Ready to do first multi colour test print of Blender Arcadia cruise ship hull.
Purge ratio about 30% - 5hr print time.
Add flush-into objects knocks purge ratio down to <1%, but does increase print time by about 30% to 6hr 41m - but it will yield 7 table top extension parts.
Is reducing purge ratio from 58% down to <2% worth increasing print time by nearly 50%?
Think I will compromise and remove 2 of the flush-into objects which will only cost about 2g of extra flush, but will save a couple of hours.
Hi! I just now stumbled across your thread. I get the gist of the idea, but I haven’t read in enough detail to answer this question: Could you just as easily print gridfinity storage bins with the purge waste?
https://www.printables.com/model/366532-gridfinity-standard-bins-with-label-parametric-fil
That way it could help get you more organized for free!
There are many variants, and the one I linked is just one of them. You could easily do without the label projection for instance. In their most base unit form: they are more of less just hollow cubes, open on the top, 42mmx42mm.
Yes gridfinity could work as flush-into objects.
However the ideal shapes to use are ones with a bit of bulk at the Z height where the colour changes occur in the multi-colour model being printed.
I have been looking into “Multi board” as I think Jonathan’s ‘stacked grid’ printing approach could be a good way to lift bulky sections of useful things like grids or even storage bins up to the optimal Z heights.
Very happy with results of ship print - flush about twice as much as estimated - but still <7%. Prime tower estimate pretty accurate.
Plus some more useful table extension parts.
Another slightly more extreme example that you tend to get with smaller multi coloured objects - starting flush ratio 468% -
Adding 4 flush objects increases print time from 1h2m to 2h23m - but reduces flush ratio down to about 10%
Results… Too little flush for my scales to register…
Decided to print Azura at 1:1000 scale for the first time - using the 4 colour 1:1250 version from Makerworld, scaled back up to 1:1000.
Also lowered flush multiplier from the 100% in Makerworld version down to 60%
Added slightly different flush-into blocks.
Without flush saving - Purge ratio 59% - 324 colour changes, print time 16h53m
With flush saving, purge ratio down to about 1%, print time 20h33m (+ 3h40m)
Probably an unfeasible idea - but here is a proposal and some what I think are nice animations of an approach to multi colour / multi material printing - using multiple printers joined together.
Quite a lot more work done on Blender print simulations - see attached YouTube video - including a way to visualise the layers in the model that are creating the purge, and the relative size of the different purge amounts per colour. I based the purge line lengths on the millimetres of filament - but the amount of filament each 1mm of 1.75mm filament extrudes out of a .4mm nozzle is I think about 19mm - so the amount shown is quite tiny compared to the actual amount of waste.
Another concept - this one might actually work - and I think there could be massive time savings for some models like mine with loads of layers with just 2 colours in them.
Next stage is to do some proper time and waste saving calculations for a few example models.
Finally got around to producing short instruction video for purge waste table.
Animations done in Blender.
Finally got around to trying out some Marble Filament.
I saw a model similar to this about a year ago.
Created in F360 - using Emboss Deboss - to remove some patterns from complex object, then used combine from a copy to create bodies for the parts removed.
Start flush ration 750%. After adding a flush-into objects - flush ratio now down to about 150% - at the expense of about 30% longer print time.
Tried dusting of my automated part selection scripts - but hit a few issues - so did part sizing and selection manually.
Actually decided in the end to print 2 copies - so reduced ratio down to 75%
Print completed ok, although vases way too small - should have done single colour test print - and figured out why scripts didn’t work - I have a mismatch in layer heights between the file being printed and any potential flush objects queued up - need to add better diagnostic messages.
Trying again - doubling the size of the pots. This time got the scripts to work - but they did stop a bit early, so cloned one of the flush objects two more times.
Flush Ratio improved from about 150% (70g) to
To about 15% (9g) - at the expense of about 90 mins more printing
Prints finished ok. Did get one lot of waste filament build up again - this time on a different X1C - so I don’t think it is hardware related. Must be slicer or firmware related. It only happened right near the end - in the area of the print where the colour changes were above the ‘flush’ objects.
Still pretty pleased with the small amount of flush from 232 filament changes.
Uploaded to maker world
Almost enough parts now created to nearly double the size of prime table.
Probably just one more multi colour print with some carefully sized parts should be enough.
You have a few Lack tables, when do we see the Billy bookcase?
Well spotted - the table does match lack dimensions,
