Hi, I bought a Workhorse in early 2020 and it was delivered with the HE 0.5mm toolhead. I’ve had some issues that I believe are caused by temperature fluctuations when printing with PLA and the hardened head, but I made some significant improvements by updating the firmware, updating the filament profiles in Cura, and following most of the steps here: https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html
I see that the Workhorse is now shipped with the SE 0.5mm toolhead. Interestingly, the store page says “TAZ Workhorse prior to 8/2020 equipped with HS Tool Head.”, but I received the HE (like some others did).
Should I buy the SE 0.5mm toolhead, or can I just swap out the nozzle? If so, which nozzle? I don’t see it on the store page.
Are there any other useful upgrades I can make while I am placing an order? I am looking at the magnetic print surface, but I’m unsure if I also need to replace the heater. It is often extremely difficult to remove prints.
Just swap the nozzle. The Titan Aero-based extruders use E3D components, so a brass 2.85 x 0.5mm nozzle will be the exact replacement. I’d recommend doing something like the 0.5mm Nozzle X -( E3D Nozzle X - 2.85mm – Printed Solid) for a bit of an upgrade.
I suspect LulzBot doesn’t sell nozzles just because doing the hot nozzle swap can lead to complications if not done right.
As for which one? If you’re not doing any abrasive filament, there’s plenty of good brass nozzles, but I have been very impressed by the Slice Engineering Bridgemaster (and Vanadium - but Vanadium nozzles need to be run hotter than brass) nozzles. Also, although pricey, the Diamondback nozzles are compatible with the auto bed leveling in the LulzBot printers, and actually print at lower temps than brass nozzles. I’m still working through adjusting my profiles to account for the better thermal conductivity.
The magnetic print surface (octograb) is probably the best upgrade I’ve done with the LulzBot machines here at work. The workhorse comes with the modular glass surface, so you do not need to get the new heater plate, just the Octograb kit. TAZ Pro/Workhorse Magnetic Flex Bed v2 | LulzBot
Thank you to both of you! I ordered the E3D Nozzle X to try (I heard it does work with the conductive auto bed levelling) and I am looking for a decent brass nozzle now based on these suggestions. I also ordered the Octograb (non-textured).
I believe the reason Lulzbot stopped selling nozzles as spare parts is exactly what Wrathernaut mentioned above, it is pretty easy to cause problems unless it is done right. We had one customer who managed to snap off their nozzle, leaving the threaded portion up inside the hot end. That was a PITA to extract! I have had other customers who don’t tighten them properly and end up with leaking around the threads, and poor electrical contact as well.
We do change out nozzles and we do stock and sell them, but there is definitely a technique to doing it right. Generally we equip our Lulzbots (all E3D) with the hardened steel or nozzle X, which we buy directly from E3D.
I wanted to give a follow up to this thread. The Octograb and Nozzle X arrived and I installed them yesterday. I correctly adjusted the Z offset and I can happily report that this has made a huge improvement! Prior to this I had atrocious stringing and telltale signs of temperature fluctuations during prints. The quality has vastly improved, and I can easily remove my prints now! Futhermore I don’t have to scrub the nozzle between prints.
I have a .6mm for 2.85mm (and also one for 1.75mm) filament they gave me for testing with Lulzbot printers. They may be available to order by contacting them on their website (champion X) even if they aren’t on the market yet. I do recommend them for everything but polycarbonate, which is the only tested filament I had that didn’t work better than brass, stainless, nozzle x, or vanadium.
The 1.75mm works with 2.85mm, but since you end up using a lower temp because the diamond tip transfers heat more efficiently, where the 2.85mm meets the 1.75mm opening is cooler, so you can’t increase speed. This is in contrast to the slice vanadium nozzle, which you have to run a bit hotter since they are less thermally efficient, so I’ve had very good results with them with 2.85mm, even though they are a 1.75mm nozzle. You still can’t run them very fast, but work well as a drop in replacement on the V6, once you work out the optimal temps.
E3D got back to me and said the SE printhead has a lot of “to spec” parts for Lulzbot and was only designed for 2.85mm filament. I guess I’ll have to wait for the 2.85mm nozzles to come out (I have a inquiry with championX outstanding)
I’ve swapped parts out on the 2.85 SE head to make it run 1.75. It required doing a new heatsink, heatbreak, nozzle, filament guide and small length of 1.75mm PTFE tubing.
As far as I can tell, the only to-spec part is the heatsink, which places the nozzle slightly lower than a standard titan aero heatsink. The only toolhead this is really an issue with is the Pro Dual, due to the thickness of the part cooling shroud. The rest will put the nozzle closer to the part cooling airstream, but if you use a silicone heat block sock, it shouldn’t matter.