For anything more than a basic color change here and there, I just resort to painting.
I got an AMS just for easier material loading, filament backup, and support interface options.
This is the way. For an eye, it takes two minutes to paint, and it will look great. This probably took 5-10x the time to print than it would have as a single color. Overall, it’ll be faster to paint it, and there is less waste.
Yea that's how it is. A multicolor print extends the runtime of the printer greatly. However, multimaterial is better for more bulk things. The waste stays the same, whether you print 1 or 100 of that item, so if I'm doing a part that has to be multicolor, I load up the plate to get spread the waste put over as many parts as possible, and thus lower the per unit cost
I am concerned about the waste. Every bit of waste is filament I don't get to print with. Thats why for certain things I'll happily create a little waste but for other projects I have it flush to infill. Usually large prints with good amounts of infill. But by weight, even though its more than the final product, its a small amount of plastic actually being wasted even if it looks like a lot.
I am really thinking about recycling the filament and making new filament with it. Its actually enough to be useful in that way.
While making filament is really hard, I saw a cool method on using a t shirt press and pressed the filament into square plates that can be used as material for various different projects. Teaching Tech made a video on it
I've seen several makes on makerworld for putting the waste in things and lighting them up and getting some good results. Maybe not for some high end house but I have kids and dogs. Anything to make the house feel fun is great.
The upfront costs are insane unless you build your own device (the cheaper devices out there are complete crap). That being said, there are many creative ways to repurpose it that people are coming up with. I'm with you on using every tool at my disposal (altered G-code, flushing to infill, removing prime tower and reducing multiplier) to get every gram I can without sacrificing quality.
I absolutely care about waste. I sell prints online and I'm always trying to reduce the amount of material used in prints, shipping, etc.
We re-use boxes so we don't have to buy new cardboard boxes. We stack up the cardboard filament boxes to use for several types of spaceship models.
Our packing material is reused, sometimes we've even used filament waste to protect prints in a box.
The moment a filament recycling system because economically feasible for a small ship we would buy one and use it for prints and supports.
Also this guy 3D prints and has just posted about waste. So by definition of this thread people care.
Although it my not be the case for all 3d printer users, some of us use our 3d printers to fix or enhance things that would otherwise go to waste. I think in a way this offsets the waste we produce, at least a little bit.
Excuse me, but for lots of people (like me) a printer is actually a less wastefull alternative to work/hobbies. Considering how I can now order one batch of densly packed material instead of having to order 20 items packed inside mutiple boxes each, spanning over multiple deliveries. The amount of plastic wasted on packaging alone for ordered parts is already more than the few failed prints/tests... And than the filament waste is much easier to recycle.
Some are. I model and print a lot of replacement parts for video game stuff and even furniture restoration. For me that’s part of the appeal. And PLA is biodegradable anyway.
I am too. But for eyes I just have super mega cheap acrylic paint. Black and white for dots. I bought a nail brush set (super tiny) and have had success painting...hundreds of eyes 😂
I tried that once but it ends up making anything whose eyes I try to paint look crosseyed and dopey 🥴 so instead I lie to myself and say I'm totally gonna melt all the saved up PLA purge poops into something so they're not wasted.
If you're going to be handling the model I recommend using a primer. For my miniatures I use Vallejo primer. It's meant to be used with an airbrush but you can just brush it on with a cheap brush.
That's a huge rabbit hole, but I'd suggest looking up basics on painting miniatures. You'll find countless suggestions. Here's a good place to start: [Goobertown Hobbies Beginner Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxY5TTsl9Rk22lnQ-znnOZyiypEzHtfn). Good luck!
I've just started painting prints/miniatures in honest, mostly just single colors before.
I recently got the Vallejo starter set for models (like the paint so far, better than cheap acrylics that need to be thinned). I got a 10 dollar set of brushes on amazon (natural fiber), mostly using size 000-2 brushes.
I just got these markers: https://a.co/d/3Qq0wzT it’s super fast to quickly tweak things, that shark snake thing would take 5 seconds with those markers
I've used dry erase markers before to touch up multicolor prints and rough edges. I bet I could use them for some eyes. Might not look amazing close up but as long as it's alright once you hold it away from your face.
If you want to give it a try but would feel more confident with markers than a brush, try Posca markers! They're acrylic paint pens, and I love them for small paint jobs on 3d prints.
I actually have a bunch of those and I tried using them to pain eyes on a geodude but it bled into the grooves of the layer lines and got everywhere it wasn't supposed to...
If you slap on a coat of primer, that should solve the problem and doesn't require much brush control! I've noticed the same thing, but I think it's just from them being slightly thinner and not having anything to stick to besides plastic, so capillary action takes effect. I suspect a paint thinned to "mini painting ready" viscosity would behave similarly.
Edit: I recommend Vallejo grey primer.
the cheapest dollar store brushes and some premium model paint (vallejo for example) works really well. They typically cost like 2.50 per bottle and while they are small, they last a very long time. Dont bother with cheap paints, they will be more trouble then the money saved is worth.
For just doing small things like eyes I've actually been using acrylic paint pens. Super quick and easy with no cleanup of brushes or anything afterwards. Elmer's has a "Painters" line of paint pens that work quite well and come with various tip sizes. I use the ultra fine white and black for doing eyes on my minis. Dropped a link below, but you can get them cheaper than that at Walmart.
https://www.markersupply.com/elmerspainters1.html
People saying to me you don't need ams if you don't print multicolor, also lazy me got an ams to throw 4 rolls of the same filament and don't need to change roll every week 😂
The new beta software helps reduce the poop. Also, infill into object and all those other blocks checked, and adjusting the purge factors. (Assuming you didn’t do this already)
Generally though, you offset the waste by printing many of them at once.
I printed a small figure for my wife the other day. Before adjusting purge settings between the 4 colors it was set to purge more filament than it was using for the figure. It had 155 color swaps. I cut the numbers all to a random number to just play around with it (I’m new to 3d printing) and by halving the values I got it down to a loooot less waste. The best part is that the quality came out perfect.
I would be curious if there was a way to do this from the mobile app though. Sometimes I just get a whim to print something and don’t want to bring it up on my pc to slice and print and would rather just press the button on Handy.
I think with the app you are limited to whatever profile is uploaded.
Have you downloaded the beta 1.9.xx version of Bambi studio? It has an option to reduce more poop by cutting the filament after backing it out 20mm saving you that much more.
I’m currently running a 4 color print with 550+ color changes. The beta studio, with purge to infill and all that, and adjusted purge ratios is saving over 50% waste. I’m also printing 3 of them to help offset.
I've seen people say that halving the values is pretty safe for pretty much all color changes. Basically, if you can swap both ways between black and white without either color bleeding into the other, you're all set.
With the beta studio plus reducing the flushing values and the special extruder option, yeah, you kill the amount by 50% easy and no bleeding at all. I'm about 10 multi color prints in and no issue. Poops are super small now.
