MakerGear Forum

Any idea on the lifespan of a nozzle. Basic PLA exclusively.

5000 hours+

You'll entomb the hotend in a glob of plastic from failed bed adhesion before you wear out the brass with plain PLA.

Would would you make of me going though about 1 every 2 months or less.

The tip gets progressively smaller to where its really not pointy anymore.

??? What the heck are you printing with that thing?

Hi Insta,
I suspect your 5k hours is based on experience. FWIW, I would have assumed that the orifice would get bigger over time even with PLA and that it might be interesting to see if this actually happens and if so at what rate. since these things are not expensive it doesn't make much sense to push them.

thanks for the number.

john

3dPrintingMD wrote:Would would you make of me going though about 1 every 2 months or less.

The tip gets progressively smaller to where its really not pointy anymore.

Uh, what?

jferguson wrote:Hi Insta,
I suspect your 5k hours is based on experience. FWIW, I would have assumed that the orifice would get bigger over time even with PLA and that it might be interesting to see if this actually happens and if so at what rate. since these things are not expensive it doesn't make much sense to push them.

thanks for the number.

john

It is from experience, and the orifices do enlarge over time. Abrasive materials make it much worse -- my number is from natural PLA (which I print a lot of).

I change them often honestly i am on the one every 1-2 month if u print often and if u use lot of wood/metal material

even less if you mistake the Z positive with negative and press push the bed against the hot nozzle instead of moving it down (happened couple of time)

I am noticing that at times my nozzle is running into the previous layer. I think this is due to me having a high level of infill outlap, and thus having "extra" extrusion.

The problem I have in lowering that is it ends up leaving gaps in my first layer.

Any thoughts on a solution? My extrusion multiplier is @ .86 and extrusion is exactly at the defined .40.

3dPrintingMD wrote:I am noticing that at times my nozzle is running into the previous layer.

Do you have any Z-lift with retractions? I always lift a bit so when the head is traversing is it not dragging across the part.