Dual head extruding options

OK Just imagine I have never done any 3d printing should be too hard because I haven't.

So how would dual head extrusion work?
Could it be easily added to the ROBO3D?
What affect would getting that LCD panel have on the usage a dual head system?
Would it be compatible?

Is this something novice could handle setting up?
Is it something we should request from the development team as an option/upgrade down the road?

Thanks

 

Jeff, I have a dual head machine and pretty much only use the second head as a spare if I get nozzle jams and don't have time to clean it out.

Its a cool idea in concept, but in practice, its just a huge pain right now. There is definitely a reason that when you go to the makerbot site, they have a big fat 'for experimental use' sign plastered over the ad for their Replicator 2X dual!

I'm not sure what other programs do, but with ReplicatorG, you have to make two stl files, line them up perfectly, hope that the slicer gets it right, and let it run. I haven't found a simulator that handles the code so I never know exactly what to expect until I let it go.

Then as far as actually running the equipment, you have to make sure the nozzles are at exactly the same height otherwise, you're going to be dragging the lower nozzle through the material that was deposited from the higher nozzle.

When I have run dual extrusion parts, I've found that the little bit of ooze from the 'off' nozzle drags through the material that was deposited from the good nozzle. I.e. I am making a name tag with a white background and white letters, there are black streaks in the white layer.

As far as I know, all of the information I shared about supports goes out the window when you are using a dual. I don't believe that any slicer out there right now can autogenerate raft and/or supports properly with dual extrusion. So, if you want to use nozzle 1 as your printing material and nozzle 2 as water soluble support, you have to design the support completely.

Long story made short: There is plenty you can do with 1 nozzle. Dualstrusion is a pain in the butt.

 

Thank you for that piece of wisdom. It is definitely not something I want to deal with

 

I agree.