WhamBam Mutant: A Quick-Change Toolhead Upgrade for any 3D Printer! (NOT on Kickstarter)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- WhamBam's newest 3D printer upgrade: A simple, but effective toolchanger, complete with electrical connections that's available NOW! Should you order one?
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thanks for the insights Tom 👍😊
Quad = 4, so yeeaahhhh as the name applies, 3 plates...
To be fair, it is four plates (3 mobile plates, 1 base plate), but it's still not any less confusing for customers.
*implies*
I've been subscribed for something like 4 years, since I got into 3D printing. Your videos have been essential for my growth in the hobby, and I just wanted to take a second to thank you. When I started I had no idea how any of it worked, and I'd certainly never used a 3D modeling program. I just designed the mechanical parts for a flight yoke with accurate range of movement, and I have creators like you and Angus to thank for the confidence to model complex moving parts.
The solution from Proper Printing (channel name) has the bowden tube built into the connector, which is a pretty neat solution and not patent-pending.
I'm definitely more interested in the xchange kit, especially since I already have liner rails.
I don't have much use for it yet but in the future I believe I will.
Tom: "A quick-change toolhead:"
Me: "Great, that sounds incredibly useful, tell me more."
Tom: "Patent pending."
Me: "...no thanks."
What do you mean? Why is patent pending bad?
@@dawn9340 It doesn't seem to be a particularly revolutionary idea to add a row of connectors and a latch, however if the patent is approved open-source projects would not be able to have similar designs for several decades. So in this case yes.
I understand now. If it’s pending they submitted it and is already protected. Unless it’s shot down they can litigate I believe currently.
There are a lot of examples where the patented technology is not very innovative, that is the solution is very obvious. Nevertheless the patent was granted forcing everyone in the field to to either workaround this or pay fees to the patent holder.
Exactly what I thought !
Not going to buy / recommend anything from this company.
I'll be curious to see how long those pin headers last. Most pin headers are not really designed for a lot of insertions and removals. the number I found in the past has been between 50 and 200 rated cycles.
Yeah, really seems like it should be pogo pins or something similar.
@@_Piers_ maybe these are specifically designed for a high amount of mating cycles. They do appear to be high quality. I would be interested to hear from the manufacturer on this.
I think a board edge connector would work better. I'm thinking like how old Super Nintendo work. Those connector handled hundreds to thousands of connections
I've seen similar connectors rated for 200 cycles, so that sounds reasonable. Probably enough if you only swap occasionally to a larger nozzle etc.
Board-edge isn't always better, though, for example PCIe is only rated for 50 cycles.
@@MadeWithLayers yeah it probably will be fine for a lot of people my only real concern is the fact that some of these pins are going to be carrying high current. If they loosen up they're going to go high resistance and that's going to cause a lot of heat.
As always, great insights. I don't even have a 3D printer, but I'm still making up my mind about what I'm going to buy (and when, I'm not in a hurry). Your videos are a great help, even when I'm not considering a quick change toolhead, since you provide valueable insights into the whole operation and all the considerations that go into the/my process. Keep it up!
Love that there's more tool change systems coming out. This is progression. 😎
This is quite a cool system Tom, thanks for the review! I don't think I really need this but it's nice to see some innovation. Happy New Year!
Now I think of it, a metal version of this could be really useful for CNC/Laser toolheads, if that existed I would want one.
So let me get this straight... They produce an add-on product for 3D Printers, and presumably target the more lower-cost market with such a aimple and (comparably) cheap system. And yet they failed to make it natively and easily fit either Prusa or Creality systems?
Honestly I'd just get out your calipers and reverse engineer it a little to fit, maybe offer a bracket
They launched the mutant v2, maybe it's the answer u want
That’s amazing! I use their build plates on all of my printers
Wow, that price is steep...when i saw the cheap looking plastic parts I thought: "well, 30€ for the Kit and maybe 10€ per plate seems reasonable"...
Yeah. Same here. For 80 bucks I'll probably make my own.
I'm sure all that bad injection molding tooling cost them a fair bit of money!
