete. So it’s quite striking how overlooked printing
with large-diameter nozzles is. Larger nozzles lay down wider perimeters.That
means that for the same wall thickness, you won’t need as many of them. Larger nozzle also allows for greater layer
heights. Combining these two effects leads to a dramatic
improvement in print speed. However, printing a single perimeter vase
will take the same time no matter the nozzle size The printer still has to do the exact same
sequence of moves. But before we get into really fast printing,
Let’s start the examples with a smaller, .25 mm nozzle
As we said before, smaller nozzle increases the resolution in plane parallel to the
print bed, so it’s ideal for printing of small text As you can see, some of the letters on this
3D printed business card are simply too small for the .4 mm nozzle, which is by the way already
visible in Slic3r’s gcode preview. But with .25 mm nozzle all letters are printed
well and are readable. And just for the record, changing the layer
height has absolutely no effect on the print quality in this case. Another use case for a smaller nozzle is printing
jewelry. With smaller nozzle you’ll get clearer thin
lines and smaller gaps in top infill. And what about printing miniatures? To be honest, the standard .4 mm nozzle already
prints them pretty well. Can you tell a difference between these two
chests? Where you’re gonna see an improvement is
if you need to use supports. Supports printed with a smaller nozzle are
thinner, easier to remove and leave smaller marks on your print. That’s the main reason why the goblin from
.25 mm nozzle looks better. And what are the disadvantages of using a smaller
nozzle? First of all the print the print time will
increase compared to the .4 mm nozzle. The printer has to make more moves to lay
the same amount of filament. For example to make a 2 mm thin wall, you
have to set 8 perimeters instead of just 5 with a .4 mm nozzle. There’s also increased risk of filament
jams. Dust particles and other impurities that are
big enough to pass through .4 mm nozzle might get stuck in .25 mm nozzles. That also means that you can forget about printing
with metal or wood fills. So a quick summary. You get more resolution in
the XY plane, better printing of text, jewelry, logos and really easy to remove supports. But you get longer print times, increased
risk of filament jams and smaller range of filaments to print with. What if we go bigger than the standard .4 mm
nozzle? The .6 mm nozzle is, at least in our opinion,
even more interesting than the smaller ones. If your model doesn’t have tiny details,
it will be almost impossible to tell the difference between .4 mm nozzle and
.6 mm nozzle, but you’ll shave off hours of print time. This flower pot? Three hours saved, but that’s at the same layer
height for fair comparison. Remember, with .6 mm nozzle you can print with
much bigger layer heights and save even more time. Voronoi lamp? Almost 9 hours faster then with .4 mm nozzle. And both of these little grim reapers took
3 hours using the same layer height. I’m sure you can guess which one was printed
with a .6 mm nozzle. I think you get the point, it prints fast
with a relatively minor decrease in print quality. But wait, there’s another benefit. In the impact resistance test, models printed
with .6 mm nozzle absorbed 25% more energy than those printed with .4 mm nozzle. The test was done as an average from 10 samples,
ignoring the lowest and the highest value in each series. Hence the 8 samples in this graph. Of course, small details, like these letters,
look worse with a .6 mm nozzle. And supports are more difficult to remove,
which is probably one of the biggest drawbacks. To sum it up, you get up to twice faster print
times, similar quality as with .4 mm nozzle, more durable prints and really low risk of a clogged
nozzle. But you get worse resolution of tiny details
and harder to remove supports. But, what if we go bigger? One milimeter? Yep. Does your print take dozens of hours to finish? With 1 mm nozzle you’ll be able to finish
in two to three hours. Half a milimeter layers or even bigger than
that. I think I know what you want to say. The prints must look awfull, right? Although it’s true that they do have a different
aesthetic, with some models it’s not a bad thing actually. This pencil holder took over 11 hours to finish
with a .4 mm nozzle. This one was done in 1 hour and 40 minutes. And there’s a surprising advantage when
printing with a 1 mm nozzle, it rounds all sharp corners automatically. So it’s perfect for printing for example
child toys. And you can print five of these dinosaurs in the time
it would normally take to finish just one. Single perimeter prints with transparent filament
also look interesting, they make light refract in a different way. Okay so you get extremely fast printing, very
sturdy prints, unusual look with tall layers and basically zero risk of a clogged nozzle. But your prints will lack detail, the highly
visible layers might not always be what you want, supports are really difficult to remove
and also filament seems to just disappear from the spool. So… are you convinced that you that you
should give different diameter nozzles a chance? Even the original E3D nozzles, are just about
7 dollars. This small investment can have a surprisingly
large impact on how you print. And how do you replace the nozzle? We have a separate video about it that you
can check out. If you enjoy these videos, we appreciate if
you leave a thumbs up and consider subscribing, if you haven’t already. Happy printing.
I was in that 22% group until I saw the blog post that led to this video. This was great work! I am very happy with using all the new nozzle sizes now, especially the big ones for faster printing!
Very useful information! The 1.0 mm quality was hideous though. I can't see myself using it.
I switched to a 0.6mm nozzle when this video came out. I do my functional prints at 0.4mm layer height now. If you don't mind the visible layers, the increased speed and reliability is totally worth it.
I have a dumb question not relating to 3d printing but to the video. What's that weird video with the cowboy dude screaming in the background for the 1mm nozzle intro? I've seen it references so many times but never seen the original.
I also got some different nozzles because of your article and experimented a little, but the main issue I have is to change the nozzle without damaging the wires. In the video you show the side of the heater block without wires but not the other one. Rotating the heater block helps a little, but pushing the wrench below the wires still feels risky. The wrench also slipped a few times which leaves ugly marks on the block. Any advice?
I've been using a 0.6mm nozzle for a while now on my mk2. Most of my prints are simple functional items for the garage/workshop so the benefit of shorter printing times far outweighs the slight surface finish reduction. Only problem was setting the live z calibration. V2 callibration program is for a .4 nozzle so I couldn't use it to tune the height but if you don't run it after a Z calibration then it doesn't seem to save the live z and you have to keep increasing it for every print. Would be good to get a calibration program for different nozzle sizes, even if thats just the same program with a different flow multiplier.
I keep a little pill organizer box where I've scratched out the weekdays with various nozzle sizes like 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8. I've used all but the 0.8 and I really want to try it soon as well.
1MM nozzles make filament disappear. I swear only half the amount that goes in makes it to the nozzle, the rest flees on the way to avoid the filament genocide that is 1MM printing.