so arguably your 3d printer’s nozzle isone of the most important bits that make your 3d printer a 3d printer. but there’s more than one type to choosefrom and actually swapping your hotend’s nozzle has a few pitfalls on its own. so today, we’ll take a what options youhave and how to swap one properly. aprintapro reached out to me for this sponsoredvideos series to be featured on their printaguide platform. launching in january, it’ll be home to 3dprinting tips, tricks and guides. check out aprintapro and the printaguide siteat the links in the video description below!
let’s start with options: first off, ifyou’re getting a new nozzle, make sure it’s actually made for your specific hotend. while most of them look the same, there area few subtle differences, especially in the area where it seals to the rest of the hotend,and if you use the wrong one, it could lead to a leaking hotend or, worst case, actuallydamage something. now, the core parameter of your nozzle isits bore size, i mean, that’s what it does - it’s just a tiny hole in a piece of metalwith a thread - typically, they are 0.4mm, which is a good tradeoff between how smallthe detail on your prints can be and how fast your machine will be able to produce them.
one size larger or smaller usually isn’ta problem if you want to tweak your machine for faster or more detailed prints, but onceyou choose nozzles smaller than about 0.3mm, just be aware that the resolution, which ishow accurately your extruder can feed filament into the hotend, might actually start becomingthe bottleneck for how well your parts turn out. also, as your are introducing an increasinglysmaller constriction to the filament path, you’re increasing the likeliness of anycontaminants on the filament blocking up the nozzle - and cleaning out a 0.15mm nozzleis quite a task. but you do get the chance of creating absolutelystunning 3d prints that have completely invisible
layer lines and super-fine details as it alsoallows you to use lower layer heights more effectively. on the other hand, a larger nozzle will speedup your prints, as not only will it cover a wider track with the same movement, butyou also get the option of using taller layers. while a 0.4mm nozzle realistically tops outat a 0.3mm layer height, a 0.6mm one will take you up to around 0.45mm layers. of course, this means a coarser and less detailedprint, and without also switching to something like a volcano heater block, it’s easy toend up with extruded filament that didn’t get heated up well enough before it leavesthe hotend as you’re sending it through
the heater block much more quickly. 1.75mm filament actually does much betterwith this, as the heat from the block needs to travel through a much thinner section ofplastic to heat the entirety of the filament. so, nozzle materials - we’ve seen a tonof new options recently. the material for standard nozzles is brass,which is used because it conducts heat reasonably well, is reasonably hard and tough and, mostimportantly, super easy to machine, which matters for the comparatively tiny and longbore. the other popular set of materials are steel-based,conducting heat not quite as well, but being much harder wearing, which is great for abrasivefilaments like fiber-filled ones or simply
for not having to worry about replacing anozzle, ever, if you’re printing standard filaments. some hotends come with a stainless steel nozzle,which are generally used for food-safe applications or for printing with chemically aggressivematerials, but a hardened or coated steel nozzle provides much better durability andbetter heat transfer. because these nozzles add extra manufacturingsteps and are harder to machine, they are generally more expensive, but i’ve foundthat there’s little need to switch back and forth between steel and brass nozzles,as the steel versions also print standard materials well.
an option that is fairly new are copper nozzles,which offer great thermal properties, useful for pumping as much heat as possible intomaterials that require high print temperatures, like peek or polycarbonate. these are e3d’s nickel coated ones, andthey also work well for standard materials, but aren’t specified for extra wear resistance. bare copper will oxidize extremely quickly. we’re now also seeing assembled nozzles,for example the markforged ones, which are copper with a hardened steel insert, or theollson ruby nozzle, which is brass with an actual ruby gemstone insert.
but those are extremely specialized parts,which come with a steep price. so how do you swap a nozzle without ruiningyour hotend? while there are a ton of different hotenddesigns out there, this process should work for most hotends that use this style of nozzle. if in doubt, check with the manufacturer first. you’ll need a wrench or socket the rightsize for your nozzle, which is commonly 7mm, as well as a wrench or some pliers to holdyour hotend in place. i’d also recommend grabbing some high temperatureanti-seize compound. start out by unloading the filament from yourmachine, and try to get out as much as possible.
maybe even do a cold pull to get the nozzlein perfect condition for the next time you want to use it. then heat up the hotend to a normal workingtemperature around 220â°c, and if you’re using an e3d-style hybrid or all-metal hotend,i’d recommend starting out by slightly unscrewing the heater block from the heatsink to givethe fragile stainless steel heatbreak a bit of wiggle room. remember, righty tighty, lefty loosey andthis shouldn’t take much torque at all. then hold on to the heater block and unscrewthe nozzle itself. make sure to keep the block straight to avoidputting any forces on the heat break.
once the nozzle is out, clear out any debristhat might be left in the hotend, and if your particular model uses a ptfe tube insert,this is a good opportunity to check that and make sure it’s not deformed or worn down. for reassembly, start out by applying a bitof anti-seize to the threading of your fresh nozzle. screw in the nozzle without tightening itdown, but instead make sure to leave a gap of about half a millimeter to the block. then screw the heater block and heat breakback in and you should be able to feel them snugging up against the nozzle.
again, no need to make everything tight yet. lastly, screw in the nozzle all the way anddouble-check that you’ve still got that gap between the nozzle and the block. to finally tighten everything up, heat upthe hotend a bit further - around 250â°c should be plenty, but if your hotend can do 300â°c,that’s even better. tightening when heated up makes sure thatthermal expansion isn’t going to loosen the parts over time. the torque the nozzle needs isn’t huge - forcomparison, just using two fingers on this tamiya tool is plenty, which is about onenewton meter.
hold on to the heater block initially, thengive the entire assembly a bit of torque to snug down the heat break. now again, depending on how your hotend isbuilt, the process might be a bit different, but what i just showed you should give youa good idea of where to be careful. alright, so let me know in the comments belowwhat type of nozzle you’re using. still sticking with the classic brass or haveyou already upgraded to hardened or copper for those advanced materials? i hope this video is helpful to you. if you liked it, give it a thumbs up, considersubscribing to the channel, and because youtube
is still being weird about it, remember toalso click that bell next to the subscribe button or you might end up missing some videosaltogether. also check out the affiliate links from thevideo description to shop on amazon, ebay, matterhackers and igo3d, those don’t costyou a single penny extra, or if you want to support this channel with a spare dollar ortwo, head over to patreon and get access to monthly q&a hangouts and more. and that’s it for today, thanks for watching,and i’ll see you in the next one.