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  1. #1

    Question Nozzle Sizes, Filament Types & Slicing for Small Rigid Parts

    Good Day. I am very new to 3D printing. Have been a digital graphic artist for over 40 years so had to acquire CAD skills. Everything is now going great with artwork right up to STL level. I am assisting a friend with a Creality Ender 6 printer. The product there are small cutters and stamps etc. for clay - similar to cookie cutters but generally smaller and with fine cutting edges or blades. The printer is still in out of the box condition with a 0,4mm nozzle and using the shipped PLA+ white 1,75mm filament (print temp 205-225C).The CAD artwork is very accurate and the cutter blade width is set at 0,6mm. However, when sliced with Creality Slicer 4.8.2 which has been set for Ender 6 standard with a 0,4mm nozzle, the cutting blade edge prints at widths around its shape between 0,8mm right up to 1,0mm. The narrowness of the cutting edge is quite critical to quality or the products. After having extensively searched the Net, I still have questions and need to correct the actual print. I understand the "nozzle-filament-print height-slicing GCode" relationship to a degree but have not got a workable solution nor understanding yet for the Ender 6. (1) What is the best PLA filament to use for small, rigid cutters and stamps? (2) In order to get an accurate 0,6mm blade width print, what is the best size nozzle to use? Is it the 0,4mm nozzle that cannot print an 0,6mm edge (the multiples thing). (3) Any other tips, assistance or references to pertinent websites that would help me. Thanks and best regards, Mike

  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    try a different slicer.
    prusaslicer is a good place to start.

    Also check extrusion settings. Most printers work accurately best at somewhere between 85-95 % extrusion ratio.
    Then there's print speed and printing temp.

    There is no reason you cant print 0.6mm with a 0.4mm nozzle.

    Though you might find setting edge width to 0.5mm works better.

    Also have you measured the actual extrusion diameter ?
    Get some digital calipers, extrude a length of pla, let it cool and measure the actual extruded diameter - there should be somwhere in the slicer to enter that information (I don't use cura - can't stand it) but the setting should be in there somewhere.

    You will most likely find that the actual diameter is larger than 0.4 but smaller than cura has it already set to. This will effect the extruded width of a single wall.

    Between getting that right and playing with the extrusion ratio, you should be able to get a accurate edge width.

    It also depends where the edge is on the model - got an stl ?
    I can try it on my machine with simplify 3d.

  3. #3
    Besides the slicer, if you want a more accurate single wall, it needs to match that which the nozzle prints.. For instance a .4mm nozzle can much more accurately print a wall that is .45mm in width. When plastic is extruded it expands and is larger than the hole it came out of. Slices can try and compensate for this but I have personally found the results are better if you go .2-.4 larger than the nozzle. The model should be made to match that of the extrusion width if at all possible.

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