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Topic: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

Hey guys,

I am as green as they come when comes to 3d printers, and I am probably over stepping my comfort zone by even considering trying this.

Especially since I am still battling with sticking issues.

BUT

A buddy of mine owns a Business, and I was thinking of surprising him with a iPhone 5 case with his company logo in it.

but I only have a Solidoodle Rev2, so basically a single extruder.

What I would like to do is :


Print his Company logo on the bed, in RED, then  I want to take a already existing version of the iPhone 5 cases that are floating on thingverse. and print around it in blue. so I end up with a blue and red case.

In my mind's eye, I would open the STL in what ever Cad,  create the object I want, then save out the STL in 2 files.  one for each color.


I am assuming its going be somewhat risky and maybe fail a lot.   But I am wondering if its been done before?

- On the complexity chart, how difficult is this to do?

- how prone will it be to breaking or the inlay of falling out?

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

While this is low on the coolness factor, you could just glue the 3D printed logo to the 3D printed iPhone case.  You might even create in indentation in the iphone case to take the logo so it doesn't look glued on.

Printing in two colors could also be done by changing the filament while printing.  However, this would be hard in this case since the back of the iphone case is usually flat on the bed. You really need the logo on top.

A third option is to create a void (cutout) of the logo in the iphone case. A blue case with a white iPhone would show the logo in white.

SD2, glass bed, MK5 setup with E3D lite extruder
NX and Solid Edge CAD user
PI, Galileo, and arduino hacker
Code Monkey and Twitter user @burhop

3 (edited by menglor 2013-11-20 18:08:57)

Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

I figured I would print out the logo, Pause, then switch the filament, then continue building rest of the case.

But I see what you mean now by having the logo on the bottom.

What I am not sure about is, how it will take with the cooling of the 2 layers.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

I figured I would print out the logo, Pause, then switch the filament, then continue building rest of the case.
What I am not sure about is, how it will take with the cooling of the 2 layers.

Well, sounds like you want to print a separate file of just the logo and just the first layer. Then print a second file that has the logo missing and print the rest of the case. For starters, your second file would need the indent of the logo at the first layer height depth. The second thing to be careful about is that Repetier Host auto-centers STLs. So you would have to make sure that the center of your logo-only file is exactly the center of your case file. You also do not want the logo to be any higher than one layer as the nozzle would bump into it when printing the case.

As for if they will adhere, I dont see why not. Layer adhesion has more to do with the heat of the material being layed down. As long as you have a good extruder temperature, it should work.

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5 (edited by menglor 2013-11-20 18:31:28)

Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

The 2 seperate STL'S was an idea I had, but then I realized, if I wanted I could just make it all in one STL, then put in a pause when it was time to print the logo and then do a filament change.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

Google "richrap color mixer" to find  multi color single extruder (multi motor) device.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

Here's a post about a printer that does this (printing with 2 colors with a single extruder):
http://www.soliforum.com/post/41934/#p41934

8 (edited by Hunter Green 2013-11-21 11:22:00)

Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

The "pause and switch colors" trick is actually very easy, just a little time-consuming, but the results can be quite impressive.
http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/2f/b2/5a/70/5c/1378702_732704640077217_99846197_n_preview_featured.jpg
All you do is figure out which layer should be the last one in the first color, and then find where the layers change in your gcode and insert @pause.  When printing pauses, quickly move the head using manual controls up and over.  Retract, change filament, run through enough to get to the new color (for those signs I didn't even bother, because black displaces any other color very quickly, and a little bit of "dark green" wouldn't be a problem anyway), then resume printing.  Repetier-Host automatically returns to the location it was at and resumes printing.  Easy-peasy.  I printed ten signs that way and they look really good.

But that only works if you split the colors by layers.  Splitting the colors within a layer, that's much, much harder, unless you get a dual extruder machine.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

I have the Solidoodle 2, and for right now thats all I am spending, unless if I can find a way to add a second head.

I wonder how hard it would be to build a head can change filaments.

I know I can get a Tool Changer for my Milling machine, So the software concept would already be built into most CAD/CAM softwares

Wonder what a Colette table with 10 color's might look like.


Ok, future project.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

I you are good at editing G code... You could create three files, exactly centered the same. One with the first layer of the logo, the second with the first layer of the rest, and one with the complete item in a single color. Generate the 3 G code files, and replace the first layer in the complete item with the logo layer, a pause, and the rest of the first layer without the logo.

This is a very manual build of the G code, but should work. Probably difficult and time consuming the first time you do it, but who knows. You might become a G code guru.

Would be great if there was a tool to simplify something like this. If the slicer auto commented things like the start and end of each layer, etc, editing and debugging G code would be much easier.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

I find it easiest to just hit pause, then use the manual controls to move the head off of the print to prevent oozing, then change the filament like normal. Just be sure not to stop the motors, or move the head!
This is my two color change print...
http://distilleryimage9.s3.amazonaws.com/0c18d6801be311e39cb522000a1f9215_7.jpg
The hood ornament on my Grand Marquis! I borrowed the Massive Dynamic Logo thing from Thing:22465, modified it to fit the base I made for it in Solidworks.

...sativas are for smoking!

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

Any reason you can't treat the logo like an inlay?  I've done this with my CNC machine cutting wood, and it works really well.   Imagine it work the same here.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

Only thing about a cnc router is you have a radius on the pocket due to the radius of the end mill which
limits your design a bit

Powder coated steel enclosure, 1/4" Surface grounded hardened aluminum plate, MK2A Heat bed, .200 Polished fused quartz plate, Machined quick change hot bed mount, E3D hot end, Ramps 1.4, DRV8825 stepper motor drivers

14 (edited by rcav8r 2013-11-27 21:33:59)

Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

techbuilder2175 wrote:

Only thing about a cnc router is you have a radius on the pocket due to the radius of the end mill which
limits your design a bit

Very true;  Just  wondering if you could do something like this here.   
That is have 2 files.  One of the main "background" with the object in the different color cut out. 
Then the other file the object that will be printed in the other color.
Then join the 2 prints.
Actually once I get my 3D printer up and running, I hope to do something very similar.   May be a while, but I'll post the results.

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Re: Can this be done? printing with 2 colors with a single extruder?

You could easily do that and if worse case comes you can do a little sanding till it fits.

Powder coated steel enclosure, 1/4" Surface grounded hardened aluminum plate, MK2A Heat bed, .200 Polished fused quartz plate, Machined quick change hot bed mount, E3D hot end, Ramps 1.4, DRV8825 stepper motor drivers