I just changed my stock Ender 3 hotend to a Volcano to get back to a more durable printhead after wrecking my Creality Spider head and have gotten it to where I can print something monolythic (like a brick or boot dryer type thing that doesn’t have much actual detail) without much issue, but printing something with any detail, such as a character piece for DnD results in an absolute whispy disaster. I’m still trying to print stock recommended speeds and stock temperatures (PLA at 200C, PETG at 240C, etc at 50 to 75mm/s) and retract from none to 9mm trying to find something that works. Nothing does so far, even when I go to playing with temps (PETG 200-260C, PLA 180-240C) Where should I set my baseline settings to be able to get close to the CR-10 head that I started with? I originally upgraded to the Spider, which is now discontinued, because of printing ASA and the CR-10 creating a lot of jams as the bowden tube degrades inside. I have also heard good things about the Volcano and was curious about them. I’m still running the stock extruder, btw. I’m betting my problem is simply that I don’t know how to use this head yet, though I guess I could have gotten a dud.
The volcano was made for high volume prints and has a bigger melt zone. Ideally it’s best for bigger nozzles, high layer hights and faster printing.
If you want to print small and detail a normal e3d or other hotend gives you better control. For smaller characters you can use a standard hotend with a 0.3mm nozzle and switch on arachnid or similar in your slicer. That will give you pretty good results provided your cooling is good.
For calibration its best to watch a few videos as its a lot to discuss over a post like this. But you are looking to do e-steps, flow-rate, temperature tower and retraction. Also know that this may change when you change the filament or speed you are printing at so try and keep things as consistent as possible.