At BLB Industries, we feel that a 3d print should not be regarded as complete when it exits the machine. We would rather see the machine quickly sketch the print and later on we would treat the detail afterwards. This is from an economic point of view.
For this comparison we will use the 1000% #3DBenchy that we have previously printed as the compared product.
With a 0.3mm nozzle you would get every detail and a smooth surface finish.
With a 1mm nozzle you would get all the details but with a rough surface.
With a 2mm nozzle you would get all the details but with a slightly more rough surface.
With a 6mm nozzle you would start to loose a lot of the details and the surface would be rough.
With a 0.3mm nozzle the benchy would take 230 hours to print and cost approximately 13 000:- euros.
With a 1mm nozzle the benchy would take 30 hours to print and would cost approximately 1 700:- euros.
With a 2mm nozzle we would be down to 9 hours and a cost of 500:- euros.
The time to print and therefore also the cost continues to drop when increasing the nozzle size all the way to a 6mm nozzle where the price levels of at 150:- euros.
We would choose the 2mm nozzle since it is cheaper than the smaller ones, and it is not much difference in the surface finish. The only problem then is if we would want it to have a smooth finish, because then we would also have to pay for someone to smooth it out. But at the cost difference from printing 0.3mm (where you get the best surface finish), to 2mm nozzle, we would have saved 12 500:- euros to spend on making it smooth before the smaller nozzle would be a cheaper alternative. That is 187 hours of labor in Sweden. It equals almost a month for one person, which is a ridiculous amount of time. However, making it smooth would most likely only take a few hours. Let's say 8 hours. Then the complete product would cost around 1 050:- euros. You would save 11 950:- euro on printing in 2mm and then treating it afterwards instead of printing directly with a 0.3mm nozzle. And that is why we at BLB feel that it is better to treat your prints rather than to have them ready from the machine.