Mechanical Tool Swap system for the Creality Ender 3, it ROCKS!🤘

[@properprinting]

Hi guys! Last couple of weeks I’ve been working on this submission for the Modification Masters contest by Creality. Therefore, you haven’t heard much of me lately. At first, I wanted to submit a design I already made, but I thought it would be cooler to submit something that hasn’t been done before. Well, here it is and it works better than expected! Have a great day!

[@dmanero]

personally i would have gone with the foldable ender 3. there are ready a number of dual hot end printers, but as far as i know there not any foldable working printers. But hey great design though, curious though how long it took you start to finish for the concept.

[@domiblack2k182]

I think you did a wonderful job! The system is easy and charmed to realise. I like the way you did it! Very nice!

[@dagameface8181]

hasnt been done before isnt true, saw one of these back in 2016 except they had metal spring steel to cap the nozzel not in use to prevent ooze

[@toddcoello6461]

This is really cool. My question is if you don't have the means to add your own driver chip to a board what would be a good board to use?

[@DieMcSiedler]

I would be happy if he would do this also for anycubic chiron

[@CNCKitchen]

Great mechanism! Love it!

[@josiahp196]

Hey, that's awesome to see you commenting on this! Thank you for making great 3D Printing Content!

[@properprinting]

Thanks Stefan!

[@SirSpence99]

@@andygreyriderGRN Thank you for telling me who to never purchase from, spam is unwelcome.

[@ameliabuns4058]

@@andygreyriderGRN oh that? how is that a rip off of that? it's different. if you're saying that because it's also a tilting hotend setup well people have done this ages ago before. with that logic there'd be no innovation btw his way of doing it is 1000x better than makertech3d. they use servos that wear out faster and this is honestly designed far better

[@kefler187]

@@ameliabuns4058 He's the type of person who would have us driving on wooden wheels still just because it's already been done in some fashion or another. We'd also have no limited slip differential and everyone would be power sliding or fish tailing through wide turns :)

[@endthefighting]

I swear, you are the This Old Tony of 3D printing! Keep on keeping on! Your projects are inspiring as hell!

[@SirSpence99]

Not enough hands though.

[@scififan698]

Now the only thing we still need here is some time travel..

[@ashtonkeisermedia8461]

hahahahaha that’s the best comment i’ve seen !

[@gsdtdeaux7]

Yes!!

[@Wafu64]

On each end, you should add a filament wipe module to minimize excess stringing/oozing

[@francispoulizac8879]

You won the first price. Felicitations, keep your good work.

[@Hunterstoneking]

Your attention to detail in your editing skills is awesome! Love this!

[@properprinting]

Thank you!

[@DursunX]

i second that motion! loving the music

[@dimwitrj]

You never cease to amaze me with your ideas, this is pure genius!

[@marsgizmo]

nice project 🙂

[@properprinting]

Thanks Adrian!

[@birdpump]

halo Adrian

[@thedragonlizard]

I gotta say, despite the awesome mod, my favorite part was the seamless edit of you standing over the self assembling parts. Great job! I hope you win.

[@NiTecIndustries]

The clunk and the clicks switching toolheads back and foward is just as satisfiying as the all-mechanical gear shifting you hear and see in a Pagani Huyara back in it's initial days. Very cool concept!!

[@theclumsymaker781]

Very nice work. The big benefit of this is that there is a lot less loss of printing area. The much more common parallel design means you have to reduce your X-axis limits so that both extruders can cover the same area. And for those who don't want to lose a single square millimeter of space, they could add servos to the flip notches. Retracting them when you don't want to do an extruder swap.

[@jrodrigo1984]

Good implementation of the swivel tool change mechanism without using an extra motor or servo.

[@marcgalerabella273]

You are just a genius. All my admiration.

[@TheAnqueetas]

Thinking, that's what's missing these days. Proper Thinking. Inspiring others to think as well, I hope.

