Just a little tip if you are coming from ABS back to PLA you will want to purge the system before you try printing again. Because ABS typically processes at 210 and upwards, when you extrude in PLA you will want to set the temperature at the same or slightly higher temperature that you would for ABS to make sure you have all the ABS bits out of the hot end and nozzle. If not there will be a high chance of clogging.

You may have to purge for quite an amount. The best is to bath the hot end and nozzle in acetone, but I would recommend simply using two different hot ends, each one dedicated for one material only.

Best,
QwikFab

Thanks, That what I decided to do, sourcing a new hotend and printing a direct drive extruder, now I just need to find a local vendor selling 1.75mm ABS hotend , stepper motor & http://3dprinter.my/, to bad they only have 3mm hotend, my ABS filament 1.75mm just arrive but due to bad packing plastic vacuum wrap punctured hope it will last before I got the chance to use it

This is a late entry and I do apologise as we are often caught up with prototyping, researching and developing new technologies that we miss out on sharing with the community on what we've been up to!

We recently unveiled the first few large 3D printed objects that came fresh off their prototype 3D printer 'Beast' to display the potential of 3D printing and practicality in art, industrial, commercial it's endless applications and possibilities. The printer can print about 30cm by 30cm by 60cm on dual extruders. As we all know, using dual extruders mean smaller build volume and that is something that people often don't reveal and let you realise on your own.



Video link: Makers' Meetup at Singapore Polytechnic 29 April 2014

Video link: Life Sized Prosthetic Leg Print

This post has been edited by QwikFab: Jun 13 2014, 12:35 AM

I was just wondering about dual extruders, won't the doubled weight from the hotend and direct drive stepper motor lead to a much reduced printing speed, say less than 40 mm/s, as the weight would cause severe backlashing at high printing speeds. I know the solution to this is to implement bowden drive but the print quality would severely degrade with the length of the bowden tube while the high hotend temp would lead to poor bridging and slope formation.

By the way, I have ordered some china clone J-head hotends with 0.3 mm nozzle for 1.75 mm filament and direct drive. They should arrive by the end of the month. It comes unassembled but I can easily assemble it with cartridge, kapton and thermistor for you. Assembly is free of charge, just have to pay for the parts. If you are interested and can wait till it arrives, you can PM me for the price.

We do provide hot ends, it is an all metal hot end with PTFE tube in the barrel because PTFE has a very low coefficient of friction which encourages the filament to extrude and retract easily and minimises jamming. It is available in 1.75mm and we provide domestic shipping within Malaysia to save cost.

We've just been waiting to launch it off our website with a pending revamp. Do send me an email at raymondluo@qwikfab.com if you are interested in the hot end. It will cost about RM130 (or SGD50) and for this time only we will waive shipping (in malaysia only) for the hot end only. Please note we do not supply wires, thermistor and heating cartridges, it is for the hot end only.

This is a picture of the aluminium hot end.

That is true, more weight on the moving axises can cause backlashing and reduced printing speed. But if you've noticed in our video link above, for our 3D printer, we don't use rails typically used in consumer desktop or reprap based 3D printers.

With regard to the issue of weight, lead screw driven 3D printers will benefit from the rigidity and is more suitable for carrying more weight e.g. multiple direct drive extruders when compared to using GT2 timing belts for reprap printers.

For the reasons you've already mentioned, bowden will come with many compromises for lowering weight and will also probably not be able to successfully print using flexible filaments as well.

Since you have a rigid setup using some really thick rails, why don't you try the Kraken, the quad E3D extruder? I want to get that but its way out of my budget.

It will probably be a good try if your controller board comes with extra extruder, heater and thermistor connectors.

not actually looking for dual extruder setup more to multiple extruder with quick release setup, there's is a thingverse quick release x-carriage for mendemax/prusa might as well try that for a change

thanks for the offer altan but I seen bad quality issues with those china hotend so I rather stay away from them for now, maybe I can ask blomker to hook me up with his hotend kinda liking it just the fact it a bit low profile (short) for mendelmax x-carriage which make those fan shroud on thingverse are no usable with his hotend

bur nether the less I will pm either one of you if i have no other choice lol, nice to see this post are active again been dormant for quite a while now

Good to hear that this topic is somewhat active again.

You can PM me anything for the hot end, I will be trying out this batch when it arrives and let you know if its worth the money I paid. Frankly, I have used these china made hotends on another 3D printer without knowing about it till a week ago when I was reading it in http://jheadnozzle.blogspot.sg/2013/11/is-j-head-real.html. So far, those hotend did fail several times due to the heater cartridge wire getting burnt out or the PTFE sleeving getting clogged with dirt. As for print quality, I found no problems with the final print.


