Something to print multicolour with one nozzle.

[roon4660]

I usually have my ender 3 pro printing stuff I don't need all day but today I have yet to print anything. I was chuffed yesterday because Cura allowed me to print in multicours with one nozzle. I had been trying to do this in Prusa (my preferred slicer) but I can't seem to update my flashed 1.1.8 version of Marlin. So now I have to dream up something to print nulticolour personalized etc for the unfortunate people I push all my plastic garbage onto. I followed this video and it worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nBnVtOEAiY So now I'm thinking about cool things to print. Any suggestions?

[Ender5r]

It really seems like you want one of these: https://www.mosaicmfg.com/products/palette-2s. And the best part is they're only a 'little' trip up the 401 from you
ps. I may be wrong, but I think I recall reading that one huge advantage to the Palette is that you don't have to waste filament when changing colors.

[Alan]

It really seems like you want one of these: https://www.mosaicmfg.com/products/palette-2s.

Woah, I want! And, cheaper than a Prusa! (Now, if i can only get the wife to understand). Thanks for the link.

Cheers

[Ender5r]

You might want to view a video they did of 16 Palettes feeding 4 Palettes feeding 1 Palette (21 total). IOW, 64 spools of different colored filament being spliced into 16 filaments then the 16 spliced into 4 filaments which feed the final Palette, which feeds the printer a single filament. It didn't work entirely, but it was neat to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e051w27k6W0
.
The company is located in Toronto, Canada.

[Ender5r]

Here's another approach to multi-color printing I had no idea even exists: https://reprap.org/wiki/Diamond_Hotend.

[roon4660]

The diamond hotend seems interesting but I wonder why we haven't heard more about it. The videos I see are three years old. They certainly waste less filament than the other systems I've seen, but do they work?

[roon4660]

I don't find the palette very interesting. You can buy rolls of filament that have multicolours and do the same thing.

[Ender5r]

I'm not sure, but I suspect some of it may have to do with the amount of work ordering parts and assembling everything required. Also, how is the color mix controlled. Obviously there have to be 3 extruders. Where do you get a controller board that can handle that. What about firmware? All in all, a Palette device may be the best option.

[Ender5r]

You can buy rolls of filament that have multicolours and do the same thing.

Actually, they don't. You see, the Palette doesn't just randomly, or just regularly, splice colors together. It has software that allows you to specify exacly which parts of a print will be what color. For example, you could print a clown, with orange hair, holding up a green sign, that has yellow and black lettering on it.

Have a look at this: https://www.mosaicmfg.com/blogs/stories/mirai3d

[roon4660]

I will have to see what they are doing now; I did see a few videos including the one when 3d printing nerd filmed them with all those machines running.

[roon4660]

The purge block takes more filament than the print.

[Ender5r]

The purge block takes more filament than the print.

Hmmm, I thought they had largely addressed that issue. But, won't you have the same issue doing it manually? Isn't purging just a fact of life, unless you have a multi-hotend printer?

[roon4660]

Any time you change filament you must purge or you will get color mix. Even if it is a new print. I think some genius should make the purge block into something useful instead of just a block. The loss depends on how often you change colours, some of these purge blocks on colourful prints are huge.

[Ender5r]

Agreed. One thing I've been thinking is I might want to start making my own filament, using a FilaStruder, FilaWinder combo. I've been thinking there are a lot a soda/water/name-your-drink bottles out there. Between our own, friends, neighbors, etc. I'm thinking I could get a lot of plastic to use for filament. Purge blocks could be part of that mix.

[roon4660]

Interesting. Please keep us posted.

[Sharkbait]

I just ordered an M3D Quadfusion head to test (https://store.printm3d.com). It's advertised as a 3d version of a color printer - blends CMYK filaments at the printhead for "50,000" possible color shades. M3D put the specs into Voxelizer 2 (ZMorph), but I haven't used that program yet (anyone else?).