Thanks for getting back to me @Jay M. When i say i havent updated marlin that was a bit of a lie. when i first encountered this problem the first thing i did was increase the probing points. i currently have it at 6x6. However i am now looking at adding in babystepping as well. But even with these changes i dont see how that fixes the issue. if the initil z-offset is set up correctly then why when it goes to print, it doesnt go to the correct z-offset point?

Hav you checked the initial start up gcode used in the print settings in cura? make sure they are the same ones used in the makerech cura.

@andrew leroy thanks for the tip. i did make this mistake during my first few prints but i did correct notice that and corrected it and that solved the serious stringig i was having at the start. i believe the stringing im seeing now is due to a small amount of filament still being in the nozel after the retraction. in the purge tower there is a centre coloumn which is used for wiping this string. maybe i havent enbled the wipe setting for both filaments I will have to check later. Im not using the printer anymore until my linear rails turn up and possible my new hotend as well.

@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.

@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!

I have had the same issue, i have found even with the print nozzel, throat and blue PTFE tube all installed as far as possible and nice and tight. the blue ptfe tube gets pushed out of the crappy cheap hotend/bouden connector and the filament melts in the gap and eventully builds up enough to block. Its happened to me two times now. Im thining about getting an actual E3D one and installing it on this as a temp whilst i use it to print the required parts for the one i want to build myself. true reprap style. acetone bath to easy the clogged plastic. one of the nozzels was the first to block. the throat is also fully blocked. i assume this was pulled out of place during the filament changed during the dual print. failed at 95%

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.

@Michael G This is an incredible review and might I say I feel you have been way too kind about the short comings of the printer vs the promises during the campaign. However I do feel you have covered everything about this printer. This is my own personal review of the product so here is me throwing my two cents in. Just to give some background I hold a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and have work the oil and gas industry since graduating many years ago. The Campaign This was my very first 3D printer and I too was encouraged into backing this printer due to the alure and promise of a good dual extrusion set up, as well as the amazing prints that were shown in the campaign videos. Another bonus I thought the overall look of the printer was far more appealing then other budget printers on the market. I also did do my own research into printers and knew the drawbacks of single support gantry printers but proceeded due to the previously mentioned reasons. The Assembly The construction and programming/flashing of the printer was fine, the tutorials online documented the steps perfectly. I too was missing a fixed linear guide and instead had a 3rd variable guide. I was also missing the second spool holder that was needed to mount and hold the second filament spool and stepper motor needed for the dual print system. I didn’t have the time and was unwilling to wait (I was that excited about the printer at the time and wanted to get printing) for the replacements to arrive so I extended the cables myself using cables I had (as I fly freestyle drones and I have plenty of spare suitable wiring). I would like to add all the replacements did arrive in the end. So once it was up and running and started printing the real problems started. To quickly summarise the problems of the poor and failed prints is down to this. · Poor design of the linear guides · Poor quality checks performed on the main printing bed and gantry assembly these weren’t level at all or within any acceptable fabrication tolerances for parts these sizes. · I know this is a budget printer but poor quality cheap 3rd party parts the main one being the promised all metal hotend which is fact is a cheap e3d clone with a PTFE liner all the way through to the nozzle and not all metal. · Badly compiled custom version of the cura program which was the main reason for the failure of the dual filament prints. I have uninstalled this now and am running cura 4.7. · Serious lack of response from Makertech regarding issues since everything was delivered. They have just buried their heads in the sand with all the issues they clearly must have seen in this forum. The Verdict My overall verdict of this printer is to stay way clear of it. In the true spirit of 3D printing yes all these problems can be overcome but the fact you have to overcome them first before even getting an ok print is just a waste of time and money especially as there are plenty of printers at similar price to this with the cost of the extra’s (LCD, Hotplate and flexpate) that you NEED on the market that will provide decent prints with minimal head scratching involved. Also if your new and on a budget this has the potential to really put people off this fun, educational and very rewarding hobby. Its not been all bad, during the kickstarter campaign and up to it was delivered Makertech were good. After that, it has all gone downhill. I think its only saving grace is it was delivered during covid-19 and lockdown as it has given me something to focus on and tinker with.

@Michael G you review of the printer is amazing. I did just replay you this comment but have removed it as my anger with this printer has been covered by your really indetail review! FYI @Makertech the person who runs and operats the company is a Mr Adeel Ali. @Makertech you really should be commenting on all the issues with your solutions and also outright lies regarding the performance of this printer.

