The E3D Tool Changer Is Finally Here! - Let's Review It

After a waiting for over a year and a half, I finally received my E3D tool changer kit in the mail. The first step to turn it into a functional printer is assembling the frame or as E3D calls it the "Motion System." In this video that's what I do.

For anyone who wants to purchase this kit, you should know that you will pay around $3500-$4000 USD, and you can't just go buy it today. I've been waiting a year and a half to get mine. You won't have to wait that long, but you do have to purchase your place in the queue for a £100 non-refundable fee that gets applied toward your purchase once your number comes up. Head over to E3D-online, and search for "Tool Changer" I'm sure you can figure it out from there.

Comments are enabled. I WILL turn them off at the first sign of trolling. I will also perma-ban your username. Leave legitimate comments only. Disagreements are acceptable, trolling/insulting is not. Have good conversations and obey proper debate etiquette.

[robswain]

I'm going to take a wild guess, and say that your background is in industrial "design", not engineering. If you've listened to any of the press about this machine, E3D has said, over and over, that their system WILL be overbuilt, because they want to push the limits of accuracy and repeatability.

Your diatribe against engineers in this bit honestly made me lose a bit of respect for you. Especially since you imply that you know the engineers of E3D, your comments seem unreasonably harsh.

[DUIofPhysics]

A printer framework designed BY engineers, FOR engineers. I'll buy it.

[CutterSlade]

This is not a 3D printer! Your criticism of over engineering is nuts. This is a manufacturer development platform that is overbuilt as to not misrepresent the toolchanger mechanism as a whole! Furthermore you should be thankful they even sell this to Joe Shmoe they could have easily restricted it to their development partners. To be able to buy a honestly overbuild machine like this is a real treat to every enthusiast. You can buy "bean counter" machines on every corner. This was, for good reason, not subjected to bean counting.

[AsbestosCrisis]

Thanks for posting this. Very excited to see how it progresses! As for the budget I'm pretty sure Sanjay said in his initial 'brief' that this was a printer built and designed with no budget restrictions in mind - just a project to get the most awesome printer they could manage.

[Anyone]

"I do not want to wait for the consumer product, but I also do not want to think to design my own motion system, but I also do not want to pay a premium" Wow, the utter lack of comprehension is astounding. You are exactly the person that they do not want to sell too! They intentionally made it so people like you would not buy it, but you bought it anyway and are mad because it is not what you wanted, unbelievable

[Charlesstrahan]

"The number one problem I have with it is that CNC crossbar, [...] why on earth spend all that time and all that money [...] I want the carbon fiber that you were talking about [...]"

That was covered on their blog earlier this month:

"The stiffer the better, right? We’ve said goodbye to the carbon fibre bar and replaced it with fancy machined aluminum and oh boy have we’ve seen a drastic increase in stiffness; in fact it’s now twice as flexurally stiff and 3 times more torsionally stiff. In doing so we’ve only increased the total flying mass by a couple of percent and the machine can now carry the tools with far less pressure, win win! Additionally, it solves the issue with the differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion between carbon fibre and steel. The carbon fibre bar expanded at a very different rate to the Hiwin Rails and consequently we were seeing bending that caused issues with calibration and bed leveling; this has now been eliminated."

See their post titled "ToolChanger: The update you've all been waiting for"

[wickedcoyote]

I thought when they had perfected the prototype that had said they didn’t really want to make a kit. They wanted to set a tool changing standard and let others make kits. It looks like they definitely didnt compromise in the components. As for cost, they have to fund R&D somehow before the knockoffs flood in.

[bobo-ccxw]

I feel this review is a little unfair. E3D is a 3D printer accessory company – a hotend company their customers are big printer manufacturers including those in China. The worst thing they can do is a build a mass market 3d printer that annoys their customers (printer makers) and they are not setup to be 3d printer company see Bowden tube length or the “big box” printer they built before.


This is a reference system. Why build it? To show that a tool changer system works and beats current designs. A tool changer happens to need 4 hotends rather than 1 for MMU which is good for E3D. Not that it does not have technical benefits but marketing wise it is very clear why this is good for E3D.
They will say for a 2k system it is the best that you can get. I think they are right in this. At that point you are competing with a tricked out prusa or a Ultimaker 2 a craft bot etc. It has more nozzles, a toolchanger will be faster and has rails. Is a 2K printer worth 10x the price of an ender 3 maybe not depends on apps. Is 2k good vs an Ultimaker s5 at ~7k, maybe depends on the application.


