This may not be news to most of you but size does matter!
A few weeks ago I decided to redo a few things on my sand table but I wasn’t looking forward to the prototyping of new parts. I had read about larger nozzle sizes in the past and actually had a few on hand from a recent order.
All I can say is wow. My lowly Ender 3 doubled its print speed with a 5 minute fix with very little effect on quality.
This may be something to suggest in the documentation as cutting the Core print times would be a game changer.
I use a .6 for everything these days. If I really need a good looking print I just lower the layer height to .2mm but I’m typically printing at .48 layer heights!
Used 0.6mm nozzle, 0.32mm layer height and some other printer setting tweaks for my LR3 parts, on my machine… Also added Dual Gear Extruder and adjustable tensioners to my Ender 3 Max to help improve accuracy since larger volume of material is being extruded. Vaguely recall picking 0.32mm height based on some CNC Kitchen strength tests, and/or what I could get to reliably flow with acceptably accurate dimensions on my setup.
There’s so many dimensions to consider, the material, temp, speed, fan cooling, etc… Then there’s the machine itself, so many different models out there, and build/assembly variances even. Guessing it’s hard to recommend maximal settings that work for every machine. Docs recommending conservative safe low common denominator options doesn’t seem ideal. Helpful to see there’s a list of recommended resources, and process for folks to follow to help them learn and explore the settings that maximize their specific machine’s capabilities using things like Teaching Tech’s Calibration website.
Personally like seeing and learning from printer setting details in people’s build topics, especially when they’re using something fancy like voron, ratrig or a V1E Repeat 2022.
After dealing with numerous issues with PLA and stock Ender 3 I made the following upgrades:
E3D V6 hot end – highly recommended
Micro swiss dual gear extruder
0.6mm carbon steel nozzle
Clear PETG
Fully enclosed printer with temperature control (incubator)
Latest version of CURA
It’s funny this topic has come up. I was just last night on the yoootooobs checking out some interesting updates from good ol’ CHEP and the CURA upgrades. I say interesting as I recently upgraded my laptop to a tower, and I never transferred any of my CURA setting for my E3 & E3 Max to the new tower. And apparently I somehow upgraded my CURA on the laptop, and it didn’t keep any of the profiles or settings I originally had. Long story long, I was printing something for the wife, and using a .8 nozzle, I think the print time was just over 7 hours (using basic draft .32 settings from CURA). It didn’t turn out to great, and I lost some of the small details, so I switched back to a .4 nozzle, found CHEP’s “Extra Fast” profiles, and using his .20 layer height profile, on my .4 nozzle, the CURA stated print time was just over 9 hours!! So decreasing the layer height and nozzle size, which when I originally put the model on the bed and sliced it in CURA (no added profiles) so think it was the “Standard” CURA .20, I had forgot to change it from the .4 nozzle setting, sliced it, and it said 14+ hours. I let it print over night, and though I didn’t look at the final print time on the Max, I would wager it was actually less than the stated 9+ hours, and it was a really really good quality print.
So, though I will agree with you that size does matter, if you have your slicer settings right (if using CURA), it might not really matter all that much!!
I think there’s a bit of an omission in the instructions for the LR3, and was about to do a lot of slicer comparisions (may still do). Or I’ve missed the important part.
Currently the print instructions are:
Printed Parts¶
Buy a set here, V1 Shop.
Or print your own. No supports needed, keep the default orientation. PLA is recommended for ultimate rigidity, other filaments should be evaluated for rigidity. 2-3 walls rectilinear infill. Thicker layers since these are large parts, no more than 80% nozzle diameter to keep overhangs working.
There is no reference to nozzle sizes at all. I intend to print at .2mm layer height because I don’t particularly care about time and I want a nice print, but 2 wall could be as little as .8mm with a .4 nozzle and 3 could be 1.8 or even 2.4 with larger nozzles (you don’t me to tell you which ones!)
Two walls in 0.6 is the same as three in 0.4 - and that’s probably what was intended?
The walls are not really all that important, I recommend at least 2 for any nozzle size. Some people swear more walls is better but I do not subscribe to that, at least for the parts as I have them designed. The important part is, thick layers are better, no more than 80% nozzle diameter tall.
I have been removing printing specs because it sparked a lot of printing debates and links to “CNC Kitchen’s” videos. His work is impeccable but I think a lot of people miss which of our parts need to be string in what orientation.
So to keep it from making different specs for every part I orient them as they should be printed and only stress thick layers.