I'm interested to see how that metrol switch works out for you Ian. I took your dove tail idea and incorporated it into my hotend mount. I downloaded the CAD file for the switch and added it to my file. I like your idea for the E3D Cyclops mount. Small compact to give me maximum XY travel.
Very nice setup Ian…I plan to use a similar overhead gantry for the extruders on my machine. The length of drag line cables on yours confirms what I thought would be about right for mine.... Keep posting, I enjoy your blog too.
How much Z movement is the slider assembly experiencing Ian? Also, how is the Metrol switch working out?
If the gantry is sufficiently flexible (as any large enough gantry is sure to be), then you could extend the technique I suggested to 4 independent motors.
Ok, good to know…thanks. I'm thinking I will want to home the Z carriage at the top of travel on power up or power loss to prevent crashing into anything on the print bed. Then follow your instructions to probe the bed and 4 corners to level the carriage before beginning a print. Sorry if this is basic stuff to most of you but this will be the first attempt at initializing a printer build for me. Thanks.
In the case of my large H-bot, I have a fixed bed with the XYZ carriage suspended on 8mm lead screws at 4 corner posts. I originally planned to use a belt drive for multiple screws but adapting 4 motors to the 4 screws is a much simpler overall design given the ability to sync all four motors at power up as DC42 described a while back. In a 4 motor example where the Z carriage is relatively level to begin with, leveling two adjacent corners at each narrow end of the carriage rectangle, and then leveling the carriage end to end along the long dimension seems to me as the simplest case. Will that be practically doable?
I'm interested to see how that metrol switch works out for you Ian. I took your dove tail idea and incorporated it into my hotend mount. I downloaded the CAD file for the switch and added it to my file. I like your idea for the E3D Cyclops mount. Small compact to give me maximum XY travel.
5, 4, 9, 7, 13 My four new Z motors arrived so I'll soon be ready to implement #5.
Please keep in mind the 4 motor Z axis upgrade DC….thanks.
Hi Ian….I had a similar idea for the hot end mount for my machine. I added an adjustment screw to fine tune the tip offset from the bed. I just used a U shape slot to slide the hotend mount into with threaded brass inserts for the screws.
I ordered the Y splitter component from this site some weeks ago but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm interested to see how it will work.
Thanks Ian…I think I understand the concept. So at the advanced tool change, the current color filament is retracted and the new color filament begins to push to the nozzle end, all the while continuing to eject the old color until it if fully expelled at the desired point in the print. Your calculations of the volumetric characteristics of your hot end of choice determines how far in advance the tool change is positioned in the gcode ahead of the slicer generated position. How are you effecting replacement of the gcode tool changes? Manually or through a programming script of some kind? If code, how do you apply that to the slicer generated file? Thanks...Terry.