In this video I’m going to show you a simple
method that will enable you to create multi-color
or better multi-tone prints with any FDM 3D
printer.
Guten Tag everyone, I’m Stefan and welcome
to CNC kitchen.
Okay, so I was already working on this method
since quite a while and was kind of shocked
last week when I saw the thumbnail of Devins
video from his Make Anything channel.
Fortunately, he toned his wood prints with
wood strain and did not use the method I’m
going to show you.
So if you know my other videos you might have
seen that I like to test new filaments with
temperature test towers to find out the perfect
print settings.
When I did that with the laywood filament
I bought, I was kind of surprised to see that
there was a significant change in the color
of the print depending on the temperature
I printed it at.
This is actually nothing new and kind of well-known
for wood filaments.
They write that you can use it to change the
color of you prints but I have never seen
it really done by anyone so far.
Since I don’t have the multi material upgrade
for my Prusa i3 or any other mutli material
printer, I thought that I should developed
a technique to use the color changing ability
of wood filament for getting a kind of similar
effect.
By using the multi-color printing options
in Slic3r or Simplify 3D you’re also able
to vary the temperature of your hotend for
specific regions of your part.
If you are doing multi color or multi material
printing you usually separate your part in
single stls, each for a different color.
I use the same technique, but I later change
some parts of the G Code so that not the material
or printhead is changed but the hotend temperature
is set to a different value.
This might sound simple at first, but I noticed
that I had to play around with the algorithm
quite a bit to get nice print results.
So I used LAYwood filament which has a nice
contrast between 190 and 240°C printing temperature.
I also tried using Colorfabbs wood filament
which did not really show that property.
I’m very sure that there are different wood
filaments out there which also work well.
If you have one of them please let us know
in the comments!
If you want to try it on your own and want
to support the channel you’ll find affiliate
links down in the videos description.
So I got this method working with both Simplify
3D and Slic3r but only nicely finished it
in Slic3r because the latest version of the
Slic3r Prusa edition added the support for
they multi material extruder with well working
prime towers.
I’ll be shortly showing you the workflow
and will then be going into the details how
and why it works.
I programmed a quick and dirty EXCEL conversion
tool which you can download from my github.
If you don’t have EXCEL I’ll also show
you how you can easily perform all the steps
in a text editor.
Two things before I start.
This method is not perfect and will require
some manual work.
If you have an improvement, please let me
know.
If you like the method and want to see it
in your favorite slicing software then just
let Prusa, Ultimaker or Simplify3D know.
If there are enough of you spreading the word
this could become a neat little stock feature.
If you are or know a filament manufacturer
please let me know if there is a pigment around
which does also permanently change its color
depending on the temperature you print it.
Having a PLA with that property would be so
cool!
All right.
So let’s open up Pursas Slic3r edition.
If you don’t have it yet, you can download
it from his website.
You load the first portion of your dual color
part, double click on it and load the second
half.
If you have a proper model the parts should
now be aligned perfectly.
Now assign extruder 1 and 2 to the pieces
of your model.
I created two filament profiles, one with
190°C and one with 240°C printing temperature.
You might need to adjust the extrusion multiplier
for each temperature separately.
You will also need to create a wood print
profile.
I printed the wood filament at around 30mm/s
for the best results.
I also reduced the size of the prime tower
because you don’t really need that much
and save some filament that way.
Now you set one printing temperature for your
first and the other one for your second filament.
Drag the position of the prime tower next
to your part that the travel moves and not
so long.
Slice your part and save the G Code to your
hard drive.
If you own Microsoft EXCEL then open up the
conversion tool and make sure that there are
the same printtemperatures in the sheet as
you have assigned in Slic3r.
Select your G Code file and start the conversion.
If you have done everything properly then
it will tell you how many temperature change
entries were replaced.
If you get an error message check the temperatures
you have set.
Now just upload your file to the printer and
hit start.
I will provide my profiles for my Original
Prusa i3 MK2 also on my Github for download.
So now at each temperature change the hotend
will move next to the prime tower, wait until
the new temperature was reached, prime the
nozzle and continue printing.
Depending on the number of layer changes the
print job will now take quite some time longer,
since heating up my E3D V6 from 190 to 240°C
takes around 30 seconds and the same vice
versa.
The parts unfortunately do end up kind of
stringy with the wood filament, but that’s
usually easy to clean up.
Now let’s take a look how I changed the
G Code in order to change the temperature
during Slicers material changing procedure.
So the Prusa Multi material extruder works
only with one hotend in which different materials
are fed via a coupler.
So when it changes from one to another color
material it will pull one out filament and
insert the new one.
This is where I hijack the gcode.
So I delete the removal and insertion block
which also includes a kind of cleaning procedure
where the material is retracted and extruded
several times.
I park the extruder 10 mm next to the prime
tower and retract the filament a little bit
because otherwise the oozing material and
the heat in the nozzle screw up the procedure.
I turn off the extruder motor because otherwise
it got quite hot on my machine.
If I want to increase the temperature I turn
off the part cooling fan and if I want to
decrease the temperature I let it tuned on.
This way the temperature change is accelerated.
Also don’t use a silicon sock for this method
because it isolates the hotend too much.
I use the M109 command to change the temperature
which will pause the print until the temperature
is reached.
When this is done, the part cooling fan is
tuned on the normal priming procedure continues
and the print is resumed.
If you want to learn more about the G Code
commands you can find a great documentation
in the marlin wiki, link below.
So these GCode changes are performed automatically
with my EXCEL converter.
If you don’t have EXCEL download the free
Notepad++.
Look for the first material change section,
mark the block and use the replace function
to replace them with noting.
Then select the M104 blocks and replace them
with the string for lowering the temperature
or increasing it.
Make sure that the search mode is set to extended
that the \n parts are replaced with a new
line.
Save everything and you should be good to
go!
So I hope I was able to show you a cool method
with which you can make pretty nice prints
without having to own an expensive multi material
printer.
Digging into the G Code might be overwhelming
for some, but if you know some basic commands
it’s really simple.
I also already worked on a method to create
a wood texture on prints but the results have
not been that nice yet.
Robin Reiter who has also a YouTube channel
already said that he could help me out with
his programming skills to create a more user-friendly
conversion tool.
So stay tuned for that!
Try the method on your own.
Head over to twitter and show me your creations,
I’d really like to see what a more creative
person than me can come up with.
By the way, if you print the top and bottom
of Devins beautiful acorn model with two different
temperatures, you will get more or less the
same effect as with staining it!
For everyone who has hung on until now I have
a great opportunity to participate.
Due to your generous PayPal donations I want
to take a proper look on one or more Carbon
fiber reinforced filaments soon.
I did some research but I would like to know
with which material you had the best experience
with so far.
I would have liked to test Matterhackers NylonX
Carbon Fiber filament, but it’s kind of
hard to get a hold of here in Germany.
If you have a suggestion please let me know!
If you liked this video, please give it a
thumbs up.
If you want to support the channel then make
a donation over PayPal or use my Amazon affiliate
links below and help me cover the running
costs!
Thanks for watching, auf Wiedersehen and I’ll
see you next time!
