E3D hardened nozzles  

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

I also am a newbie of a couple of months. Here is my experience with the hardened nozzle.

You may want to consider printing with the brass nozzle for a few weeks to get a feel for all the printing variables. In our case, the brass nozzle "just worked" out of the box. The hardened steel prints a bit differently. We now only use the hardened steel nozzle, but we also are now familiar with adjusting many of the variables so that we can tweak the prints and get good ones. If our first experience was printing with the hardened steel nozzle, the kids may have not had the patience to work through the adjustments.

If you do decide to install the hardened steel nozzle, BE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS on how to replace nozzles. They must be replaced while they are very hot. If you don't follow the instructions precisely, you will likely damage your print head.

Remember that the brass nozzle is just fine for PLA and ABS. You only need the hardened nozzle for more exotic filaments.

Start with PLA. Get some wins under your belt. Print the supplied models in .gcode on the supplied SD card first. Then try downloading new models from Thingaverse and slicing using the default settings. This will keep you plenty busy for a while.

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

It is possible to install the hardened nozzle during assembly. However there is little point unless you intend to use abrasive filament. Regards Joan

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

At first I plan to use mostly pla, this in order to get used to the printer, but, i know my son has plans to use glow in the dark and carbon fiber, so, i figured it might be easier to change the nozzle during the build than at a later stage.

Even as new is it required to heat up the nozzle in order to remove?

Thanks to all for helping out.

Best regards

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

Even as new is it required to heat up the nozzle in order to remove?

💡
its absolutely important that the nozzle is hot when you remove it and that the hotend is (very) hot, when you assemble the new, hardened nozzle. ❗

😮 if you try to remove the nozzle while the hotend/nozzle is cold, you'll probably damage the hotend and/or break the heatpipe.
😥 if you assemble the new nozzle while it's cold, it'll get loose very easy.... and you may wonder why your live z adjust level is inconsistent.

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

Even as new is it required to heat up the nozzle in order to remove?

💡
its absolutely important that the nozzle is hot when you remove it and that the hotend is (very) hot, when you assemble the new, hardened nozzle. ❗

😮 if you try to remove the nozzle while the hotend/nozzle is cold, you'll probably damage the hotend and/or break the heatpipe.
😥 if you assemble the new nozzle while it's cold, it'll get loose very easy.... and you may wonder why your live z adjust level is inconsistent.

I learnt that one the hard way. I used a brass nozzle and did not assemble it hot. I ended up getting leakage of filament in the thread and broke the nozzle while removing it. In the process a broke the heater block. Luckily not too expensive of a mistake.

I have a hardened nozzle on the way. I will install it using the video below.

Re: E3D hardened nozzles

I've had printers run for 5 years with brass nozzles printing ABS, PLA and Nylon, and not wear out. I don't print with abrasive materials often, though. If you use metal filled filament, or carbon often, supposedly the hardened steel nozzles are needed. I've printed a few spools, through brass nozzles, and didn't notice any wear, though.

That being said, removing and installing nozzles is pretty easy - I've had to do that a few times to swap PTFE tubes (which suck - I use all metal hot ends now just to avoid them), or to try different nozzle sizes. The main trick is that due to heat expansion you have to have the nozzle hot to remove it, and when you put the new nozzle on it can be cold, but you need to heat it and then re-tighten it, or it'll leak plastic through the gap, which sucks. Yeah, I did that once - had to replace the heater block, heater cartridge, and temp sensor since they were stuck together with burnt plastic to the point where I couldn't get them apart without damaging them. So .... don't do that! The process is easy if you have the right sized socket and a socket wrench to fit the nozzle, and a clamp or locking pliers to hold the heater block so it doesn't spin around while you're unscrewing/screwing the nozzle.