New Printer (continued) Dual Head, Heated Bed ... wait for it ... *DUAL* X Axis

[Simon C]

The new printer thread got me thinking this last couple of weeks, about what I really wanted to replace my rather excellent, but aging, Maker Bot Dual (Wood case, ABS/PLA Dual Nozzle)

I was thinking about what I liked about the dual head:

  2 Heads, even when you don't dual print, keeps you working longer, allows you to have 2 filaments loaded all the time.

  When you do dual print, well, you can (can't do that with a single head!)

  You can also dual 'clone' print, where you run both heads in tandem:

  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:540705

And also got me thinking about what a pain dual heads can be:

  When single printing the second head can be a liability, even knocking the print off (especially if it curls)

  When dual printing, it is always messy, needing guards to be printed to wipe nozzle, especially PLA, the results are not always appealing.

  When clone printing, the heads are always a set distance apart, limiting the X size.

That last point got me thinking, what if the second head had it's own X motor.

You could solve all the dual head problems:

  When single printing, you can keep the unused head out the way.

  When dual printing, you can keep the non-printing head away from the print, until it's 'turn' (and make the guard more effective)

  When clone printing, you can set the distance apart to be the width of the model / a customized amount.

Does such a thing exist ? Do any of our local 3D604 manufacturers feel like making one ?

It's a complex undertaking, it would require 6 motors, dual belt carriage, new GCODE commands and modes, probably a limit switch between the heads to prevent them knocking into each other....

But, it would be awesome.

Customer No. 1, Right Here.

[Simon C]

It already exists, and does exactly what I thought it should do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsY7EmraJCo&t=29

Just need to brush up on my German: http://sikousikou.de/?page_id=15

[Kimball Andersen]

This is an interesting solution to the dual nozzle collision issue, and I do think there are some interesting advantages (especially for ditto printing).  However, unless you really need the ditto/simultaneous printing, I think having a dual X axis may be an overengineered solution.  A simpler solution to the multi-nozzle problem is simply displace the inactive nozzle from the build plane.  There have been a couple different suggestions for this,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIMjUtD6tBc&list=UU47PcbrYKq5AGNnfcGwRdmg

http://www.spiderbot.eu/en/technology/rotating-dual-head.html

One advantage of having just the nozzles displace, is it opens the door to having more than two on the printhead. 

Then again, if you had two x carriages with two or more displaceable nozzles...

I have also seen implementation ideas for this using the newer RepRap Morgan design, and even some ideas tossed about re. a dual end effector delta with 6 towers.

K

[Simon C]

Awesome links, thanks Kimball. I like the guards on the rotating head, that would work well to stop PLA ooze too.

I definitely want the ditto/clone printing at an arbitrary distance, or even mirror printing for simultaneous left / right parts.

I'm looking for something different. There is so little to differentiate what seems like hundreds of single nozzle PLA printers, and I have found my MB Dual useful - although I'll admit, I dual print very rarely. 

I do use the heated bed though, Emmet's gear prints are better in ABS, they run much smoother than PLA.