Question:3D printer shades/color

[djf435]

Are there any 3D printers being sold that can combine two different colored plastic spools together to make objects of different shades? For example imagine you had a red spool and a yellow spool and you had a 3D printer that could vary how much yellow was added to the red to get different shades of orange. Is there anything like that currently being sold? If so can you mention some vendors?

[awerby]

I don't think so. There are printers that will allow you to change filaments as they print, so the red will gradually blend into the yellow. There are printers with dual heads that allow you to change colors abruptly. And there are printers that print in full color. But I've never seen one that has more than one filament feeding the same head.

[Geoff]

Are there any 3D printers being sold that can combine two different colored plastic spools together to make objects of different shades? For example imagine you had a red spool and a yellow spool and you had a 3D printer that could vary how much yellow was added to the red to get different shades of orange. Is there anything like that currently being sold? If so can you mention some vendors?

Yes there are, there are even triple head extruders you can add to your printer. Not many companies selling them as it's fairly experimental, the best way your going to get it done is modding your own machine, which is not really that difficult and helps to learn something.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Reprap-3D...AAAOSwyjBW3rb0

[LambdaFF]

From what I know there are 2 systems going that way :
1/ the diamond hotend. The idea is to melt several filaments inside a single hotend. so far very experimental.
2/ there was a company bought by 3D systems (botobject) that had a CMYK system where you mix 5 colours to get the shade you want.

To be honest I'm not sure of the effectiveness and the control you have on the resulting shade.

[curious aardvark]

several machines shipping with this ability.
I think all the BUILDER machines have this ability and there are a couple of chinese companies also selling machines with this type of extruder.
http://builder3dprinters.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjw_7y4BRDykp3Hjqyt_y0SJACome3TvkQQpg5 Ve9Vj7Pywz_r4jIMCx9SBC5-qdwYSenr4ahoCvBHw_wcB

Also the cel robox has an extruder capable of mixing filaments.

I've seena couple adverts for a printer with the same type of extruder from a chinese company recently, might have been an email ad.

But basically, yep plenty around.

[Wolfie]

Well, if expensive hot ends/extruders is not your ball of wax, have you investigated using Sharpie markers to colorize filament. I have printed sharpie holders and used it to successfully color filament during the print process.

[awerby]

There was a fellow in a digital sculpture show I participated in that used markers to color his prints selectively; his name was Tom Burtonwood, and I thought his results were quite interesting: http://tomburtonwood.com/2014/09/plo...-form-studies/

I saw the Botobjects machine at a 3D printing expo; it had more than 5 different colors of filament loaded. But I don't think it made colors by combining primaries; it had a way of switching the filaments into a single extruder head, so one color would blend into another, but only until the residual plastic in the hotend was exhausted.

The Builder machine seems to be able to vary the percentage of 2 separate filaments going into the same nozzle, but it would need at least 3 for full color.

I looked on the Cel Robox site: http://www.cel-robox.com/ but didn't see anything about blending colors; it does seem to have the ability to print with different nozzles of varying diameter, though.

The Diamond hotend does seem like exactly what the OP was looking for: http://3d-printing-review.com/diamon...single-nozzle/

It's being offered for sale now: http://reprap.me/diamond-hotend.html