The rail is an afterthought, carbon fibre had expansion issues so they put in something that worked. Arguably a steel on aluminium rails had expansion issues. It is not refined but show me a product without an engineering kludge or two in there because something went wrong at the last minute.
Evil me says the Bowden is a purposeful mistake to make it bad to stop average consumers playing with it. Planned obsolescence in the sense of purposefully tanking your own product so it is not too good.


Nice to see a review and another view point.

[biziluxgames]

Did i miss the review part of this video? Missleading no?

[hobohacker]

You lost me at mangling the threads. Worst advice I've come across this month. Just use a magnet or two to bring the T-nut up so the threads can catch *correctly*.

[ChristopherGoggans]

I feel like I remember Sanjay and some of the other E3D guys saying on one of their livestreams that they were overengineering and overbuilding the design both as a proof of concept, and also because they are wanting it to serve as a platform for many other tools. The first thing that comes to my mind is that the system may have been overbuilt with a high performance CNC spindle in mind.
I think they also described wanting this to serve as a example of what can be achieved with their toolchanger system, both in precision and extreme accuracy.
I also remember Sanjay saying they were having massive issues and delays getting the linear rail from Hiwin with the preload they wanted. None of this is meant to be an excuse for the cost, I just wanted to share some of the stuff that I remember them talking about, and hoping to provide more info for people considering their toolchanger.

Edit: I'd bet that's one of their new Mordor heated beds they've designed. These new beds get and sustain over 100°C for printing PEEK PC and other even more exotic plastics. Apparently they had to get custom beds made and somehow use the aluminum anodizing process to bond the silicone heater pad to the bed. The crazy mounting method was needed the other adhesive methods they tried failed under consistent extreme heat. Anyway, more fun food for thought.

It definitely sounds like their instructions could've used a few more revisions lol.

[nictamer]

Re: industrial design

Sanjay said they were NOT in the business of selling printers. They want to be in the business of selling tool-changing parts. So, yeah, they didn't make this kit so that it would be a competitive 3D printer, they made it so that it's a reference design for their parts.

[adriaangreyling]

The carbon fiber cross beam was dropped because the inserts pulled out from the Carbon fiber (expanding to a different rate than the mgn9 rail on top when heated) I saw a video of Rene Jurack having to replace them as well, most of the details are explained in the blog post...

[Tkamsker]

I did build that printer as a base for my projects and i am very happy about it. The X bar is simply CNC Porn and i like it. I am under the impression you didn't fully understand what you buy when you applied for the queue. It is an demonstrator for people who know what they are doing and not a finished product. so yes bowden and 3d printed parts screws etc have to be added. But it really rocks, i do now an cheaper version based on that for BLV based corexy printers. lets see which price point is possible

[KaelumYodi]

There’s an easier trick to those T-nuts, and they should have put that in the instructions. Instead of trying to do all of them at once, just do 1 pair (1 on each side) at a time, and don’t tighten them fully, as you slide the plexiglass down the rails. Tighten them just enough so that they don’t spin. That should be much easier. :)

P.S. I’d add nylon washers to prevent the plexiglass from cracking over time too.

[AntiVaganza]

"Could have cast the CNCed part instead to save money..." - really? For a low volume run, it makes a whole lot more sense to CNC this part. No mold cost (likely not cheap at all) and no outsourcing to have it cast. Oh, shit, I just heard the rambling Jony Ives comment. I, too, admire his skills (Ives') and the design icons he has given us, but speaking of 'overpriced' products - pick any iPhone... I agree the E3D printer is expensive, perhaps too much so, but man, your Ives analogy and insisting that because he happens to be British, then this British printer should be cheaper and prettier is just "funny"... (and I am literally typing this on a "magic bar" 15'' MPB with three broken butterfly keys)

[iheartdprinting]

I kinda feel like the complaints are a bit contrived. Johnny Ive comparisons? But "in the real world" comments. Industrial designers? What is not real about it? They are still in business right? LOL Are people buying this with monopoly money? Are the employees getting paid with carrots? Sorry you're reaching. Makerbot had all those things and they suck.

[escknx]

That's nice. I was looking to get one some time ago but it was nowhere to be found for mortal people. Ended up building Railcore 2 300ZL and this is one of the best desicions I've made in a while. Its about as expensive to build as e3d, but it uses full auto level using 3xZ + Duet and linear rails are everywhere. Can't wait for e3d release their tools so I can install them on Railcore.

[mastermoarman]

There's lots of boden tubes on amazon.

[Geodesix]

You don't need to mess up your threads to get the tnut, just use a small neodymium magnet to pull it up to the plexi