MakerGear Forum

Yes I am talking about that kind of seasoning -- using oil to create a hard, slick coating on the nozzle.

There's a few things I'm wanting to accomplish with this, based on the success of my seasoning the cast iron skillet I own. I figure a precision machined stainless steel nozzle is approximately equivalent to a pig-iron sand-cast skillet so why not -- but I'm soliciting advice just because.

My primary goal, and I believe a safe one to do, is coat the outside of the nozzle to prevent that thing where PLA curls back around and sticks to it. I'm at least assuming the stainless steel nozzle isn't immune to this. My plan is to get a little container of flaxseed oil (the only food-grade oil that properly polymerizes), dip the nozzle down into it at 100C and lift up, then run the nozzle through a heat cycle up to 250C and back down to 100C. Rinse, repeat, until I'm satisfied with the coating. I bet I could even write some gcode to do this for me so I could watch TV nearby and let it season itself.

The secondary goal, which is riskier, is to coat the inside of the nozzle too, to aid with cold-pulls for unclogging. Clogging is inevitable, and it's not a mark against the nozzle or build quality, but these are some gorgeous nozzles that I do not want to have to replace. My idea there is to drip a single drop of oil down the inside of the nozzle barrel then remove it with a de-cottoned QTip. Run through a heat cycle, and repeat several more times.

I have yet to heat my new V4 nozzles to temp, and I'm wanting to do this before its "too late". Ideas, thoughts?

Be sure to read this forum thread and the following several comments:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1457&p=5015#p5017

I also asked the "When is too late?" question but never got an answer to it.

insta wrote:coat the outside of the nozzle to prevent that thing where PLA curls back around and sticks to it.

My old Thing-O-Matic had a PTFE-coated nozzle and ABS stuck to it like, uh, glue, so I doubt that a well-seasoned metal nozzle will fare any better with PLA.

The ABS wiped off easily and left no residue, so the problem isn't stickiness or lack thereof. It's more the dynamics of a viscous goo that just barely adheres to the surface and has no motivation to go anywhere else.

Yeah but PLA doesn't wipe off easily and leave no residue. I'm fine if I can do that trick where you extrude 100mm of PLA into a puddle on the bed and bury the nozzle in it, then break the PLA off once its cool (to clean the nozzle exterior), but I want it to actually come off.

I tried this last night with a buddy's failing printer with a Hexagon hotend, and that little 3-in-1 bottle with the flip-up nozzle that everybody gets from Walmart for $3.59. It actually worked extremely well after a Taulman cold-pull to clean the Hexagon out, and he was able to print about 40mm/sec faster than before. I find this extremely encouraging.