[@JonS]

Lovely work. I really admire someone who can do all this themselves. There’s someone in the UK who similarly has an IDEX mod for the Ender 3. He sells it as an upgrade kit. My understanding is that this pivoting nozzle technique is patented, which is why you don’t see this approach used much.

[@jeffmilkey]

Link to the upgrade kit?

[@AndrewAHayes]

That is just genius Jon, this deserves to win, I will follow the competition and hope to see you named as the winner!

[@properprinting]

Thanks Andrew! I'm very curious who the winners will be, such a cool contest!

[@Diemermakes]

I just got a ender 3 style printer and was brainstorming how a folding mechanism could work. Bravo 👏

[@dampdonkey2358]

Dude! What an ingenious idea and execution! As I realized what you had done, I couldn’t help but smile! Thank you for what you do for our community!

[@DaveEtchells]

*Very* clever engineering, I’m not surprised it won the prize!

[@jacekjagosz]

Now all it needs is brushes on either end of the X gantry to get rid of any drooping from the nozzles (like Design Prototype Test did) and it will be perfect.

[@properprinting]

That definitely is easier said than done. I thought the same, but there's almost no space for that since it goes to the left to select the right hotend and vice-versa. There are possibilities for sure and I'm going to implement something soon ;)

[@digital0785]

@@properprinting what about having a cap in front of the nozzle as well as having the retraction pull back when the extruder isn't in use?

Silicone wiper at the left and right limits, low enough not to be hit with the new nozzle before switching, but placed high enough so the nozzle is wiped on rotation. Both wipers placed with slight offset toward the bed.

[@martylawson1638]

Just park the inactive nozzle over a silicone pad. Totally stops oozing on my IDEX printer.

[@timmturner]

@@martylawson1638 Look at the design, that's not going to be easy.

[@rodsnyder6020]

This thing is huge! A lot of people tried this already but nobody so far did it as elegant as you did! Good job mate!

[@jmtissera]

Thanks for being crazy as you are in order to do these crazy things that we enjoy so much! Good luck in the contest, I am pretty sure you will get the 1st prize. Cheers!

[@hansdegeytere]

That’s a super clever idea ! I think the most difficult part of it is making sure that the offsets etc are on point, to have both nozzles printing at exactly the same position and height. And to keep it dialled in. Good luck with the competition !

[@properprinting]

This turns out to be pretty easy. Once the bed is leveled, with one hotend, the other hotend can be adjusted with an adjustment screw. The X and Y offsets can be done by printing the offset calibration prints after which the offset values can be set and stored on the printer itself :) As we say in the Netherlands: Child can do the laundry xD

[@hansdegeytere]

@@properprinting I watched the video again, indeed, very clever ! Now I understand as well how the rocking mechanism works : it rides up to the left/right tilter end to makes it tilt (hence the name « tilter end » I guess ;) ) Smart :p

[@waitwhat6142]

The best use for a dual extruded that I see is that multiple materials that have various properties can be printed at the same time, like for compliant mechanisms and soft robotics differing rigidity of materials in different places could improve their function

[@forbiddenera]

Yes definitely interested in seeing different materials printed for sure.

[@SchwaAlien]

I made the mistake of buying the cheapest dual extrusion unit I could find instead of modifying my existing half decent delta printer, could have really kitted it up with all the money I ended up having to spend buying and upgrading the Tevo Tarantula... pretty much everything that can go wrong with it went wrong and had to be replaced with more costly materials if I wanted to keep using it reliably. I printed the 2 color frog as one of my first prints on it, which it really struggled with since it kept jamming... Eventually I printed the similarly themed octopus in 2 different colors of glow in the dark filament and someone commented “nice rendering” on the photo of it because it looked so surreal! Good job on the mechanism by the way! One of the more annoying things that happens (I let it print the protective “shell” to avoid it) is ooze from the inactive extruder nozzle that wipes off on the print as the nozzle goes past the outer edges which your design addresses! 👍

[@Blue.4t2]

This is the most practical and ingenious method for dual extruder I've ever seen! Good luck on the contest, I hope you take first place! ⭐🙂👍

[@digital0785]

as someone whos been wanting to do dual nozzle on their ender .. this is awesome

[@christianmarkussen6412]

Great project. I love the KISS approach of switching the hotends without using a servo or similar.👍

[@MD-NWWI]

Now that is VERY creative!!! You are the Man and if creality is reading our comments. THIS GUY HAS MY VOTE!!!

