Hello,

Been awhile (again) since I have posted. Last two weeks at work have been calmer as a change over of tooling was completed. Been suffering from many cluster headaches lately. They come and go and sometimes linger. Makes for feeling wiped when I get home some days. Been able to get back to my friend and I's 3D printer. We did some tweets tonight and still looking for improvements. He was able to successfully print a 2 colour object but have experienced many clogs. Even using supposedly "higher" end hot ends and nozzles.

Here is the octopus he printed. The shield around it is called an ooze shield. Suppose to keep plastic from dripping onto the print.



Friend knows the electronic & software part of things and myself more into the hardware so we make a good pair. Still continuing on ideas to get to the point of offering a decent product aimed at first time and current users of 3d printers, at least that is the end goal.

Thanks for reading,

Pedro



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 04:14AM by pedrog.

The ooze shield seems to be a mix of the two colors used in the object?

Is that produced after each layer is complete? It's texture (other than the drips), seems quite smooth.

Two nozzles for two colors? Can't see a start and stop of each spoil feed constantly, to feed one nozzle. But then, the indexing and endlessly getting out of the way of a second nozzle seems quite impractical.

If, indeed; there are two color spools feeding into one nozzle, then I would certainly expect clogs. You'd have to keep each color spoil wire end preheated and maintained at optimal temp ready to flow, without bleeding into the actual flow of the other color. Is there a gate valve? Slide ported block and shuttle?

Gary

Gary,

I'll defer to Pedro, but my experience is that most multicolor printers feed from multinozzle print heads pulling filament from their own spool. The filament feeder is a friction gear on the shaft of a stepper motor and only feeds when the print software instructs it to. You can stop and change filament on a single nozzle but it is crazy inefficient.

ALL printing is typically done on one layer at the same time. If you start to get too tricky printing objects separately, you risk crashing into the first object with the print head when printing the succeeding object.

Lon

I see, but that shell shield is only of any value during the printing of the object, as it progresses. So; something is printing that as subsequent layers are formed. Or am I missing the obvious

Gary,

In most cases, all objects on the platform are being printed at the same time. If this example is typical, the shell will be printed at the same time and progress upward layer by layer with the model. Additional structures are commonly used as support for the main object to prevent drooping of the hot plastic and cut away when the print is complete.

Lon

Lon,

Thanks for explaining the dual nozzle setup. You're correct that all of the items are printed as a single layer and increment up at the programmed step height. Dual colour is difficult from a scratch built but learning more & more. But many printers are going with two independent print heads to do two colour. That might be the direction we go in the future. My friend Jon was printing ABS today and mentioned he had it dialled in fairly well. It takes much more heat though as you maybe aware.

Pedro