Layer heights

Oddball question... most folks seem to work towards finer and finer detail by printing with thinner and thinner layers. What about going the other way? I know we can easily print with a .3mm layer height... but with the extruder being a .4mm size, wouldn't that mean we should be able to print with a .4mm layer height? What about more than that?

yeah, I get we'd lose some detail... but sometimes I've gotta part which isn't detailed... it's structural, but not very detailed. If I lost some resolution, big deal. Could I crank these parts out even faster if I jumped my layer height up to something like .4, or .5??? Or would that just not work at all?

Yeah I know, a thousand expert opinions are worth one good test. Just figured I'd ask first before potentially throwing an hour print away.

 

Yes, I've printed with 0.4mm using Repetier. Cura for some reason won't let me set it above about 0.32ish despite the nozzle size being 0.4. I think this is due to the slumping effect of the filament as it comes out the nozzle - gravity flattens it a bit, so it's no longer 0.4 high. It still worked okay with Repetier but I think you'd get a stronger part with 0.3ish. I've only printed some relatively small, flattish parts at that height though, and it's possible the discrepacy between actual layer height and height it's attempting to do at 0.4 will eventually show itself on a tall enough print.

Putting that much material out also affects cooling - small pieces, small layers, pointy tops on things... you've got so much hot material there that you can tend to get some deformity and stuff gets mashed around, so you have to slow things down to keep it getting deformed too much - and then maybe you'd just be better off printing at a slightly higher speed and a lower layer height and the print finishes in about the same amount of time. It's a matter of finding the sweet spot, and the right way for the particular parts you're making.

 

I've tried using .35 to good success. Haven't tried .4 yet, but seeing what y'all are saying for results makes sense. Maybe I could get something like 3.75 to work too, but so far I'm happy with even just being able to knock the parts out quicker with .35 heights.