[@lordkahtu96]

if you do not win we RIOT! great job as always Jon'. keep on kicking arse.

[@grahamserle7930]

Very clever. Our world is better for smart creative people like you. Well done.

[@derektoy4444]

You have some of the best content out there! I love getting to watch your new videos!

[@jorgea6025]

Wow!! This is innovating!! Out of all the other printing channels I follow this has to be the best when it comes to new and innovative ideas. Bravo!!

[@thelightspeed3d712]

Awesome. One suggestion... for the hotend that’s rolled out of the way. You need a metal plate for the nozzle to slide onto. That’s enough to eliminate the other hotend from leaking onto your prints. Teaching tech made his unused hotend where it rotated onto something similar to a feeler gauge that caps the nozzle

[@properprinting]

That's a great suggestion, thanks! There is not much space to put something like this, so it will be a bit challenging. But hey, this project on itself was a challenge on its own xD

[@Cassocian]

You are amazing sir. Thank you for another inspiring video and best wishes on your future endeavors.

[@kippie80]

A very clean and simple design that works. A definate winner! For oozing, how about a flat rocker plate in the x.y plane that flips in and out with the rest of the mechanism? it would be above the low nozzle and below the high nozzle.

[@Jynxx_13]

What a fascinating simple motion solution to dual nozzle printing. Very well done John!!!!

[@agepbiz]

Cool project!

[@properprinting]

Thanks Stian!

[@samhughes1747]

Dude! This is genius! From the thumbnail, I assumed there would be a little NEMA 14 motor or something to roll between extruders...except...you just roll it up the ramp! This is awesome!

[@properprinting]

Thanks Sam! I really appreciate your comment, this also tells that I can improve the thumbnail, thanks for that insight!

[@samhughes1747]

@@properprinting, nah, its not that it’s unclear, but rather I see something like that and I imagine the mechanism for it. But clearly, your idea was more inventive than my idea of what your idea might have been.

[@ericfabinger2083]

I don't know what was cooler. Seeing your idea coming to live and seeing it work or the glowing frog at the end.

[@ForSquirel]

Proper Printing: "Today we print in dual filaments on an Ender 3!" Me: "HeY ! I leVEleD my BEd!"

[@soheylamohtadi484]

Hi There I am one you many fans and I am very happy for you to have won the contest. That apart I have noticed that Creality V2.2.1 Motherboard has 2-Z axis drivers and 2 extruder drivers too, try this one and probably improve you design, I do not pretend to know this Board but I have used it to make my own Dual extruder 3D printer. Same principle as yours with the some differences one is that there are no Firmware modifications involved, my approach can be applied to your design, quite easy actually. Cheers and bravo. Siamak

[@ItalianRetroGuy]

I love how you manage to make videos of probably days worth of work, in a digestible 15 minutes format

[@dechrysen]

You could incorporate some brushes onto each side so that at every toolswap you could do a retract of the filament and wipe the nozzle. So you maybe wouldn’t need a ozzshield.

[@TimoBirnschein]

Extremely smart design! I love it! Add a little stainless steel ooze shield to the nozzle when not in use to prevent the nozzle from oozing in the first place

[@ClarissaFrazier]

this was so freaking amazing to watch, my husband and i were in awe, amazing man

[@bobbunni8722]

I haven't seen anyone with more unique original ender mods than you! You've already earned it. Good luck!

[@SkansgardCNC]

For my tool-changer printer I user start- and end-gcode scripts in cura to park and pick up the correct hotend. Backside of this is that it doesn't park the last tool used itself, so I always have to manually put the tool back on the correct holder before starting a new print.

