Separate wipe tower for different material or print perimeter first on wipe tower
I am trying to do a PLA print with organic PETG support. I tried to do without wipe tower but the results were not good as the un-primed nozzle made the organic support unstable and collapsed mid-print. So I switched back to having the wipe tower. Then the issue because loose pieces of PETG detaching from the wipe tower and get dragged to the print. This usually happens when a layer is having the PETG nozzle wiping on top of a layer of PLA in the wipe tower. Those wiped PETG does not have anything to stick to as the perimeter of the wipe tower is printed last for that layer, although I have already forced the printer to print the perimeter of the wipe tower in PETG.
Other support option does not work for my print as my overhang is not above the build plate. There is no chance for the PETG to stick on a PLA solid surface to build the support on it. I am making use of the branching from the organic support so that I can rest the PETG support footing on the build plate.
My questions are:
1) Is there a way to separate the wipe tower for the two materials?
2) is there a way to have the printer print the wipe tower perimeter first before fill in the wipe tower with the wipe?
RE: Separate wipe tower for different material or print perimeter first on wipe tower
Print Settings>Multiple extruders>Extruders>Wipe tower extruder
Set it to the extruder using PLA and it will print the extruder perimeter with PLA
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: Separate wipe tower for different material or print perimeter first on wipe tower
Thanks for the suggestion but it doesn’t work. I tried your suggestion before setting the wipe tower perimeter in PETG.
As I am using the PETG as support, most of the interior of the wipe tower would be in PLA as I used a few nozzles for individual PLA colors. I have no problem getting the PLA to stick with the mostly PLA wipe tower. Having the perimeter done in PLa would just make the PETG with even less PETG to stick to and it just make the issue worse.
RE: Separate wipe tower for different material or print perimeter first on wipe tower
Maybe this Knowledge Base post will help. https://help.prusa3d.com/article/combining-materials-xl_498103
I ran across this a couple days ago and haven't had time to check it out yet. It explains the entire process in detail.
RE: Separate wipe tower for different material or print perimeter first on wipe tower
Just add 2 more objects, cylinders for example, to the print, set one to be printed by the PLA tool head and the other the PETG tool head, once they've been added, drag and drop the main part below them in the parts list of the RH sidebar, so that the sacrificial parts are printed first, thus priming each extruder before they get to the main part. You can then adjust the size of the sacrificial parts/number of perimeters etc to change the amount that is purged; I find it best to use 3 perimeters, no infill and no top or bottom layers. but use a brim to provide bed adhesion.