Which ONE is the BEST NOZZLE SIZE?? (for Cura 5+ & PrusaSlicer 2.5+)

PRINT TIMES (Cali-Dragon):
0.4mm LW - 38 minutes
0.5mm LW - 33minutes
0.6mm LW - 30minutes
0.8mm LW - 27minutes

PRINT TIMES (GJB Test Cube):
0.4mm LW - 27 minutes
0.5mm LW - 22minutes
0.6mm LW - 20minutes
0.8mm LW - 18minutes

(All other settings are exactly the same)

Have you forgotten to make the video about 0.3mm nozzle that you mentioned?

I have a CHT clone 0.6 and use it with .4 and .48 layer heights for the practical prints, for mega speed. my 0.4 cannot do this. :)

Amazing vid!

You are missing the point of larger nozzle sizes... it's not for printing action figures but functional parts that are larger than an action figure. Such a silly video to post.

I'm trying to get an 0.6 to speed up my process with ASA. I have achieved the strength and speed I'm looking for but there is one (4mm dia.) area that is is curved upwards at a mere 70 degrees and I get curling at the edge which leads to a clump of plastic along the edge but is fine elsewhere. I've tried many settings but what the 0.4 nozzle has no trouble with the 0.6 insists on curling in this area. Even at 0.15 Layer Height on the 0.6 nozzle I am getting curling. As I understand it the theory is that the ASA is shrinking and I've adjusted accordingly with all the popular settings. Preliminary results of my tests so far show I can take my 8 hour print down to 3, if only I can fix this problem. I've run the normal gambit of Temperature, Speed, Layer Height ect. so I am wondering if wall overlap and skin penetration and whatever else anyone can think of that might help.

Highly informative. You make a good case for IDEX printers. Use 0.4 for outermost perimeter and large nozzle for everything else.

It would have been nice to see a few smaller nozzles than the 0.4

This one I sorta figured myself few years back but what about heatbreak? I buy $5 bimetal heatbreak, the other guys buys $30, nether of us gets the heat creep

Have you tested a 0.3mm nozzle yet? These findings were very interesting and not what I would have expected at all.

Oh, wow, I just found your channel and it's amazing! Awesome information! Thanks!

Interesting. I've always thought that the bigger nozzle was the most obvious thing for faster prints. I usually print functional parts rather than aesthetic models. But from what you are saying, the 0.4mm nozzle can print just as fast as the 0.6mm for as long as you don't hit the volumetric limit. Is this correct ?

Increase volumetric flow by using a volcano nozzzle and 2 nuts thats it. The heater catride can keep up, the heatsink can keep up, you simply just need a longer nozzle.

The discussion was not the quality, obviously .4mm nozzle is better there. The point is that the quality loss is minimum at normal settings while time is reduced

I definitely still prefer 0.4 mm nozzle, even if printing 0.5-0.7 mm line width. In my experience, top layers and overhangs suffer a lot when layer height is less than 50% of nozzle orifice width. I also print a lot of tiny details requiring dimensional accuracy, like small gears. But I do like my 0.5 mm Bozzle a lot too.

I'd like to see the smallest nozzle tested.

Neither

Great video, I'll be sticking with my 0.4mm nozzle and 0.5mm line widths

I've been testing 0.6 for a month or so, and went back to 0.4 because quality was just not there

It is very important to make videos on this so thank you. It seems like every couple of days over on r/fixmyprint that someone comes away with the idea that .6 or .8mm nozzles are their key to faster parts and they ruin their prints and often overrun their volumetric flowrate, or even more often overrun their part cooling capabilities resulting in weird hard to diagnose at a glance print artifacts. Every time I tell one of those people that most nozzles will print at least 1.2mm width lines without sacrificing print quality it always feels like the supprised Pikachu meme. Hopefully this helps undo some of the damage Thomas Sanladerer did with his Arachne video.

I really wish I could use 0.6 for the speed benefits but my printer is too fast and 0.6 is usually slower for me bc of the melt limit lol

Huh, I was sort of expecting bigger nozzles performing better with their 'native' line widths. Thank you for this analysis! I routinely print small detailed prints with 0.5mm line width (and 0.4mm nozzle), it's pleasantly faster and looks good.
I guess my bigger nozzle will stay in the box waiting for more cloggy filament like marble/glitter.

I'm sorry but I can't see anything that might be a deal breaker for a 0.6 vs the classic 0.4. Where are those details you say that are so visible, and where exactly does the 0.4 "destroys" the 0.6 nozzle? :/ my screen is just an HD one, so maybe I need more resolution to appreciate when does the 0.6 fails? .-.

Yeah, it seems that Thomas is mostly concerned with large functional prints. .6 is kind of mandatory for wood filament but I tried a couple ordinary prints with the new Cura and wasn't impressed. I suspect it has something to do with viscosity or surface tension in relation to the size of the hole but .6 is just sloppy.

Thank you for testing this. Even with other people going with the "0.6mm and arachne" combination being the best I always suspected that as long as you weren't hitting volumetric flow limitations, you are better using a 0.4mm and thicker width than a 0.6mm nozzle and trying to get arachne to print less than nozzle widths. Your tests seem to confirm this (though I didn't think about the overhangs, makes sense though). I'll keep going with my 0.4mm nozzle and 0.6-0.8mm line widths as I am still not maxing out the flow rate of my extruders quite yet.

I like the format of your video but you may as well have told us that water is wet. I'm glad your figuring this out for yourself though. Keep up the good work.

Nice video. I would like to see the difference in printing times though. With a large nozzle you can get significantly reduced print times IF you have the upgraded hotend and extruder! Of course those are not detail oriented prints but just basic large items like vases, your battery box you showed, etc. If you dont have the upgraded hotend and nozzle it is like you said, you run into limitations and you have to reduce the speed to a point where it is not worth it for certain prints. Really hope you do .3 and .2 nozzles :)