Quote Originally Posted by Drone View Post
I need a little advice before I order though. I'm not sure which nozzle to get with the kit. I think the hexagon might be best since I will be able to print materials other than ABS and PLA, but I don't know if the 1.75mm or 3mm would be best. What difference would I see between the two in actually printing and what advantages would each provide? It seems 3mm material is a bit cheaper to buy than the 1.75mm. Is there a reason for this?
Hey Drone! Before I placed my order, I had the same dilemma. I was planning to go with the Jhead and then upgrading to a fancier hotend later, but I went with the 1.75 hexagon because I felt like it was worth the extra $20 to upgrade it a bit and make it more future proof. I really glad I did, and would recommend the hexagon after running it for 4 months or so. It's handled abs and pla very well and based on that, I would think that it will also be able to handle more exotic materials with no problem.

I went looking for concrete reasons to go with 1.75 or 3mm filament and it seemed like there wasn't many concrete arguments for settling on either. It is totally your preference. I went for 1.75mm and in order to make a decision I thought about the the following (very topical, and insignificant) physical differences:

1. There is less print head motion resistance than having to move a thicker 3mm strand of filament back and forth.
2. There is less friction/resistance inside the inner wall of the hotend tube because the the surface area of the filament in the hotend tube is half of what the resistance of the 3mm filament.
3. I would think that there is less ooze with 1.75mm filament because you would need a shorter amount of retraction to stop the flow and there is less force from the extruder motor needed compared to 3mm. 3mm getting extruded out of a 0.4mm nozzle vs 1.75mm getting extruded out of a 0.4mm nozzle.
4. It seems like the general 3d printing industry trend is going slightly towards 1.75mm.
5. It doesn't hold its curve from the spool as rigidly so it may be easier to pull into the extruder.

Quote Originally Posted by Drone View Post
Also, are there upgrades or additions I should order initially to make this a better printer or is the stock kit fine as it is? Should I get the additional items for auto leveling and install this during the build, or do that mod down the road after gaining some experience with the stock build? And of course, what should I be considering that I haven't thought of before purchasing?
I was impressed with my stock printer right from the first print. I don't think there are any mods that you NEED to do to get great prints. However, there are always things to improve so you can customize your printer to your needs. Check out the Show your Mods thread for some great ones. Speaking personally, I don't see a need for auto leveling right now and you can definitely add it on later if you want. I have found that I need to level the bed maybe every 20 prints but before I bought my printer I had thought it would be needed after every print.

The only mod I would DEFINITELY recommend is to buy two 5mm x 5mm aluminum rod couplers and install those instead of the shitty plastic tubing used to fix the threaded rods to the z motors. Throw those in the trash instantly, lol! I don't understand why aluminum rod couplers aren't included in the first place but Colin sells these on his site and I would definitely add them to your order. I bent my threaded rods installing them and it killed my hands trying to get them in.

If you have any more questions please feel free to ask!