@@Alex-nl5cy It was probably molded properly but not cooled properly, or as you said bad molds if you wanna push 'em fast through the factory, being that the case the price should drop even further.
Maybe in a few weeks on aliexpress
Maybe they shouldn't have spent so much of the project budget on patent attorneys and applications
I was really considering making one of these recently for my business to allow for less downtime. This is amazing.
Great work Thomas, your thoughts inspire so many people, Thanks for the honesty and review. My idea would allow you to make your own Quick disconnect system, simply by using aircraft style wiring and connectors closer to your main board and high quality wire management to keep everything tidy.
I was going to make for me something like this, so having it available and already working is definitely nice
Patent Pending...
Wham-bam needs to learn to read the room.
It's ok because the chinese players in the 3D printing space simply don't care, its practically impossible to enforce patents in the far east. And before you say it, no western countries will not prevent the import of the patent violating goods because, you guessed it, its too much effort. Patents are pretty ineffective in the global market, all it does it hamper western companies, pretty sad.
@@mawoodmain if you argue like that, why do they make the patent in the first place? according to you they could also leave it away and like that everyone would be happy.
@@certified-forklifter depends if you care about Western competition as patents will stop them. But if you think a patent will secure your product against being cloned and sold at half the price on AliExpress you're mistaken.
@@mawoodmain well, Xchange released they product first.
@@certified-forklifter the patent system is first to file not first to invent or first to market.
Honestly I'm not seeing anything that is so innovative here that it wouldn't be covered by Prior Art.
What are they patenting exactly?
There’s tons of prior art for this on thingiverse. You can claim patent pending if you have submitted a patent, but I doubt they will be awarded it.
Could be on the pin arrangement for wiring harness simplification. Though again, probably prior art out there invalidating it
@@goeland86 Yeh, this reminds me of old Pentium 4 ZIF sockets
Probably for using a dove tail for the tool head exchanger and also a locking a realeasing lever on the tool head exchanger and maybe even for the electrical connector on a tool head exchanger. Idealy the patend will not be granted but if it is it could block a lot of better developments. So regarding that their product has a lot of issues ( connector undersized (= another fire hazard), hole patern matching to nothing) I would strongly disadvertice from buying this and thus supporting their patent. Just as a reminder to everybody: the whole point that now we can all play with 3D printers is because an older patent ran out. Else I would have played with them allready in the 90th (then we just build little mills in school driven by parralel port). So more blocking patent (and even from substandard products) is just what we need :(
The dovetail is a cheapened version of a quick change tool post for a lathe, they better not get a patent.
Thanks for a great and timely review. I'm working on my own quick change system that is based on ProperPrinting's design and a DB 15 for the wiring. I worked with Max at OmniaDrop to modify it to include the mount as part of the main body. I also signed up for the Kickstarter for the X-change. My use is to be able to change OmniaDrops with different nozzles and to be able to service them on the bench instead of the printer. I ran into the problem you pointed out, when you start adding mounting plates on top of mounting plates you loose print area and the geometry starts getting very crazy.
The would Not be able to get a patent on this. ProperPrinting already published a similar System under Open source license.
@TheHighRishMan if you pay a lawyer, the patent office thinks you deserve one
@TheHighRishMan You don't even know what socialism is. You probably never read the wikipedia articles on socialism and communism, now did you?
@@natalieisagirlnow Not true. The first thing the USPTO will tell you is “No!”, whether with or without an attorney. I imagine other patent authorities would do the same as an applicant is asking for offensive rights by the patent authority. This firm may just be paying the small entity fee to thwart any attempting to copy it for a while, knowing they won’t get the patent in the first place. First rejection letter is about 9-months, outside of COVID-19 office work protocols. If indeed another prior art similar in the field of FDM was made, I’d say their few boastful claims will be laughed out of Washington, D.C. as many flat-earth free-energy space ships do as well.
There's different types of patents. They probably can patent layout or aspects of its structure.
@@GENcELL2014 If there’s a FOSS design that’s publicly released, then a utility patent application is void. Software patents only hold in USA, but I cannot see why they’d have such nor why. Then there’s the design patent to which they might be able to get one by designing a specific way, but in this application such a patent would be wholly useless. I worked in intellectual property as an engineer and alongside attorneys.
