1.75 or 3mm, for a Bowden setup?
1.75 takes less force to extrude, but commensurately cannot transmit as much force. Also has a higher tendency to buckle under stress, and increased issues with ooze.
3mm has less issues with buckling and retraction, but requires greater force to extrude - increased stress on the components. Since it’s Bowden, I see no problem with increasing the stepper size to compensate for force/speed issues.
Thoughts?
My eMAKER Huxley runs for 1.5 years with 1.75 Bowden and I haven’t seen any of the problems you mentioned.
3mm is very springy coming off the rolls. I think the 1.75 would be much less so.
1.75mm is nice with a bowden tube, doesn’t really have buckling problems.
Does anyone have experience with both? eMaker is 1.75, Ultimakers are 3mm - obviously both work, what isn’t obvious is which one is better. I’m leaning towards 3mm because it’s cheaper, towards 1.75 because it can be direct-driven with a nema 17.
1.75mm is by far the best! Less effort and less diameter variation compared to 3mm! Also price is coming down all the time.