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Question for those with multi-extruder printers

slow-poke

slow-poke

Ultra Member
Recently I 3D printed some button caps with a different color for the label. My (old) Prusa only has one extruder so what I ended up doing is printing the caps with the symbols debossed and then used model paint to fill in the void (PITA and time consuming) but it looks okayish. The numeric caps were taken from one of those $3 Ali type keypads and they obviously look a bit better.

Based on results from when I print multiple objects during one print, the results are not great because typically a little "hair" of filament seems to track between the various items being printed. which makes me wonder if I had a multiple extruders for multiple colors how well does the printer print the color transition when it has to keep flipping back and forth from one color to another as it would have to when printing fine lines of one color?
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Look into your retraction settings. Try printing a retraction calibration print to dial them in. Retraction pull the filament back before a move so you do not see the stringing you are talking about. Certain materials are better than others too.

Honestly the default retraction settings usually work pretty good but are usually disabled by default as it slows the print down slightly.
 
I have not printed in multi colour yet with my Prusa XL. I have printed PLA and PETG, both in black. No real issues with stringing. I do have PLA in white and black to make bicoloured parts, just have done so.
Pierre
 
Print your buttons face side up. At the depth of your Debossing line change colours. In Prusiaslicer and others like orca you can set a pause at height. Actually Prusiaslicer even asks you to do this in some circumstances. I use it all the time to do exactly what you’re doing. I just made cake toppers for my nieces wedding. If you want the colour change inset then you simply change colour twice. If you want multiple colours you look at the object having a different height for that colour. Down to about 0.4. 0.2 seemed a bit see through. I can post some examples. If you printed one or all your keys at once as long as the colour change is at the same heights they should all work.

As to the multi material printers. You often have to print a priming tower or do a purge and wipe. Even the latest systems with the cutter in the head need to purge a small amount each colour change. Van posted on the retraction issue.

I have a printer set up for pla and two setup for Petg. Rarely use the pla one, basically only use it for cosplay stuff. All my other prints are petg.
 
Here are a couple of examples. The phone case stand is with an MMU swapping red and white within the same layer 0.4mm nozzle. looks pretty good. The pen holder for the notebook is 0.8mm nozzle with MMU. Prints faster but does not look as good. The ear bud case label is printed WITHOUT an MMU. This is just a colour swap to print the white layers on top of the red background at the appropriate layer. 0.4mm nozzle with a low layer height. I think 3 layers of white on top of the red.

One thing that can help a lot with printing letters is making sure the physical parts have a total height which matches the height of the printing layers. So say you have a 0.15mm layer height, and the first layer is set to 0.2mm then you want the part height to be a multiple of the layer height + plus initial layer. Like 0.2mm plus 4 layers of 0.15 = (0.2 + 4*0.15) =0.80mm. If your lettering looks like crap check for this.
 

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Just for fun here is some stuff I'm working on. We have the 3d printed lathe stop with threaded inserts (there's a forum thread on that, still not that successful). An F-clamp wall holder, and an 3d printed adapter to go between this brush and a hex shaft. Dish cleaning express. Don't tell my spouse it's a new "toilet" brush. Actually I'm revolted too if I think about it.
 

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Darren said:
Here's one using the AMS on the X1C

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You've got me thinking Darren about printing scales with 10th and 20th" indications. I have various iGaging squares and prentice 3x combination set but they are all in the usual fractions measurements. I wonder if somebody has done that already and if there are any uploads on printables etc.
 
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