The New 3D Printing Thread

I know, now I need to get used to the idea of thinking in dual colour (for now) and make the most of it, but it really gets my juices flowing that's for sure

There are models with greater numbers of colour available, one that springs to mind is a variant of the Prusa (that is one of the benchmark brands out there, but is way more expensive than the Chinese models around) which has a 4 into 1 extruder setup. That means you have four extruders each with a different type or colour of filament feeding into a single nozzle setup as opposed to the two into one on my CR-X.

There is also coming (in fact I think may now be available or on the verge of) 'full colour' printer from XYZ, that basically combines a 3D printer setup with an inkjet. This then uses a special type of filament which can absorb the ink and therefore it can print any colour by printing the inkjet onto the 3D model. I assume it does this as it prints the 3D model, but haven't seen any videos of it in action. The downsides are the cost (well over £1k at the moment) and the fact it uses this special type of filament which presumably initially at least will be expensive and locked into XYZ product. Of course if the Chinese clone it that would change rapidly, but it depends if it catches on.

The only real downside with the x into y type colour printers is that you do have some waste material in the form of what they call a 'purge block', this is a tower that is printed somewhere else on the printbed and basically as you transition layers and change colour it will print a layer onto this block to purge out the material in the printhead of the prior colour. If you have a tall slender model this can result in a purge block that uses more material than the print job lol!