thanks for the advice!

looking at prints that the kraken had done, i had noticed drips but had assumed that was due to it being setup incorrectly. thanks. however, i cannot do what you suggested either, as it has to "clean" the nozzle when changing colors, and sometimes doing this can cause the same kinda problems with the kraken (color mixes/drips), or so the reasearch i did told me, correct me if i'm wrong and with your own experiences.

knowing that neither solution was "good enough" for me, i decided to find the elusive third option: the tool changing head assembly. I've only seen this done once, so if anyone else has examples please feel free to share.

pic 1.jpgpic 2.jpgpic 3.jpg

the design i came up with is pictured above. on the left is the complete assembly, and on the right is where the extruders mount (backside pictured first, then the front where the extruder mounts). for some scale the mount is 2" wide, the linear rails and leadscrew 400mm long/ 8mm dia, and the red toolholder is 10" in diameter.

this design has the capability of holding 8!! independent heads, and the above pictured uses 8x sg90 servomotors, 1x nema 23 (center of wheel), and 2x nema 17 steppers.

the theory is that on the side opposite of the red wheel is the head, so the selector selects the head, clamps on, rotates 180", and then goes up to the head and mounts it. hope thats clear, its kinda hard to describe.

pic 4.jpgpic 5.jpg
the red toolholder rotates in a bearing within bearing design.

look up mpcnc automatic tool changer on youtube to see a similar design. id post a link but it still wont let me

for the 8 extruders, im thinking about going with the NF W-01 watercooled extruder. its watercooled and looks sleak, but ive found no information online about that model. is it a good one? and suggestions for different ones?

with this design (correct me if im totally wrong), there is no way that ill be able to control this with a "cheep" controller like the skr, and will need to invest in the duet with the duex expansion, but that price! i kinda want to buy the legit mainboard, but does anyone know of a good clone of the duex 5 (or even the mainboard)? spending that much on an expansion board is not really what i want to do.

my same question about design still stands though: Being new to 3d printer design, does my design look correct? Are there any problems you see, or things I could improve whilst still in the design phase? any knowledge you've gathered from your own attempt?

before i put more detail i want to make sure the "bones" of the design are correct. i will design the rest of the model for this toolchanger, and mount it to the frame once ive heard peolpes opinion on it, so if there is a problem or better solution out there, i wont have put to terribly much time into this design.

If anyone needs further clarification on my design or more pictures, feel free to ask!

this tool changer will come later after i built the physical machine already, but a want to make sure the frame can accommodate it first.

Here is a link to my design files (both stl and creo assembly): it wont let me post a link sorry message me for it?


THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP SO FAR!