Printing with Multiple Materials in the Same Cartridge

[bholness]

Hi,

What are your thoughts on loading two materials in the same cartridge? Has anyone had success doing this? The reason I ask is that my build material is fairly expensive and I have to prepare the paste myself which is rather time consuming. To limit waste I am going to try loading a small amount of the build material and then load a cheaper (similar viscosity) filler material. The goal is to limit the amount of expensive material unused in the tubing but having enough total material in the cartridge for a successful print.

Ben

[cor5151]

i would probably try loading a more viscous material so it doesn't mix and just ruin your good material, although i would test it with something that isn't going to hurt to much if it fails first.

also try filling the tubing with the expensive material or test stuff, then switching the syringe once you have enough in the tubing to a slightly more viscous paste. not sure how much your planning to use, but filling the syringes with 2 different materials is almost guaranteed mixing and wasting some.
a clay slurry would work perfect here, just make sure its wet enough since if its too thick it will have lots of trouble extruding.

[fink]

This is a good idea, another I have had is to load a larger 60cc syringe with water and connect the tube to a smaller syringe (say 2-5cc) at the extruder head.

Essentially the same idea, but there are some adapters that can be used to block mixing.

Like @cor5151 said, I wonder if there is a simpler way to do it with a very viscous paste. Interested to see how it goes.

[Azlinon]

Have you considered printing a small diaphram (silicone?) to seperate the materials, or potentially just doing a smaller fill of a single material? There was a needle trick in one of the videos used to get the excess air out on a partial fill.