3D Print Colorizer Turns Translucent Filament Into Full-Color Prints — Using Permanent Markers
Painting onto each layer of the print with permanent markers, the 3D Print Colorizer does exactly what it promises.
Pseudonymous maker "Sakati" has developed a means to print full-color models using single-color filament - by having the printer go over each layer with a permanent marker to paint the colors in.
"3D Print Colorizer uses Sharpie or Sharpie-like permanent markers to directly paint on the layers of a 3D print," Sakati explains of their creation. "After a layer is finished printing normally a pen holder, which is mounted to the print head, is used to fetch pens from a special pen rack mounted to the top part of the printer. Normal printing and painting is used alternately to produce a final colored model."
The most common approach to producing a full-color 3D model is to print it in a single color and paint it afterwards. Another approach is to use several filaments of differing colors — which requires either considerable patience or a 3D printer with multiple print heads.
The 3D Print Colorizer, by contrast, uses just a pain translucent filament on an off-the-shelf Creality Ender 3 printer — modified only using 3D-printed parts the printer itself can produce. Special caps are added to the pen so a pen holder mounted to the print head can pick them up from a printed pen rack — and put them back down again.
"Right now the parts are designed for an Ender 3 printer but adapting it to other printers should be fairly easy," Sakati notes. "If you design a different pen arm or rack for your printer please share your design by opening a pull request, contact my via 3dprintcolorizer@gmail.com or do a remix on the Thingiverse page."
The Cura plugin, 3D print files, and instructions for using 3D Print Colorizer have been published to GitHub under the reciprocal GNU General Public License.