My “0.4mm nozzles are obsolete” video apparently left quite a few questions in need of answering, at least going by the comments on the video. So today, we’re going to look at whether you can maybe just stick with a 0.4mm nozzle and tell your slicer to pretend it’s a 0.6, how strength compares between nozzle sizes, and whether comparing 0.4 with an old slicer to 0.6 with a new one was even fair in the first place. I hope I didn’t hurt the nozzles’ feelings. So let’s start outContinue reading

The job of a Bowden tube is to guide the filament from the extruder into the hotend so that the extruder can drive the filament over here, but the actual pushing force happens at the hotend. If this printer didn’t have one, the filament would get pushed just the same, but the driving force wouldn’t be able to push it into the hotend. Makes sense, right? But not every 3D printer is a Bowden system, in fact, this guy isn’t, but I’m going to argue it’s still going to profitContinue reading

When you start a print, how do you decide what settings to use? Of course, parameters like the solid shell thickness or the infill percentage are something that needs to be decided on a print-by-print basis, but what I mean are the settings that, ideally you figure out once and then leave as a preset for future you. But what if those presets are wrong? What if you didn’t even tune those in yourself and use whatever the filament manufacturer suggests or stick with the presets that come with yourContinue reading

I´ve used dozens of different 3D printers over the years. They look like they’re machines that are made for vastly different jobs, based on how they’re built and what they’re capable of. But they all share one thing in common: A 0.4mm nozzle. And the nozzle is one of the core things that make a 3D printer work. But why is it always a 0.4mm bore? Surely with all the different applications these printers are made for, it can’t just be a one-size-fits-all choice. And you’re right, it’s not. Honestly,Continue reading

This is resonances, part 2. Last time we tried a bunch of approaches, from suspending the printer from the ceiling, bolting it to a concrete paver or sticking it onto some anti-vibration feet. And some of those worked, some didn’t, and my conclusion at the time was that you have to have some sort of dampening element in your setup for it to do anything – otherwise you’re just shifting around the excess energy that causes these vibrations instead of removing it from the system. So to test that theory,Continue reading

Getting rid of ringing artifacts is a bit more complex than it seems at first, but, good news, the solution that performed the best was also the simplest one. I tried four different setups, including bolting a concrete paver straight to the printer, and I want to share the results with you and I think I can even explain what’s happening in each one.  For these tests, I thought I’d use one of the machines I don’t usually grab, so I got the Steality Ender-3 v2 out of storage. ThisContinue reading

What if you want to make a PCB, like, right now and not wait for a PCB fab to make them and send them to you? Or, what if you want other stuff etched into a copper layer that would be hard to pack into the Gerber files that board houses want? Well, if you have an MSLA resin printer, honestly, you’ve already got a pretty much perfect tool for the job. We’re going to try a quick and dirty method today, that is, one of the ways is quick,Continue reading

What I’ve been up to last week was trying to find out how much and how quickly filament absorbs water and what the results of that are. While there’s no question that filaments like PA, Nylons, as well as PVA, absolutely need to be kept in a moisture-controlled storage solution, with the more common stuff like PLA or PETG, it’s not that clear. Sure, PETG does absorb some moisture and you’ll get some extra stringing, but how bad could it be, and is PLA just generally fine to be keptContinue reading

If you’ve tried to buy a Raspberry Pi recently, you’ll have noticed that that is actually quite hard to do right now. For example, for the 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 that used to sell for around 50 bucks, the cheapest offer that actually has them in stock is starting to demand scalper prices closer to 100 bucks. So if you want to run OctoPrint and still need a quality power supply and USB cable, a webcam, and SD card, you could end up spending close to 150 bucks. But whatContinue reading