Multicolor Desktop Stands (for single extruder)

Looking for a small but usefull Multicolor print?

These little Desktop Stands are the perfect home for your favourite picture or your business cards. And they will look absolutely beautiful on your desk.

And you need only one extruder and no paint to create them!

I designed them especially for small amounts of filament, like small samples or leftovers which are usually too small for a print.

The multicolor effect is created by filament swaps, which means you pause your print at a certain height, change the filament and resume the print.

This can be done in different ways. For a quick overview watch this video:

I'm currently working on tutorials for this method, so stay tuned for more videos to come.

The instructions can be found in the Post-Printing tab.

Enjoy!

Print instructions

Category: Office Print Settings

Printer Brand: Prusa

Printer: i3 MK3

Rafts: No

Supports: No

Resolution: 0.2

Infill: 20%

Filament: eSUN PLA various
Notes:

I used the filament from an eSUN sample pack with 20 colors, 5m each.

Post-Printing

Instructions

For each stand you need:

• 1 x "Backside.stl"
• 2 x "Triangle_2x.stl"

• 1 x "Hearts.stl"or "Rainbow.stl"
  Also different colors of filament (I used eSUN PLA) of your own choice. These should be from the same type (all PLA or all PETG etc.) and have a similar melting temperature.

  And a few drops of super glue for assembly.

  The "Backside.stl" and the "Triangle_2x.stl" are printed in only one color.
  Slice them as usual and print the parts.
  The "Triangle_2x.stl" file is quite tiny, because it is designed as a spacer to hold only one picture. If you want to use it for business cards, you should make the two triangles longer. For this you can adjust the Z-height of the file in your slicer. Make sure to only increase the Z-height, not the x or y dimensions, or it will not fit correctly.

  If you are new to color changes during a print, I suggest to start with the Hearts Stand.
  For the hearts you only need to do one color swap.

  Slice it with a layer height of 0.2 mm and pause your print manually after layer 20 (4.0 mm height) is finished or layer 21 (4.2 mm height) has just begun.
  Now remove the filament and insert another color.
  Resume your print and wait until it is finished.

Voilá - you just created a dual color print with only one extruder.

Now all that's left to do is to glue the parts together.
You simply put a drop of super glue in each triangular shaped hole (both backside and hearts), insert the triangles in the holes of the backside and push the holes behind the hearts over them.

Let it dry and that's it.

The Rainbow works just like the Hearts, but you have to do a lot more color changes (7, to be exact).

The colors for the rainbow should be: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, white and black - in exactly this order.

Slice the Rainbow with 0.2 mm layer height and start your print with violet filament loaded.

Perform the filament changes exactly as described for the hearts, but of course at different heights. (Watch the video above for more information)

These are the layers/heights at whitch the change has to be made as soon as this layer starts to print:

layer 4 (0.8 mm) - change to blue
layer 7 (1.4 mm) - change to green
layer 10 (2.0 mm) - change to yellow
layer 13 (2.6 mm) - change to orange
layer 16 (3.2 mm) - change to red
layer 19 (3.8 mm) - change to white
layer 23 (4.6 mm) - change to black

That were lots of changes. But you did it!

A full color rainbow can now be placed on your desk. Congratulations!

(Assembly is the same as the hearts, so no worries here.)