<p>It is possible to print a hole of 1 mm with a 3D printer maybe even 0.5 mm but with a lot of trial and error. and the holes might not end-up to be super round</p>
<p>One of the main issues is the viscosity of the filament, you can imagine a 3D printer nozzle as a miniature version of your toothpaste tube. if you try to draw a circle with your toothpaste it will end up smaller than the movement you did due to the viscosity of the plastic dragging behind the nozzle.</p>
<p>So to have a 1 mm hole you will need to model a 1.1 mm or 1.2 mm hole and to do a 0.5 mm hole you will need to dial a 0.7 mm or 0.8 mm hole and try until you have the desired size. As you start to be close to the size of the nozzle diameter (0.4 mm on most printers) all the little imperfections stitching, etc will become relatively big and your shape will not be very round.</p>
<p>Except for very bad machines, all the machines shall be able to do this as it is a universal limitation of FDM printers.</p>
<p>If you are very patient you may consider installing a 0.2 mm nozzle but it is dreadfully slow and it likes to clog all the time.</p>
<p>SLA printers will give you a better hole but will have difficulty printing a large surface of paper-thin material</p>
<p>My feelings tell me that for paper-thin print with a small hole or many small holes, 3D printing does not sound like the most appropriate mean of fabrication what is it exactly that you want to do and what are your constraints?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-26T22:50:47.753Z
2023-07-27T03:28:45.633Z
2023-07-27T03:28:45.633Z
kolergy
<p>What's the size of the smallest hole I can print?
I would like to print something similar to a paper with 1 mm (estimated size) hole/gap in it.</p>
<p>I think I will use an Entina Tina 2, but I don't know if it is possible to print with this one. If I can. Do you have a recommendation for the cheapest printer that I can print 1 mm hole (or smaller)?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-20T09:29:02.010Z
Shopping recommendations are off-topic, but someone might be able to tell you the resolution of a printer.
Greenonline
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-08T22:31:09.230Z
Create a test project - a cube with a number of holes differing in size in increments of 0.1mm and find what CAD dimension corresponds to smallest hole that isn't completely sealed.
SF.
<3d-models>
print a model with an hole in it - Entina tina 2
Dave_david
# print a model with an hole in it - Entina tina 2

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-20)

What's the size of the smallest hole I can print?
I would like to print something similar to a paper with 1 mm (estimated size) hole/gap in it.

I think I will use an Entina Tina 2, but I don't know if it is possible to print with this one. If I can. Do you have a recommendation for the cheapest printer that I can print 1 mm hole (or smaller)?

**Tags:** 3d-models

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Shopping recommendations are off-topic, but someone might be able to tell you the resolution of a printer.  
> **username_2**: Create a test project - a cube with a number of holes differing in size in increments of 0.1mm and find what CAD dimension corresponds to smallest hole that isn't completely sealed.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-07-26. Score: 1

It is possible to print a hole of 1 mm with a 3D printer maybe even 0.5 mm but with a lot of trial and error. and the holes might not end-up to be super round

One of the main issues is the viscosity of the filament, you can imagine a 3D printer nozzle as a miniature version of your toothpaste tube. if you try to draw a circle with your toothpaste it will end up smaller than the movement you did due to the viscosity of the plastic dragging behind the nozzle.

So to have a 1 mm hole you will need to model a 1.1 mm or 1.2 mm hole and to do a 0.5 mm hole you will need to dial a 0.7 mm or 0.8 mm hole and try until you have the desired size. As you start to be close to the size of the nozzle diameter (0.4 mm on most printers) all the little imperfections stitching, etc will become relatively big and your shape will not be very round.

Except for very bad machines, all the machines shall be able to do this as it is a universal limitation of FDM printers.

If you are very patient you may consider installing a 0.2 mm nozzle but it is dreadfully slow and it likes to clog all the time.

SLA printers will give you a better hole but will have difficulty printing a large surface of paper-thin material

My feelings tell me that for paper-thin print with a small hole or many small holes, 3D printing does not sound like the most appropriate mean of fabrication what is it exactly that you want to do and what are your constraints?


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