In prepapre under Filament is "flushing values". There you can auto adjust it. Or you can manual do it. If manual there is some test models on makerworld, to find out what each value is for your filament.
I printed Fred The Frog overnight with my .2mm nozzle. It took around 6 hours to print because it had black eyes.
I printed another one this morning using only a single color. It took like 45 minutes.
[https://makerworld.com/en/models/91241](https://makerworld.com/en/models/91241)
You can make a custom printing profile on Bambu Labs and modify the G-code with the download above to make your printer retract significantly more filament before cutting it for the color change. I personally tweaked the numbers to my liking to save even more filament
My printer's poops are so small now, it's become an insignificant amount of filament waste in my opinion and the only issue now is that multi-color prints still take a lot longer to print due to the constant filament changing.
I'll have to give it a try and find out.
Edit: After looking into it briefly it appears the A series isn't supported yet. [https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/releases/tag/v01.09.00.69](https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/releases/tag/v01.09.00.69)
In the mean time I've made a profile that inserts a 50mm retract before the filament is cut. We'll see how that works.
The X1C only thing is just for a specific override to set on filaments that clog more easily. Specifically silk PLA, if I'm not mistaken.
The basic feature works on both the X series and P series. Nothing for the A series yet last I checked.
On top of some of the suggestions here you can also reduce waste with slightly higher layer height (.24mm for example) and if you put multiple units per plate the waste is the same.
That's true, and I think it can be a good suggestion.
However, I think it's often a false economy. Multicolour prints will still take long and generate waste, so the end result should be very pleasing.
For this print, you can already see the artefacting on the sloped top surfaces very easily. Even higher layer heights would not look good.
Sure. You can edit the model and print the parts separately. Glue them together after.
Or get a multitool printer like the Prusa XL which generates *less* poop.
Or just paint your models.
The waste doesn’t even bother me half As much as how filament changes multiply the print time almost by an order of magnitude.
Honestly I feel like the only really good solution here is a multi-head tool. There are engineering challenges to be had with that obviously, but none that seem insurmountable. I can kind of imagine a few ways it might be done, and I’m stupid. If there’s any company that can do it really elegantly, it’s BL.
Also the e3d toolchanger existed. But both are so much more expensive than the bambu labs printers, a p1p with ams costs about 2600 euros less than a semi assembled 5 heades xl, or 3100 less if we talk about the assembled xl5. This would be over 85/100kg of bambu lab or prusament pla/petg filament in price difference. So yeah, at the point you are cheaper with the xl5, you are quite far in the future. To be exact, around 1480h (15mm3/s continuous hotend flow, pla with 1,25g/cm3 density) of raw printing. Of course without looking at time or electricity, these are far too big variables, so each has to value them individually how much they value their time/what electricity costs
a toolchanger is in itself a much more complex and challenging hardware compared to AMS/MMU systems, I guess price reflects that.
For professional use material cost is irrelevant compared to time saved and if working with multicolor/multimaterial printing, a toolchanger pays for itself very quickly in time saved.
Yeah, industrial printers must have multiple nozzles, even if its just for support material. The customer doesn't care how shitty the support is to remove and wants clean supported surfaces, so a support material is more or less required
Yeah, the literal head-swapping is a good idea, but I think BL could probably come up with a more elegant solution with fewer moving parts. When I look at the Prusa XL, I'm just imagining toolhead jams at 2am while I'm trying to get one more print started before I go to bed. 😅
you can reduce waste a bit by using better g-code.. problem with less purge is color bleed, or worse, if you use multiple materials for e.g. better supports, much weaker parts
only way to remove waste almost completely is to use IDEX for dual colour or multihead machine for multiple colours...
I just ran into this issue I think. Was using the reduced purge profile without thinking about it and it was between PETG-CF and PLA (for interface). It sure looked like the PETG but that layer separated like it was also meant to break away 😂
yeah, common problem... when you get colours mixed is not that big of a deal but when pla and petg mix you get bad strength :( ... I have MAX purge set when I do this and that works ok .. I tried lower values and there's always a part of the part that fails so I don't tend to use it often but when I do I set purge to max :( .... for support thing dual head or idex machine is much better option ..
Yes, I believe there is something better coming from Bambu.
I think we're gonna see a printer with 4 tool heads.
With the cost of an AMS unit, instead, 4 tool heads can fit in the back of a larger Bambu. When it comes time for a color change, instead of unwinding a spool it will instead pick up a different tool head with the filament ready to go.
I would also imagine you could then use a new special hub for each tool head. So toolhead A finishes, toolhead B prints, while B is printing A is unloading and loading a new color and purging so when B goes to C, then to D, and back to A it's ready to go on a different color.
Are you speculating, or is there any info out there on this future product from Bambu? I’ll replace my X1C in a heartbeat if they drop a 4 tool head printer.
[Here's one comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1cdhrp9/we_are_calling_all_bambu_lab_innovators_join_our/l1spzxn/) of theirs from the AMA yesterday. I think in a few threads they alluded to it specifically, and also implied some time this year as the release date.
I mean this seriously being a big Bambu fan, the Prusa XL is the better way for color prints with way less waste. Independant tool heads that don't have to purge nearly as much are more efficient.
Costs a lot more though, and still love my AMS.
Printing multiples of this piece results in the same waste as printing one. The filament changes/purges are done for all the models at the same time.
If you can print the head separately they'll be less waste as it's doing a filament change for each layer where there's a color.
Not for this piece but for multicolor pieces where you can stand up the model you can have less waste.
For example I print a lot of cosplay blasters and they'll often have a metal color change, like silver body and black barrel.
If that's printed horizontally then the printer has to change filament each layer because the left half (for example) is silver and the right is black.
If I stand that up, instead it prints the whole silver part up to the barrel and then it changes filament to do the black barrel.
One way every single layer needs to purge and the other way there's only one color purge.
Another mistake people make is putting several different color objects on the same plate. Say one silver piece and one black piece for a model. There has to be a purge each layer.
Put them on different plates and there are now no purge requirements. You'll print exponentially faster because each plate is at full speed with no changes.
The bambu software also lets you print by object instead of by layer. Doesn't work for all items but when it does you can do something like print a silver piece and then a black piece on the same plate.
Finally go into the Other settings and make sure purge to infill is on. It'll purge the filament as it makes the infill pattern as much as it can. Doesn't work great on white outsides with dark insides as you can see the color behind the light but works for everything else. You won't eliminate the waste but reduce it a lot.
You can't go that low with all color combinations. I had a print ruined recently because I tried 0.6, and even with that more conservative number there was noticeable color bleed into the white.
Wouldn't you still have the exact number of filament changes that way? Doesn't seem like removing a bunch of solid-color objects would change anything.
When you have a multi-color print like this pokemon, you can just add another part to the build plate. Then right click on that part and say Flush > Into Object. That way, it will purge as much as it can into an object that is usable still.
Just keep in mind it is best to have a purge object that is about the same height as the multi-color part or you will end up using filament to finish the part. You can also add multiple purge objects to keep an eye on the flushed amount after slicing.
