Secure small hexagonal nozzle in lathe.

[ShugsParticipant @shugs]

I’m looking at modifying a 3d printer nozzle. My out of date printer nozzle has a filament inlet diameter 3.5mm, whereas replacement nozzles are usually about 2mm, the other dimension can be match okay. I feel that I can drill out the 2mm to 3.5mm, if I can secure the small 6mm replacement nozzle. I have E32 collets for the lathe but no way of holding the hexagonal nozzle. Looking for some suggestions on how to secure the nozzle. Thank you,
Shugs

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Small 3 jaw chuck or drill chuck, Brass split bush drilled to the cross corners dimension of the hexagon or you could dare I say it use a ER32 collet? Any of the previously mentioned methods should work with care.

Tony

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Assuming the body is threaded. Drill and tap a short length of say 10mm dia aluminium and then put a saw cut along it.

Screw the nozzle into that and then grip in chuck or ER collet with the back end facing out. Hopefully the aluminum will clos edown enough on the thread so that the nozzle does not unscrew when drilled

[ShugsParticipant @shugs]

Thank you both, for your suggestions. The body is threaded M6, should have looked at the whole piece!! Will be in garage in morning, with the above ideas. Thank you,

Shugs

[HowiParticipant @howi]

Can you explain why the nozzle needs to be drilled out to 3.5mm, filament is ususlly 1.7mm dia and the nozzle you have is 2mm, so what’s the problem?

If it needed to be 3.5mm then it would have been made that way, surely?

have you tried using the new nozzle as is?

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

For what you want to do, why don’t you just hold the hex in one of your ER32 collets?  Turn it so the corners don’t align with any of the collet slots.  Or, as already suggested, hold it by the M6 thread – again in one of your collets.

Tom

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not easy to hold by the thread to drill the rear end as the hex gets in the way, may be possible to insert it from the rear of the collet.

Depending on the design some have quite short hex sections so likely to wobble.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I suppose you could make a split threaded bush to screw onto the nozzle, that way you could hold it in a collet or a chuck, and with it being split, it would nip on the thread and stop the nozzle unscrewing.

Regards Nick.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

All perfectly reasonable solutions and to prevent the nozzle unscrewing in some of the proposals, use a left-handed drill.  If it were me, I’d put the nozzle, thread out, in my lantern chuck, but not everybody has one of those.

John

 

[ShugsParticipant @shugs]

The reason the 3.5mm diameter is required, a metal tube feeds the filament through the heatsink, the hot end and into the nozzle. The nozzle slides over the end of tube as it threads into hot end. As the printer is no longer made, spares are very scarce and also expensive. Found a nozzle in France at €18 + €41 delivery. That price made me think there must be an other way, hence the post to you guys.
The type of nozzle is the same as Mk8 in Jason B’s image. I have ordered a bag of them to give me freedom to try out all the suggestions. Thanks again
Shugs

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

If you are going to be doing a few I would (as John suggests) use a lantern chuck. A simple single purpose one can be basic.

Bit of suitable bar. Drill & thread through to suit the nozzle thread (6mm?). Drill part way through and thread larger to give clearance for the hex. If its 7mm as usual M10 should do.

Screw the nozzle in from the wide end, and with a bit of protection on the end of the nozzle, lock it in place with a screw of some sort. Grip in chuck/collet with threaded end of the nozzle out.

I would probably put a cone in the end of the locking screw so that only the outer edge of the nozzle was in contact with the holding screw.

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