Robert takes a look at various hardened nozzles for use on the Vivedino Troodon to unlock the ability to print abrasive materials like Carbon Fiber infused PETG and Nylons, metal fill, glow in the dark and more.

Review Video

First thing that has to be said about 3DMaker is presentation. They made sure to send documentation and they were the only one to do so. As much as most buying a WC nozzle don't need coddling their is still something to be said for that little extra support given for first time engineering grade users ,or just someone looking to buy the last nozzle they will ever need to purchase.

The actual packaging is minimal just a bag in a box but that is all that is needed. One other plus is the fact that they sell many filaments that they have recommended settings for which should work well as is whenever you stay in one companies ecosystem. I also must say the picture on the site is what you get so overall a first impression is 4 out of 5 stars the only points lost being the actual packaging.

What can be said about Dyze that is not already known they were the first to heavily market the WC nozzle and they had a very successful Kickstarter that just delivered on every promise and release date which is astounding and rare these days. The packaging is amazing they give you a little Altoid shaped and sized tin that you can hold all your other nozzles in and has cutouts to not have them bouncing all over and if your like me "O.C.D." then you will love being able to find all types of orders to fill the slots in. Anyway the Yang to the 3dmaker Ying as packaging A+ but no documentation however they do have some good information on their website that actually encourages to not buy every size nozzle INFO ON NOZZLE SIZING , the page seems misleading by the title but I urge you to read it as it is a def bookmark until you have it imprinted into your arsenal of printing tactics.

If Dyze was the best WC marketer then Slice can only be the 500lb Gorilla in the room. They are what E3d is to brass for the engineering grade market. Vanadium it also has the Uber factor I mean vanadium that is definitely what Captain America lets Tony Stark borrow to make his nozzles right. Well anyway they are the OG, One possible problem with that is 3D printing and OG, its kind of an oxymoron. They have nice little labels on their bags with the logo so they score a dead in between as far as packaging goes but literature I was starved for information on this magical material they use. I could not find much in the way of thermal or Vickers or anything for that matter published by Slice. I hope someone proves me wrong and i can update this accordingly. Their is something to be said for how long they have been defacto and seem to have the Just righ Pouridge thing going Where Dyze is Industrial and #dmaker is targeting average consumer well Slice would be the Prosumer /DIY "real DIY not the look what i downloaded on Thingiverse and printed on my Insert closed source 3d printer of choice or at risk of attack I3 bed slinger. What i am trying to say is they have carved a stable market for the small business or research facility in a not so stable world and in a niche market that is 90% a race to the bottom. That i think is the biggest problem they have though in that they had a full package with a great hotend partnered with Bondtech for some products and just they were the go to until the Dragon came out which forced the Copperhead. Then everything i said went out the window, the copperhead is great but they did everything they said they wouldn't aka structural heat break and groove mount. The whole point to my rant is you have to ask do they stick with Vanadium for some superior trait that us DIY users can't comprehend so they don't bother telling us or is simply because if they switch to WC that they will have lost the last thing they have that seperates them from the rest. Hopefully we will find out by the end of this shootout as i will also see which is harder WC or vanadium and which conducts heat better. On paper WC wins but in whitepapers i found Vanadium has thermal properties that change with temperature so at high temp it becomes much more conductive so their may be a trick up Slice's sleeve after all.