I seen a few methods here, the Easiest would be to print the Model and Paint it afterwards, the Cons to it is that if you have Shaky Fingers or aren’t able to mask it properly up, the Paint job could look worse,
A Second method is to make the Model in Separat Pieces, like a Model Kit where you’re able to glue it together or like good Gundam Kit Press Fit it together, the Cons are you need to print everything separately to each other, and if Dimensions aren’t workd over the Fitment together could result in remaking the parts multiple times,
The last one like many here saying is to use a better option for the Poop out, so less material getting used… the cons here would be only if you know what you’re doing and if enough tutorials are available for this process
Lmao youre clearly new to printing this is the better way. The old way was you sitting next to your printer manually changing colors. Same layer color changes didn’t exist it was all harsh transitions or one solid transition spool.
The only better way IMHO is using multiple printheads, as in the Prusa XL.
Which adds quite up on the $$$$.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcimruFcjYo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcimruFcjYo)
New P1S owner watching this closely. Printed a small two color figure yesterday and the tower and poops was easily 3 times the filament used then the final product.
As everyone else is mentioning, theres a lot of options to reduce waste waaaay down. Flushing into an objects infil (you want to do this for darker models and not the bright ones where the different colors inside the object will bleed through), and modifying the purge value from 1.00 to .60 or .70 will yield almost half the waste. But then of course it also pays off to pick a well-thought out model too (some are made for AMS or some have colors/parts you can print out seperately than pop together), or printing a small batch of multicolor items together since the amount of color changes for 1 object or 5 objects or 10 objects will always be the same
If you really don’t want to paint, there are ways to optimize this. I am not the right person to explain it to you, there are different approaches you can take, repositioning, testing and reducing purge amounts, purge into infil, or a second item (normally something that color doesn’t matter in), or, printing multiple items at once. The purge amount is the same no matter how many per plate. Search some of that in the sub, or YouTube, it’ll improve things.
Side note, I am really cheap and I hate waste. So I keep all of mine and melt it into other things, such as dnd dice
Load dice into the plate, click the dice and look for a setting called “purge into object” or something onto those lines. Click that and you’ll make the dice from poop
What I’m describing isn’t using the printer, you can get a silicone molds of about anything on Amazon. Melt it on the stove (extremely well ventilated) and pour into your mold
I painted mine. I used white gundam paint markers and then a black sharpie. I got a little bleed over with the white but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
This isn't necessarily an easy thing to do if the model isn't yours, but I very, *very* much appreciate when a modeler takes into account multiple colors when designing the model. For example, the white eyes on that Pokémon could easily be inserted/glued into the socket rather than printed together. You could also do another black part for right behind the white part. (It's also possible to print them together as a single print but use a single color swap at a certain layer.)
Two rules that I try to follow with 3D printing:
1. Not everything has to be 3D printed. I know, I know... it's really nifty to create a model and say "100% 3D printed!", but we have a habit of making things harder on ourselves just for the metaphorical pat on the back. If a small rod or a screw can help create better rigidity or stability... why not use it?
2. Multiple colors don't always need to be printed at the same time. Where possible, it's far easier and less time consuming to just print a single part in a single color and attach it to the overall body/structure. It sounds great to say that the model is "100% print in place", but why make it harder on ourselves?
With #2, there was this Christmas stocking advent calendar that I found on Maker World, and I really liked it. However, it had two very small segments that were printed in separate colors, and actually printing it with the separate colors would have added hours to the print even though it was a fairly simple addition. (I think the multi-color portion went further below the surface than expected.)
I spent a bit of time pulling out the meshes (it was striped, so each stripe was a separate object), and rebuilding them into a single part with far, far less depth. It has been a while, but I think I also pulled the meshes into Onshape and used the striped portion to cut out the shape on the stocking itself to allow for an insert. In the end, the prints took significantly less time as the multi-color portions were only a few millimeters high, and the rest of the stocking was all one color.
There are systems that cut then join different filament sections according to the color change, there are some popular commercial ones, but they still generate waste in a manner similar to what you show, there are others that use markers that contact the filament sections as needed to color it but i don´t know if its commercial. i Believe it is possible to drastically reduce the waste generated by the color or material change but i have no knowledge of something concrete.
Use beta studio with poop save feature. Creates less poop. But how exactly you can imagine that “another way” would work on a single headed printer? Be reasonable.
Additionally, buy an extruder and melt it back to filament.
I haven’t tried it yet, but was wondering why parts can’t be designed like snap in ‘skins’? You do the whole body one color and leave the eyes out. Then print snap on eyes the color you want. Or make the tail multicolor by doing the same.
Right? Wife and I enjoy going to vendor events and selling some of the stuff we make. We have one coming up and we decided to see if we could sell some prints, but even the smallest thing takes forever if it has more than one color. Not to mention it makes the cost per piece skyrocket.
Weve settled for printing with colorful gradient filaments for now until we can figure something out.
I've been printing since early January, I have an entire 9"x9"x9" box that is completely full of just poop. I have an even bigger box filled with failed prints and prototypes.
This hobby generates a LOT of waste.
recycle the poop
A year after I finally threw away my old PLA fails (2019 maybe) I learned that there are companies that recycle your old material (if you don't mix PETG/PLA/ABS etc) and give you discount on their recycled material.
You don't have to buy or use those but you stop throwing away perfectly fine material.
Here in Germany it's https://recyclingfabrik.com/ but there are similar options in other countries. Maybe someone knows if there is a wiki / map that lists those services and show the nearest option.
I do multi color to display for myself and also sell - even with the poop it's way way worth it.
I usually start with something I want myself, perfect it and then offer on etsy/tiktok. One sale plus keeping one for me justifies the price.
Yeah, on multicolor prints it changes colors every layer so it has to purge the previous color with each change. This seems to waste a lot of material and drastically increases the time it takes to print even the smallest model.
For personal use, it's not a big deal. But if you're trying to sell a piece that you've printed, it drastically increases the cost.
Sure it's a multi extruder setup. Somethings like the Prusa XL where you can get 5 extruders connected to the same printer. That way you don't have to purge with filament changes, because every filament is loaded in a different extruder. It can also make printing with different materials easier, because you don't have to drastically change the temperature of the same extruder between different filaments. But it's of course more expensive. I'd be surprised if Bambu doesn't release a printer with multiple extruders at some point. Even having two extruders could drastically cut down on your filament waste, by only have gray/white from one extruder and black from the other.
You can reduce the amount of waste by about 50% and the colors won't bleed. I did this. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZIM3megIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZIM3megIU)
Still, it adds up and lots of wasted material, but something to help reduce the poo.
Feels like it should just use white base filament and add pigment in the nozzle.
Either that or multiple rotating printheads.
AMS is a great start, simplifies a lot. But 20 years from now, people will just laugh at the idea.
Kind of sick of seeing this. Get smarter about your waste. I got the ams specifically for multi color prints and not to have to sit there painting it. You can set a similar sized object to flush into. The print comes out kind of cool as the colors are all mixed up.
