If it’s restricted to your install of Cura, I suspect the settings have been changed so much they don’t work well. In the Print Settings pane, type brim into the search box and check the Line Width and Flow. Mine are 0.4 and 90.
My settings there are 0.4 and 100. I starting to believe the best thing to do is delete Cura and reinstall it. Then re-adjust some of the settings.
Why not download CHEP’s Cura profiles, load up the one for your printer & filament, and test with that first? At least his profiles are a known starting point.
That is just what I did… So far running that profile is working really well.
Great to hear.
Last night, I was trying to print a bed support using PETG filament. About half way through to print, one of the parts came loose from the bed (when I wasn’t looking) and, for some reason, I wound up with a clogged nozzle. Try as I may, even trying to use a wire nozzle cleaner, I couldn’t get the nozzle unplugged. Anyhow, this morning, I ordered a set of nozzles from Amazon. The nozzle sizes range from 0.2mm to 1.0mm with the 0.4 nozzle being the most plentiful in the kit. My question I have is: Is there any reason, at this point in my 3D experience, to change the size of the nozzle when I install a new nozzle in my printer? Or should I just install the 0.4mm until sometime later? Like when I better understand what I am trying to do with this machine.
Have you tried the nozzle unclogging method described by DrVAX in this video: [U]The Easy Way to Unclogging Your 3d Printer Nozzle - YouTube ?
Yes, I tried to clean the nozzle the way DrVAX suggested. I even have the same nozzle cleaning needles that he has. First problem: Filament was stuck in nozzle. No matter how hard I pulled on the filament, it wouldn’t come out. Had to really pull on the Bowden tube to get it to release from the hot end… Filament was stuck to the Bowden tube. I had installed the new kind of Bowden tube and left an extra length on the printer, so cutting off a couple of inches to clear the jam at the hot end of the Bowden tube was not a problem. Whatever clogged the nozzle was really tough. I heated nozzle to 240C and could not get the cleaning wire to go through. But that is OK. New nozzles arrive tomorrow…
In the meantime, I spent part of today installing direct extruder system onto my Ender 5. I already had metal duel wheel extruder installed and now have combined the two into one unit via the direct drive kit. I guess the first thing to do when the Ender 5 is reassembled, it to do a filament flow calibration test.
I still would like to know if there is any reason to change nozzle size or just keep using the 0.04mm.
I’m sticking to 0.4 for now.
Unless you plan to print miniature figurines there is no reason to do so. The printer nozzle only defines the smallest line size you can print. Nothing more. If you print a part which usually has walls bigger than 0,8mm it simply does not matter. Also for printing details. That is done by moving the print head to the inside of the print and there the stepper resolution comes in place.
The only thing where the nozzle size is relevant, is the layer height. Since you are always laying down 0.4mm the proper layer height would be 0.4. But then you would get rounded sausage walls, which is the reason we usually print with 0.2mm layer height (50% nozzle width) and the slicer is compensating the sausages by squishing the filament, reducing the extrusion speed and so on. The squished sausage lines are what we see as layer lines. With 0.1mm it gets more squished and the round sides building the layer lines get smaller.
With a 0.1mm height you reduce the curve of the layer lines, as there is simply less space for a curve. So the 0.1mm layer lines would look a little better with a 0.1mm nozzle compared to print with 0.1mm layer height and a 0.4mm nozzle. The price is the risk of clogging and the need of tuning the stuff even more to get the best out of it.
I not even print with 0.1mm layer height for most parts as it just doubles the print times.
Using a bigger nozzle on the other side makes a lot of sense. With 0.6, 0.8 or even 1mm you can speed up the print time by a factor of 5, which is very handy when doing a lot of prototyping, where the print quality is not important or you need some part just fast. However you may need a better and more powerful heater for that as the amount of filament pumped through the hotend got increased by the factor five, too. That is why things like the morestruder exist.
In my years of 3D printing I never changed the nozzle size, even if the other sizes are piling up, as those kits are cheap and come with them.
Thank you very much. Just what I needed to know.
@Geit summed up the differences nicely. The vast majority of advice on printing that is out there assumes a 0.4mm nozzle diameter as well. So, change that variable later when you are more familiar with your printer.
For badly clogged nozzles, you may have to remove it and heat it up using a butane torch.
Cheers
Do you find the butane torch technique works well. At 50 cents apiece, I’m thinking it’s not worth spending too much time on a brass nozzle. Certainly it would be worth it for the more expensive nozzles.
