Hi Jason,
At 2018-12-12Wed08:00:22+00, Jason Flynn G7OCD sent:
Our local makerspace is a bit of a graveyard for 3DPs including a couple of original RepRap Mendels and some other obscure stuff. None of them are totally broken but most of them are unreliable and inconsistent.
We haven't got the space or resources to be a graveyard of low-quality machines that aren't quite good enough for any job. As resin printing is not appropriate for the workshops, I was arguing for the better quality of the filament quality spectrum instead of seeking nonessential features such as multiheadedness or large build volume. I.e. the best quality that's not resin. I now understand that multiheadedness inherently decreases stability and speed by having more moving mass, and that at least 2 single-headed multifilament techniques are viable: multichromatic filament; and Bowden feed Y-joiners. So now my thoughts are along the lines of 2 high-quality Huxleys, and 4 of those Y-joiners (we could print those ourselves), giving the ability to print from 6 filaments simultaneously (3 and 3; 4 and 2; or 5 and 1) at the workshops.
Regardless of whether the underlying designs are open or not we have found that there is a correlation between the price and reliability.
I'm only willing to support an OSH design, partly because I want to be able to experiment with the design and give feedback. What sorts of variations of reliability are there in the nonprinted parts?
If all your members are happy to spend time fiddling to get good results then 3 machines could be a good option to get throughput. However, our makerspace has many members who are "makers" not "tool improvers" and therefore we find a queue for the best machine rather than people spending time fiddling around with the poorer machines.
I am a tool improver and believe that: A bad worker only blames their tools; a good worker also improves them. Nonetheless, after exerting effort to tediously tinker with settings and whatnot, I want top results, and I want repeatability such that I can share those top results with others. Others will most likely want good results with much less effort, so Andy, please take note.
The Hux is clearly a good machine so I'm not trying to put you off, I'm just describing our experience. Sorry it's doesn't really answer your question :)
What is your experience with nozzles narrower than 0.4mm? I'd like to try 0.2mm or 0.1mm if they exist. Has anyone tried putting multiple extruders with different nozzle diameters on the same machine? This would allow 2 filaments, as well as 2 resolutions/speeds.
I could help print some Hux PLA parts if you want.
Thank you also for the offer but at least 3 of us are pretty competent with PLA and should be able to print the printable parts ourselves.
Best regards, James R. Haigh.