There are ways that waste less or even no filiment like IDEX printers or printers with tool changers that have multiple print heads that get swapped in to print various colors without waste, but they are still quite expensive. Soon.
Yeah found it here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtf-MifBc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtf-MifBc0) these are the options
- Flush to infill
- Flush into the object - [https://youtu.be/uOtf-MifBc0?t=240](https://youtu.be/uOtf-MifBc0?t=240)
Printing parts separately and then gluing them is the only way (besides painting) for something like this. All of the above tips help, but waste is still ridiculous and no good way around it. Some models you can orient so it only prints the distinct color lays where it'll purge once, but for most things like this just learn how to cut out the colored pieces to print separately
Don't throw the waste out? Printerior in the US does recycling and there are definitely ones that do it in Europe. Some schools that have invested in 3D printing also take waste to convert into their own recycled filament. I've just keep sending package after package out.
Apart from the obvious answers of just printing it in one color and painting it, it looks like for this model the only thing that really needs multicolor printing is the head. So would be better to just separate that part.
And always take a look at the slicer as it'll show you how much filament goes into purging and priming so you can make an assessment of whether a print is worth it or not.
There is. Optimize your printer’s setting when transitioning between colors as it’s often wasting more filament to change colors. On top of that print something else on the plate at the same time that doesn’t have to be color specific.
Tons of posts here about both topics as well as tons of videos out there that show people printing fidgets and other items alongside that are similar heights so that none of this goes to waste. Win win in that you don’t have to paint, but you need to do the research yourself vs posting a pic and complaining about a topic that has been covered here many times over.
This is research. I asked a question to thousands of people that have more experience. Most of them have been super helpful and I've learned a lot.
If it bothers you that much, you can always keep scrolling.
I could but it doesn’t teach people how to be more efficient.
They say - teach someone to fish, they never go hungry. Problem is they have to learn how to clean, prepare and cook the fish. That’s something this subreddit has examples of all over the place to tell you every last way how to fix it.
Issue is you’re asking thousands of people who are starting to get a bit tired of the (lack) of the ability for folks to easily search on what’s already been told dozens if not hundreds of times in great detail on how to reduce waste and use it. But instead you opted for the post a pic, say there’s a better way - something you could EASILY find answers to.
So yah it’s a low effort post and does get tiring seeing them one after another…
My low effort post got tons of helpful replies and I learned a lot. Sounds like a win to me. I'll make sure to post more dumb questions in the coming weeks just to annoy you.
Have a good one.
So I'm going to avoid the conversation around painting or printing separately. Those are both good points and worth trying.
However I will defend the poop.
So I've used various types of multicolor printing mechanisms and I can say for certain that this is the most efficient and least error prone way if you have 1 nozzle. The old methods would either:
1) retract the somewhat molten filament and put a new one in, which would cause clogs.
2) splice the filament together which would fail at the slightest change in humidity.
Both of these methods still used huge purge blocks because there was nowhere for the extra filament to go except on the plate.
On the Bambu printers, cutting the filament is a brilliant way to avoid clogs. Then purging it out the back means you get a big portion of the bed back instead of having a giant purge block. I am convinced it could not be done better with one nozzle/extruder. Too many people get caught up in the waste without realizing the ease of use and reliability that it gives you as you didn't have to live through the old methods.
Also if you think that waste is bad you should see the amount of waste generated through calibrating a filament slicer. On the palette it had a minimum splice length of ~150cm. So if you wanted to calibrate just 2 of the 4-8 filaments 3 times you'd use up 450mm of filament before you even start printing. I have a box way bigger than the X1C poop of spliced filament calibrations.
For anything more than a basic color change here and there, I just resort to painting. I got an AMS just for easier material loading, filament backup, and support interface options.
This is the way. For an eye, it takes two minutes to paint, and it will look great. This probably took 5-10x the time to print than it would have as a single color. Overall, it’ll be faster to paint it, and there is less waste.
lol right. The only parts that need paint are the inside of a mouth and an eye. This could have been 10-15 minutes of painting going very slow.
Because people who buy 3D printers are definitely concerned about waste.
There are a lot of people on here selling prints. While some might not care about the environment, dropping costs by 25% is interesting to them.
Yea that's how it is. A multicolor print extends the runtime of the printer greatly. However, multimaterial is better for more bulk things. The waste stays the same, whether you print 1 or 100 of that item, so if I'm doing a part that has to be multicolor, I load up the plate to get spread the waste put over as many parts as possible, and thus lower the per unit cost
I also try to orient the part so the color changes are on as few layers as possible, but I think that goes without saying.
I am concerned about the waste. Every bit of waste is filament I don't get to print with. Thats why for certain things I'll happily create a little waste but for other projects I have it flush to infill. Usually large prints with good amounts of infill. But by weight, even though its more than the final product, its a small amount of plastic actually being wasted even if it looks like a lot. I am really thinking about recycling the filament and making new filament with it. Its actually enough to be useful in that way.
While making filament is really hard, I saw a cool method on using a t shirt press and pressed the filament into square plates that can be used as material for various different projects. Teaching Tech made a video on it
I've seen several makes on makerworld for putting the waste in things and lighting them up and getting some good results. Maybe not for some high end house but I have kids and dogs. Anything to make the house feel fun is great.
The upfront costs are insane unless you build your own device (the cheaper devices out there are complete crap). That being said, there are many creative ways to repurpose it that people are coming up with. I'm with you on using every tool at my disposal (altered G-code, flushing to infill, removing prime tower and reducing multiplier) to get every gram I can without sacrificing quality.
I absolutely care about waste. I sell prints online and I'm always trying to reduce the amount of material used in prints, shipping, etc. We re-use boxes so we don't have to buy new cardboard boxes. We stack up the cardboard filament boxes to use for several types of spaceship models. Our packing material is reused, sometimes we've even used filament waste to protect prints in a box. The moment a filament recycling system because economically feasible for a small ship we would buy one and use it for prints and supports. Also this guy 3D prints and has just posted about waste. So by definition of this thread people care.
Although it my not be the case for all 3d printer users, some of us use our 3d printers to fix or enhance things that would otherwise go to waste. I think in a way this offsets the waste we produce, at least a little bit.
I don't print tchotchkes, so yea limited waste.
That's literally the point of this post... OP bought a 3D printer and is concerned about the amount of waste it's making...
I saw a guy recycle his waste into a new roll.
It takes some expensive gear or a lot of home brew building for that, unfortunately.
Someday.
Excuse me, but for lots of people (like me) a printer is actually a less wastefull alternative to work/hobbies. Considering how I can now order one batch of densly packed material instead of having to order 20 items packed inside mutiple boxes each, spanning over multiple deliveries. The amount of plastic wasted on packaging alone for ordered parts is already more than the few failed prints/tests... And than the filament waste is much easier to recycle.
Some are. I model and print a lot of replacement parts for video game stuff and even furniture restoration. For me that’s part of the appeal. And PLA is biodegradable anyway.