Wow I don’t need it but I seriously want it
Holy moly, I was just thinking I need an easier way to quickly swap between a .4mm, .6mm, .8mm nozzle on a few of my machines
Watch the newest ThisOldTony video, there he proposed a nice different idea for that
This and also sharing print heads between printers is one of the reasons I love this design approach.
There were several things I didn't like about my Lulzbot but their changeable tool heads were great to work with.
This Old Tony mentioned this problem in his latest video too - COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT! (Ah, I see @Tarek Knanneh beat me to it)
It might be kickstarter but I actually like the look of the xchange more...
That would be my use case.... Dont see switching while powered up.
i bought in for the x change tool change system, Mostly for changing nozzle size and to keep filaments dedicated to their own nozzles. if i have an order for abs i can do it then immediately switch to my CF nylon and keep the machine running for the next print job.
For a long time now I've had a custom 3D printed hot end setup. I use a pair of blower fans for the part and hot end cooler. I've been soldering in inline JST sockets for the fans to extend the stock leads. This led to failures where one of the fans would stop or become flaky due to the flexing. So I've modified one of my printers to use a DB-25 to connect all the cabling. Part of the rationale for me was to make removing and working on the hot end a bit easier, it also should improve strain relief on the end of the cable. As my hot end physically mounts with 2 screws, I think I'm getting pretty much all the advantage of such a tool changer for my use case at a fraction of the cost and without the loss of print space.
Tom, thanks for the video. Keep them videos coming!
The difference between this and the Xchange is the xchange gonna be open source, they will have cad files for the master plate and slot adapters
I would love to have similar system on Prusa to simply remove the whole extruder assembly for service and maintenance. It would be so much easier then the current setup. You could also different nozle or extruder setup in stand by like the ToolChanger.
Blowing on the "cartridge" just warped me back to the 1980's! :-D
[No, not a Nintendo; a TI-99/4A! Yeah yeah, I'm old...]
If you have a Venn diagram describing the values or qualities of person who'd be interested in this, for example: 1)possesses sufficient knowledge of hardware/firmware to get the most out of tool changing systems 2) okay with tradeoffs for not just creating/buying a purpose-built machine 3)low on space 4)okay with patent protected products...when I think about those overlaps, I tend to think nozzle swaps might end up being the most popular use case. For me, that would by my personal interest (when possible to do within the same print and not lose Z height calibration). Thanks for your analysis, Tom!
An interesting concept. I certainly like the appeal of a quick remove of a single tool. Not sure I like the patent either though. And definitely too expensive for my taste.
Real talk I have been watching you for a while and always thought i was subscribed. That quick interruption at the beginning literally made me go look without thinking I wasn't... but low and behold ..I wasnt... am NOW! This was ironic and funny.. thought I'd share! Good vid topic too
Those injection molded pieces should have been put in a form to cool after being ejected from the machine to prevent warping.
Great in depth review, Tom. Keep it up. Also share your opinion on the whole patents are stifling inovation.
Fantastic presentation Tom!!
Question: Which mount are you using to connect the Hemera to the Mutant?
Thanks for showing this. I would be kind of interested. I’m limited to one printer due to space and i would like to have different hotend setups, but right now i would only plan for different nozzle sizes. I own a Prusa Mk3s with BMG / Mosquito hotend, so after watching your video, i seems to much of a struggle and restriction of printing room just for nozzle changes…
so right now, i’m more on the No-side.
for the y offset, just attach it and offset the position of the hotend
Thoughts on doing a "state of tool changing" ?
Personally I've been looking at Lulzbot's because of it's opensource nature for my frankenprinters but....
Around 5 minuit mark... OR you can mount your tools to mount the same length and distance from the plate, taking into account their own lengths and depths so each will end up at the same spot for printing/milling.
e-bike user here... 48vdc can definitely arc when connecting/disconnecting too.
