Nozzle maintenance/replacement - how often?
Hey folks!
My Mini+ has been working tirelessly in the past few weeks and printed a decent amount of models (500m of filament as per the Mini‘s statistic)… Overall I am super happy! I had to troubleshoot a few things already and I love how easy it is to do maintenance. But I am wondering how much time I should be spending on my nozzle? Is there a regular maintenance required? Unmount it, clean it, … or something else? Or do I have to change the nozzle regularly? Is it an easy „plug and play“ or what else needs to be done? Do I need to run a special program/step before unscrewing the nozzle? I guess z-level-calibration needs to be done after each nozzle change?
Thanks and best regards,
Bjoern
RE: Nozzle maintenance/replacement - how often?
If its working, I would not mess with it. If it needs changing, follow Prusa's instructions precisely:
https://help.prusa3d.com/article/changing-replacing-the-nozzle-mini_134235
That site also has instructions for whatever else you need to do on the printer, from maintenance to a complete rebuild.
Regards,
Mark
RE: Nozzle maintenance/replacement - how often?
Thanks Mark! Ok, so I will leave it as is for now... Cheers!
RE: Nozzle maintenance/replacement - how often?
I've had my mini since Aug 2020 and still on the original nozzle. No its not part of a print farm, it might spend several days to a week doing some prints then sit idle for several weeks till something else comes up that I want to print. Probably have easily passed over a dozen spools though the nozzle sofar. I do notice that the prints aren't quite as clean as the test prints I did when I 1st got it, but it's not that bad that I could be bothered to replace it, even though I already have a spare nozzle I picked up from Prusa about a year ago.
RE: Nozzle maintenance/replacement - how often?
My brass nozzle only lasted 6 mo and I only print PLA, PETG and very little TPU. The nozzle will widen so the best check is just to extrude some filament and measure it when it gets thin and consistent. Mine became about 0.5 and started over-extruding and stringing. Just be careful with nozzle change.. made a huge difference in accuracy of my prints when I changed. But only change if your nozzle is worn.
6 - 9 months is about right for the expected life of a brass nozzle in heavy use. Expect to recalibrate the first layer Z offset two or three times as it wears.
Cheerio,