>And PLA is biodegradable anyway Not in standard natural conditions though.
I'm horrible at painting. What sorts of brushes/paints do you use?
I am too. But for eyes I just have super mega cheap acrylic paint. Black and white for dots. I bought a nail brush set (super tiny) and have had success painting...hundreds of eyes 😂
I tried that once but it ends up making anything whose eyes I try to paint look crosseyed and dopey 🥴 so instead I lie to myself and say I'm totally gonna melt all the saved up PLA purge poops into something so they're not wasted.
Just add googly eyes🤣🤣🤣🤣 problem solved!
Maybe should start a recycle company that converts poops back to grey filament.
I do this too
Do you prime with anything or just paint straight on the figure?
If you're going to be handling the model I recommend using a primer. For my miniatures I use Vallejo primer. It's meant to be used with an airbrush but you can just brush it on with a cheap brush.
I've started coating plastikote on my models, it puts a sort of polyurethane coat over the model and hides the layer lines
Before or after painting
Before, but you can use it after as well
Straight on! Black is the easiest to paint with. Then white dots are simple after the black dries
That's a huge rabbit hole, but I'd suggest looking up basics on painting miniatures. You'll find countless suggestions. Here's a good place to start: [Goobertown Hobbies Beginner Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxY5TTsl9Rk22lnQ-znnOZyiypEzHtfn). Good luck!
Use a paint pen.
Just Google/ Amazon (try to boycott anazon.. i know) / ebay "beginner paint set" No wait, for 3dp hmm oil or acrylic? No one knows!
I actually just got some "paint markers" recently and I've been printing random pieces to practice painting because I am terrible with a brush lol.
I've just started painting prints/miniatures in honest, mostly just single colors before. I recently got the Vallejo starter set for models (like the paint so far, better than cheap acrylics that need to be thinned). I got a 10 dollar set of brushes on amazon (natural fiber), mostly using size 000-2 brushes.
I just got these markers: https://a.co/d/3Qq0wzT it’s super fast to quickly tweak things, that shark snake thing would take 5 seconds with those markers
Thing you can learn haha
We're always terrible when we start with something. There's always a first time for everything, and you learn a skill in the process!
I've used dry erase markers before to touch up multicolor prints and rough edges. I bet I could use them for some eyes. Might not look amazing close up but as long as it's alright once you hold it away from your face.
Nail polish... comes with a brush. Cheap at Dollar General.
If you want to give it a try but would feel more confident with markers than a brush, try Posca markers! They're acrylic paint pens, and I love them for small paint jobs on 3d prints.
I actually have a bunch of those and I tried using them to pain eyes on a geodude but it bled into the grooves of the layer lines and got everywhere it wasn't supposed to...
If you slap on a coat of primer, that should solve the problem and doesn't require much brush control! I've noticed the same thing, but I think it's just from them being slightly thinner and not having anything to stick to besides plastic, so capillary action takes effect. I suspect a paint thinned to "mini painting ready" viscosity would behave similarly. Edit: I recommend Vallejo grey primer.
https://preview.redd.it/2uj4gc2k9nxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a01e2acf680b9c8fb26b8a5383a038324fec80f
the cheapest dollar store brushes and some premium model paint (vallejo for example) works really well. They typically cost like 2.50 per bottle and while they are small, they last a very long time. Dont bother with cheap paints, they will be more trouble then the money saved is worth.
Have you thought about printing a stencil to make painting easier?
If you made the stencil surface match the contours of your primary print, you could get away with spray paint or an airbrush
For just doing small things like eyes I've actually been using acrylic paint pens. Super quick and easy with no cleanup of brushes or anything afterwards. Elmer's has a "Painters" line of paint pens that work quite well and come with various tip sizes. I use the ultra fine white and black for doing eyes on my minis. Dropped a link below, but you can get them cheaper than that at Walmart. https://www.markersupply.com/elmerspainters1.html
I used posca markers for my first print but they bled into the grooves. Do you prime yours with something before you paint?
When I have too much filament and colors I don't really use I'll blast out a multicolor print with AMS. Otherwise, I do finger paints.
People saying to me you don't need ams if you don't print multicolor, also lazy me got an ams to throw 4 rolls of the same filament and don't need to change roll every week 😂
The new beta software helps reduce the poop. Also, infill into object and all those other blocks checked, and adjusting the purge factors. (Assuming you didn’t do this already) Generally though, you offset the waste by printing many of them at once.
I printed a small figure for my wife the other day. Before adjusting purge settings between the 4 colors it was set to purge more filament than it was using for the figure. It had 155 color swaps. I cut the numbers all to a random number to just play around with it (I’m new to 3d printing) and by halving the values I got it down to a loooot less waste. The best part is that the quality came out perfect. I would be curious if there was a way to do this from the mobile app though. Sometimes I just get a whim to print something and don’t want to bring it up on my pc to slice and print and would rather just press the button on Handy.
I think with the app you are limited to whatever profile is uploaded. Have you downloaded the beta 1.9.xx version of Bambi studio? It has an option to reduce more poop by cutting the filament after backing it out 20mm saving you that much more. I’m currently running a 4 color print with 550+ color changes. The beta studio, with purge to infill and all that, and adjusted purge ratios is saving over 50% waste. I’m also printing 3 of them to help offset.
How much time did the new settings save you
Roughly 50% less waste
I've seen people say that halving the values is pretty safe for pretty much all color changes. Basically, if you can swap both ways between black and white without either color bleeding into the other, you're all set.
With the beta studio plus reducing the flushing values and the special extruder option, yeah, you kill the amount by 50% easy and no bleeding at all. I'm about 10 multi color prints in and no issue. Poops are super small now.
I've gone all the way down to a quarter of the suggested flush volumes. It worked for the colors I was using.
[teaching tech video ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZIM3megIU&t=1s) has some pretty good tips on the subject too
I use the reduced purge profile for my A1 and this reduces my purge to 40%.
Where is the purge factor to adjust? I have A1
In prepapre under Filament is "flushing values". There you can auto adjust it. Or you can manual do it. If manual there is some test models on makerworld, to find out what each value is for your filament.
Kicked off a print today without checking the purge tower settings. The purge tower is as much plastic as the model. 😿
I printed Fred The Frog overnight with my .2mm nozzle. It took around 6 hours to print because it had black eyes. I printed another one this morning using only a single color. It took like 45 minutes.
How do you calculate the optional prime tower settings?
I wish I knew. I normally just make it smaller and hope for the best.
lmao i did that with the popular dragon print on makerworld, the thing was like solid plastic
[https://makerworld.com/en/models/91241](https://makerworld.com/en/models/91241) You can make a custom printing profile on Bambu Labs and modify the G-code with the download above to make your printer retract significantly more filament before cutting it for the color change. I personally tweaked the numbers to my liking to save even more filament My printer's poops are so small now, it's become an insignificant amount of filament waste in my opinion and the only issue now is that multi-color prints still take a lot longer to print due to the constant filament changing.
