The MakerGear M3-ID is a dual extrusion 3D printer that makes use of an independent dual extrusion (IDEX) system for its printing. Rather than channeling mutiple filaments into one path and through a single nozzle — as commonly found on budget dual extrusion systems — the M3-ID uses two independent print heads.

The benefits of such a system are cleaner breaks during material changes in the printing process and virtually no chance of cross contamination from oozing nozzles. Additionally, using the MakerGear M3-ID’s Mimeo Mode lets you increase output by printing with both print heads at the same time, doubling productivity by cutting the print time of a full bed of parts in half.

Off the top of our heads, the MakerGear M3-ID is the only desktop IDEX 3D printer to use a dual direct drive extruder system — running counter to the commonly seen concession of using a Bowden style arrangement in order to lighten the load on the locomotion system and maintain print accuracy. To get around such constraints the Maker M3-ID features a somewhat uncommon arrangement for its movements.

Unlike most desktop FDM 3D printers that limit the print bed’s movements to either the Y- or Z-axis, the MakerGear M3-ID’s print bed — here a slab of borosilicate glass coated with polyimide film, travels in both. This means that the dual prints heads move exclusively on the X-axis, doing so along sturdy linear rails and driven by Kevlar reinforced belts.

Such a system should mitigate the additional weight of the extruder motor on each print head, resulting in dual extrusion prints with the reassurances direct drive printing gives.

Introduced to the M3-ID with the 2018 revision, True-Leveling + Auto Leveling is MakerGear’s system for precise long term bed leveling. A combination of touch probe measurements, assisted leveling and then 9-point mesh measuments before each print combine to give a fixed level and the necessary adjustments to accommodate print surface inconsistencies.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the MakerGear M3-ID is its connectivity and on-board slicing. Tucked away inside the M3-ID’s base is a main control board, power supply and — last we heard, it may have since changed — a Raspberry Pi loaded with the Open Source Octoprint printer control system.

What does this actually mean using the MakerGear M3-ID? For starters, with 10GB of on board storage, you can wirelessly uploada trove of 3D models to the printer and, via the MakerGear-ified Octoprint UI on your device of choice, manually configure the print settings and have the file sliced natively on the printer itself. In all, it sums up to a workflow that frees the user from the juggling of SD cards and USB cables and additional slicing software that typify the desktop 3D printer experience.