Hi there, Is it possible to use the Chimera also with some kind of direct-drive setup? If not, how long may the bowden tubes be?
Sure it's possible. I've only seen one other example: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:852748 I made mine a hybrid bowden/direct arrangement. On an aside, Direct Drive usually has to do with whether or not the hobbed gear is directly coupled to a nema 17. Othewise it would be a geared drive. For feeding there's either bowden fed or direct feed. Granted 3D printing nomenclature is fuzzy at best so the terms are often used interchangably.
That looks very nice! Do you think there is enough space to make the Chimera work only with direct-drive?
Mind to tell us a bit about the selection of the drives - your own design or? And how do you control it? What about oozing? The right nozzle seems to can't hold it quite. What about leveling the two nozzles versus the build plate? Some results would also be nice to view. Thanks, cheers, U.
Thanks. The motors are the 50:1 geared steppers from 2Engineers http://www.2engineers.com/shop/geared-steppermotor-wire-length-1-m/
I adapted a design from thingiverse to improve the filament guidance using a standard E3D V6, and then put two of them back to back with the chimera. The original design I used is here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:218828 It's a custom desinged and built printer based on V-Slot extrusions. I use a smoothieboard 5x to control it. The right nozzle is oozing in the photo - cheap red filament with a low melt point was the problem. Levelling is pretty easy as the Chimera has set screws to adjust the heads. I use the paper drag technique to level the bed vs head 1, then adjust head 2 so it drags the same. It takes a little longer than a single head, but it's not difficult. Will get some photos of test pieces up later (When I'm not at work )
An alternative would be to use a Remote Direct Drive like the Nimble, in this case the Dual Nimble. (full disclosure, I am the co-creator of these products) The result is a very light print head, direct drive and the ability to print flexibles. The advantages of a RDD are that you get all the benefits of the direct drive and the bowden setup, with none of the drawbacks.