How long do brass print head nozzles last?
How long do brass print head nozzles last? I'm having problems printing Hatchbox ABS filament. It seems like the plastic wants to stick to everything BUT the print bed. It wants to stick to the nozzle. It wants to stick to the filament residue on the heated aluminum block. It seems to curve up away from the print bed.
I'm wondering if my nozzle is worn out, or just has crud in it? I've printed somewhere around 2 KG of filament with it. Mostly PETG, with a little PLA, and a little Proto Pasta carbon fiber PLA.
I've seen mention of some 'atomic' cleaning method, but don't yet know what that is. Hmm. Just found it here...
https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/19510-how-to-apply-atomic-method
Chris Shaker
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
Well, you can expect about 200 grams of carbon fibre to ruin a brass nozzle.
With regular filaments, nozzles can last 30 to 40+ Kgs.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
Thank you, Peter!
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
I did three 'atomic pulls', and the third pull looked clean. I did a cold pull, too.
I tried to print with Hatchbox ABS, using nozzle temperature 230, and bed temperature 90, which many users of Hatchbox ABS claims works well for them. The print didn't even try to stick to the PEI bed.
The last thing I printed was PLA, on glue stick, on the PEI bed. I cleaned it off with windex, and then with IPA. Going to re-read the print manual to see what I'm missing.
Chris
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
I presume that the problem is most likely a Z-height issue, due to the expansion of the print head and heated bed from the higher temperatures?
Chris
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
You could extrude a little bit of carbon fibre filament to scour the inside of the nozzle clean.
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
Chris
Yes, for some reason that makes little sense to me, other users have reported that the nozzle needs lowering via Live Z Adjust when switching from PLA to ABS.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
I was having to lower my Z as well when switching from pla to abs.
I just switched to the hardened e3d nozzle and they are actually pretty close in proximity so I am going to just try to keep it the same for a bit to see what happens. PLA sticks with zero issue, ABS still pulls a bit when shrinking but I think that it is a cooling issue before a sticking issue.
Re: How long do brass print head nozzles last?
For me, the Hatchbox ABS printing problem appears to maybe be fixed by raising the bed temperature to 100 C, and by lowering the Z-adjust to -715. I'm using extruder temperature 230 C
Chris