Hi all.  I have a Prusa i3 I made myself at a maker fair

3D Printing
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Hi all. I have a Prusa i3 I made myself at a maker fair with some help. It has been out of use due to a constant clog. I have replaced the tubing to the nozzle and am starting calibrations to start up the factory. Does anyone have recommendations on upgrading to dual extruders on the same printer? Is this recommended when it is my only printer or should I invest in another one? (space is more of a limiting factor than money, but I would keep it to a reprap design self-assembled). Suggestions?

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Thanks. I know that i have the board for it. I am not sure which but one in my “class” at the fair made dual and didn’t need a differentt board. I guess i am worried about reliability on do it yourself upgrading since i am not a pro and from the technical perspective upgrading software. Im confident i can do the wiring so long as i find the right parts recommendations online to fit my model for a chassis for dual extruders. What changes do i need there and how difficult is gcode for dual extruders to work? Dual color i would try but i am really doing it for function e.g. Flex or dissolve-support uses.

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As for multi extruder printing, I think you can use the second extruder for support in the pay version of kiss slicer. Not sure about slic3r.

I use a maker bot at work so I use maker ware. I need to create separate objects for each color and just lay them in the print area as appropriate. It’s a bit of a pain, so I generally don’t use 2 extruders. I just have 2 extruders mainly as a backup so we don’t have down time when we get a clog

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Thanks for the help. I definitely have arduino and RAMPS but i could not tell you the name of my extruder. I know I need the motor for extrusion and am not worried about the work so much as finding the right parts and the right code. I use slicr and prontrface now and i am sure i can find my extruder searching through a few more pictures. What is the best source for the .stl files to build a new chassis to hold dual extruders?

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I posted again for help, researching the name/details of my hot/cold end after some work this weekend. I am still trying to get what I have working smoothly before I move onto dual, I was just expecting what I have already done to have fixed the problem which it hasn’t. Patience is a virtue…