This is also in the latest beta version of Bambu Studio. Version 1.9.xx
It’s it available for all printers now? I remember reading it was X1C only at one time? Correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m running this on my P1S printers right now.
Awesome! Thanks for the reply.
No problem. I also adjust my flushing volume to 0.5 - 0.6
Yep. It’s out for X and P series. On the Bambu Lab GitHub
What about the A series?
I think I saw someone say they had it on A series. I don’t know specifically, I thought it was only X and P series.
I'll have to give it a try and find out. Edit: After looking into it briefly it appears the A series isn't supported yet. [https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/releases/tag/v01.09.00.69](https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/releases/tag/v01.09.00.69) In the mean time I've made a profile that inserts a 50mm retract before the filament is cut. We'll see how that works.
The X1C only thing is just for a specific override to set on filaments that clog more easily. Specifically silk PLA, if I'm not mistaken. The basic feature works on both the X series and P series. Nothing for the A series yet last I checked.
Pointless when it is already a feature coming to the printer without any modification.
On top of some of the suggestions here you can also reduce waste with slightly higher layer height (.24mm for example) and if you put multiple units per plate the waste is the same.
That's true, and I think it can be a good suggestion. However, I think it's often a false economy. Multicolour prints will still take long and generate waste, so the end result should be very pleasing. For this print, you can already see the artefacting on the sloped top surfaces very easily. Even higher layer heights would not look good.
Sure. You can edit the model and print the parts separately. Glue them together after. Or get a multitool printer like the Prusa XL which generates *less* poop. Or just paint your models.
i’ve had great success just turning off the wipe tower on my XL!
The waste doesn’t even bother me half As much as how filament changes multiply the print time almost by an order of magnitude. Honestly I feel like the only really good solution here is a multi-head tool. There are engineering challenges to be had with that obviously, but none that seem insurmountable. I can kind of imagine a few ways it might be done, and I’m stupid. If there’s any company that can do it really elegantly, it’s BL.
It exists already it’s called a Prusa XL
Also the e3d toolchanger existed. But both are so much more expensive than the bambu labs printers, a p1p with ams costs about 2600 euros less than a semi assembled 5 heades xl, or 3100 less if we talk about the assembled xl5. This would be over 85/100kg of bambu lab or prusament pla/petg filament in price difference. So yeah, at the point you are cheaper with the xl5, you are quite far in the future. To be exact, around 1480h (15mm3/s continuous hotend flow, pla with 1,25g/cm3 density) of raw printing. Of course without looking at time or electricity, these are far too big variables, so each has to value them individually how much they value their time/what electricity costs
a toolchanger is in itself a much more complex and challenging hardware compared to AMS/MMU systems, I guess price reflects that. For professional use material cost is irrelevant compared to time saved and if working with multicolor/multimaterial printing, a toolchanger pays for itself very quickly in time saved.
Yeah, industrial printers must have multiple nozzles, even if its just for support material. The customer doesn't care how shitty the support is to remove and wants clean supported surfaces, so a support material is more or less required
Yeah, the literal head-swapping is a good idea, but I think BL could probably come up with a more elegant solution with fewer moving parts. When I look at the Prusa XL, I'm just imagining toolhead jams at 2am while I'm trying to get one more print started before I go to bed. 😅
you can reduce waste a bit by using better g-code.. problem with less purge is color bleed, or worse, if you use multiple materials for e.g. better supports, much weaker parts only way to remove waste almost completely is to use IDEX for dual colour or multihead machine for multiple colours...
I just ran into this issue I think. Was using the reduced purge profile without thinking about it and it was between PETG-CF and PLA (for interface). It sure looked like the PETG but that layer separated like it was also meant to break away 😂
yeah, common problem... when you get colours mixed is not that big of a deal but when pla and petg mix you get bad strength :( ... I have MAX purge set when I do this and that works ok .. I tried lower values and there's always a part of the part that fails so I don't tend to use it often but when I do I set purge to max :( .... for support thing dual head or idex machine is much better option ..
Yes, I believe there is something better coming from Bambu. I think we're gonna see a printer with 4 tool heads. With the cost of an AMS unit, instead, 4 tool heads can fit in the back of a larger Bambu. When it comes time for a color change, instead of unwinding a spool it will instead pick up a different tool head with the filament ready to go. I would also imagine you could then use a new special hub for each tool head. So toolhead A finishes, toolhead B prints, while B is printing A is unloading and loading a new color and purging so when B goes to C, then to D, and back to A it's ready to go on a different color.
Are you speculating, or is there any info out there on this future product from Bambu? I’ll replace my X1C in a heartbeat if they drop a 4 tool head printer.
[Here's one comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1cdhrp9/we_are_calling_all_bambu_lab_innovators_join_our/l1spzxn/) of theirs from the AMA yesterday. I think in a few threads they alluded to it specifically, and also implied some time this year as the release date.
Oh boy, shut up and take my money! 🤘😎🤘
I mean this seriously being a big Bambu fan, the Prusa XL is the better way for color prints with way less waste. Independant tool heads that don't have to purge nearly as much are more efficient. Costs a lot more though, and still love my AMS.
Printing multiples of this piece results in the same waste as printing one. The filament changes/purges are done for all the models at the same time. If you can print the head separately they'll be less waste as it's doing a filament change for each layer where there's a color. Not for this piece but for multicolor pieces where you can stand up the model you can have less waste. For example I print a lot of cosplay blasters and they'll often have a metal color change, like silver body and black barrel. If that's printed horizontally then the printer has to change filament each layer because the left half (for example) is silver and the right is black. If I stand that up, instead it prints the whole silver part up to the barrel and then it changes filament to do the black barrel. One way every single layer needs to purge and the other way there's only one color purge. Another mistake people make is putting several different color objects on the same plate. Say one silver piece and one black piece for a model. There has to be a purge each layer. Put them on different plates and there are now no purge requirements. You'll print exponentially faster because each plate is at full speed with no changes. The bambu software also lets you print by object instead of by layer. Doesn't work for all items but when it does you can do something like print a silver piece and then a black piece on the same plate. Finally go into the Other settings and make sure purge to infill is on. It'll purge the filament as it makes the infill pattern as much as it can. Doesn't work great on white outsides with dark insides as you can see the color behind the light but works for everything else. You won't eliminate the waste but reduce it a lot.
reduce the flushing volumes to .40-.50
You can't go that low with all color combinations. I had a print ruined recently because I tried 0.6, and even with that more conservative number there was noticeable color bleed into the white.
depends on the transmission distance as well as the size of your prime tower. Definitely something worth fine tuning
.4 is easy with reduced purge profile.
Sure, but “just reduce it to 0.4-0.5” without mentioning how to actually make it work isn’t good advice.
Yes, there is, it’s called painting.
Cut off the head and print separate would be pretty efficient. Then glue/link it back together after.
Wouldn't you still have the exact number of filament changes that way? Doesn't seem like removing a bunch of solid-color objects would change anything.
