So after Makertech version of cura told me this print would take only 2 hours . . . finally after 6 hours I have completed a 5cm tall moai head dual colour print. So another positive I know it will carry out a print over 6 hours with out fail.
Does it look like the print quality of the example they used . . . NO (Iwould love for them to send the step file they used)
Did I make manual changes to the gcode the slicer put out . . . YES (that was very tedious)
Did I have to watch this print for the whole 6 hours . . .YES
Did I have to unblock the filaments during this print. . . .YES, I had to intervene 5 times during the first 2 hours. After that the filament change overs were fine.
To get the print to actually work I had to do 2 main things.
1. Open up the internal diameter of all 5 metal couples that feed the filament to the hotend. Long story short I ended up opening the ID’s up to 3/32 inches (2.38mm) using a 3/32 in drill bit and a pillar drill. This has drastically stopped the amount of blockages I have been having due to inconsistent filament width and also the filament cooling larger than 1.75mm.
2. I manually changed part of the gcode that was causing large amounts of blobbing on the purge tower.
This is what the original gcode looked like at the end of the purge during the colour swap.
G1 F1500 X144.458 Y186.149 E41.02784
G0 F2400 X143.836 Y186.149
G1 F1500 X138.849 Y181.162 E41.26007
;------- T0 End Gcode -------
T1
G92 E0
M105
M109 S200
G1 F4200 E-5
;MESH:Moai_Body.stl
G0 F2400 X165.677 Y104.074 Z0.18
G0 X168.058 Y104.487
This text in bold were the bits causing problems. At the end of the purge the hot end would pause in its place whilst it did a temperate check/change. After the temperature change it would then do a 5m retraction before moving to the print.
G1 F1500 X144.458 Y186.149 E41.02784
G0 F2400 X143.836 Y186.149
G1 F1500 X138.849 Y181.162 E41.26007
G92 E0
G1 F4200 E-5
;------- T0 End Gcode -------
T1
;MESH:Moai_Body.stl
G0 F2400 X165.677 Y104.074 Z0.18
G0 X168.058 Y104.487
I added a 5mm retraction to the end of the purge sequence and removed the temperature check.
I did a few tests with some small dual print calibration pieces and you can leave the temperature check in provided the 5mm filament retraction is before it.
This unfortunately I think it can only be changed by Makertech as it is the way the slicer is generating its instructions based on their pre-sets when they set the program up.
The stringing between the purge block and the head isn’t a problem of the printer that was also do to an issue in the gcode that I noticed when doing my alterations but didn’t correct as at the time I thought it was meant to be like that. Oh how I wish I trusted my gut instinct and just corrected it.
The print quality issues between the layers i believe is down to the speed at which it was printed. Instead of it being at 50mm/s i will drop it down to 35mm/s in the future.
Tomorrow I have planned a second print using a different slicer just to see the results. From looking at the gcode it does already look more positive.
Congrats!
I had a cable fail on my extruder on my other printer. So for the foreseeable future I'll be on a single extruder setup.
Close but no cigar today!
Today I actually used Cura 4.7.1 to slice and write the gcode for the dual print models instead of makerstech version and copied across there start up and end gcode.
Both prints were going amazing. None of the issues I was facing with the gcode created using Makertech version.
Unfortunately, both prints in the end failed. First attempt I cancelled due to an extreme layer slide, how this happened I don’t know, as I was sat next to the printer the whole print whilst I was working.
The second print failed due to the cheap knock off ‘all metal’ hotend clogged up. No idea why but I will disassemble the whole thing again to see what happened.
Moral of the story don’t use the Makertech version of cura. As they haven’t been at all helpful or replied to anything. I assume they know they have under delivered and potentially even lied about the parts and abilities of this printer during the kickstarter campaign.
@Makertech (adeel Ali) are you ever going to respond or aid in the issues being faced?
What a way to put someone off this hobbie!
what kind of printer settings did u use in cura 4.7.1 I undestand that if i import axis profile i get the same problems when slicing with makertech cura?
I didnt import the axis printer profile. i set it up as a new profile, however i did use th same print head values and start and end gcode shown in the makertech cura settings.
When it came to the actual printing settings in cura. i used the esun pla+ as the filament settings and dialled the print speed for both filaments down to 35mm/s and made sure the purge tower was selected with a retract distance of 121mm. that distanc is what was used by makertech but if you have cut all the PTFE tubes to the correct length then that distance is correct. well it was for me anyway.
