3D Printing Forum

Brass versus stainless steel nozzles- is there a general consensus that one is better than the other, generally speaking?

I understand that stainless steel is preferred for use for certain filaments with high abrasion, but for general use with basic PLA or ABS, does it matter, brass over stainless steel or vice versa, or is there no clear preference/difference?

I would say that brass is absolutely better.

Stainless steel has poor heat conductivity to the point where it affects the printing, and has in my opinion no right to exist other than if you are building some kind of food grade printing equipment.
The Abrasion resistance is only about four times the resistance of brass, so a 0.4mm stainless nozzle will wear down to the point where it is not usuable in less than a kilo of carbon fiber if doing 0.1mm layers.

If you want abrasion reistance, hardened steel is a minimum level, and those even got way better thermal conductivity than the stainless ones. And Ruby is ofc the best choice for abrasion resistance.

Thank you, Meduza. I've looked at the ruby nozzles but I'm not quite ready to drop close to $100 just yet. Still, they look interesting.

For brass nozzles, how often do you swap or change them out for a new nozzle?

Also, I see most people seem to be using a 0.4mm nozzle, is that suitable for printing typical stuff? (I know that "typical stuff" covers a lot of ground, but I'm not printing anything exotic).

I bought a hardened steel one just to try one for carbon fiber. I had to up the temp close to 10C to keep it to temp

LePaul wrote: ↑February 13th, 2019, 7:26 pmI bought a hardened steel one just to try one for carbon fiber. I had to up the temp close to 10C to keep it to temp

I mostly use PLA/ABS, what sort of lifespan is reasonable to expect from a brass nozzle? What would be a sign that a nozzle is worn and needs to be replaced?

Good question, I have never replaced one (yet) due to wear....I have if it's gotten extremely gunked up on the outside over many months of printing

I was going to buy a steel nozzle last week because steel just seemed superior to brass.

Then I read steel nozzles are not superior in performance to brass nozzles, and in fact, they give you ever so slightly lower printing speeds.