I've been grinding out parts on a refurb E5P for a few years now, but have always wanted to be able to run multi-filament, particularly for water soluble support material so I have more flexibility in how I design parts. It would also be nice to be able to mix rigid filament with TPU... or maybe the occasional multi-color thing, but that's not really an interest.
What are some design considerations?
- Must be an improvement on flow rate over my current setup.
- Symmetrical tool heads for simplicity - I'll use the same parts, hotend, etc on both toolheads.
- Re-using the existing gantry tube, but the current hotend setup won't work. I'll move it to another machine.
- Add linear rails for the Y axis and probably split out the y motor to one for each corner (dual drive).
- Using Hybrid Core XY for the toolheads so the steppers can sit on the corners by the Y axis motor.
- Need to figure out what to use for bed leveling. Thinking about the voron tap setup.
- Also need to settle on the toolhead... I was thinking about a standard Stealthburner setup, but I've been seeing these integrated units that look really good:
- LDO Smart Orbiter v3.0 - Revo Edition - this comes with an HF revo hotend and 60w heater, and looks like a nice compact package.
- Down the road, I'd like to do a 3-motor bed leveling setup like hydra.
- Considerations for enclosing the build chamber for better abs, etc, support. That's one of the nice features of the proper voron machines. If I put the gantry below the top rails, it'll be easier to put a top on the box, but still need to leave the sides open for the gantry belts and stuff, depending on how I rig it up.
Is it cost effective reworking a machine like the E5P vs building something like a Tridex? I think so, but I'm still running the numbers.
- $200 per toolhead
- $150 for linear rails
- I already have extra steppers and wiring, 9mm belt, and pulleys.
- Misc hardware will add up.
- CAD time
- Hydra bet setup is like $400
- Lexan side panels ??
An equivalent tridex would be
- $900 for a formbot 350mm trident kit with hv revo hotend parts
- $200 for a second hotend parts
- Misc hardware to go the tridex route.
If I don't do the hydra print bed thing, then I'm way ahead modding my machine, but I'd arguably have a lot nicer machine going the tridex route. Huh.
