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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Filastruder → Faster color changes
I'm trying to make multi-color plastic strands that change colors quickly.
The opening on the Filastruder/hopper is a little too big for that.
Is anyone interested in helping me design a 3d part that reduces the opening so that a long, thin piece of pipe/tube could take the place of a hopper?
The idea is to get better control over the stream of pellets entering the device.
The SLDPRT file is included with the documentation, it'd be a pretty quick change for anyone with Solidworks.
The bigger issue I think you'll face is the size of the melt zone. You could move the feedscrew further in with some additional spacers. No idea what that will do to the other performance aspects, I haven't really tried it. Could also got a custom 1/2" NPT coupler made.
If you really wanted to optimize color changes, you'd make the feedscrew diameter smaller, and the melt zone almost entirely filled by feedscrew. That would require a complete redesign, and you couldn't go much smaller on the feedscrew without running into feed issues with the pellet sizes we run. It'd work fine with powder, though.
Could you just put a piece of 1 inch pipe in the hopper and feed the pellets through that?
I ended up buy a 1/2" 10 foot long section of clear vinyl tubing from lowes for $5.
Here's what I've got so far from OpenSCAD. I'm going to try to add a lip to the center hole for the tube.
You probably want to flare the bottom of that block. If you just do a 1/2" hole straight through, you'll only load half the flutes on the feedscrew.
Made an experimental adapter. A half-inch inner diameter, clear vinyl tube connects to the top.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:105577
Thinking about making the cube hollow.
I would suggest you increase your colorant amounts as well. I would aim for 5-10% colorant instead of 2% or 3%
Fast color changes are working pretty well.
I used 10 grams + 5% colorant and then 5 grams of natural to clear the color.
Each gram is equal to about 1 foot of filament which produces a new color every 15 feet or so.
Here's a new part I've designed to get rid of the hopper so the pellets drop straight down.
Is that ABS? What happens if you vapor treated it with acetone?
Wow that is really impressive. Keep up the good work!
Here are some shots of the hopper extension (yellow and multicolor).
The goal is to get the pellets to drop straight down so that the colors don't mix together in the hopper.
The part was updated since it was a little too small: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:106539
What file is that on thingiverse?
What file is that on thingiverse?
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Filastruder → Faster color changes
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