It is incredible how easily I can confuse myself. thx
Can u give me some idea of good speeds to start out with in slic3r?
Have u modified any speed settings in marlin?

 

My second print, was at 90mm/sec, 80% perimeters, 75% first layer. Traveling at 150. Petg at 250.

 

Here is my first dual extruder print on my C-Bot. I still have to do some minor adjustments but it seems to be working well so far.

 

That's using pretty much the default settings in Cura 13.11.2 with a wipe and prime tower.

 

Still tying to get my frame perfectly aligned using a speed square and metric 1 meter ruler for height from floor. I have noticed the amount you tighten the bolts into the plastic 5 hole brackets on bottom seems to affect weather the printer is flat on floor or rocks side to side. Really wish I had purchased metal 90's and 5 hole plates first thing. I'm starting to wonder if my printed corner pieces for motor mounts and pulley mounts, even on the moving carriage are the problem and may have some warping since I printed them in PLA. To solve this I just ordered some eSUN PETG and plan to give it a try since Adam seemed to have good luck with his(got the blue as well).

I'm also considering picking up a E3D Lite6 as well as a 0.25mm nozzle. I have been looking to move into finer detail on my prints and the smallest nozzle size I can find the new J-heads in is 0.35mm which is what I'm currently using.

Edit: got the E3D Lite6 with 0.25mm nozzle. plan to compare it on my Mini Kossel to the J-head and eventually hope to use it on my C-Bot. It really makes sense to go with the Lite6 since I don't own an E3D V6 yet and if I decide to print with higher temperature materials I can upgrade the barrel and heat break for around $35-40 so really this route gives me the same price almost as a E3D V6 but I have the advantage of using the Lite6 barrel for PLA ect.

 

BTW. If u make my bottom corners, be advised that u must install them carefully. I cracked some 90° edges on a couple of mine - fortunately. once it is together it does not matter. My recommendation is to install the legs on all corners with the bottom screws first, then the side pieces. It would be better if the legs were hanging down when u did that. This is the point where side movement of the leg will break a corner. Once it is all together and tight it should be ok to upright and assemble the top to it. I have removed the corners 2x now to add/remove some nuts. If u do one at a time with the unit on it's side it is not too bad a job. Just back out the screws fully as they will catch and make it difficult to remove the corner. Also do not move the pieces very much or u will crack an idler or motor mt. I had no problem removing/adding T nuts. Mine is 12x12x12 so if ur is smaller u have less clearances to work with. Always seat the bottom leg screws first.
good luck.

 

ruggb, I was trying to get the top and bottom square frames squared up independently of each other best I could so that the Y carriage would ride strait and be aligned at each end of the travel(noticed one side would touch the corner before the other) but I loosened everything up and decided to not bother to square it up and just ensure the Y carriage wheels hit the front/back corners at the same time and so far that seems to have worked. Honestly all we really want is the Y carriage to ride evenly front to back and from there the X will ride pretty much true and the bed can be leveled to compensate for any other inaccuracies.

I'm not familiar with your bottom corners?

Carl, I normally use Hatchbox or 3D Solutech but also dabble in cheaper filaments when I can find them. Recently purchased a 1KG roll of truly opaque blue PLA from Amazon for $15.99 USD shipped via primes 2 day shipping and was really surprised at how well it printed. Sadly it was the last roll they had and the seller does not expect anymore of the filament.

It's rare that I get any clogs so hopefully the 0.25mm nozzle doesn't give me any trouble although I've read quite a bit about issues with anything less then 0.4mm.

 

This is what I got too and I *LOVE* printing with this stuff. No more expensive than PLA and gives better results for me. I just wish it came in more colors and non-transparent. If they did, I would probably use it exclusively.

 

Answering my own questions again. I found these springs...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RF70VC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had to use a 60mm screw because of their length. I put a M5 washer on each end and found some M5 wing nuts at HomeDepot. I'll probably switch out the M5 washers for something with a larger diameter as the M5 washer is just a little bigger than the diameter of the spring.

For the pnematic connectors, I found these...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G96WRVY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Drilled the top of the extruder with a 3/16" drill, tapped the hole with a M5 tap, and threaded them right on. Tightened them finger tight and they are on pretty firm.

Also got my Mk8 gears and installed them so my extruders are done. Going to try printing up Carl's oiler and attach those after I get the spool holder I am printing finished.

