Trying out a Dual Head extruder for a change

[ccobra]

As you know, I got tired of cleaning my prints so I got a new print a couple of weeks ago with the dual head extruder. Its a Lulzbot TAZ 6 and so far it has been a nightmare to get it to print without pulling up what it had laid down. It has the auto adjustment like my Mini has. Biggest issue is that it didn't print correctly right out of the box and having to make changes to the firmware and software. I'm used to just printing out the standard way. Anyway, after 12 hours of printing last night I got the following hairy monster:

Then after thirty minutes in warm tap water, I got the following:

With the grey parts being done on the new printer and the other parts done on the mini. I liked how the chassis turned out after an extremely easy cleaning but I was really displeased with how the body turned out. So, I jumped back into my little think tank and talked myself into flipping the body position over, changing the layer height for the grey filament to 0.25mm from the 0.23mm and upped the wall thickness to 1.25mm from the 1.0. So I'll wait for another eight hours while a new body prints out and see how it turns out.
One word though about this new printer, the mini did the same body in about 6 hours printing but at a thirty degree angle to fit on the table where the new printer takes eight hours to print laying on the table flat. If I can get the bugs out of the new printer, I should be able to print six of the larger bodies at once, taking a couple of days to print.

[PetesLightKits]

What do you mean by "cleaning your prints" and how does a dual-extrusion head printer solve that?

Curious,
Peter

[ccobra]

I'm using the Grey ABS filament for the main parts and a water soluble filament for the support. I have some HIPS coming from Amazon to try out for the Support next that is soluble in a Citric cleaner, that way my models will make you hungry for an orange after cleaning. I'll post more as the printing goes on.

[PetesLightKits]

OK, completely understand.

Thanks,
Peter

[ccobra]

Sorry about that I should have posted this picture:

Running ABS in Extruder #1 on the left and HIPS in the extruder #2 on the right. Got lazy and used the chrome pen to label the extruders.

[ccobra]

After replacing the bed under warranty and tweaking the program a little I got something a little bondo couldn't fix.

but then after getting rid of the spider webs the Stude looks like it will be OK after some sanding but the Chevy isn't quite the Master Delux just yet.

During the print, which took 18 hours and some change, I noticed that the printer would start extruding when the temperature was only 221c instead of the 235-240c for the abs. I'll be going back into the program to check out these temperature settings and try again. I must admit though I really like the cleaning process better now with the excess support material coming off so easily. The chassis' seem to be OK with the current settings so Off to my laboratory to assemble and see how the work. Maybe I'll take some time this weekend and print up some flags out of nylon filament.

[chappyman66]

Those bodies look pretty good. Nicely done!
Dual extruder is the next cost hump to get over....but it seems like it's much more than twice as complicated.

Not sure what slicer you are using but I have noticed that Cura allows you to set the "start print" temperature as well as normal print temp and a finishing temperature.

[ccobra]

Using the CURA for Lulzbot version 3.6.8 and its got a lot of modifications to play with. For example the reason for the extra print time and the extra outside layer was because I had turned on the Ooze control, this added two more hours to the print of one body. There's also a fuzzy skin and wire skin option but I haven't tried those for the pop-up says they give the outer skin a fuzzy look or the horizontal line look to the outer shell.
I think I'll have to request a new manual for all of these changes since my manual does cover some of these options.

[-Nimrod-]

This is great stuff Cobra
A friend of mine suggested, instead of letting the software create the supports, I should create two models one of the body and one of my own supports and load both models at once.
This would help get similar results to the resin printers, but it would mean a lot more work modelling.
This soluble filament sounds great, I may take the option of adding a another head onto my printer.
Can't wait to see more.

Cheers
NiMROD

[ccobra]

I'm not going to say anything bad about this new printer except my testing has been put on hold to a new development,

Before leaving for work this morning I started up a print trying some new settings in the part to be printed when I got home I got to see the about state. The printer had stopped during the initial layer and embedded the nozzle in the part. And yes, that's the nozzle stuck in the bed from the Extruder #2. Good news is that a fire didn't start for no one was home at the time of this print. Now to get warranty on this thing and just for the fun of it, I asked them if they wanted a video of how it works now. Once they get this repaired I'll ask them to send a video of it first before I let them return it so I can be sure that it is working properly. The funny part about this was they had not wanted to give me a RMA for they thought it was in the program or file when I kept telling them it was the hardware at fault due to how it was acting compared to the Mini I got from them especially when each Print I would start would require the extruder heads to be cleaned for they were plugged.
Anyway, once the repairs are completed I'll continue with this experiment and let those know how this idea works out with the ease of support removal.

[FC47]

Wow. Glad that's All that happened...pretty neat venture you're onto, thanks for sharing it