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It depends whether you want to put in a direct drive filament extruder or a direct drive pellet extruder or a Boolean filament extruder.

I would go Volcano by E3D they can handle either bowden or direct drive filament ( sorry no pellets at this time) and they are well known for flexibility and reliability

Hey also, you might want to rethink the dual z axis drives, I have these on my core XY Tronxy x5s and they are always getting out of sync. I recommend connecting them with a belt or chain to keep them in sync, or just design with only one stepper.

:)

Hi Mark, I have dual axis Z, and never gave me headache, my 2 Nema 17 motors are sync permanently because they share the same controller with a simple split plug on the wires.

Mine also have a single controller with split wires, but the motors themselves always seem to get out of sync. I turn off my printer for long periods of time and some flex or gravity may be the cause. If I leave the power on the controller will keep them synced up pretty well.

so it is not the motors, but the screws... interesting

I will check that, thank you!

Well, Emil I do not have any experience with pellet type filament. Which one is easier to use according you?

Hmmm, single Z motor right?

Yes, z axis stepper :)

the easiest setup is for filament, the pellets one is a more complex monster.

The advantage of pellets extruder is that you need no filament, just even sizes pellets,and it can print for as long as there are pellets in the feeder, (like a jar on top) but the other advantage is you can feed the feeder automatically, unlike filament when it runs out you must be thre, stop the machine, change the reel, etc, with the pellets all you need is a low volume reader (based on opticval readers or on weight readers) that triggers a regular vacuum cleaner coupled to a Venturi suction tube that sucks pelltes from a large barrel to refill the feeder.

In other words, infinte printing time as long as you have barrels to swap once a week, without your presence needed around every hour.

It is also more handy for large volumes in short time, a barrel of pellets might last days, while a reel of filament gets eaten up in one hour.

the problem with single motor Z axiz is the offset position, two of them ballance eachother, four of them for larger printing surface do that too, but single motor means you need a damn solid side vertical column on which the carrier trolley is traveling, a stiff bed support, all this means more weight, and that requires stronger motors, hence more expensive. Yes that is the best solution (used in CNC milling machines) but more expensive.

A cheaper alternative is two screw axis on opposite sides with gear pulleys carried by the same central motor through belts, I have seen that and worked fine.