6 in 1 out Hot-End development

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...it seems like there are very few people willing to go past 3 filaments, there are a few 5, 6,7, filament things that I have seen but the vast majority of them stick three? I wonder if there is a reason?

I'd say reasons are:
number of steppers required,
finding a place for all those extruders and spools, ( Yes! There really IS a printer underneath this chaos )
and missing proove of concept.

Arcus M2 has gained a lot of interest, but his design isn't available yet and I'm still waiting for a "3D printed Mona Lisa " as a showcase of a working full color mixer. Mixing filament for a Vase mode object isn't such a challenge IMHO.

in regards to o_lamp

I agree that there is no proof of concept yet. but in terms of price.
I use this for a Bowden extruder and I have no problem having the filament traveling an upwards of 6 feet in a tube,

right now it's a bit disassembled as I am rebuilding my printer, but I don't see why we can't just string 6+ tougher on the side of the printer. or as I have seen many times, people have a bar that they put there spools on and feed them from there.
in terms of cost, that small 15oz 400 step motor was only $10 on eBay and that 3d part is probably less than a few dollars to print.

while at first, it may be a bit of an investment and time it will definitely pave the way for 3d printing and as it develops further I'm sure the price will go down.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2017 04:26PM by sniper567.

The extruder printed part might only be a few dollars but then you need a hobbed bolt or some such to grip the filament, maybe some bearings, certainly some screws, PTFE bowden tubes (lots of it), 4 core cable (lots of that too) and with the motor itself, even doing it on the cheap, you'll not get much change out of 30 dollars or so * 6 =$180. Then you need 6 rolls of filament, at say $20 a reel = $120 so that's about $300 with the filament mounted on an old broom handle. Then you need some sort of electronics expansion board with the extra extruder drivers. Say another $100 (for something like a Duex5)? So we're up to about $400 more than the cost of a single colour/filament without even the mixing hot end. A Diamond 5 colour(English spelling) without any extruders but with heater, thermistor, fans, mount is around $200 so now we're talking about $600 more for multi colour. There are plenty of people who don't spend that much on a complete printer. OK, the filament is a consumable so take that out but it still means about $480 dollars more for 6 colour.

Then there comes the question, what do you need to print that has to be multi colour? Although I do have a Diamond hot end, in all honesty 80% of the stuff I print are things like printer parts, enclosures, brackets, kitchen and garden accessories, containers of various descriptions etc etc all in single colour. So I have 3 E3D titan extruders, a carriage that takes up a lot of movement in X and Y and weighs a ton. For sure I can make some pretty neat decorative objects but that's only a small percentage of the stuff that I want to print. Is it all worth the cost and hassle? I keep asking myself that question and the jury is still out.

good points deckingman,
I agree it will not be for the standard person right off the bat, but for someone like me who has most of that stuff just lying around the only thing I have to order is the stepper motors. obviously, not everyone has extra stuff, but I would be willing to venture that people who are willing to take the step to full 3d color printing probably have most of the parts already.

also in regards to what I would make

I make a lot of mechanical things as well as decorative objects, but I model a lot of mechanical prototypes, one thing I would love to do is to be able to print a heat map of the load pressure or aerodynamic pressure on a surface of a part that way I could show a client how their part will work, I also do a few architecture bits(in the old days we built things with balsa wood and foam board), and if I could have like 6 spools instead of 50 that would be helpful. as you stated and I agree not for the everyday person but for people who use their 3d printers for work or maybe school would love this.

I will keep a list of all expenditures to see just how much it would cost.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2017 07:01PM by sniper567.

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deckingman
Then there comes the question, what do you need to print that has to be multi colour? [snip] Is it all worth the cost and hassle? I keep asking myself that question and the jury is still out.

Wrong question! The correct question is "Is it fun?"

But yes, I suspect that something like a CYM inkjet injecting into molten filament must surely be cheaper than $480. If someone could just get round to formulating the ink and designing the inkjet and nozzle...

I'm not sure an ink injecting printer extruder head would be any cheaper deckingman, while this would be fewer inputs of filament then you need to have inputs of "ink" which still have to be mixed anyway, it may sound easier but would make the whole thing very complex, as I have said before nothings impossible but we do have to fit it in or on a printer. they do however use this idea in more expensive powder printers where a printing head passes over a layer of dust and deposits a layer of "ink" which can be colored or the poly jet system, but these printers are in the range of $50k to $1M with is a bit out of my price range.

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frankvdh

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deckingman
Then there comes the question, what do you need to print that has to be multi colour? [snip] Is it all worth the cost and hassle? I keep asking myself that question and the jury is still out.

Wrong question! The correct question is "Is it fun?"........................
...................

Same answer - the jury is still out. On reflection though, I guess the answer must be yes otherwise why do I stick with it?

Some examples of stuff I print in colour, aside from vases, pot holders and the like. Personalised key fobs, luggage labels and place mats with the person's name in their favourite colour on a black or white background. Project box lids with labels for switches and indicator lights embedded into the part in a different colour ("On", "Off", "Power","Fault" etc....). Also different filaments - i.e. PLA parts with a "window" printed in clear filament such as T glass. E3D edge PETG with E3D scaffold for supports (not the edge needs much support).

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