Regarding filament temperature i have found 190C works well for me. in the print setting make sure you can see all the different temperatures in the dual extrusion settings. i put them all to the same and did a retraction between moving lines of 5mm.
I hope this makes sense if not i will screen shot what i mean.
As im a newbie in all this a printscreen would be great :).
Will try to print it with the modified G-code first. Cause i have similar problem with the plob in the purge tower.
@Johannes Helm I'm a newbie myself this is my first 3D printer.
I wouldnt bother with the modified gcode as it means you need to go through and correct the gcode for every layer purge. its long and a waste of time. Just set it up in cura.
As mentioned the general printer settings i left the same as the ones used by makertech as these are the physical dimensions of the printer.
The print settings below as the ones i found worked for me, change the speed and temps as you like. i did find the slower print speed made the quality way better.
make sure you set these settings to both the extruders as it doesnt do it automatically. you will have to enable to see some of the peramteres in the print settings.
I would advice if you want nice clean colour transfers i think you will need to increase the purge volume from 18mm3 to 24 possibly even 30. i was trying to minimise the wasted filament but as you can see from my recent prints i wasnt getting a clean colour change as i wasnt purging enough of the filament.
Good Luck!
Did u try to add these settings to Makertech Cura and print whit these settings?
Thanks alot, i will try these settings asap. What about the retraction speed, You have set it to 50mm/s thats twice as high as deffault setting. Did u use PLA that came with the Axis, cause it feels really brittle and seems to brake alot and im just wondering jankin it back at that speed will it brake or not :)?
@Johannes Helm i am using the axis filament. I ended up opening all the metal bouden couplings up to 2mm ID first and i was still having some snagging issues so i in the end opened them up to 3/32in (2.38mm ish). Since opening these up i havent had any issues with the filament snapping on retraction.
The reason increased the speed was beacuse of the 121mm distance up to the spliter.
I did pretty much the same. Only tool i had was i file, so i filed them to a point where the sang was minimum and i cannot measure the holes diameter :D. But yeah it was obvious that it would snag inside the metal bouden not the tube. :)
Finaly did it. I was so close throwing in a dowel on this one. I think it took me like literally 30 tries. Finaly what did it was standart cura with most of @sebastian waters settings. As u can see my print was 13h, did it in 2 parts (point of pause is seen on print as well). 0 nozzle gloggs and for some reason had to manually push the nr 2 color filamet in for first color swap. (Somethig to do with cura settings, had to do it every try, but only for the first swap)
So in my experience "Prime tower size" is in correlation with "Prime Tower minimum Volume". For example for me setting the minimum volume to 18 was just not clearing the color enough and i tried setting it 30 as my tower size was 20. But that made it even worse, meaning when it was time to change the color it was really unstable with one time correct amount (for example 15) of circles in prime tower and for the other it was doing only 1-2 circles and back to print.
So my final go it was 30 for both. Also its highly reccomened to set the "Nozzle standby temp" equal to print temp. Otherwise it means it will wait quite long until the temp lowers to that standby temp, and it does that on your print. For some reason not ooozing nearly as much as with Makertech cura.
I also added 1 line of code "G1" to one extruder end setting. Just for it to move to certain spot on the table after it was finished extruding its layer. For coinsidence it moved right over my purge tower and i had "Wipe inactive nozzle on prime tower" also ticked. So i quess thats why my prime tower has miljon of tots on it.
Also for cause of the massive lenght of the "Nozzle retraction distance" if u have 1kg spool on the printer it will move ur filament off the spool and if u dont correct it in every 0.5 to 1 hour it will ruin ur print :)
For conclusion i really think that Makertech slice for dual extrusion is sooo much better if only they would remove that 5sec temp check setting that causes the plob on the prime tower. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE @Makertech remove it on the next cura version.
so as u can see the amount of filament and time wasted is ridicoulus but nobody ever said it would be easy, i just did not think it would be this hard 🎤
Congrats to the success. It looks like the purge tower used more material than your actual print - or is the tower you actual print :D - just kidding.
@Johannes L pretty sure it used more :D...now thats done i can move on to another adventures with the axis :D
We've just released an updated version of the dual splitter and also added instructions for removing the pauses between switches.
More info here:
https://www.forum.makertech3d.com/forum/3d-printing/dual-extrusion-splitter-v2