u/vgergo

Hey everyone!

Quick update on our M1D prototype. I know many of us are following the Kickstarter, so here’s a quick TL;DR of what I’ve learned after running a bunch of multi-material prints and troubleshooting some early prototype quirks:

• Zero Purge Waste: No poop, just a small prime tower. So it's just almost zero waste, but zero purge waste. Compared to my Bambu H2S on the exact same model, the M1D was 3x faster with 5x less material waste (though I might have messed up on that model printing it with bigger layer hight. Still the closeups and mechanics will be interesting). Someone suggested turning off prime tower for 2-tool idex prints. That's coming next.
• IDEX + Toolchanger Advantage: Printed a PETG lightbar with PLA supports. Because one head holds the base material while the carriage swaps tools, the entire 3-material print only needed ONE single tool change. And how those supports popped off!
• The Calibration Bug & Fix: My Dual X-stepper calibration kept causing T1 tool-grab crashes. The calibration measured a 39.13 rotation distance vs default 39.00. On my early prototype bed, that offset caused a ~1.4mm physical misalignment at T1! Forcing rotation distance back to 39.00 in the config fixed it completely (416 toolchanges with 0 crashes since).
• 7-Tool Redundancy: When T1 acted up during a 700-color Spider-Man print, I just remapped White PLA to one of the 2 spare tools in Orca, hit resume, and saved the print.
• Two Essential Slicer Fixes for PETG + PLA:
  1. Snapping Prime Towers: Enable "Tower interface features" so the PETG/PLA layers interlock.
  2. Warping/Bed Adhesion: Orca automatically heats the bed to 70°C for PETG support interfaces, which warps the PLA sitting on the bed. Manually force the PETG support material's bed temp down to 50°C in filament settings (there might be a better device level setting, still learning).
• Filamentree PLA Blaster: Got a bit of fine fluff/hairy stringing on this tough PLA (both on the M1D and on the H2S too). Someone suggested printing it at higher temperatures to eliminate that, so I'll be testing higher temps next!

The video has the print closeups, footage of the mid-print crash, and the camera firmware flashing process here:

https://youtu.be/w3iACo9yOcE

Drop any questions below, correct me too, please. And as always I am happy to dive into the configs or mechanics!

I hope it answers some of your remaining questions 😉 Keep the questions coming!

Per popular request we are comparing the build area of the M1D to some of our similar build volume printers, show you a full bed mesh with range below 0.25 on the full surface and talk about effective build size in various print modes. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/zQITakM_hbU

This is pre-release software. Expect a lot to change before release. Features added / removed, UI reordered. My aim is to show and document the current state. We are getting updates on a weekly basis at this stage.

For now I did the left, IDEX side. But I will make another short about the right toolchanger side, where the AFS is. I think both are pretty interesting!

https://youtu.be/SjOfg4RqbR0

Enjoy!

All is preficed by the fact that this is a pre-production unit, much can change until release. Some parts of this printer is 3D printed, which will surely be injection molded in mass production. Also this is a heavily used test device, you can tell from the nozzles and motion system. And the lables are still stickers. So treat this as a preview or teaser, no more.

Between testing and tuning I am working on more little videos like this...

Here is a non-short link: https://youtu.be/-lIytSGMY_Q

Keep the questions coming!

Width is 56.5 cm (22.2") plus about 3 cm (1.2") for the AFS unit on the right and 10 cm (4") for the spool holder on the left.

Depth: the printer itself is 56.5 cm (22.2") just like the width but we have the screen in its flattest state it is about 1 cm (0.4") and the AFS unit on the back (that will also include the PTFE tubes in the back) is 6 cm (2.4")

Height: Now, of course, the height is 62 cm (24.4") just measuring the device itself but you have to count the loops on the top and if we go to the tallest loop here we are going to see 96 cm (37.8")

I'd say leave about 100 cm (40") for the height of the printer.

And of course, you have to place the spool rack somewhere also.

The AFS unit could be placed anywhere but then you will have to replace the PTFE tubes.

