Dual extruder on Ultimaker?

[thomix 0]

Makerbot Industries just released their new 3d printer which allows a dual extruder head. Dual color printing (or even dual material) is the future! Triple color coming right after, of course.

Did anyone try something like that with an ultimaker? It seems to me that due to the separate extruder and the bowden cable there are hardly any space constraints in the print head and it should be easy to fit a second bowden cable/nozzle. The second extruder could be placed anywhere and IIRC the electronics already has a 5th unused stepper motor output. My feeling is that it can't be hard, but I am still waiting for my ultimaker so I cannot start fiddling yet

Any thoughts on this?

[tom 0]

Although I haven't seen too much talk of it in this forum if you google the topic you'll probably get tossed over to the google discussion group. Though I don't think much has been said about it lately, I could be mistaken.

[mr_seeker 0]

As I said on the google group, the Ultimaker has an option for Dual Extrusion (as did the BfB), so its not something new. The "dual extrusion" option is something extra that you can put on the ultimaker, however the software doesnt support dual extrusion at this moment.

It is possible, you just need to adjust some values in the firmware & create custom G-code, and you can do dual extrusion. The ultimaker is designed with dual extrusion in mind.

[corngolem 0]

I realised that the Ultimaker already has the holes for a second hot-end as well as for a second feeder, it also has the wires and terminals ready. So, one year later, what about the software, can Cura do it ? what about netfabb ?

And is there a guide on how to add a second extruder ?

 

[Daid 306]

Cura already does some dual-extrusion for almost a year now. (well hidden, not bothering you with it unless you need it)

However, dual-extrusion has a heap of problems. Even after a year, see how little dual extrusion models and prints you can find. There is a reason for this, and that's the oozing problem that nobody solved properly yet.

 

[corngolem 0]

So with one hot end it's fine but with 2, oozing appears ? how come ? does it happen for both hot ends or only the second ?

Is it a temperature compensation problem ? or software retraction problem ?

Anyway, how did other printers solve it ?

 

[baasb 6]

Hi corngolem,

It's not that the oozing only appears with 2 hot ends, it also occurs with only 1. You obviously noticed this just before or after a print. The plastic leaks out of the hot end. So, when printing with one hot end, the other hot end starts oozing and so ruining your print.

As far as I know, the oozing problem is 'solved' by adding a cold-zone above the hot end and the filament is retracted into the cold zone. There it solidifies and prevents oozing.

 

[kwatts 0]

Out of interest, has anyone tried slowly retracting the second filament drive while printing with the other head?

Ive been meaning to try it , just havent got around to coding it yet.

 

[baasb 6]

Well, you can only retract the solid part of the filament and, for the first few seconds, the molten filament will also be retracted due to adhesion. But a (big) piece of the molten filament (especially the part closest to the nozzle) will come loose from the solid filament and starts to drip/ooze out of the nozzle. You can easily try this by slowly retracting the filament by hand without printing.

 

[dinac 0]

electromagnet closing gate is answer