Dual Extruder discussion

[kilroyo]

Anyone have any thoughts on dual extruders. I would love to have them for the SeeMeCNC but havent even explored the idea due to Slic3r not having support for dual extruders. But someone posted about Kisslicer and it does support them. I been mulling it over. Just wondering if any you guys have any thoughts on how you would do it. I'm always looking at ways to improve my printer, not that it doesn't print great now, but its like putting a new performance intake on your hotrod, except for i'm much older now and marriaged and my wife would think im having a midlife crisis. So the 3d printer it is.

[michaellatif]

Hey Kilroyo,

I would like to see a design for a dual extruder as well. I like the compact design of the MakerBot's dual extruder.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-nXMtfiMyo[/youtube]

[Polygonhell]

The Bits and Bytes dual extruder looks like one of the better designs to me, though I'd seriously consider Bowden style configurations if going that way.
I think the bigger issues would be

setup - leveling both extruders
ooze - from the not running extruder dripping on the print and causing a filament void when it restarts, but retraction might address that
dragging the second print head over the print

I'm also not sure there is any slicing software that will currently use a second printhead for anything except support material.

Hoss started doing this, but either seems to have lost interest, or ran into some sort of issue.

[Phoenix]

YouTube has a couple of great videos for a multi-extruder that uses two stepper motors, one to drive the feed roller, and the other to operate a cam that applies pressure to the selected filament against the feed roller. I think it's a great design, and I'm not sure but mach3s auto tool change might be able to operate the selector motor.