That said, I just had to change mine again. I’m now on my 3rd. I’m seriously wondering if switching back & forth between PLA & PETG is adding to the problems. I’m thinking, perhaps, that going from PETG to PLA leads to an issue whereby there is leftover PETG in the hot zone that doesn’t melt when printing PLA because the temp is too low. Maybe I need to purge more PLA through the nozzle at PETG temps before settling back to PLA temps?
I just nicely got that Capricorn tubing issue resolved when the nozzle clogged up again. Sheesh.
I do not have the temperament to spend a lot of time trying to unclog a nozzle. I just received 22 various sized nozzles from Amazon for $9.99. For less than 50 cents, I just use a new one instead of spending a bunch of time trying unplug the old one.
On a different note, I am in the process of converting my Ender 5 Pro to a direct drive machine with a duel gear extruder. What has me concerned, is all that filament just hang out in space. Can anyone recommend (maybe something on Thingaverse) to provide filament support between the reel and the extruder. It also looks like I need to move my filament holder somewhere else on the frame of the Ender 5. Any suggestions would be appreciated. By the way, the filament reel is currently mounted at he lower right rear of my printer.
Make sure you mount the nozzle properly and when the heater block is turned on. Also you need to screw the nozzle against the heat pipe/break and not against the heater block.
Doing it wrong keeps a gap inside the heater block between heat break/pipe and nozzle, where filament get caught and trapped. It gets burned and residue piles up. It builds up and up and starts to close the opening within the heater block. The result is a nozzle clogging.
The correct way is to heat up the block.
Screw the nozzle all the way in and then a quarter turn back
Now screw in the heat pipe/heat break into the heater block
Last step is to titghen the nozzle against the heat pipe/break inside the block.
When you just swap the nozzle, then you can of course skip the step 3 as you don´t need to touch the heat break/pipe assuming the new nozzle thread has the same or a longer length. BUT always use a decent sized tool to grab the heater block, while screwing in the nozzle. If not you may loosen the heat break, which guarantees you a following clogging. I use a plumber wrench for that, so I can evenly grab the block without damaging or causing force on the heal of the tool head.
You may be lucky with doing it the other way around, but lucky is not what we want, when putting all the work into disassembling and reassembling the print head.
Do it right or do it twice 
Oh yeah @Geit, been there, done that, thinking of printing up a T-shirt 
My printer, when it 1st arrived, not only had the wrong setting for the Z steps, the nozzle also was not installed properly. I got a really nice, big, ugly ball of PLA coming out between the heat block and the filament pipe leading into it.
I do almost the same as you describe (and I’ve spelled it out in a couple of posts on this forum). I unscrew the nozzle 1 full turn, the connector about 1/2 a turn, shove the bowden tube as far down as I can, tighten up the connector, then tighten the nozzle. So far, I’ve not had another leak.
Geit, I am not sure what you are discussing. I have the stock Ender 5 hot end and it is all one piece. Heat sink, heat brake and heater block are all connected. It mounts directly under the extruder as a single unit. Thanks for the tip concerning attaching nozzle to a hot heater block. I didn’t know about that. I just assumed that is was OK to attach new nozzle when everything was cold.
Right. I have no idea if that is really one part or not on your printer. There are so many different designs out there.
Usually they are mainly four parts. Heater block, the nozzle and a long pipe connecting the heater block to the cooling block with the fan on it. Filament goes through the pipe (all metal or ptfe internal) into the nozzle while the cooler block (heat sink with fan) cools the upper end and the heater block heats the lower end. These parts are usually all screwed onto each other and can be separated.
But as said there could be tons of variations around, but how they work in general is the same. Since you still need to cool the upper end and heat the lower end, even if everything is one piece.
The bowden tube (between motor and tool head) can be removed and added without any other change. It goes deep into the heat break, but should never even get hot. In the result it cannot create clogging. It only can get loose and then the extruder cannot move the filament properly. It normally just bumps against the heat pipe/break connector which has its own ptfe going down to the nozzle.
These ptfe connectors (with the ring you need to push to move the filament in) can be a pain. They bite into the pipes outer walls and the more you remove and apply a pipe, the more it wears the outside of the tubing and eventually it slips out a little.
Maybe all those pieces do come apart, but as part of changing everything to a new back plate, the entire hot end remained in one piece. All I had to do was, remove the hot end from the old back and transfer it to the new one.