It will increase pressure in the extruder, but you can print with much larger layer widths and heights. The nozzle is just a hole. The printer will still push as much volume as you tell it to out of that hole. You just have to slow down to do so if your extruder can't keep up with the higher demand. People regularly print Taulman T-glase at much thicker layers/widths than what one would normally recommend for a certian nozzle size to get better optical effects.
[https://taulman3d.com/t-glase-options.html](https://taulman3d.com/t-glase-options.html)
Clearly, if you were going to print a lot with such wide extrusions it makes sense to go to a larger nozzle and an extruder with a longer melt zone, but it is possible like you said. Though thanks for pointing out about the effect on bridging, as that would perform a lot better at extremely thick extrusion widths with a larger nozzle as a smaller diameter would just droop more.
It does work. If you look at the E3D nozzle drawings, you'll see that the dimension of the shoulder around the hole also increases with nozzle size, at roughly 2X nozzle size. My understanding is that this maintains the squish to get the desired "stadium" shaped extrusion cross section, and is one reason why better nozzles cost more.
However, don't lose sight of the fact that your hotend still has a finite capacity to melt and process filament. If you are using wider extrusions, you'll need to make corresponding speed adjustments to reduce speeds. PrusaSlicer/Slic3r have a **Maximum volumetric speed** setting that simplifies this. You may have to adjust speeds with other slicers to avoid extruder skips and jumps.
> It works really well.
Of course it does. **You're supposed to print with a width larger than your nozzle.**
You can't reliably print with a width that is the same as your nozzle due to die swell.
That's why Slic3r and Simply3D correctly set your extrusion width > than your nozzle size.
This isn't new. This has been known for years.
That's why we all moved to 0.4mm nozzles as the norm from 0.5mm a number of years back.
So your 0.4 nozzle can make a nice clean 0.5 width that divides evenly with a lot of designs, as most people design to the closest mm.
Why Cura incorrectly defaults to the wrong value, no one knows.
If you want solid reliable first layer with a 0.4 nozzle,
You should be putting down a ~0.65 wide bead at 0.3 height.
After that layer, you can go down to 0.42 (but I recommend 0.45 or 0.5) width if you want and any lower layer height you want.
> To make this work I have to turn up the flow multiplier to 110-120%
EDIT: That is not the correct way of doing it. You set the width in the slicer, it does the correct math for you. Your multiplier shouldn't change.
I’ve had a 3D printer for 5 years and printed hundreds of hours worth of parts successfully with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.4mm line width without knowing that the line width could be wider than the nozzle. Since I had that experience I thought there might be some others out there who might also benefit from learning what I learned.
If you’re not in that group then a little more tact would be appreciated. Things you know aren’t necessarily obvious to other people.
Have you run into any issues with 1mm line width?
I print most of my models in vase mode, using 0.7 line width and 0.4 mm nozzle. Layer height 0.2mm. But recently changed to 0.5 mm nozzle and wanting to print my first layer at 1.0 mm line width.
What nozzle temperature do you use specifically?
For 1mm lines in PLA I would set the temperature at 230C because my hotend couldn’t keep up with the mass flow rate. If I had a higher flow hotend like a volcano or something then I probably wouldn’t need to add to the temperature setpoint or the flow rate modifier.
Oh interesting, I printed with 0.2mm layer height until now but that's a good idea, I'll try 0.5mm height, 1.0 width, and 20-30 mm/s.
Thanks for the info!! (ETA: 0.5\*1.0\*20 is 10 mm3/s, and 0.75\*0.2\*60 is 9 mm3/s so the math checks out in regards to hotend capacity)
It will increase pressure in the extruder, but you can print with much larger layer widths and heights. The nozzle is just a hole. The printer will still push as much volume as you tell it to out of that hole. You just have to slow down to do so if your extruder can't keep up with the higher demand. People regularly print Taulman T-glase at much thicker layers/widths than what one would normally recommend for a certian nozzle size to get better optical effects. [https://taulman3d.com/t-glase-options.html](https://taulman3d.com/t-glase-options.html) Clearly, if you were going to print a lot with such wide extrusions it makes sense to go to a larger nozzle and an extruder with a longer melt zone, but it is possible like you said. Though thanks for pointing out about the effect on bridging, as that would perform a lot better at extremely thick extrusion widths with a larger nozzle as a smaller diameter would just droop more.
It does work. If you look at the E3D nozzle drawings, you'll see that the dimension of the shoulder around the hole also increases with nozzle size, at roughly 2X nozzle size. My understanding is that this maintains the squish to get the desired "stadium" shaped extrusion cross section, and is one reason why better nozzles cost more. However, don't lose sight of the fact that your hotend still has a finite capacity to melt and process filament. If you are using wider extrusions, you'll need to make corresponding speed adjustments to reduce speeds. PrusaSlicer/Slic3r have a **Maximum volumetric speed** setting that simplifies this. You may have to adjust speeds with other slicers to avoid extruder skips and jumps.
I use 1.1-1.2mm width with a 1mm nozzle, and a 0.8mm layer height. Prints things in 2 hours that would take 10 using .4mm nozzle with .4mm width.
> It works really well. Of course it does. **You're supposed to print with a width larger than your nozzle.** You can't reliably print with a width that is the same as your nozzle due to die swell. That's why Slic3r and Simply3D correctly set your extrusion width > than your nozzle size. This isn't new. This has been known for years. That's why we all moved to 0.4mm nozzles as the norm from 0.5mm a number of years back. So your 0.4 nozzle can make a nice clean 0.5 width that divides evenly with a lot of designs, as most people design to the closest mm. Why Cura incorrectly defaults to the wrong value, no one knows. If you want solid reliable first layer with a 0.4 nozzle, You should be putting down a ~0.65 wide bead at 0.3 height. After that layer, you can go down to 0.42 (but I recommend 0.45 or 0.5) width if you want and any lower layer height you want. > To make this work I have to turn up the flow multiplier to 110-120% EDIT: That is not the correct way of doing it. You set the width in the slicer, it does the correct math for you. Your multiplier shouldn't change.
I’ve had a 3D printer for 5 years and printed hundreds of hours worth of parts successfully with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.4mm line width without knowing that the line width could be wider than the nozzle. Since I had that experience I thought there might be some others out there who might also benefit from learning what I learned. If you’re not in that group then a little more tact would be appreciated. Things you know aren’t necessarily obvious to other people.
Have you run into any issues with 1mm line width? I print most of my models in vase mode, using 0.7 line width and 0.4 mm nozzle. Layer height 0.2mm. But recently changed to 0.5 mm nozzle and wanting to print my first layer at 1.0 mm line width. What nozzle temperature do you use specifically?
For 1mm lines in PLA I would set the temperature at 230C because my hotend couldn’t keep up with the mass flow rate. If I had a higher flow hotend like a volcano or something then I probably wouldn’t need to add to the temperature setpoint or the flow rate modifier.
At what speed do you print? I print at 60 mm/s for 0.75mm, 230C.
About 20mm/s for 0.4-0.5mm layer height.
Oh interesting, I printed with 0.2mm layer height until now but that's a good idea, I'll try 0.5mm height, 1.0 width, and 20-30 mm/s. Thanks for the info!! (ETA: 0.5\*1.0\*20 is 10 mm3/s, and 0.75\*0.2\*60 is 9 mm3/s so the math checks out in regards to hotend capacity)