25

I'm thinking of building a new printer and would love to be able to make 2 color prints or dissolvable supports. Does anyone have any experience with this. I see 3 paths.

  1. Two hot ends Pros: Most robust No retraction or filament waste Cons: Alignment issues. Reduced travel Dragging nozzle

  2. Dual filament hot end(taichi style) Pros: Easy to mount No offsets Cons: Jamming? Long retraction

  3. Y splitter Pros: easy to mount No offset Compatible with any hot end Cons jamming Super long retraction

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mrfusion2000@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Never built my own but hear me out, I have years of experience with a Flashforge Dreamer, which falls under #1. I personally found the second nozzle a hinderance to even 1 color prints since it would often bump into partial prints if/when the printed layer height is raised even slightly higher than it should be. The common workaround to reduce that from happening is by raising the nozzle about 0.5-1mm away from the bed, but of course that then causes additional issues.

Don’t get me wrong, the Dreamer’s a helluva machine, but considering how rarely I had something I want to print (or could print) in 2 colors, I found the additional nozzle a waste. Eventually I raised up the hot end entirely, conceding it wasn’t worth the trouble, and I also removed the second stepper motor entirely to reduce weight & increase fidelity.

Don’t let me keep you from tinkering if your mind’s set on building one, but if reliability is the name of the game, I’d look for an existing solution like a kit or predefined plans and build your own design off of that.

this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
25 points (96.3% liked)

3DPrinting

15519 readers
144 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS