Hemera (previously Hermes) bowden drive instead of Titan?

My personal feeling is that I would not have either: I would go direct drive.

I had four Titans, and had problems with the long bowden tube. I mitigated it to some extent by using the cheapest bowden tubes (larger internal diameter than the capricorn tubing I initially had), setting motor current to max, not constraining the PTFE tube and eventually swapping to BMG type bowden extruders; but the swap to direct drive Hemera on one tool was night and day.

My experience with bowden tubes is limited. In 6 years of 3D printing I've not had one for more than a week before ditching them for direct drive on all my previous printers; and my experience with my toolchanger has made me realise I was right to do this.

One thing I will say is that I did NOT like the Titans at all. I found them fiddly to load and unreliable (bolts torquing and un-torquing, bearings failing and cracking covers). I love E3D products in general; but these are a hard miss for me.

This isn't a stab at the toolchanger platform: but rather me expressing my dislike for bowden setups in general.

Going to Hemera's instead of a Titan + motor might not be too expensive; as long as you don't have the four motors bundled. You might need to talk to E3d if that's not yet a cost option. I strongly urge you to consider having direct drive though.

Incidentally; I am currently trying to design a 'tall' direct drive extruder using the bowden tool head parts that I have already purchased (I only bought one hemera) so I can use them up; but also because I prefer the idea of a 'tall' extruder on the toolchanger platform. It allows more room to use purge buckets. I will be loosing some of the benefit of the Hemera though; mostly the very short and controlled extrusion path. Also: it might be a complete wash-out in performance compared to the EXCELLENT results I am getting from my Hemera; so take the above with a pinch of salt I guess.

Hope that helps.

Jai

 

I do not see why you are not considering the Zesty Nimble V2. No need for a motor cable to travel in X and Y. Not nearly as much weight as a mid sized Nema 17. A super strong grip and a VERY high torque, easily handles TPU/TPE, attaches to the original Tool parts with s single easy to print part and attaches the motor end with an easy to print single part... (read that as easy install). Easy filament load, unload and clearing. (so easy you can swap colors manually while the tool is in standby!)
Best of all it prints just like a direct drive. Thats because it is essentially a direct drive.

Only negative is they are on Preorder and are supposed to start shipping this month... and we all know how that goes...

 

Talk to Greg, a Hemera direct drive kit plus a Tool Changer tool plate AND (very important!) the one part where the prongs of the dock go in and you have a toolhead (provided you have a second printer to print the parts you need to put the Hemera to the plate). Cheaper, far superior extrusion control, only downside should be a slightly lower speed.

Anyway, that's what I would have done if the Hemera was around already when my TC shipped. It is my first Bowden machine and I can't wait to get my Hemera conversion done, unfortunately I'll have to leave for another work trip for a month, so the conversion will take a while.

 

if I purchased 1x V6 Bowden Tool and 1x E3D Hemera Direct Kit is that enough parts to get up & running with a single tool until the Toolchanger specific Hemera kit is available? and is the E3D Hemera Direct Kit available right now or is there still a backlog to get through?

 

Great thank you, are there any other parts that need to be 3d printed with the method I mentioned?