Dual Extruder: Can this be produced cleanly?

General LulzBot TAZ
1

I’m buying the Taz 5, what I’m trying to decide is if it’s worth getting the dual extruder option? I need to be able to print something like this, where the text is visible on the surface, and the surface is as smooth as possible (I was happy with the results of .15 when I printed the block itself with no text, and the block was oriented 90* to what is shown).

Does anyone have something similar they could show me that they’ve printed with the dual extruder? Also, if possible could someone take the stl files for this and give me a rough idea of how long it would take to print using the default settings for ABS? I’m pretty sure the quality might be better if it’s printed 90* to the way I displayed it based on some other test printing I did … but I’m definitely not sure of that (and I’m no expert).

Outer Block: http://www.keithsine.com/3D/Block-White.stl
Inner Text: http://www.keithsine.com/3D/Text-Red.stl
Original Sketchup File: http://www.keithsine.com/3D/SamplePlate.skp

Thank you for any support and information you can share, will help with the purchasing decision :slight_smile: - Keith

2

One thing to keep in mind is that the dual extruder uses the Budaschnozzle and the Taz 5 uses the newer hexagon hot end. That being said with enough time calibrating this piece it should come out nicely. However your best option, my personal opinion. Is to just print the two parts separately and get the tolerances really close. Then you can use glue or an acetone mix to attach the two pieces. Then you can just sand down the surface to make it look like 1 piece.