In August of this year our intern started with his 6 month internship. We challenged him to 3D print two models containting multiple parts, without ever having 3D printed a part before. PLA/PHA and PLA Economy are perfect materials for novice users, so we selected these for his project.
The Jet propulsion pump by toto45 is a great design with many parts which can be bolted together. Ofcourse the parts need to be printed accurate to ensure all parts fit together as one assembly. It’s a very cool model to explain how Jet propulsion works.
Our second project is the Powerful 3d printed Water-pump designed by Adolph Smith his design also features multiple parts which need to be assembled to form one part. Our intern added his own motor design, with colorFabb in 3D attached to the side of the surface.
For these two projects we used the Ultimaker 2 and Ultimaker 2+ machines. Getting to know the Ultimakers makes a lot of sense, after this introduction it’s easy to move onto different machines and materials.
Our first development for the 3D printing market was a tougher and less brittle PLA filament. Through a process called compounding a polyhydroxyalkanoate is added to a carefully selected PLA. The result of this process is a completely homogenous blend, which is the base material for our PLA/PHA filament.
PLA/PHA filament is available in 30 colors with great brilliance and excellent opacity.
With increased toughness and better layer-to-layer adhesion, PLA/PHA is a premium filament.
PLA Economy is our solution for those users looking for a reliable source of quality material available on large spools. For this material a specific PLA type is selected which features great quality at reasonable cost. Five popular colors have been selected for this range of PLA Economy material.
It’s the perfect material for high volume users which require reliability and constant performance.
Back in August we came across the Instagram account of Andreas Mielonen and were immediately blown away by the work he had posted there: An ancient Greek helmet, printed with bronzeFill on his Ultimaker 2+:
All images in this blog post by Andreas Mielonen
We contacted Andreas to share a bit more about this fantastic print and he was very gracious in sharing his pictures and the process of printing. Andreas (31) lives in Stockholm, Sweden, and has been interested in 3D graphics since watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Andreas: “I was 3D-modeling as a hobby until five years ago when it became my job. Since then I’ve been involved in making commercials, illustrations for science articles and infomercials. A couple of years ago I started getting interested in 3D-printing and started to go to 3D-printing meetups in Stockholm which spurred my interest even more.”
After attending some workshops he decided to buy an Ultimaker 2+.
About the fantastic print of the Greek helmet he says: “I got the idea for the helmet when I got a roll of colorFabb’s bronzeFill and checked out what other people had done with it and saw how good it looked with the blue/greenish patina. So, instantly I thought of the amazing greek bronze helmets. I designed the helmet in Maya and sculpted in the details in Mudbox. Before I started to print the helmet in bronzefill I made a test print in standard PLA in 1:4 scale, the scale I wanted for the bronzefill version was 1:3 but knew that if the helmet prints well in 1:4 scale the larger version won’t be a problem.”
The settings Andreas found working best on the Ultimaker 2+ were:
Layer Height: 0.2mm
Speed: 30mm/s
Temperature: 215C
Material Flow: 108%
Andreas used the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. Although not necessary for bronzeFill, he used it nonetheless. Also because the stand was printed with our carbon filled XT-CF20 which requires nozzles that can withstand extra wear due to its abrassive nature. (We wrote about our experiences with the Olsson Ruby Nozzle before).
Post-processing
Of course where bronzeFill, and our other metal filled filaments truly shine, is in the post processing of the prints.
Andreas explains the way he worked: “I started the post processing with sanding under water to prevent heat buildup using grit 240 sandpaper and finishing off with grit 600. When I was happy with the sanding I made a mixture of salt and vinegar sprayed the helmet two times a day for a week with the mixture, and kept it in a bucket with a lid to contain the smell and enhance the effect of the salt-vinegar mixture. After one week it had a nice patina and I used black oil paint to make the finishing touches.”
“I like the look of the ColorFabb XT CF20 both when it comes straight off the print bed and when it’s been sanded, so I choose that to print the stand for the helmet.”
We thank Andreas for all his input and the images he so kindly provided to us! Please follow Andreas on Instagram (link here) to see his latest creations. As you can see his love for Lord of the Rings has also translated into a terrific print of a small salt box from the Two Towers, made with woodFill. We will write another post about this soon!
bronzeFillwas our first truly special filament, launched over 3 years ago and still one of our most popular filaments. The added weight and unique aesthetic properties have made this an extremely popular material. Before this fantastic ancient Greek helmet we have seen other great projects come to life in this year alone made with bronzeFill like the enormous Octolamp and the stellar fountain pen.
If you want to have more information on how to print with bronzeFill, visit our handy tutorial: How to print with bronzeFill
If you are looking for more tips and advice regarding post-processing bronzeFill and our other metal filled filaments, we have a nice collection of articles collected on our site.
Interested in bronzeFill? It is readily available in our webshop as 750 grams and 1500 grams spools.
Today we feature not one single print, but rather a filament on a particular printer. As the title vaguely suggests, it’s all about nGen on the Robo R2 today. When we received the Robo R2 for testing purposes we immediately started with nGen instead of the default PLA. And the results are amazing!
The Robo R2 printer is available at colorFabb as from this week. As recently announced we act as Robo’s distributing partner in the Benelux and you can order the Robo R2 now with a free spool of nGen! We feel that the right combination of hardware and material makes for a great user experience and with the Robo R2 combined with our nGen we have once more found this synergy.
