Hello Team BigBox Dual! I got a dual because I want to print with soluble support material. Also, I am thinking of making some cosplay shoes made from flexibles and a bodies made in stiffer materials. Anyways, if you have any creative ideas for dual-extrusion, I would love to know!
I plan to do the same, the soluble support is the main reason for the dual. Planning on doing a full size iron man helmet (for the children ). Some larger items for my own use as well as some prototype products. (I am a CAD Designer by profession)
I also wanted to print with solubles. The main reason for dual is to always have an extra head laying around ready to print if anything happens with the other. I believe the most important thing with all printers is proper maintenance. Going through a checklist before each and every print job. Check little things like for loose screws etc...to cleaning the hotends after each use with the filament that E3D has online. It may look like overkill but I've gotten killer prints even from my Duplicator 4 every single time and no problems ever. The BigBox Dual is just perfect for that. You can remove one head if need be and still keep on printing. Of course the second most important thing is be involved in the forums because you learn so much and catch problems before they arise. All the little upgrade ideas also helps with keeping your printer on top no matter how old it is. ps...I'll definitely let the forum know of any creative ideas for the dual.
Mostly because of support materials, or to use a smaller nozzle for the xhell (detail) and a larger for the infill
To add on from what you all said would be nice for two color prints but would also like to try and combine abs and ninjaflex in the same print possibly. You could potentiality use to make seals built into the part or parts with rigid and flexible areas.
Definitely wanting to try using support materials and also do some dual color printing. I also can't wait to try some of the engineering plastics out there that we can use thanks to the PT100. I have a lot of ideas for designs that will need to use strong plastics and nylons.
I went for the single extruder system, because I think with Chimera we already have a better dual-extrusion setup out there, so I'll switch to Chimera later on when every other modifications are finished. Instead of dual color or dual material, I'm more interested in dual extrusion width, which means e. g. one nozzle is 0.35 mm for fine details and the outer perimeter, and 0.6 mm or so for fast and strong infill structures.
Dual is fun for multicolor prints but that's a small percentage of why I use it. Really dissolvable support is nice, but I rarely ever actually dissolve it out, usually it's quicker and easier just to clean it off since it doesn't bond super strong to the main material (hips and ABS in my case) HIPS rafts are also a great way to stop ABS warping issues
Support, dual color, of course. Did anybody think of continuous printing with the same kind of filament in both hotends? Combine an end-of-filament sensor with a tool swap, and never care about the question 'will it last finallimentally?' again.... Cheers, U.
Mike, would you mind to tell us a bit about your surface treatment methods? Looks like varnish. Or acetone vapour? Cheers, U.
I would also like to speed up prints by using different nozzle sizes. That is something I really look forward to trying out.
I was thinking of more dual colour or dual material, I am a big fan of woodfill so mixing that with another PLA or colour would be very interesting, Also not given much thought about support material but certainly going to try it out!
I am very curious to print with the Volcano for infill and a .25 for outer shell, and maybe using Ninjaflex as the 'skin' of a print and ABS/PLA as the primary material.
I vapor polish with acetone as I primarily print in ABS. I also sand blasted, with plastic media, the frog because it was badly oozed on: http://i.imgur.com/0lXcQJE.jpg Well it's the same principle as using a raft in general but the added benefit is that it's super easy to remove. Rafts help because it distributes the flexing stress across many more points. Usually a hips raft peels right off and leaves a decent surface finish, but if it sticks I just take my flat snippers and cut it off Volcano doesn't have a .25mm nozzle yet so the best you could do is a .4 w/ the volcano. In order to run a volcano and a .25mm nozzle you'd need a significant offset difference between the clamping point to level the nozzle heights. That said a volcano probably has significant ooze issues during dual extrusion but I'd need to talk with someone that currently runs dual volcanos
Mike, Thanks for posting that very honest image - a closer look at the polished example shows that you photographed it from the better side, which is totally legitimate. Now, blasting with plastic particles makes me curious - what stuff, what tools? I just got a soda blasting tool to treat some surface defects where sandblasting would be too harsh. Might be too hard yet for PLA & Co. And you can't blast stuff on (yet) after you have taken it off... Cheers, U.
The cabinet I got is one my co-worker brought into the office, basically this: http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blast-cabinet-42202.html but an older model For the media you want something more like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E0TJBW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 Sand blasting is my new favorite way to treat prints. Results in such a seamless finish, though sometimes you do break a strand off and you get a line gap so work with lower airflow if possible. And here's another example of what blasting and polishing can do: Here's a comparison between the frog before and after treating: http://imgur.com/a/Ko7tF http://imgur.com/a/TOmnS