On my Prusa MK3s, I've had to replace enough parts to make me wish the wiring didn't run all the way back to the control board. Something like this or the XChange seems like a possible solution to make repairs like that faster and easier at least. Looks like the XChange is more suitable for MK3s, but comparing the two (and any others) would be a good topic for a future video. Appreciated your review here as well as your Meltzone discussion.
Blowing into the cartridge really got me.
Thanks for not backing out on the patent question, kudos!
lol blowing on the cart - also nice usage of the thermal camera (looks like a FLIR)
I think your comment about having more than one printer instead is a good idea, with this you still have to have a draw full of parts anyway, so the space savign isnt huge.
I have three 3d printers, one for detail prints with fine nozzle, one for high temp prints that needs enclosure and one for pla like printing where no enclosure is needed. I think that is superior to adapters in everything barring space.
It is not something I would use to change tool heads in case of crashes, maybe I would use the adapter for different types and diameters of Nozzles. Very good info as always.
Does it have enough pins for everything? 4 pins for hotend & thermistor + 4-6 pins for fans, +5 pins for BLtouch, +4-6 pins for stepper motor, +2-3 pins for lighting = 19 to 24 pins required (actually, add 4 to that, if the heater wires share 3 pins each for power and return)
Really nice execution. I spend some time to come up with a quiack release but printed dovetails dont slide very well. Ended up with a claw like mechanism and two screws to hold it in place reliable. Not as easy as it looks. :)
Where did you get the adapter for the
hemera?
I have one of these but what I don't like is it doesn't natively do dual hot end etc... so in that case it is very limited to a single hot end heater or anything that needs a single higher power. Unless you route the electrics and thermistors etc to them directly of course.
In modern times, patents really hold innovation back. It's been hurting software development for years. There's entire shops that just buy patents that they try to sue small businesses with (see: "patent trolls" and "patent trolling"). Copyrights lasting 100 years after the death of the creator is also something holding creators back. IP laws are in strong need of reform.
You may have a point about patents holding innovations back (although I think that point is at least debatable.) However, I cannot see how copyrights (even long lasting copyrights) are holding creators back. For example, Harry Potter is copyrighted, but any author is free to write books about a child going to a school for wizards. You just can't call that child Harry Potter.
Everything you've said is a Big Corp myth. Patents spur innovation - why do you think the US is ahead of the pirating Chinese? There's also no recourse for a small patent holder to sue for infringement, so the deep pockets big companies do what they want, stealing patents/ideas...it's the "trolls" that buy the patents from the small inventor and go after the big dogs, leaving the big companies with an inability to walk all over small inventor innovation (which costs a LOT of money). That is why the lobby is so strong for "reform" and why suckers parrot the demonizing of organizations that pay the small inventor for his/her investment in the patent they hold.
I'm with you on the patent aspect but I can see this functionality being useful to me for quick nozzle changes. I realise I need multiple tool heads but time is money. Large nozzle for quick and dirty and small nozzle for finer work. (Yes I will need to tram the bed but that has to be done for a conventional nozzle swap anyway).
Awesome work Tom!
Really cool but can I get it to work on my Prusa i3S? I want to be able to use a lazer on my machine.
I've been looking for something similar, but more akin to some other types. 1 head for supervolcano, one allmetal that's prepped for polycarbonate, and a regular lightweight for those slow, small-nozzle pretty prints and flexibles.
A quick-change nozzle solution is something I'd be interested in, being able to easily change nozzles without the worry of accidentally ruining the heatbreak of the V6 design would be nice.
+1
+2
THIS. i really wish e3d did that. a threadless collar style heatbreak?
@@ameliabuns4058 The heartbreak used by E3D's multi-extrusion hotends (Kraken, Chimera) is actually smooth on the outside, so you can more easily vertically align multiple nozzles. If only that was the case for the V6, Hemera, etc...
17:57 is that supposed to be in there? Seems like something you forgot to edit out?
Just for humor :-)
Very cool design, simple and easy, KISS solutions are the best! Also great informative review Tom. Now to make an adaptor to work for ExoSlide carriages.
I have about 10 sets of your ExoSlides on a custom machine I built. Will see if XChange will mount to it.