I'll keep posting. Put your questions in the comments!

This 70g 7-color model used to take 26 hours to print on our single head filament changers, it took 6 hours on the M1D with 350g less waste. Ask questions for my next video.

I made all the mistakes 😉 Adventurous video in a day or two!

I recently got my hands on the Nano Pro 12W. It's our first blue diode galvo.

Here are my major takeaways after spending some time with it:

The Good:

• Speed & Precision: Engraving cork coasters and slate was incredibly fast and flawless compared to my gantry diodes.
• Portability/Handheld mode: This is the headline feature, so I tested it. I held it directly against the front of my wooden office desk, and engraved my logo into the furniture. Handholding it steady for 3 minutes was tough (a little ghosting happened), but the fact that it's even possible is pretty wild.
• Wi-Fi: This is well implemented by Longer. You can join it to your existing home network (STA mode) instead of losing your internet connection to use its AP mode.

The Bad & The Fixes:

• The Exhaust: Out of the box, the fan on the back just pumps smoke directly into your room. I designed a parametric adapter in FreeCAD to connect the shroud directly to an ACMER smoke purifier hose. (I’ve made the STLs free if anyone else needs them).
• Cutting Thick Materials: Because it’s a galvo, the laser beam hits the edges of the 100x100mm work area at an angle. I tried cutting 3mm plywood for an inlay, and the bottom of the cut ended up much wider than the top, making it impossible to fit without a gap. This is strictly an engraver, not a cutter.
• Safety Shroud: The dark red shroud makes the motorized focus assist a bit hard to use because you can't really see the red dots through it.

I made a full video covering the setup, the 3D printed exhaust fix, the LightBurn settings, and the handheld desk-engraving experiment if you want to see it in action: https://youtu.be/62LidZDOBaA

I know I am a bit late with the Duo being the new attraction, how does it compare to this? Who else got this Pro recently?

Hey everyone! Our next SV08 MAX upgrade video is premiering in less than an hour! ⏱️

This is on the much requested auto-refill setup using three BIQU Panda feeders. I also figured out how to power all three cleanly from the original buffer's CANBUS port.

We finally got to insulate the internals of the printer for high temp printing, and improved the LOAD/UNLOAD macros (for the time being they are not as automatic as Demon Klipper Essentials).

There is a lot more, join us in the live chat for the premiere shortly! 👇 https://youtu.be/AcxmdtjM0X0

Learn how to safely set up rotary attachments, smoke purifiers, and essential Lightburn hacks for your Acmer K1 and AlgoLaser Pixi.

A quick summary of the project for those who want the TL;DR:

My dad’s lab repair firm had a 20-year-old medical centrifuge with a cracked injection-molded rotor. The original part used to cost $600 and is now obsolete/extinct, so we reverse-engineered it in Fusion / FreeCAD.

• Level 1 (PLA): Printed a test-fit on the Sovol Zero and FLSUN S1 Pro. It failed. The bore hole was a fraction of a mm too tight (shrinkage is real!).
• Level 2 (ABS): Widened the CAD tolerances, added swing-out buckets, and printed in ABS on the Bambu H2S (vented outside, safety first!). Marked the test tube slots (1-12) using a MOPA fiber laser in Lightburn. It worked beautifully and passed the initial spin test, but FDM plastic is anisotropic and has layer-line weaknesses under constant high centrifugal force.
• Level 3 (SLM Aluminum): Bypassed plastic entirely and had the design 3D printed in solid aluminum via JustWay for just $122.

Lessons learned: Metal has zero flex. We had to do some post-processing (thread tapping and manual rotary tool grinding on the pivot slots) because the metal didn't forgive tight tolerances like plastic does. If I did it again, I’d add more clearance in CAD and hollow the design out more to reduce weight (the final metal piece is 316g vs 163g ABS).

In the end, the motor spun the aluminum at 2801 RPM (compared to 2831 RPM on ABS) without breaking a sweat. Happy to answer any questions about the tolerances, the SLM process, or the laser marking!