Manufacturers dye all sorts of 3D printer filaments on their factory lines; why can’t we? [Richard] takes this idea one step further by creating his own custom multicolored reels of nylon. Printing with these reels produces a vibrant pattern that simply demands our attention and begs us to ask: how on earth..?
[Richard’s] tie-dye adventure is cleanly documented on the blog. He simply spools a reel of nylon together and dyes subsections of the spool with a different color. With the filament “paletted” to taste, parts pop of the printer with an eye-catching rib pattern of color.
It’s worth mentioning that nylon is extremely hygroscopic, and dyeing filament in a bath full of colored liquid is sure to get it full of moisture. Then again, nylon’s capacity to absorb water might be why it dyes so well. Nevertheless, filament must be oven-dried (or equivalent) for a successful print. Post-drying, [Richard] doesn’t seem to be having any printing problems, and the results speak for themselves.
3D printers might be frequent fliers on these pages, but we still love seeing small modifications that enhance the visual appeal. What’s more, this trick delivers spectacular results with no modifications to the printer itself. Then again, if this job sounds like just too much work for you, we’d suggest using a sharpie.
Wow! That’s pretty epic! I’m not sure which I want to try first: the dyed nylon or the Sharpie hack!
im not one for using colored filament, and i am a tad concerned for how much of that dye will build up on the nozzle but you cant argue with those stunning results!
multicolor filament i should say
Ikat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikat
This is not to detract of [Richard’s] work, which looks gorgeous and is impressive in its own right. Rather to point to a very old technique based on strangely similar ideas.
I love those space-time wormholes in creative technology.
3D printing, the new weaving. Perhaps we should start calling these machines ‘looms’.
It’s also reminiscent of hand-painted yarn. https://hackaday.com/2018/07/03/tie-dyed-filament-sings-with-color/
from 2013……really?
Are you saying “really” because your just finding out about it too? In Hackaday we trust.
Check out FilaBlend! Similar concept but with colors throughout the entire filament.