[@MartinPaoloni]

Once again I'm amazed at your talent, knowledge and perseverance! 👏 👏 👏

[@HeimoVN]

That tool head design is a work of genius...

[@lethe665]

This is really really unbelievable. Very good project. There are still 3d printing KZbinrs shows how to level the bed. I think this video change the top to far away 🤪 this raised the bar 😂 thanks

[@kaytrim]

This is a very cool design. Thank you for sharing the journey with us.

[@wolfgott]

Congrats Proper Printing, you've developed a wonderful project, wish you lucky buddy.

[@ahaveland]

Quite remarkable and creative innovation! Would get my vote for the contest!

[@KnooBill]

You are multitalented, congratulations and best of luck in the competition. I can't remember how I discovered the channel about 5 months ago, your quality is worth many more views and subscribers.

[@properprinting]

Thank you! Often it's quite hard to film everything properly so it looks good and delivers the whole message. I'm glad you like the quality!

[@lukasduday8855]

As Always the most impressing Projects come from your Channel! I hope you'll win this, this is epic

[@minineves99]

Congrats on the win of the Annual Chief Modification Master Title!!!

[@ameliabuns4058]

Niiiiiiiiice! SHOW US MOORE i love this! I wanna see the repeatability and more prints!

[@I.no.ah.guy57]

Dude this is so sick, such a simple idea and a great implementation. And it switches so nice and quick 😩 can't wait to see more!

[@sikend6674]

ive got an old CR-X and a DUET board that says i can make it print 4 color.... fantastic design! cant wait to give this one a go and see where the limits are! also would love to see a fixed metal ooze shield for each nozzle so you can completely eliminate the need for throw away ooze shields or purge towers.

[@masonbattaglia7123]

Very clever design! If you sneak in some ooze control this thing would be perfect! It would require some sort of PCB but you could also use the micro switch to change what stepper you are powering so you can use the stock board

[@jchristensen2022]

That head changing mechanism is absolutely brilliant! I'll give it a go.

[@properprinting]

Awesome, thanks! Please let me know how it turns out :D

[@protadec]

This is very cool. An amazing thing would be to have it be able to host different hotends

[@BrownstoneAruba]

What an awesome design and engineering. I wish you tons of luck in winning the contest!!!! De Groeten!

[@bipolarchemist]

You have my vote. Nice work and happy to see you got it done. 🤞🏾 this isn't cloned with acknowledging the time and effort you've put into getting all of this working.

[@bobybobe2]

This is so satisfying *.* Cool project, good production and excellent result ! I wish you luck for the contest ;)

[@DaftDude]

Amazing design I really hope you win. Your channel is just on another level regarding design, ideas and video production. Just awesome!

[@alainlaporte6824]

Fantastic idea and beautiful realization! I hope you will win the contest.

[@AllanElkaim]

Amazing project! I'm amazed by the simplify of the mechanism, no extra motors or electronics involved! I hope you'll win the grand prize ! :)

[@properprinting]

Thanks Allan! It's nice that the X motor and gantry have a double function now :)

[@jeffreyhen4508]

What would be awesome is to add like an extra 2 extruders behind the 2 you have currently on it so that way there would be four and it would only require a Y offset. To counteract the lost space from this you could even extend the ender 3's bed rail travel.

[@arie1293]

What a great project! I love that your design is budget friendly which falls perfectly in line with the Ender 3.

[@matslundberg1289]

Make it a rotating plate instead. Then you can have dual extraction, laser and maybe a cutter? Cool stuff and thank you for the inspiration. I know the extruder feed is an issue but you can have laser on one side and other tool on other side of hotends so movement will be minimal.

[@martylawson1638]

On my IDEX printer I park each head over a silicone pad. 1-2 pounds of force pushing the pad into the nozzle is enough to totally stop oozing. When I had a teflon lined hotend I also found I needed 4-5mm of extra un-retraction after a tool change before the new nozzle would start printing. If you dial it in right, you can do this purge right on the part and it's almost invisible. Finally, have to use Prusa Slicer to get retraction and z-hop in the right order for tool changes. Eventually I'm planning to upgrade that printer to firmware retraction and try Cura again.

