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

    • @j4k3MEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Dual filament hotends haven’t managed to solve the oozing issue. The multi material units can’t handle filaments with vastly different temperature ranges or material composition due to clogging. Also the temperature control is poor when changed by a large amount because of how PID works.

      These systems are really only useful for multi color printing. I really wish this was not the case. I would love to design stuff with dissolvable supports, and integrated TPU for seals and tool grips.

      The real key tech for functional prints is IDEX. Sorry I assumed this was more obvious that it really is to others. I tend to hone in on things like this and ignore the rest. I built a half finished IDEX prototype at one point, but the software was beyond my skill level at the time.