<p>My experience with dual color printing comes from Ultimaker printers, which are very well tuned, for an IDEX design I'm working on I have been thinking how to solve these issues.</p>
<p>The poor print quality is caused by various issues:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Positioning, geometry
To get the positioning correct you can make use of the G-code <a href="https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M218.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">M218</a> where you can specify the X and Y offset for the other nozzles. Your first/default tool/nozzle is <code>T0</code>, the generic G-code is <code>M218 T&lt;index&gt; X&lt;offset&gt; Y&lt;offset&gt; Z&lt;offset&gt;</code> where you substitute the strings including the angle brackets (omit options you don't want to change) for the respective value you find from test prints (printing directional lines with multiple tools, X and Y) or finding the correct Z-offset for each nozzle. See also <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/20463/z-offset-multiple-heads-on-tool-change">Z-Offset Multiple Heads on Tool Change</a>.</p>
</li>
<li><p>&quot;Strings&quot;
Technically this is not the well known defect called &quot;stringing&quot;, your strings are rather thick and hint to incorrect handling of the filament retraction/extrusion (e.g. oozing due to prolonged exposure to high temperature when in idle state?) in your tool change script. It also may be very beneficial to print a sacrificial color changing (priming) tower.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-13T10:51:00.400Z
2023-03-13T10:51:00.400Z
0scar
<p>I've just got a brand new Sovol SV04 IDEX printer.
After struggling for days on bed levelling, I came out with an almost decent alignment.
So I printed the well-known boat to test a dual print.</p>
<p>Here the results:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/3756P.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3756P.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ssvrt.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ssvrt.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/tM8d4.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tM8d4.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/0CwY8.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0CwY8.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>As you can see it's a complete mess. There are tons of failures.
I used all the default settings for SV04 and the PLA they put inside the pack.
Here what I see:</p>
<ul>
<li>the only thing that worked almost flawlessly is the first layer (!)</li>
<li>there are a mis-alignment (wrong offset?) between the two nozzles</li>
<li>the layers are not &quot;glued&quot; together</li>
<li>little oozing (inside the cabin)</li>
<li>stringing and, I don't know how to name it, a lot of &quot;filaments&quot; floating around, I guess when one of the nozzle start/end printing (switch color)</li>
<li>again, not sure how to name it, very poor precision (over extruding?) for example in the blue part of the chimney</li>
</ul>
<p>When I bought my Dremel 3D45 it worked out at the first try.
Now I'm pretty lost among all these failures.</p>
<p>My questions are simple:</p>
<ol>
<li>help to confirm all the above issues and to find out others</li>
<li>please, give me an idea about the most useful approach to fix them (I mean the order, then I can read tutorials out there)</li>
</ol>
<p>I don't know which ones should be addressed first, in order to avoid to follow the wrong way.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-13T08:21:40.523Z
With `there are a mis-alignment (wrong offset?) between the two nozzles` do you mean in height? (or X/Y...or all?) The phrase `the layers are not "glued" together` hints to Z alignment.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-13T10:07:53.560Z
@0scar, both. "Layers not glue together" is present even on the same nozzle (see the blue keel). The X/Y wrong offset between the two nozzles is clearly visible in the top of the chimney. Probably there is also a wrong Z offset between the two nozzles, but less evident.
Mark
<print-quality><pla><bed-leveling><dual-nozzle>
Help to find out all the failures in first IDEX test
Mark
# Help to find out all the failures in first IDEX test

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-03-12)

I've just got a brand new Sovol SV04 IDEX printer.
After struggling for days on bed levelling, I came out with an almost decent alignment.
So I printed the well-known boat to test a dual print.

Here the results:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/3756P.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/3756P.jpg)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ssvrt.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/ssvrt.jpg)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/tM8d4.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/tM8d4.jpg)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/0CwY8.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/0CwY8.jpg)

As you can see it's a complete mess. There are tons of failures.
I used all the default settings for SV04 and the PLA they put inside the pack.
Here what I see:

* the only thing that worked almost flawlessly is the first layer (!)
* there are a mis-alignment (wrong offset?) between the two nozzles
* the layers are not "glued" together
* little oozing (inside the cabin)
* stringing and, I don't know how to name it, a lot of "filaments" floating around, I guess when one of the nozzle start/end printing (switch color)
* again, not sure how to name it, very poor precision (over extruding?) for example in the blue part of the chimney

When I bought my Dremel 3D45 it worked out at the first try.
Now I'm pretty lost among all these failures.

My questions are simple:

1. help to confirm all the above issues and to find out others
2. please, give me an idea about the most useful approach to fix them (I mean the order, then I can read tutorials out there)

I don't know which ones should be addressed first, in order to avoid to follow the wrong way.

**Tags:** print-quality, pla, bed-leveling, dual-nozzle

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: With `there are a mis-alignment (wrong offset?) between the two nozzles` do you mean in height? (or X/Y...or all?) The phrase `the layers are not "glued" together` hints to Z alignment.  
> **username_0**: @username_1, both. "Layers not glue together" is present even on the same nozzle (see the blue keel). The X/Y wrong offset between the two nozzles is clearly visible in the top of the chimney. Probably there is also a wrong Z offset between the two nozzles, but less evident.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-03-13. Score: 2

My experience with dual color printing comes from Ultimaker printers, which are very well tuned, for an IDEX design I'm working on I have been thinking how to solve these issues.

The poor print quality is caused by various issues:

* Positioning, geometry
  To get the positioning correct you can make use of the G-code [M218](https://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M218.html) where you can specify the X and Y offset for the other nozzles. Your first/default tool/nozzle is `T0`, the generic G-code is `M218 T<index> X<offset> Y<offset> Z<offset>` where you substitute the strings including the angle brackets (omit options you don't want to change) for the respective value you find from test prints (printing directional lines with multiple tools, X and Y) or finding the correct Z-offset for each nozzle. See also [Z-Offset Multiple Heads on Tool Change](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/20463/z-offset-multiple-heads-on-tool-change).
* "Strings"
  Technically this is not the well known defect called "stringing", your strings are rather thick and hint to incorrect handling of the filament retraction/extrusion (e.g. oozing due to prolonged exposure to high temperature when in idle state?) in your tool change script. It also may be very beneficial to print a sacrificial color changing (priming) tower.


---