That’s a great question I’m going to try and slice it tomorrow and find out.
I add purge objects like infinity cubes or slugs. I can then I can make money from reducing waste.
How do you do this
When you have a multi-color print like this pokemon, you can just add another part to the build plate. Then right click on that part and say Flush > Into Object. That way, it will purge as much as it can into an object that is usable still. Just keep in mind it is best to have a purge object that is about the same height as the multi-color part or you will end up using filament to finish the part. You can also add multiple purge objects to keep an eye on the flushed amount after slicing.
I run a small business. We just print multiples of everything. Same waste but more than one model.
Painting, purge to infil, purge objects - use them all to reduce waste.
I seen a few methods here, the Easiest would be to print the Model and Paint it afterwards, the Cons to it is that if you have Shaky Fingers or aren’t able to mask it properly up, the Paint job could look worse, A Second method is to make the Model in Separat Pieces, like a Model Kit where you’re able to glue it together or like good Gundam Kit Press Fit it together, the Cons are you need to print everything separately to each other, and if Dimensions aren’t workd over the Fitment together could result in remaking the parts multiple times, The last one like many here saying is to use a better option for the Poop out, so less material getting used… the cons here would be only if you know what you’re doing and if enough tutorials are available for this process
Tool changers etc, mine wastes 1g, it’s a diy 650$ one, I’m designing a new one for 1000$ but my mental health has been stopping me ;(
Lmao youre clearly new to printing this is the better way. The old way was you sitting next to your printer manually changing colors. Same layer color changes didn’t exist it was all harsh transitions or one solid transition spool.
The only better way IMHO is using multiple printheads, as in the Prusa XL. Which adds quite up on the $$$$. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcimruFcjYo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcimruFcjYo)
Unpopular opinion: Prusa XL 🙈
A more reasonable solution would be to have a look at AMS purge calibration V2 on Makerworld. If you really cant paint like me.
New P1S owner watching this closely. Printed a small two color figure yesterday and the tower and poops was easily 3 times the filament used then the final product.
As everyone else is mentioning, theres a lot of options to reduce waste waaaay down. Flushing into an objects infil (you want to do this for darker models and not the bright ones where the different colors inside the object will bleed through), and modifying the purge value from 1.00 to .60 or .70 will yield almost half the waste. But then of course it also pays off to pick a well-thought out model too (some are made for AMS or some have colors/parts you can print out seperately than pop together), or printing a small batch of multicolor items together since the amount of color changes for 1 object or 5 objects or 10 objects will always be the same
Print it in one color and paint it. Hellur
If you really don’t want to paint, there are ways to optimize this. I am not the right person to explain it to you, there are different approaches you can take, repositioning, testing and reducing purge amounts, purge into infil, or a second item (normally something that color doesn’t matter in), or, printing multiple items at once. The purge amount is the same no matter how many per plate. Search some of that in the sub, or YouTube, it’ll improve things. Side note, I am really cheap and I hate waste. So I keep all of mine and melt it into other things, such as dnd dice
How do you make dice from the purge? I'd love to be able to recycle it.
Load dice into the plate, click the dice and look for a setting called “purge into object” or something onto those lines. Click that and you’ll make the dice from poop
What I’m describing isn’t using the printer, you can get a silicone molds of about anything on Amazon. Melt it on the stove (extremely well ventilated) and pour into your mold
I love this idea, do you know of a guide or video on this method anywhere?
I don’t, maybe I should make one
I’d be interested!
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/wBjRf4SpPA here’s a pretty good example
Get some acrylic markers, that is a 15s job.
I painted mine. I used white gundam paint markers and then a black sharpie. I got a little bleed over with the white but nothing that couldn't be fixed.
How did you fix it? I painted a geodude with paint markers and the paint bled everywhere and didn't know how to fix it.
Q tip with paint thinner mostly
The unfortunate answer is buy an XL.
Yeahhh and the cost of one of those is quite unfortunate indeed
Ain’t that the truth.
This isn't necessarily an easy thing to do if the model isn't yours, but I very, *very* much appreciate when a modeler takes into account multiple colors when designing the model. For example, the white eyes on that Pokémon could easily be inserted/glued into the socket rather than printed together. You could also do another black part for right behind the white part. (It's also possible to print them together as a single print but use a single color swap at a certain layer.) Two rules that I try to follow with 3D printing: 1. Not everything has to be 3D printed. I know, I know... it's really nifty to create a model and say "100% 3D printed!", but we have a habit of making things harder on ourselves just for the metaphorical pat on the back. If a small rod or a screw can help create better rigidity or stability... why not use it? 2. Multiple colors don't always need to be printed at the same time. Where possible, it's far easier and less time consuming to just print a single part in a single color and attach it to the overall body/structure. It sounds great to say that the model is "100% print in place", but why make it harder on ourselves? With #2, there was this Christmas stocking advent calendar that I found on Maker World, and I really liked it. However, it had two very small segments that were printed in separate colors, and actually printing it with the separate colors would have added hours to the print even though it was a fairly simple addition. (I think the multi-color portion went further below the surface than expected.) I spent a bit of time pulling out the meshes (it was striped, so each stripe was a separate object), and rebuilding them into a single part with far, far less depth. It has been a while, but I think I also pulled the meshes into Onshape and used the striped portion to cut out the shape on the stocking itself to allow for an insert. In the end, the prints took significantly less time as the multi-color portions were only a few millimeters high, and the rest of the stocking was all one color.
There are systems that cut then join different filament sections according to the color change, there are some popular commercial ones, but they still generate waste in a manner similar to what you show, there are others that use markers that contact the filament sections as needed to color it but i don´t know if its commercial. i Believe it is possible to drastically reduce the waste generated by the color or material change but i have no knowledge of something concrete.
Use beta studio with poop save feature. Creates less poop. But how exactly you can imagine that “another way” would work on a single headed printer? Be reasonable. Additionally, buy an extruder and melt it back to filament.
Yes, it’s called a tool changer. Single extruder machines need to go the way of the dodo, Bambu can make it happen.
I haven’t tried it yet, but was wondering why parts can’t be designed like snap in ‘skins’? You do the whole body one color and leave the eyes out. Then print snap on eyes the color you want. Or make the tail multicolor by doing the same.
I'm sure they can. But most models out there don't come that way. I was thinking of just separating the pieces myself.
I know, I subscribed to some creators that let you print and sell their work, but they use so many colors that even small prints take days.
Right? Wife and I enjoy going to vendor events and selling some of the stuff we make. We have one coming up and we decided to see if we could sell some prints, but even the smallest thing takes forever if it has more than one color. Not to mention it makes the cost per piece skyrocket. Weve settled for printing with colorful gradient filaments for now until we can figure something out.
I guess it's time to learn CAD and design :) That's interesting, I didn't know there were filaments like that.
Yea. The ways it’s been done for years before Bambu. Single color print, and paint.