[@001snapshot]

Once again..BRILLIANT idea...patent the design before printer makers copy it.

[@timmturner]

I hope you win, this is quite a feat of determination and I would like to see this come to fruition. Great work!

[@PLGuerra]

Very nice 👌🏼. Should considering getting a duet wifi board. It makes prototyping printers so much easier and quicker.

[@herllraiser6662]

You are some clever bloke.. hats off to you.. all i do is try and make my copymaster work.. well done and hope you win..

[@enriquefuentesc]

Incredible man, great job. Let us know if this contest is votes based, I'll vote for you! The system looks very cool!

[@MakenModify]

Really great toolchanger 👍 once had built a similar one with a ball pen style mechanism. I love when tool changers work without an extra motor. Big thumb up for your design!

[@jress6778]

Доброго. Каждое видео потрясает великолепием:как голова и руки делают такие супер проекты. Супер. Спасибо за труд. Удачи. Санкт-Петербург.

[@TDsteve86]

This is unbelievably clever! Bravo!

[@imst4722]

this is great! I would have loved to see dual extrusion using only one stepper driver and switching which side is pushing filament.

[@matushonko7223]

here's an idea: couple it with a 3d chameleon-style extruder switching, you wont need to modify the board- just add a buton to the x rail which switches the connection from the board between the extruders

[@Ryxxi_makes]

How can peasants like me compete against something so amazing as this haha

[@bluephreakr]

Do it, except with a dual orbiter DD setup?

[@soundmindtv2911]

Awesome work! Love the walk through some of the struggles. Its so satisfying when a vision like this comes together and functions as you wanted it to! And thanks for sharing the files!

[@addict3d69]

You are a genius man, love your videos.

[@elburts1]

As in all you do, fantastic job! Congratulations!!! Hope you win, definitely deserve it. Again, congratulations and keep going onwards..

[@jeffdughman9741]

man way to do it right, great job, this is super awesome,wish most folks gave this much effort!

[@MrCPPG]

Yes, i am very interested in how to print those materials as well as a run down of their physical characteristics. Thanks.

[@KernsJW]

As always, you keep pushing the bar higher and higher

[@neil2153]

Have been following you from when you were at 3k sub's and seems like the ideas are just getting crazier as you progress. This is a superb idea, amazing implementation and you make troubleshooting look so smooth. It just looks so cool in action. From the initial days when you didn't have a dslr to now where your production is amazing, it's just awesome to see. Keep going man I know you will achieve a million subs this year.

[@lucasvandelogt5126]

WOW! You absolutely nailed it again!!! Very cool project

[@powersv2]

The firmware error beep then SIGH 😂🤣 the nozzle switcher is super cool. Legitimately said “whoooaaa”.

[@colsoyeti1]

Good luck and fingers crossed, today is the final selection day!

[@properprinting]

I won! It's unreal twitter.com/properprinting/status/1380455103321214977 I'm going to post a community update soon!

[@JJFX-]

You should easily have at least 100k subs by now.... Incredible work man, best of luck!

[@davidblomdahl5518]

Holy shit, this guy knows what's going ON when it comes to 3D printers and mods. Sub'd. When my company goes to scale or I hit the lottery he's the first guy I'm hiring. Thank god for silicon valley money rounds. (I plan on paying people what they are worth and this guy won't be cheap but will be worth it.)

[@alexanderunguez9633]

I like this idea. I'd love to have a duel extruder setup that doesn't severely limit my print area. I'd like to see a version that uses smaller heat-ends next!

[@colsoyeti1]

Wow and amazing, you always think outside the box and your inventions are very well thought out and very functional. You inspire where inspiration sometimes seems impossible. Thanks and good luck.

[@4thfrom7]

The pose at about 8:30 is me like half the day when I'm trying to figure out what went wrong with my printer this time. 😂

[@properprinting]

Haha😆