FT-5 Dual E3D V6 Bowden Gantry

thingiverse

Here's my take on a dual extruders for my FolgerTech FT-5. The Gantry itself is pretty straightforward. Two E3D V6 heat sink mounts are 25mm apart, recessed and rounded posts hold the GT2 belt in place, sunken nut captures secure everything around. I put some extra work into designing a cooling fan attachment that fits two standard 40mm fans perfectly. It's got fairly effective part cooler vents too. I also modelled a 'hat' that fits on top for securing cables neatly. No cable chain needed, but the screw holes should match just fine. Some notes to keep in mind: Head alignment can be super tricky. The gantry has the heat sinks exactly 25mm apart on the X axis and no delta on the Y, which can throw it off by a mm or two depending on your heatsinks' shapes (originals or clones) and how you torqued the screws. I was at 26x3 offsets for my test prints. Z alignment can be even more finicky. I originally shimmed each bolt with washers but that wasn't precise enough, so I tried using pieces of card but that was a huge pain. What worked best in the end was putting two layers of felt between the gantry and the slider then torqueing them down all the way. Loosen the lower under until they line up perfectly. I ended up using two different clones and two different extruders (a Titan and a direct) so I had to tweak and tune a LOT just to get passable prints. That wasn't due to the gantry though - everything seemed solid, but Cura and Simplify 3D drove me crazy! I'm moving dual extrusion to my i3 and keeping the FT-5 as a high-speed, high-temp workhorse. Don't expect many more improvements from this design, but I'd be happy to provide the steps if someone wanted to make some tweaks. I top mounted the filament spools and motors. The motor mounts are actually an existing thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1357814. I created extra tall and solid arms to hold the spools on a 5/16 threaded rod, along with some washers for 5/16 nuts as well.