Hi, I have similar questions about flexystruder, here are official answers from lulzbot sales representative :
Do you mean the flexystruder is only for flexible filament, and I have to switch with the original extruder each time I change filament type ?
The flexystruder is designed to handle only flexible materials and you’ll have to swap back to the stock extruder if you want to print with stiff materials.
There is currently no FDM 3D printer that has a stock nozzle that can handle both.
I saw a great thing with it is to print different filament type (abs/hips for complex model support, or abs/flex for wheel). Does the dual flexystruder support those combinations, or simply 2 different colors of pla or abs ?
We have two dual extruders the Dual Extruder and the Flexy Dually. Unfortunately the version 1 is currently out of stock while we are just about to start assembly of version 2, which should become available within a few weeks.
The Dual Extruder will handle either 2 different colors of the same stiff material or 2 totally different stiff materials (all the same materials as your stock extruder: ABS, PLA, HIPS, nylons, T-Glase, metal infused, wood infused, polycarbonate etc).
The Flexy Dually will hand 1 type of flexible with 1 type of stiff material. You could do something like a bike handle make of polycarbonate wrapped with a ninjaflex grip.
**I think the day I will upgrade, I’ll choose dual flexystruder, like that I could print :
- ‘solid’ filament
- flexible filament
- dual solid and flexible filament
The only thing I’ll can’t do is dual solid filament, or I’ll have to buy both dual extruder… right ?**
Ya you can use the extruders by themselves if you get a Flexy Dually. That’ll give you the most versatility. And correct, you’ll still be unable to do two stiff materials.
And what about the future TAZ 6, will it support solid and flexible filament, built-in ?
It’s unlikely the TAZ will have that difference but you can follow its development here: > Index of /TAZ/Mangrove > [1] [1]/
The TAZ 6 or ‘TAZ Pro’ which may be its name is internally called the Mangrove.
The big change will be the bed leveling and bringing the power supply into the electronics box. We’ll provide upgrade kits for a TAZ 5 so you don’t need to wait.
The capability to print stiff and flexible material with the same head is really a missing feature, I hope you will do a
‘universal’ extruder some day, it would be amazing.
Oh I agree. I think if there was an extruder we could make we would. Remember, because it’s all open source everyone with a 3D
printer can use our files as blueprints to develop new extruders. The dual extruder was a customer’s design! Hopefully someone will figure it out how to deal with both.
Hope it can help !
