Best Settings for a 1mm Nozzle – Cura & Ender 3

Best Settings for a 1mm Nozzle – Cura

Here are the best settings for a 1mm nozzle:

• Layer Height: 0.5mm (between 0.25-0.75mm)
• Line Width: 0.8-1.2mm (80-120% of nozzle diameter)
• Wall Thickness: 1mm, 2mm, or 3mm (multiple of 1mm nozzle size)
• Print Speed: 30-35mm/s
• Retraction Distance: 2mm-7mm (higher for Bowden, lower for Direct Drive)
• Retraction Speed: 35-60mm/s
• Coasting: Enabled (to reduce stringing and oozing if it’s an issue)

If you are looking for a good quality 1mm nozzle, I’d recommend going for the Aokin 1.0mm MK8 Extruder Nozzle. This nozzle is compatible with several 3D printers that have the M8 screw fitting such as the Ender 3, Ender 5, CR-10, Prusa i3, Anet, and many more.

Plenty of users are happy with getting it because it extrudes filament just as you would expect, being easy to install into your 3D printer.

Best Layer Height for 1mm Nozzle

For a 1mm nozzle, people consider the best layer height to be around 0.5mm. It’s exactly half of the nozzle size which means that you will have a good balance between printing speed and print quality.

The layer height is simply the height that each layer of your model will be.

Layer heights can be adjusted depending on your particular needs for the model. If you want a model to 3D print as quick as possible, you can try going for a layer height of 0.75mm, while if you want a more detailed model, a 0.25mm layer height should work well.

There is a general rule between layer heights and nozzle diameters where you can use a layer height that’s around 25-75% of the nozzle diameter.

One user who installed a 1mm nozzle said that he 3D prints with a 0.5mm layer height. Originally he used a 0.4mm nozzle but a specific model would take him 12 hours to print. After changing to a 1mm nozzle, the model only took 3.5 hours.

Another user also said he uses a 0.5mm layer height with a 1mm nozzle, which is the default in Cura for that nozzle size. It’s great for larger sized models on a filament 3D printer.

There was one person that decided to try a 0.8mm layer height but the print quality was really low. It’s hard to get enough detail when using such a large layer height so I’d recommend doing some testing and seeing what level of detail you are okay with.

You can start with a 0.5mm layer height and adjust it from there, going higher or lower based on what’s important for the model.

You can learn about layer height by watching the video below from 3D Printscape.

Best Line Width for 1mm Nozzle

The best line width for a 1mm nozzle usually falls between 80-120% of your nozzle’s diameter which would be 0.8-1.2mm. I’d also recommend doing your own testing here because people get mixed results.

Staying at the same line width as your nozzle diameter usually works well, but you can try the lower and higher range to see if it produces better quality models, whether in aesthetic or strength.

The full range that you can set line width actually goes from 60-200% of your nozzle size, but the 80-120% range is said to work best.

One user who was having issues with printing a model with a 1mm nozzle ended up changing his layer height to 0.8mm and a line width of 1.2mm, which resulted in him printing a much better model.

Another user said he uses the 1mm E3D V6 nozzle with a line width of 1.5mm.

Check out the video that shows just how large of a layer width you can 3D print with on a 0.8mm nozzle (200% or 1.6mm layer width).

Best Wall Thickness for 1mm Nozzle

The best Wall Thickness for a 1mm nozzle is usually a multiple of the nozzle diameter, so you’d use values such as 1mm, 2mm, or 3mm. The Wall Thickness of a model is one of the biggest factor in part strength, so ensure you use a larger value for models you want to be durable.

One user who had a 0.8mm nozzle wanted to 3D print 1mm thick walls but the slicer was doing these in two passes rather than one. Someone figured out that you can fix this issue by adjusting the Outer Wall Inset setting, which squeezes the outer wall more towards the inside.

It was created to improve dimensional accuracy when you are using a smaller line width than the nozzle diameter. When your outer wall is wider than your nozzle diameter, the extruded filament can flow outward more than the line width you desire.

In this case, the user would have to input an Outer Wall Inset value of 0.2mm.

Check out the video below by Technivorous 3D Printing that talks about the Wall Thickness setting in more detail.

Best Print Speed for 1mm Nozzle

The best print speed for a 1mm nozzle and a 0.5mm layer height would be something around 35mm/s or less. Since there is more filament to melt, having a slower print speed helps that melting process since the filament stays in the heated chamber for longer.

The print speed is the maximum speed that your 3D print will reach during printing. Your 3D printer does require acceleration to get to those higher speeds so it doesn’t always reach that maximum speed.

You may be able to increase your print speed past that point if you have a high volume hotend that can handle larger flows of filament like the Dragonfly Hotend from Amazon.

It has a lengthened nozzle design which is more suitable for those higher flows and speeds that a 1mm nozzle would bring. It’s compatible with a wide range of filaments and 3D printers, and has plenty of positive reviews.

One user said that he uses a 1mm nozzle with a printing speed of just 30mm/s, along with a 0.4mm layer height and printing temperature of 235°C (240°C for initial 3 layers).

Best Retraction Distance for 1mm Nozzle

The best retraction length usually falls between 2-7mm but it does depend on whether you have a Bowden or a Direct Drive setup. Bowden setups require a higher retraction distance of 4-7mm, while Direct Drive works best with lower values of 1-4mm.

The retraction distance is simply how far your filament will retract from the extruder and hotend.

I’d recommend that you perform a retraction test by printing a retraction tower to find your optimal retraction distance for a 1mm nozzle.

One thing to keep in mind is that for certain objects, you want have very many retractions such as a box or a vase that doesn’t have a lot of big travel movements and a more constant extrusion.

Check out the video below by CHEP that walks you think how to calibrate your retraction distance.

One user also mentioned that they enable Z-hop when retracted to slightly lift the nozzle during travel movements to stop it from hitting the model accidentally during printing.

He mentioned that he used a 0.8mm nozzle with a printing temperature of 220°C and started experiencing clogging and layer shifting issues. After trying a bunch of things to resolve this on his Ender 3 machine, he changed some settings over.

He changed his retraction distance to 5mm, printing speed to 50mm/s, and nozzle temperature to 245°C. This made the filament come out a lot smoother, without clogging up the hotend.

The video below by Print Anything uses a massive 2mm nozzle to 3D print vases, so feel free to check that out.

Best Retraction Speed for 1mm Nozzle

The best retraction speed for a 1mm nozzle usually falls somewhere between 30-60mm/s. This is similar with retraction distance where you’ll want to do a test for this and see what works best for your particular setup.

Direct Drive setups are usually on the lower end of retraction speed at around 30-45mm/s, while Bowden setups fall between 40-60mm/s.

The retraction speed is how fast your filament will retract the filament from the extruder.

You don’t want to have your retraction speed too high or low because they can cause issues in itself such as stringing, clogging, oozing and more.

One user said he successfully uses a retraction speed of 55mm/s with a retraction distance of 1.2mm.

Another user said he uses a 1mm nozzle with a retraction speed of 45mm/s and an even smaller retraction 0.5mm, which has been working for him for two weeks of printing.

Best Coasting for 1mm Nozzle

The best Coasting setting for a 1mm nozzle is to enable it if you are experiencing stringing and oozing issues. Some people choose to leave it disabled and still get good results though, so it’s a matter of testing to see what works best for your particular setup.

The default settings for Coasting Volume, Minimum Volume Before Coasting & Coasting Speed should work pretty well for you.

You can check out the video below by 3D Maker Noob talking about troubleshooting and how coasting can help.