 

I'm getting this dual extrusion thing dialed in. I now just need to get my heated bed hooked up so I can try some ABS/HIPS.

 

Layer alignment looks great in pic! Can't wait to finish mine.

 

For anyone using the corner brackets I posted, I found a small (0.25mm) error that I corrected. U probably won't notice it if u already printed the first version. It just makes the leg connection a little tighter than it should be on the 20mm side. Sorry for any inconvenience.

 

These replace the four bottom 5 bolt brackets? They look great I will have to give them a try when my PETG arrives later today. Hopefully they will help with my alignment.

 

For those of you doing the dual extruders, what electronics are you using and how do you have the two Z motors wired? From my research, you would need 6 drivers and the controllers I have seen come with 5 max. I know you can wire in a slave driver to provide the 6th one. Is this how you are doing it?

 

Got the eSUN PETG but so far haven't found the right settings for printing. I've tried using 230-255C, 100% cooling fan(on part), extrusion multipliers 0.95-1.1, layer heights 0.15-0.27mm and printing speeds from 20mm/sec to 40mm/sec. I have found that it tends to blob in the bolt hole circles and then spread that like jam making a mess and sometimes tends to string pretty bad leaving an almost black burnt looking flat string that I've never seen before with any other filament. I started with the E3D V5 clone as it's capable of handling over 240C and to be honest I'm scared to run my J-head over 225-230C for any long periods.

Still no show on on my genuine E3D Lite6. Looks like MatterHackers advertises shipping via Priority mail but actually sent my package via Express. Wishing I had ordered from Filastruder.com.

 

My Azteeg X5 has two connection points for the Z stepper as well but I can't recommend one. I have been looking for a second Smoothieware based board and found this one recently:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3D-p...le-with-Smoothieware-V1-0-32/32321983092.html

They recently raised price from $58 to $65 but even with shipping it's by far the cheapest fully loaded Smoothieware based board available.

 

The problem with hooking them in parallel is they could draw too much current from the driver. The driver is rated at two amps and the motors I am using require at least 1.2 amps to drive the bed. So parallel will not work for me.

I am using the 5 driver smoothieboard and have one driver running as a slave to the main Z axis drive. But that still leaves me one short. I'll probably hook a sixth driver up using some spare pins on the board and drive the second extruder with that. It's either that or find some one amp motors that will work.

 

I have been printing mine at 250c, 0.2 layer, and 5 shells top, bottom, and sides at 50% infill for the structural parts, no cooling, 70c bed temp with no problems. I am using a real E3D v6 hotend.

I have ordered all my hotends from Matterhackers and everything has come via priority mail. Express mail is the USPS over night service so it is even faster. Did they give you a tracking number?

 

I meant first class mail not express. Yeah they gave me a tracking: https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction!input.action?tLabels=9400110897700020312864

Normally my priority mail would have been here today(day 3) but the first class tracking will only update once the package is sent out for delivery. What really gets me is I paid a bit more vs Filastruder for the same parts simply because they offer same day shipping and listed priority as my shipping option. The only further information I can find was here:

https://www.matterhackers.com/about/free-as-in-shipping

 

I would email or call them and ask why. Where are you located? That link did say most, but not all, went priority.

 

I might email them just for future reference but seeing that the system is automated I'd have to contact them every time to make sure it was going out Priority. My free option listed "Priority" while I was placing the order so clearly it was supposed to ship via Priority. I'm in South Florida so first class usually takes 5-6 days from California.

 

I think u need to consider the duty cycle. U can use 2 Y motors or 2 X motors BUT they do it by using one of the extruder drivers (IE 2 drivers). The Z motor runs very slow and only one "step" at a time during printing. IMHO I don't think u would have an issue with that. I would google it and see if u can get other opinions from ppl who r doing that. I am running 3 screws with one Z via a belt.

I will tell u that what u cannot do is to try to drive the XY motors fast for any length of time. I fried 2 drivers (the A8825s) doing that. But it ran nice while it lasted. Fortunately they r cheap, unfortunately they come from China so I am in a holding pattern.

 

As I understand how stepper motors work, even when they are not moving, the full current the driver is set to is still being sent to the motor. This is how they generate the torque to hold the position. I had done some research about it so that is why I'm not hooking my motors in parallel. Was curious to see how others are doing it.