I was about to buy these but you made and Excellent point! "why not buy an extra ender 3". And Ill go with that! THanks!!
With how frequently I change nozzles on my ender 3... I NEED THIS!!! It'd be epic to just be able to swap out a hotend, change my profiles and be good to go...
Your conclusion is on point, sad thing is only that hemeras are not available since half a year or so :(
I bought the xchange from kickstarter. I am expecting to be able to have dual extrusion, however i now think its not the correct use case....Have you reviewed the mosaic 3 by any chance?
Hi Thomas, I am looking for a printer that can reliably print working parts with tight tolerances. Strength and Tolerances. + - .004 thousands + - .1 mm and what is the most heat tolerant filament.
Would love to see you opinion on updated V2 that looks to improve on some of your concerns.
Very interested in hearing your take on patents, will listen to your podcast. I can see valid points to both sides. Interestingly, negative effects of no IP protection can be seen with Facebook/Instagram ripping off Snapchat and TikTok core features and slowly becoming an internet monopoly.
I do not think it will fit my IDBox printer but it looks like something that would work well if you were always swapping colours in your print and only have 1 head
Pigtail the small conductor to a larger guage conductor to help alleviate conductor heating.
Little off topic but is the heat chamber patent expiring this year? Would be a crazy year for 3D printers if it is
Pin wear from constant removal but awesome idea.
I don't have space for more printers, but I do have space for extra swappable extruders each with a different nozzle size.
Great concept, keep refining.
The one piece of info I was looking for was the repeatability of this tool changer? If you calibrate your Z-Height, how far is it out every time? I'm assuming a bed touch sensor is needed and needs to be scanned every time you remove that tool head. It's not something you can swap out mid print.
If you were going to go to all this trouble, why wouldn't you have separate extruders to avoid fumbling around with the Bowden tube? I'm not seeing where I could utilize this.
Does anyone happrn to know if this would work on a lotmaxx sc-10 shark? Its my first 3d printer and it should be arriving soon so Im a total noob with all this stuff rn.
Heated chambers are patented? I built one with a mains bed heater and an old PC cpu air cooler lmao.
I would like to see this type of tech mixed up with the e3d toolchanger technology. Then you could have a magazine of tools and a single docking position. Using something like the Duet 3 Toolboard... the whole schmoo would be the cats meow... I can dream anyway. Thanks Tom for the excellent review.
Hey, just one idea, what if the power part of the connector was an XT-60 type thingy? That could be able to handle a LOT more current...Anyway, just an idea. Excellent video as always! Cheers!
Great review Tom as usual, you bring up a lot of great talking points for a product like this. Seems expensive as Wham Bam usually is. Also, screw it I'll just design my own... that's the whole point of having a printer. Wham Bam also never bring out sizes for Printrbots. I would have to get a resin spring steel sheet to have something fit to the printer. Oh well!
show me how to change the extruder on the sovol sv04 please .
Thanks for the thorough review Tom (like always). Btw, the beard suits you ;)
Would this work on artillery sidewinder x1 and do you like the artillery sidewinder x1
Should fit the X1, but I'm not a huge fan of the X1 to start with
I'm looking at this as if I have a hotend assembly that all of a sudden starts failing & don't have time to take it apart at the moment. I can swap the head, keep running, & worry about first one later. Yes, it's $85, but my printer is still producing, which is putting $$ in my pocket. So yeah it would be worth it.
I would use this for changing out a hot end with different nozzle sizes.
Use a wrench to change the nozzle man !
@@whatisyouremailid of course but it would be so much easier to swap out hotends different nozzle sizes. I hate messing with nozzles.
Grüße aus Berlin, Maryland!
I've been interested in a quick change for my Geeetech A20M because I find myself using only one extruder and would like to have an easily swappable single hotend as compared to the standard mixing hotend. There are multiple reasons: a) More options for hotends; b) conversion to direct drive; c) huge variety of nozzles.
The more I watch videos about quick changers, the more I agree that it makes more sense to invest in a second printer. Any thoughts? Maybe I'm just looking at it from the wrong perspective...
