Two Headed ABS Prusa

Has anyone else done this?

I've been working on this for a year now, off and on. I now have some PVA and, more recently, so HIPS. Hoping to use these as soluble support material, I needed to modify my ABSPrusa to have two print heads. All I've done is to lengthen the X-axis and modify the X-end to have both an idler and a motor mount. In the past, I've always used PLA but experiments have shown that it's not good enough for the temperatures around the extruder so I've learnt to print in ABS. I realised the other day that my origonal J-Head and the new one I bought for this project are different lenghts so I've order a second new one. When that arrives, I'll modify the rest of my ABSPrusa to acommodate the extended X-axis, wire up and try it. I believe the the Marlin software already supports two X axis motors like this but I'll have to add an other X-axis stepper driver to my Marlin/Ramps1.4 setup.

Edit. Had trouble reducing file size

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2014 11:04AM by MotoBarsteward.

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Using ABSPrusa Mendel Zaphod with Pronterface and slic3r 1.3.0. Printing well with 3mm PLA and ABS through 2 x J Head Mk IV b and Wade Geared Exruders. Controlled using RAMPS1.4 board running Marlin_v1.1.9

I have not, but it looks awesome. You are going to have two X axis running on the same rail. How do you plan to prevent colliding the heads into each other? Is your plan to make two pieces of the same part? I think most dual heads are for printing multiple colors on the same piece.

Only one head is used at the same time, the other being parked. I'm not so much interested in multiple colours but in printing support material that can be remove my soaking in water or Limonene. The latest stable Marlin already supports this, I believe. If not, I'll branch it and make the mods required.

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Using ABSPrusa Mendel Zaphod with Pronterface and slic3r 1.3.0. Printing well with 3mm PLA and ABS through 2 x J Head Mk IV b and Wade Geared Exruders. Controlled using RAMPS1.4 board running Marlin_v1.1.9

How do you plan on switching x-axis motors mid-print?

There is a standard tool change for dual extruders, but I've never seen any swaps for axis motor control.