The Duplicator Two is our first dedicated 1.75 mm filament extruder. This extruder was designed from scratch, and contains a number of custom manufactured parts. We’ve learned a lot over our past extruder designs, and incorporated a lot of those lessons here: that’s why it’s smaller, lighter, and faster to build. And since it’s designed from the ground up for 1.75 mm filament, it’s light-years ahead of past designs in small-filament reliability.

 

The layer alignment is much better which results in nicer prints and higher resolution.

We’ve completely overhauled the drive system to give the optimum positioning accuracy. The entire system has been upgraded to sturdy 3/8″ diameter linear shafting. This is probably overkill, but you can trust that the axes will be sturdy. We’ve also switched to self-aligning, sintered brass bearings. These are very forgiving to DIY assembly and provide a nice, smooth motion on the steel shafts. We’ve completely replaced the Z axis with a stepper driven, cantilevered stage. Guided by two of the linear shafts, this completely eliminates any Z wobble and results in nicely aligned layers. Using a high-angle lead screw, we were able to increase the speed of the Z axis from 150mm/minute to 1,000mm/minute. This means the layer changes are almost completely imperceptible.

 

Connect over USB and hit print — the machine will calibrate itself and start printing.

The new electronics have been designed to make the printing experience easier than ever. The Duplicator one connects to your computer via a standard USB cable thanks to a USB chip on the motherboard. We’ve also added full endstop support so that you never need to touch the XYZ axes ever again. When you hit print, the machine will automatically home itself, heat up, and begin printing. All you have to do is sit back and relax while your Duplicator one does all the work. Living in the future is awesome. Oh yeah, and the electronics are all inside, so you don’t have wires dangling everywhere.