YOU CAN BUILD A PRINTER WITH SIX TOOLHEADS THAT WASTES NOTHING
A Voron upgrade that swaps six colours in under five seconds each, with no purge tower and no wasted plastic.
by Rich Nelson
WorkshopOpen-hardware
- difficulty
- ●●●●●
- time
- several weekends
- license
- GPL-3.0
- repo
- repo ACTIVE224 stars
●●●●● · several weekends · GPL-3.0 · 224 stars · repo ACTIVE
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- 3D printer + filament — printable parts — files are in the repo
Partner
COMPAREE VERDICT
This is not a printer build — it is an upgrade path for someone who already owns a working Voron 2.4 or Trident and wants to eliminate purge waste in multicolour prints. The mechanical engineering is clean: each toolhead docks magnetically, the carriage picks and parks heads in under five seconds, and because every colour has a dedicated nozzle there is no purging at all. The 691 dollars figure is Rich Nelson's own, and it is honest — but it assumes you already have the Voron, the toolhead PCBs, and the CAN infrastructure, and that you are comfortable remixing firmware macros in Klipper. The single most likely mistake is underestimating the setup time: each toolhead needs individual Z-offset calibration, and if one dock is misaligned by half a millimetre the whole system will fail to pick or park. The documentation is good on what to print and how to wire it, but it will not teach you Klipper or CAN from scratch. If you have never built a toolchanger before, expect to spend a weekend just on calibration after the mechanical assembly is done. For someone already running a Voron and tired of binning purge towers, this is the cleanest open-source path to true zero-waste multicolour.
IN THE REPO
NOT IN THE REPO
- —Full CAD for the six-toolhead docks, printed parts, and mounting hardware is in the repository.
- —BOM is present with part numbers and links, though some components (CAN boards, toolhead PCBs) assume familiarity with the StealthBurner / Tap / CAN toolhead ecosystem.
- —No custom firmware — this is a mechanical and wiring upgrade to a working Voron running Klipper with existing StealthChanger support.
- —Assembly documentation is thorough for the docks and toolhead preparation, less so for first-time Voron builders (the project assumes you already have a running Voron 2.4 or Trident).
- —Licence is GPL-3.0, which permits commercial use but requires derivative work to remain open and under the same licence.
- —The repository reflects the six-head honeycomb dock design shown in the video; earlier two-head and acrylic dock versions are in the commit history but not the current release.
Can I build this?
Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.
Partner · KickstarterHeyGears G1: 10M+ colors and transparent parts in one print, plus UV printing on flat objects. Figures, parts and labels — no painting.
Videos
Six-Toolhead Zero-Waste Voron StealthChanger Build
Primary build video showing the six-head dock system in operation, toolhead swaps, and multicolour prints with no purge tower
Gallery
Start here
Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.
- 1.Confirm your Voron is running Klipper with CAN toolhead support(This project assumes a working Voron 2.4 or Trident with Tap or equivalent Z-probing — if you have never set up a CAN toolhead or tuned Klipper macros, do that first on a single toolhead before attempting six)
- 2.Read the full BOM and verify you can source the CAN boards and toolhead PCBs (Some components (especially the CAN boards and magnetic couplers) have lead times or require specific suppliers — order early)
- 3.Print the six docks and carriage shuttle from the STLs in the repository (Print time is 60-80 hours depending on your Voron's speed settings; the docks use the current honeycomb design, not the older acrylic version)
- 4.Assemble and wire one toolhead first, then test pick-and-park on a single dock(Do not wire all six at once — prove the mechanical alignment and Klipper macros work with one toolhead before scaling up)
Resources
Documentation, files and community threads for this build — we link straight to the original sources and never rehost the creator’s files.
KNOWN ISSUES
- The $691 cost assumes you already own a working Voron 2.4 or Trident — if you are starting from zero, the total cost is closer to $2,500-$3,000 including the base printer kit.
- Dock alignment is the single most common failure mode: if one dock is off by 0.5 mm, the toolhead will not seat correctly and the whole system stalls — expect to spend hours with calipers and shims getting this right.
- Each toolhead needs its own Z-offset calibration, and those offsets drift slightly over time as nozzles wear — plan to re-calibrate every few dozen hours of printing.
- The repository does not include step-by-step Klipper macro setup — it assumes you already know how to edit printer.cfg and tune toolchanger sequences, so budget time to adapt existing StealthChanger macros to six heads.
- Slicer support for zero-purge toolchangers is still patchy: PrusaSlicer and SuperSlicer have some support, but you will likely need to hand-tune start/end G-code and wipe sequences to avoid ooze between swaps.
- The project started as a two-head build and grew to six — some of the older commit history references acrylic docks and different magnet layouts, so make sure you are using the current STLs and not an older release.
Can I build this with fewer than six toolheads?
Yes — the system scales down to two, three, or four heads by simply not printing or wiring the extra docks. The carriage shuttle and Klipper macros are the same regardless of toolhead count.
Does this work on a Voron 0 or V1?
The repository targets Voron 2.4 and Trident — the gantry geometry and carriage mounts are specific to those models. Porting to V0 or V1 would require redesigning the dock mounts and possibly the carriage shuttle.
What happens if a toolhead fails to park correctly?
The Klipper macros include stallguard and position checks — if a park or pick fails, the printer will pause and throw an error rather than crashing the carriage into a dock. You will need to manually reseat the toolhead and resume.
How much print time does zero-purge actually save?
It depends on the model, but for a typical multicolour print with 20-30 colour changes, eliminating the purge tower saves 30-50% of total print time and 40-60% of filament usage — the more colours, the bigger the saving.
Community builds
No community builds yet — be the first, we feature the best ones.
Discussion1
FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM
Six toolheads, zero purge waste, and $691 in upgrades if you already own the Voron — what multicolour part would you print first with no purge tower holding you back?
Rich Nelson
Rich Nelson built this as an evolution of the two-toolhead StealthChanger, frustrated by purge waste in multicolour prints and the high cost of commercial toolchanger systems. The project grew from two heads to six over several months, and the docks were redesigned from acrylic to printed honeycomb parts after a laser cutter tube failure forced a rethink.
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DISCLAIMER
- Comparee is not the author of the projects featured here. All rights to each project belong to its creator — every page links to the original source, and we never host creators’ files.
- Information is provided without warranty and may become outdated as projects evolve. Prices are indicative bands only — always check the creator’s parts list for current costs.
- Building and operating any project is at your own responsibility. Protective equipment, safe workshop practice and compliance with local regulations are the builder’s responsibility.
CompareeTEAM1d ago
Practical notes from our verification: the $691 figure is the author's own and assumes you already have a working Voron 2.4 or Trident with CAN toolhead infrastructure — if you are starting from scratch, the total cost is closer to $2,500-$3,000. The repository is current with the six-head honeycomb dock design shown in the video; earlier versions used acrylic docks and are in the commit history but not the current release. The single biggest time sink is not the printing or assembly — it is the Z-offset calibration for each toolhead and the dock alignment, which can take a full day of fiddling with shims and test prints to get right. There is no custom firmware, but the Klipper macro setup assumes you already know how to edit printer.cfg and tune toolchanger sequences.