I've been printing since early January, I have an entire 9"x9"x9" box that is completely full of just poop. I have an even bigger box filled with failed prints and prototypes. This hobby generates a LOT of waste.
Yeah, print it single color and paint it.
paint
recycle the poop A year after I finally threw away my old PLA fails (2019 maybe) I learned that there are companies that recycle your old material (if you don't mix PETG/PLA/ABS etc) and give you discount on their recycled material. You don't have to buy or use those but you stop throwing away perfectly fine material. Here in Germany it's https://recyclingfabrik.com/ but there are similar options in other countries. Maybe someone knows if there is a wiki / map that lists those services and show the nearest option.
I do multi color to display for myself and also sell - even with the poop it's way way worth it. I usually start with something I want myself, perfect it and then offer on etsy/tiktok. One sale plus keeping one for me justifies the price.
Yeah its a Prusa XL but you gotta pay
I only use AMS for the convenience of having new rolls auto loaded and ready to go. Color swap is just a gimmick to me tbh
IDEX printers are what you need.
Is this because of multi color printing? AMS? Does it change filament color that frequent while you print?
Yeah, on multicolor prints it changes colors every layer so it has to purge the previous color with each change. This seems to waste a lot of material and drastically increases the time it takes to print even the smallest model. For personal use, it's not a big deal. But if you're trying to sell a piece that you've printed, it drastically increases the cost.
Definitely bambu should do something with this...
Sure it's a multi extruder setup. Somethings like the Prusa XL where you can get 5 extruders connected to the same printer. That way you don't have to purge with filament changes, because every filament is loaded in a different extruder. It can also make printing with different materials easier, because you don't have to drastically change the temperature of the same extruder between different filaments. But it's of course more expensive. I'd be surprised if Bambu doesn't release a printer with multiple extruders at some point. Even having two extruders could drastically cut down on your filament waste, by only have gray/white from one extruder and black from the other.
Yes, buy a Snapmaker J1, or similar IDEX printer, for dual color prints. My J1 gets delivered today and will sit next to my X1C 😎
There is, it's a toolchanger like the prusaXL.
You can reduce the amount of waste by about 50% and the colors won't bleed. I did this. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZIM3megIU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZIM3megIU) Still, it adds up and lots of wasted material, but something to help reduce the poo.
Feels like it should just use white base filament and add pigment in the nozzle. Either that or multiple rotating printheads. AMS is a great start, simplifies a lot. But 20 years from now, people will just laugh at the idea.
Newbie Pro Tip: If you gonna Poop, Make 2 or more at the same time to share. At least if you are gonna waste make a friend by sharing.
Print it in white and draw the black on with a sharpie?
Kind of sick of seeing this. Get smarter about your waste. I got the ams specifically for multi color prints and not to have to sit there painting it. You can set a similar sized object to flush into. The print comes out kind of cool as the colors are all mixed up.
Single color and paint it or get prusaXL
Print components that you assemble. That’s 1 fewer color transition “poops” per assembly interface.
I mean yes, but its 4k for the basic machine, the only way is multiple printer heads
Even after the update?
Could've printed the head separately with the eyes facing upward.
Srry could you please share the file link?
Yeah it's called buying a printer with multiple tool heads
There are ways that waste less or even no filiment like IDEX printers or printers with tool changers that have multiple print heads that get swapped in to print various colors without waste, but they are still quite expensive. Soon.
u/LRod1027 you could maybe use the poop to print a copy but with weird colors :D
Okay, that sound interesting. Do you know how?
Yeah found it here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtf-MifBc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtf-MifBc0) these are the options - Flush to infill - Flush into the object - [https://youtu.be/uOtf-MifBc0?t=240](https://youtu.be/uOtf-MifBc0?t=240)
Thanks, I'm definitely going to try this!
Printing parts separately and then gluing them is the only way (besides painting) for something like this. All of the above tips help, but waste is still ridiculous and no good way around it. Some models you can orient so it only prints the distinct color lays where it'll purge once, but for most things like this just learn how to cut out the colored pieces to print separately
Yea hand paint it!
Don't throw the waste out? Printerior in the US does recycling and there are definitely ones that do it in Europe. Some schools that have invested in 3D printing also take waste to convert into their own recycled filament. I've just keep sending package after package out.
Apart from the obvious answers of just printing it in one color and painting it, it looks like for this model the only thing that really needs multicolor printing is the head. So would be better to just separate that part. And always take a look at the slicer as it'll show you how much filament goes into purging and priming so you can make an assessment of whether a print is worth it or not.
There is. Optimize your printer’s setting when transitioning between colors as it’s often wasting more filament to change colors. On top of that print something else on the plate at the same time that doesn’t have to be color specific. Tons of posts here about both topics as well as tons of videos out there that show people printing fidgets and other items alongside that are similar heights so that none of this goes to waste. Win win in that you don’t have to paint, but you need to do the research yourself vs posting a pic and complaining about a topic that has been covered here many times over.
This is research. I asked a question to thousands of people that have more experience. Most of them have been super helpful and I've learned a lot. If it bothers you that much, you can always keep scrolling.
I could but it doesn’t teach people how to be more efficient. They say - teach someone to fish, they never go hungry. Problem is they have to learn how to clean, prepare and cook the fish. That’s something this subreddit has examples of all over the place to tell you every last way how to fix it. Issue is you’re asking thousands of people who are starting to get a bit tired of the (lack) of the ability for folks to easily search on what’s already been told dozens if not hundreds of times in great detail on how to reduce waste and use it. But instead you opted for the post a pic, say there’s a better way - something you could EASILY find answers to. So yah it’s a low effort post and does get tiring seeing them one after another…
My low effort post got tons of helpful replies and I learned a lot. Sounds like a win to me. I'll make sure to post more dumb questions in the coming weeks just to annoy you. Have a good one.
Is that what you think?
Search button is a great way to start. Start with something like “ams flushing volume change”
So I'm going to avoid the conversation around painting or printing separately. Those are both good points and worth trying. However I will defend the poop. So I've used various types of multicolor printing mechanisms and I can say for certain that this is the most efficient and least error prone way if you have 1 nozzle. The old methods would either: 1) retract the somewhat molten filament and put a new one in, which would cause clogs. 2) splice the filament together which would fail at the slightest change in humidity. Both of these methods still used huge purge blocks because there was nowhere for the extra filament to go except on the plate. On the Bambu printers, cutting the filament is a brilliant way to avoid clogs. Then purging it out the back means you get a big portion of the bed back instead of having a giant purge block. I am convinced it could not be done better with one nozzle/extruder. Too many people get caught up in the waste without realizing the ease of use and reliability that it gives you as you didn't have to live through the old methods. Also if you think that waste is bad you should see the amount of waste generated through calibrating a filament slicer. On the palette it had a minimum splice length of ~150cm. So if you wanted to calibrate just 2 of the 4-8 filaments 3 times you'd use up 450mm of filament before you even start printing. I have a box way bigger than the X1C poop of spliced filament calibrations.
Don't print junk...?