Thomas!!! I design the Hero Me... he just keep the updates... I get tired of people asking me to adapt things to the fanduct... so I upload the editable files so anyone could create parts for it...
What about E-steps? If using marlin do I need to manually change it/reflash the firmware every time I switch my direct drive hotends? feel like something wasn't thought all the way through
E-Steps can be set via gcode (M92)! reprap.org/wiki/G-code#M92:_Set_axis_steps_per_unit
E steps can be changed with gcode, so you could presumably have a tool change gcode file to run for each toolhead that sets the correct E-steps/PID/nozzle offset/whatever else needs to be changed.
Hi Tom, thanks for this video. I'm not really interested in buying this of quick ''change" tool. With all the effort it takes to make the wiring and the adaptors, just push a little more and you have your own DIY system. The slide guide and the connectors are interesting. One can do it with an other kind of connectors, like, any type of connectors and divide the ampere by each single terminal. The slide and lock is an interesting thought, but like you "said", should we encourage patenting of this kind of tool?
Great channel with useful and informative content. Subscribed!
how is this patent pending doesnt printermods release the same thing before them?
It wasn't until today that I realized you have under 500 subs I've been watching your content for a while and you're by far one of my favorite 3D printing channels with some of the best quality videos right next to CNCkitchen
do you mean 500K subs? :D
500k subs, I was shocked when I read just 500 as I have been watching his videos for years and have subscribed
@@stuartygibson7079 ah, haha yeah. Have a good one!
Finally someone is integrating the quick change connections used on firearms! I was wondering what the issue was when the military has lasers and scopes that can hold a zero, after being taken off and replaced, for years now. The stressors on a firearm are so much more intense than anything on a printer. 🤪
good work Thom I am eager to buy this tool but would it be not better ´from Wham Bam to sell at least wit h two mobil kits than you could change at least two Hotends ?
Wham Bam's main kit is the Quad; one Fixed Plate to mount to your machine, and 3 Mobile Plates
Aren't heated chambers out of patent date now?
It’s interesting so you can have a spare hotend to do a quick swap so you can continue printing but it’s a bit more expensive than I thought it would be.
I have to agree that a second printer might be a better option.
It certainly is for me.
If it was £60-70 for the larger pack I might buy it but not at this price.
Not for me.
"These things remind me of game cartridges"
Ah yes, breathing on the contacts to hopefully ensure proper connections. Good times.
I mean it won't work on Delta printers so not really an upgrade for "any" 3D Printer. Probably works for any Cartesian printer though (with some modding).
OMG, I'm going to buy a quad kit this weekend, just what I need to spend money on lol
The Mutant quick change system is something I am interested in. I would use it to quick change different hot ends so I can print different projects for my business. Sometimes I wish I was using a 0.6mm nozzle and other times I would rather use a 0.4mm hardened steel. The price is a bit much. I think $49.99 for a set would be a better price point. I understand there is a lot of R&D involved to get to where they are now. That might explain why they are charging more. I am a fan of patents, especially in the beginning of the idea. They need to recoup their cost for getting to where they are today. I would hope that after a few years of recouping their cost, they then release the patent for others to use. I also understand the argument for not getting a patent. It is a juxtaposition of R&D and manufacturing costs vs open source innovation.
I actually like the design of quick change heads for metal lathes a bit better. Electrical contacts should be slid over contacts of the type found on rechargeable tool batteries, rather than the pin and socket variety shown. Slots for mounting hardware, and an alignment jig that the movable plate drops into that allows you access to the mounting slots, and which allows you to mount the print head so that the nozzle is at a consistent height. (Or at least make sure nozzle head to sensor level for ABL systems are consistent across heads.) Other than that, yeah, a nice idea, and I probably won't get one/any.
I would like to have a quick toolhead changer because space is at a premium and I simply don't know where to put all the different tools I'd like to own. Adding a separate machine is out of the question. But: I don't really like this implementation. Losing this much print area is too high a price for me. I already struggle with fitting stuff onto my build plate much too often.
This would be useful on printers for allowing you to change tool head, e.g. cnc / laser / hotend