Mini Spool And Rainbow Filament Guide. Learn to Make Rainbow Filament

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- UPDATE: I was unsatisfied with how long the spool takes to print. Since most people will not be making more than 20-40 meters of filament at a time i now have made a MICRO spool. You will need two files. - (Print 1) This is the center hub (3 hours) MICRO_Spool_CenterOnly_STL - (Print 2) These are the side walls (2 hours) MiniSpool_FlatEdge_STL Parts can easily be glued together with super glue. - Since super fine quality is not needed, these times are based off a Layer height of 0.3mm, a Print Speed of 50mm/s, 1 Wall that is 0.4mm thick, "Alternate Extra Wall" Enabled in Cura for rigidity, 10% infill, 3 top, and 3 Bottom layers. - With these settings, the items are more than strong enough for their intended use This is a mini spool used to aid in the process to make RAINBOW filament. All you need is white or clear filament and some multi colored Shlarpie markers. The filament prints exactly like normal PLA. It does not produce any bad smells while it prints. The ink actually disolves into the PLA. I have soaked objects that have been printed with the rainbow filaments in 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (something which normally removes sharpe ink) and it had no effect whatsoever on the color.. You can either print the Mini Roll as a complete object with some supports for the central section. Or you can print the Central section and then two of the edges, then glue the edjes on with super glue. The edges come in flat forms and slanted forms. Here is a link to an Imgur album of the process that i used to make RAINBOW colored filament. It also has pictures of an object printed in the rainbow filament. The Imgur album is pictures of my first attempt before i had made the Mini Spool. In the Imgur album i am using "Mini Spools" made out of cardboard and tape. https://imgur.com/gallery/S7jhvOd Here is a link to my test involving soaking some of the rainbow prints in 91% rubbbing alcohol to prove that the ink actually disolves into the filament. Once the filament is printed the color will never rub off or fade away! https://imgur.com/gallery/EUGN8vx I go over how to specifically color the filament in the Imgur album, but i will also list the steps here too. In the Imgur album i was using filament rolls made out of cardboard initially. it worked but it wasen't the best, so instead i made these mini rolls.so the process would be easier. I also posted the process on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/hlbam7/my_gf_wanted_a_rainbow_pony_so_i_made_my_own/fx0fewc/ Stay tuned, because i am also going to making a jig to hold two Sharpie markers and the filament together. All you will need to do is slide the filament through the object and insert two of the same color sharpie markers. The jig will hold the markers against the filament for you. i will update this post with the link when i am done doing more testing on it. STEPS TO MAKE RAINBOW FILAMENT: Items Required. 1) White or Clear PLA 2) Sharpie markers in rainbow colors. The colors are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, And Violet. (I do not belive sharpie makes an Indago color) I got mine at a Walgreens for $7 per pack. i suggest you get two packs. 3) The clippers that came with your 3D printer, or sharp scissors. 4) 1 or two Mini Rolls printed out. STEPS 1) Put the STL you want in rainbow into a slicer that will show you how much filament it will use in units of Meters. I used CURA. The two items in the Imgur photos took 17.3 meters of filament. For the next step it is important to do this carefully so the filament does not become tangled. Have you ever accidently gotten a slinky tangled? That is what it is like when filament gets tangled. It's really hard to untangle it. Because the filament is on the roll for a really long time it will not want to exist in a straight line. It will always want to curl. These mini spools are to help manage the filament and make sure that it does not get tangled. 2) Unspool more filament than the slicer says that the print will need. It's better to have too much than to have too little. My slicer said the print would take 17.3 Meters of filament, so i unspooled 20 meters. In the end it used just about 17.2 Meters of filament. You can easily measure out the filament by how many full turns of the Mini Spool you make. The mini Spool has a circumference of a little, little, bit less than half of a meter. So for every two turns of the Mini Spool you make you have about 1 Meter of filament. At the end add a few extra meters to make up for the fact that the circumference is a tad less than a half meter. Alternatively if you want to know the exact number of turns you need to make, the circumference of the spool is EXACTLY 0.490088 Meters. Divide the total number of Meters of fillament that you need by 0.49008 to get the EXACT number of turns you need. Then add a few extra turns to be on the safe side. Put the original roll of filament on your spool holder for your 3D printer. then slide the end of the filament through one of the holes in the Mini Roll (Secure it with tape if you can). Turn the mini roll around the correct number of times that you calculated. Then cut the filament and place the end of the filament in one of the holes on the Mini Roll to keep it secure. 3) Now you need to set up for coloring the filament. Figure out a way to have two SECURE spindles. I had two vice clamps at opposite sides of my work bench. I clamped two metal rods vertical in each vice, Alternatively you could turn two chairs upside down and space them about 1 meter apart. Then you can use their legs as the spindles. You can print out two Mini Rolls or use one Mini Roll and also the orignial filament roll. make sure the that rolls fit snug enough on the spindles that they will not unroll by themselves. You want to be able to get tension in the filament between the two rolls. You can stuff something in the center of the roll like a sock or a wad of paper towels to stop them from spinning freely, but still be able to spin them with a bit of force. 4) Prepare the Sharpie markers for coloring. If you use the sharpie markers as is, straight out of the packaging, I found that the markers dry out quite quickly, then they need to rest for a minute to allow more ink to distriubute into the dry tip. Use the clippers that came with your 3D printer or scissors to cut a small section out of the SIDE of the tip. do not cut the top of the tip. Cut a section out of the SIDE. The photos in the Imgur album show it clearly. 5) Start coloring the filament by using the side of the sharpie that you cut the notch out of. The cut will make ink flow much much more quickly. Make sure to cover the ENTIRE filament ALL the way around in ink. You want as much ink as you can get on the filament. The more ink you can get, the stronger the colors will look. Switch colors every so often. For my object i switched colors every 1.6 meters of filament colored. I kept the colors repeating in the correct rainbow pattern of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet. At each color transition i did a section about 25 centimeters long where i colored half of the filament one color and then 180 degrees around, half of the filament the next color. this allowed for a smooth transition into the next color. As you color the filament roll up one roll and unroll the next. Continue coloring untill all of the Filament is colored. 7) Let the filament dry. If you colored the filament correctly, then it will have a LOT of ink on it. Let the ink dry for a few hours, or overnight, so that your extruder does not slip on wet ink. 8) Now print the filament as you normally would. If you have any questions you can comment below or messege me on Reddit. My user name on Reddit is Coolkid1717. www.Reddit.com/u/Coolkid1717

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