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.
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Two hot ends Pros: Most robust No retraction or filament waste Cons: Alignment issues. Reduced travel Dragging nozzle
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Dual filament hot end(taichi style) Pros: Easy to mount No offsets Cons: Jamming? Long retraction
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Y splitter Pros: easy to mount No offset Compatible with any hot end Cons jamming Super long retraction
May I ask what is Y splitter? Is that DIY version of 2.?
I would add 4. Idex printer and 5. mmu. Maybe even 6. manual filament swap (its what I use haha) and 7. Sharpie hack (rofl)
I never seriously considered getting one myself, but interested a lot. Following…
Edit: typo
Filament swap is not really a valid alternative when it comes to something like wanting dissolving supports. It’s only realistic if you want to change the color or material for a fairly large consecutive portion of a print. Otherwise you’re going to have to swap out the filament every layer.
Sharpie hack is also not a valid alternative hehe. These 2 were more like a joke, but for simple designs manual swap works like a charm. Swapping filament every layer would be honest work tho
Y splitter is something that goes in the middle of the Bowden tube to allow two extruders. Its similar to #2 but allows you to use any hot end.
How do you handle long uneven and “streched” filament end after full retraction? Sounds like 2. in hard mode
IDK, thats why I asked.
I’ve had my eye on this one ever since I saw it on Reddit years ago: https://www.3dchameleon.com/
It uses switches on the z-axis to kick off the filament change, not sure how it deals with stretched filament.
Interesting, thx for sharing