Thorry

Thanks for trying it out. I would model something up, but don’t have time right now. It would also depend on the slicer used, the printer and the settings etc.

It probably doesn’t matter that much and not be worth the effort unless it’s really what you want. But for a quick prototype just having it solid is fine and not worth optimizing.

I think Roetz 4.0 has done some experiments with this iirc. It worked fine, but it was more like one of those multi-color filaments as there is no way to control the color coming out of the nozzle. He tried with 2 different colors I think, but his setup had 4 wires of filament being pushed through.

There is actually a relative long time between filament being pushed into the nozzle and coming out at the bottom. In between is a reservoir of molted and partially molted plastic, which is essentially a chaotic system. When extruding or retracting the filament, this is actually controlling the pressure inside that reservoir. This makes it extremely hard to get any kind of controlled mix.

You also have the issue of the number of filaments required. Remember CMYK only works when printing on white paper, the white is an important component to the end result. And those don’t actually mix those inkts. They just print little dots close enough together for our eyes to lack sufficient resolution and thus see them as one mixed color. For a lighter result less dots are printed, for a darker result more dots are printed and black dots added to go even darker.

So you would need to have 5 filaments being pushed into a single reservoir, which is a challenge. Then you’d never get perfect mixing, even if you machine the combination inside perfectly (look at how nice the machining on Roetz his nozzle was). The pressure inside would vary leading to some filament being pushed less that others, it’s a very unstable situation which makes it very hard to perfectly predict or control. And being it’s mixing inside that reservoir, there is very little control of how the color comes out. It wouldn’t be the same color from all angles due to imperfect mixing and the changing of colors would be a slower gradual thing, not instant. And the way the color presents is also dependent on the direction the nozzle is moving.

The amount of material being pushed in would vary a lot, where we’d want mostly the same continuous pressure on the nozzle side. And when moving reduce that pressure to prevent stringing. Controlling this with 5 filaments would be borderline impossible and would require a high flow large diameter nozzle. So only very large high speed printers would work. Or the filament would need to be thinner, so less material is pushed in, but then you run into compression strength issues in the filament.

I think for practical results, people either just paint it after the fact. Use a multicolor filament for cool colored results. Or use a different technique that offers prints in precise colors.

There is this super cool 3D printing technique from HP that is abandoned now, but does kinda work like you say with CYMK and a white material. It uses inktjet heads to eject a ceramic powder to 3D print. It can make high resolution 3D prints in full color and when baked the ceramic is very hard, so the objects can be practical to use. The big issue with this technology is the powder clogs up the nozzles on the inktjet heads. Just like with printers when the ink dries and the head clogs, it’s a nightmare. So those machines need constant cleaning and supervision. When they work they produce amazing results, but the technology is such a pain in the ass, they stopped making the machines. I think they still make the material and heads tho, for people who are already using the machines. I think they are often used in medical settings where they paid a lot for the machine and keep using them.

Just a question, but why is the large gear solid like that? It’s probably printed at some low infill, so it shouldn’t matter much. But I think you can massively reduce printing time and material needed, while at the same time increasing the strength of the gear, if you were to switch to a spoked design.

Write a book about your struggles

I never understood the need to keep tabs open. I might be old fashioned, but I’ve never felt the need to keep any tab open ever. Depending on what I’m doing I often have multiple browser windows open, some of which do have some tabs I use a lot (online tools or documentation for example). But that’s like 3 tabs, which I close whenever I’m done doing what I was doing.

On my phone it’s specifically configured to wipe everything on exit. So no browser history, no open tabs, no cookies remaining etc. I can sort of reason why people would keep a lot of tabs open, but can’t understand the need to do so.

It’s because of the way these kinds of devices work. With a lot of electronics there is a power supply that converts AC to DC, sometimes a single voltage, sometimes multiple. It’s relatively easy to have these kinds of power supplies be able to switch between voltage ranges, or support a wide range so it doesn’t even matter. These kinds of power supplies also don’t really care about the frequency, so that helps as well. Often these have a standard socket on the back, so you can just have different leads to make it compatible all around the world.

However when the device includes a large heater, like in the home appliances you mentioned, having any kind of power conversion would be very inefficient and not needed. All we need is the raw energy and a resistor to be able to convert the power into heat. But the way that works is using Ohms law (V = I x R), where the power being converted into heat is P = I x V. The heating element has a fixed resistance, since it’s a physical thing. That means whenever the voltage changes, the amount of energy being converted into heat changes as well. Now this is fine if the voltage is somewhere between 230 and 250V like in Europe, that’s a small change that probably doesn’t impact the function of the machine. But when the machine is made for 240V and you put in 115V, that’s a huge difference.

The machine would technically function, but the heating would be piss poor. This means the iron takes ages to heat up, the water in the washing machine won’t get hot enough etc. This might also impact the design, for example the programs the machine can run, or how fast the water flows over the heating element etc.

The other way around is just dangerous, putting too much volt into components might damage them, heating elements will just burn out and melt causing a fire hazard. So that’s just dangerous and a bad idea.

As for things like blenders and refrigerators, that would depend more on the actual design of the machine. Sometimes it’s due to a motor running directly on the AC, but in my experience that’s rare these days. Often they are driven using DC and a motor driver which can provide things like 3 or 6 coil drives for smoother function and better efficiency, speed control etc. Something like a blender might be a bit too small for a physical switch or replaceable cord. So it depends and the reason might not be electrical in nature.

Did you dry your filament? How old is it? Did you get all your filament pre-owned as well? Depending on the kind of material, it has a limited shelf life, once you get beyond that it won’t ever print right.

Try some brand new filament and see how that works.

I AM CUTE AS A BOAR!

Well yes and no. It’s a giant piece of silicon, but it’s also exposed to high energy rays all the time. Panels can suffer from water ingress and then crack when it freezes. They are exposed to all sorts of animals, both big and small that can cause damage. Have their top surfaces get more opaque due to normal erosion. Those things can either outright break the panel, or slowly make it less efficient. UV rays alone cause a degradation of around 1% every year. However modern more efficient compact panels suffer more from this than the older kind. So old panels might still be going strong, but give a modern panel the same amount of ageing and it might do a lot worse.