Hey! I am thinking of buying an X2D, and one of the concerns for me is that I will never use the AUX nozzle because I will have to go and manually switch everything. While this isn’t such a big deal, it would be nice to have it connected to an AMS, but I don’t want to buy a second one. Can I have 1 AMS 2 Pro connected to both the nozzles at once? If I had filaments ABCD in my AMS 2 Pro, would I be able to print filaments AB from one nozzle and filaments CD from another? Also, would this be dumb because it wouldn’t provide benefit over just using an AMS 2 Pro for one nozzle? I am really confused about the AMS situation and the add ons that are available to change this. Can someone please explain what I can and can’t do with the X2D and one AMS 2 Pro (also any other random accessories that are under 75 dollars like PTFE tubes and such). Thank you!
this is one of the reasons why they moade the fillamanet track switch
so your ams os not bound to a single nozzle
Yes, you can run one AMS with a track switch and both nozzles. This is how mine is set up now.
However I don’t know how much benefit, if any, this provides over a P2S. I think ideally you would need an AMS and AMS HT or 2x AMS.
With one AMS only, it will fully retract and then re prime each nozzle for each switch, in which case you may as well just use a single nozzle printer???
I used two AMS temporarily and when running a multi material print, it will keep both nozzles loaded and switch back and forth quickly. Seemed ideal.
One other option is to have an AMS for the main nozzle and manually feed a spool from the spool holder on the side of the machine or a dryer unit into the aux nozzle, like PLA or support material or a fixed 2nd color. But then there is no point of the track switch, and infact you can not have it connected and manually feed a spool to either nozzle.
Hopefully others chime in because I’m also trying to figure out how to best utilize it. I think I will probably buy an AMS HT or AMS2 soon to have two units total.
Forgive me if I am missing the point but buying the FTS would be cheaper than 1 x AMS pro + HT but you lose out over the changing times (i.e. quicker print if AUX loaded)
I ran one of our prints that takes 6 hrs on an X1C but only 4hrs on an X2D due to the 71 filament changes. ( and no we could not change the design. LOl)
So an AMS + HT would be highly beneficial longer term (or 2 x Ams) and you would have another drier.
As @mbrick advised you might as well have a single nozzle.
Ok thanks! So I am thinking that I will just buy the TPU module for the AUX nozzle and and the AMS 2 Pro for the main nozzle. Thank you!
Do you mean you would like to print TPU with the Aux nozzle? Unfortunately it is not compatible with the bowden extruder and needs to run with the direct drive (left main nozzle).
Have a look at this detailed filament compatibility page:
Hook the AMS to left nozzle, Hang a roll of support filament on right nozzle, and forget it exists till you need supports.
It’s a little messier, slower, and less reliable, dont try to use it as a true peer extruder. It’s there to be a clean nozzle through which to put a mismatched material type, so you dont have to sit there purging 1500 mm3
I’ve owned an X2D for about a week, so maybe my perspective would help.
I thought that having to manually switch filaments for the right extruder would be annoying too. But now that I’ve done it a few times, swapping two rolls of filament between the AMS and the external spool is about a three- or four-minute job. Not a big deal at all.
The usefulness of the right extruder is bound to vary depending on what you’re printing, of course. At the moment, I’m printing lots of shelf tags, which means that all the print jobs have relatively small amounts of white or black in them (the text color). That winds up being a pretty ideal use case, because I can load up some white filament on the external spool, print a bunch of tags that use white label text, then switch to black filament on the external spool and print a bunch of tags that use dark text. And I can already tell it’ll be useful for printing the support material for jobs that need support.