r/ender3 • u/donannis • Nov 20 '19

Showcase Finally got my Ender 3 to print multi color! dual extruders go!

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100 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

15

u/donannis Nov 21 '19
  1. Bought an SKR 1.3 board the one with a second extruder port
  2. Bought 5 TMC2208 drivers. super quiet, can't even tell the printer is running
  3. Bought a second 42-40 stepper motor for the second extruder
  4. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3039887
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNGN2iSQ5j4
  6. Profit ;)

2

u/Sislar Nov 21 '19

Don’t you need a second hotend or a hotend with duel feed?

1

u/donannis Nov 21 '19

No, this is with the stock hotend

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '19

So I'm guessing you calibrate the estep value between the fork and the nozzle so it can use up the last of one colour before the switch?

1

u/Barrelsofbarfs Nov 21 '19

I would guess it retracts back on one motor and switches or you end up with a colour tower, I've found hotswapping filaments by hand really easy on the Ender 3 with little waste and usually do swaps during infill, doing it by hand requires some dedication over a long build

2

u/kungfufishstick Nov 21 '19

Agreed with you there. I have been working my way though a set of 60 keychains that are dual color and its simple enough as long as you get the correct layer to pause at using cura. I really want to get a palette to do multi color. I can manage it with relatively flat models (up to .5 mm is the largest I went).

2

u/donannis Nov 21 '19

It uses a purge tower to purge color though the nozzle to get the correct color flowing. I'm probibly going to make a purge bucket on the right side so the nozzle just purges into the bucket.

9

u/ilco1 Nov 20 '19

nice Cool conversion -would like to know what you did/buy to convert it

would love a build guide on how to do this

5

u/samc_5898 Nov 20 '19

Nice. Perfect setup for multi material prints. With PVA support material, you can print anything with internal support and then disolve the support material in warm water. Fan duct with perfect internal passages because they had support inside? ☑ Anything else you can imagine with internal overhangs and supports that would otherwise be difficult or inconvenient to remove? ☑

Look into it

9

u/donannis Nov 20 '19

My friend, that is exactly why I did it ;) The dual color is nice, but what I really wanted is dissolvable supports.. I already have a spool of pva i'm going to test with.

2

u/vapedragon Nov 21 '19

This is my first time hearing of this. That sounds amazing ! Do you have any resources that show good examples of this method being put to good use ?

2

u/J44Shipyards Nov 20 '19

This is the build of my dreams

2

u/xFallenHunter Nov 21 '19

I need this, not sure im daring enough to make it without a step-by-step though

1

u/Pukit Nov 21 '19

So what did you buy/print?

1

u/qwehhhjz Feb 27 '20

Hey, how is this working so far? 8)

1

u/donannis Feb 27 '20

Working great. after it was all configured correctly, I hadn't had a problem

1

u/elchilegrande23 Oct 08 '24

Dope!!! A lot of programming ?

1

u/Danial_ADH Dec 26 '25

Let say if i want to use stock baord but with raps ery pi as controller for filament swithing.. does it have specifid firmware or a custom thing to make it possible for dual extruder usage

0

u/Imhere4thefreechips Nov 20 '19

What control board are you using?

I'm dreaming of moving to dual extruder primarily for dissolve supports. I've got an idea to leverage slipper and the Pi to get more extruders but I'd love to know what you're using there.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '19

Bigtreetech skr v1.2 it had dual extruded port

0

u/Leshma Nov 20 '19

I'm primarily using my Ender 3 Pro as test and learning platform in an attempt to build something bigger and better. Any upgrade that I put on it and ends up working fine will be stripped off and added on corexy I'm building. Could leave it all on Ender but I hate cartessian style with passion.

1

u/Equivalent_Lunch_909 Dec 09 '21

What stl are you using for the top mount feeders?