Another type of hotend you might want to try is the UBIS hotend by Printrbot as I am using it now on my 3D printer. Its a ceramic column hotend with a brass nozzle, doesn't need active cooling and the temp retention is quite good. Its really pricy but its worth it in case you need a more compact and quality hotend.

While I am certain we would have no issues using the Kraken, even using direct drive extruders, having four hot ends doesn't necessarily mean that it is four times more useful than having two. It for a specialised bunch of users who will really find the need for it unless they really just want to print in 4 colours.

Btw, you might want to check our other video below, we have our own extruder- which is also dual pinch. Some have even gone so far as to nickname it the filament straightener.

Video Link: QwikFab Extruder

anyone know does jalan pasar sell micro switch for end stop? my X endstop decide to fail on me, it always triggered swapped the switch with Z same thing so confirm it the endstop problem

EDIT: turn out my bad soldering resoldered and work fine lol

This post has been edited by DarkTenno: Jun 13 2014, 08:37 PM

Japan Pasar is my favourate place for small electronic components... They sells every type of electronic components, just bring the part and show them, they will probably have it in stock unless its an uncommon component. Micro switch is a common component just don't expect to get the exact switch for the printer.

I just got a batch of cheap PLA from ebay, even though physically look nice but cheap = crap, I have been printing small part since yesterday all my calibration for my previous PLA are useless, with this PLA I have to print at 220 if not I will get blockages/jamming, stringing issues are bad probably because the higher temperature I will need to tune my extruder retract again it seem

leason learn cheap stuff isn't always good

Thanks for sharing the cheapness of china PLA filaments, I was at one time tempted at purchasing some from china through ebay but I found that I can still get them cheaper locally. Also from reviews about filament quality, I do recommend if you can get PLA filaments from known suppliers who understand a quality product and have used them before. There are a few suppliers for filaments in Malaysia as well as Singapore and I would recommend you the suppliers in Singapore. By the way, its a matter of paying more for the sake of getting peace of mind and minimal worries when printing large prints. I am curious to find out what are the defects the china filaments have.

Regarding the jamming, the problem lies with the filament diameter consistency and the cross section shape, i.e oval instead of round. When the diameter of the filament exceed 1.9 mm, there is a good chance of jamming the extruder and I had experience that problem for a particular spool which I got for free. The stringing cannot be avoided when printing at 220 deg because the molten filament is liquid enough to seep out of the nozzle even with retraction. I don't know if there are ways to shape the filament, or scrape the excess diameter down to 1.75 mm but if you want to utilize the spool to its full potential and minimizing failed prints then you should try smaller prints instead, less likely to fail a print.

well the it was like RM55 per spool , I guess learn it the hard way, yes I also think that the blockages are cause by the inconsistent of the filament diameter only way I know to fix this is shredding it and feed it to a filament extruder (if I have one), I will try to measure the filament size when I get home, where you source your filament? reprap.my only selling ABS I don't see they selling 1.75mm PLA, the guy on mudah have a minimum quantify of 5kg per-order which is too much for me

If you need a nearby local distributor, checkout @storm88 post http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=2862182, though I have not tried theirs yet, but If you need any below RM 100, then Qwikfab from Singapore supplies PLA filaments too. I bought some of their filaments but have not tried it yet as I was busy leasing my printer for some events but visually it looks good.

This post has been edited by altan: Jun 20 2014, 02:20 PM

ok thanks will try looking around, or maybe I just get some PLA from blomker

EDIT:

here is my measurement of the PLA at random part of it



This post has been edited by DarkTenno: Jun 20 2014, 06:54 PM

This just proves the likelihood of the filament causing the extruder jams. The average diameter for the china filaments are way above the average 1.75 mm diameter, the ideal average values for most extruders. If its consistently less than 1.75 mm, it is still acceptable but may have to adjust the filament diameter size in the slicer to get acceptable extrusion volume.

at some part it even measured 1.98mm almost 2mm probarly dumping this spool I dont want to break my extruder

I having a second thought about the filament diameter as the thing is the blockages awalys happen on my left side of the bed on the right side it was perfectly fine, when on the left side I can clear hear the sound of the nozzle dragging on the plastic surface when filling up layer but not on the right side

still this spool are very inconsistent of it diameter

This post has been edited by DarkTenno: Jun 21 2014, 12:06 AM