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!

Im sure its not this but have you converted the gcode to a .txt file and checked that the slicer is actually creating a correct gcode with z coordinates? Check to make sure the grub screws in the coupler connected to the lead screw are nice and tight and aren't slipping.

@Gareth Owen I covered all the metal sliding surfaces with bearing grease. This massivley helped me with grabbing issues.

@Michael G I have now started making good progress with getting the printer to do dual prints. First fix - slightly open up ID of the 3 metal couplers in the splitter and also the 2 individual ones on the extruders. opening the ID on the extruders and the 2 couplers on the top of the splitter will stop the filament from getting stuck as the OD of the red and blue filament isn’t the most consistent thing. Opening the ID on the coupler at the bottom of the splitter will stop the pulled filament from getting stuck when pushed back through during the filament change. I think the ID of the PTFE is larger than the ID on the couplers so when the filament cools i think it cools slightly larger and this gets stuck. This is the physical issues with the filament switching sorted. Well for me at least. My main issue is now with the G code that the @Makertech version of Cura is creating during the filament change. I’m getting serious blobbing on the purge tower which i assume is due to something in the slicer telling the printer to purge more filament. Or its from filament that has been compressed in the nozzle and just oozing out during the transition. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:533814 @Makertechit would be really useful for you to give some assistance on this. instead of leaving us to overcome all the problems of this printer. As this was a feature you advertised as a working extra and from what i can see no one has gotten any results from it. An extra problem i have noticed is that at the end of the Dual print. If you end of the 2nd extruder the printer isnt reset and back to the first extruder. so when you go back to a single colour print from the first extruder you automatically get a jam. As the printer does reset. I believe this needs to be corrected at the source of the Makertechs version of Cura as i think they have hidden and stopped access to the settings that would allow you to make these changes under the Axis printer profile.

@Gareth Owen i know this sounds obvious but that looks like the filament is too hot and not issues with over extrusion. Have you checked the thermistor is shoved all the way in the little hole as far as possible. This was exactly problem i was having with my prints. As soon as i checked this and corrected the location my prints were 100 times better. also my temperature fluctuations have decreased massively now.

So regarding my own prints on the AXIS i have made a huge step forward regarding quality. I was having huge issues with striging and what looked like the filiment being too hot however when i was printing the thermister was recording the correct temperature or at least what i thought was the correct temperature. So today whist waiting for some possible upgrades to turn up i took the hot end apart to giv it a good clean (cold pull and all) and importantly tight. during the disassembly and re assembly i looked at the thermister and realised is wasn't completly install as far in the small hole as possible. So when putting it back together i pushed it as far in a possible leaving plenty of extra cable so that when it is help in base by the screw it is not pulled out in the process. This one step alone has taken my prints a stringy mess to something i would class as an acceptable print. the finish is nice and glossy and smooth layers! Conclusion is that if the thermistor is not installed far enough it will still record the temperature but the core temperature of the hotend will higher thn on the outside where the thermister will be taking readings if not installed far enough. This was obviously my mistake and a rookie error as this is my first 3D printer. just giving a heads up for anyone else getting a similar problem with temperature. there is still allot of ghosting but i havent made any upgrades to any of the linear guides yet. As you can see from the photos it was a huge difference between the two prints.

@Gareth Owen I actually checked my one after seeing the picture you took and mine is the same. im hoping the extra linear rail will add some stiffness and correct it.

those new Z guides are looking really good! I caved and bought 2 linear rails. like @Michael G one to replace the X axis guides and the other to replace the Z. i havent actually tried to print anything until they turn up. im hoping they will turn up today.

It was going perfectly, until the X-axis jammed 2 hours in and the layer then slid by 5 mm. I guess i need to try and print some new X guides to try and stop this. im thinking ones similar to the design you did for the Z axis guides.

today i have thrown caution to the wind and am now printing @Gareth Owen Z Axis guide. Its sying its a 8.5 /9 hour print. im an hour in currently and only 3% has been completed. Im hoping it completes iv only printed up to 3 hours currently. I will of course let you know how it ends up!

@Michael G I really hope that works as it does look impressive. 6.5 hour print time looks like that will be an overnighter ha ha. I was thinking just the extra plate some washers (to distribute the tightening of the screw) plus your linear rail would ave been fine. However i dont know the printed material too well either. it does seem very brittle. I didnt mean to use you as the test for this idea. If i had the linear rail on hand i would have tried it myself. However i am also printing all the mods for the printer on the printer.