With a printer like the new Robo R2 you have a reliable machine that works flawlessly with our nGen filament, enabling end users to make durable and good-looking parts! The compact, but professional looking printer allows for prints of 20x20x25cm & accepts a lot of different materials. Together with Robo we are currently testing all of our materials on this printer.
The Robo R2 is currently available in our brand new webshop and we ship from stock. For € 1399 (excluding VAT) you get a terrific printer with a free spool of nGen filament to make that awesome print right away!
If you are at the TCT in Birmingham this year, do not hesitate to drop by. We are in stand H39 and one of the featured printers is the R2! Visit us to see this printer in action, look at our latest offerings or just have a chat!
nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!
nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate. nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range.
With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.
Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews.
nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.
You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking hereor check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:
When speed matters it is hard to beat the Lulzbot TAZ 6 in combination with the MOARstruder. 3D printing is a great tool to create on the spot, but it can sometimes be painfully slow. Aleph Objects, the makers of the Lulzbot 3D printers, have acknowledged this and released the MOARstruder, which is advertised as Bigger, Faster, Stronger. The LulzBot TAZ MOARstruder Tool Head is a high output tool head with an extra-long heater block, dual print cooling fans, and a 1.2 mm diameter nozzle. These features enable high-speed printing and tough 3D printed objects.
As their reselling partner we have been testing extensively with this tool head, designed for prints that need to be finished fast. As a test case we chose the Curved Honeycomb Vase by Eggnot:
We printed the vases with nGen Clear on the Lulzbot TAZ 6. With the Moarstruders big 1.2mm nozzle we printed this vase with only a single perimeter in vase mode, in under 2 hours.
To give you an idea about the scale, let’s place the vase on one of our XL spools (30cm diameter):
About nGen
nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!
nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate. nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range.
With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.
Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews.
nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.
You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking hereor check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:
Engineers, designers, educators, and makers agree: The LulzBot TAZ 6 is the most reliable, easiest-to-use desktop 3D printer ever, featuring innovative self-leveling and self-cleaning, and a modular tool head design for flexible and multi-material upgrades. With proven 3D printing technology and one of the largest print volumes in its class, the LulzBot TAZ 6 is ready to work.
3D printing is more reliable than ever with the integrated automatic bed leveling system, all metal LulzBot v2 Hot End, and heated PEI print surface. With the all metal hot end, you can take advantage of the cutting edge market for new materials. Perfect for both large and small objects, the heated PEI build surface keeps your 3D printed objects in place when hot and releases when cool. With Cura LulzBot Edition, you have hundreds of quickprint profiles built in for seamless 3D printing.
We have all seen 3D printed Star Wars gadgets before. Ever since 3D printing took off years ago, Star Wars memorabilia have been printed by the community. Popular YouTuber and avid 3D printer Dave Bagnall (online known as DaveChaos) has taken this to a whole new level by printing a full scale BB-8! When he recently posted on Twitter that he finished the project we got in touch with Dave and asked him for more details, knowing he had used quite a bit of colorFabb filament while making the replica of the beloved Star Wars character.
Dave is a true maker and obviously a Star Wars fan. He was kind enough to share a lot of pictures of the proces with us.
Without any further delay, here is the final result, which is frankly awesome:
The finished BB-8 by Dave Bagnall
For a project of this magnitude, Dave needed a lot of quality filament, which lead him to colorFabb’s PLA Economy. Our low cost PLA Economy filament was used for 95% of the prints.
You can find Dave’s playlist of the build on YouTube here:
We’ll let Dave talk a bit more about himself and the project:
So a little about myself, I’m a home dad and I’m also a Youtuber. My channel is here I have been making videos on Tech for quite a few years. I originally reached out to Ultimaker to review their 2+ printer but I decided to pitch them my grand idea of 3D printing BB8 and they agreed to loan me their Ultimaker 2+.
In July last year I joined the BB8 Builder Club and started printing.
All the BB8 body files are provided by the club, the drive train that I’m working (but heavily modified) on for him is designed by Ed over at Ed’s Junk
I had a few ups and downs of bad decisions (like the time I spent a 1000 hours on a inner sphere only to trash it in favor of an aluminium one) and failed prints but ultimately I finished all the printing spread over 12 months. all in all it took me a total of 2500 hours of print time and an unspeakable about of PLA. I used the colorFabb Economy while on about 95% of the project.
I worked on the project in bursts as I was busy with my regular YouTube videos and looking after my two children it took me 12 months to finally finish him as a static droid to the tune of £3000 (this figure includes all PLA, material cost of primer, paints, glues, nut & bolts and all the parts needed for the dive)
I have a drive train for him that I have been working on on and off for the past 6 months.
And finally a video showing BB8’s dome working with audio:
BB-8 and his proud creator
We thank Dave for sharing this with us. Don’t forget to follow Dave on Twitter and YouTube.
Recently added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.
PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop.
Here are some print settings to get started:
Adviced 3d printing temperature: 195C-220C
Adviced 3d print speed: 40 – 100 mm/s
Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 50-60C
Cooling fan: 100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.
Or: You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.
You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!
PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.
Nozzles need cleaning. It is a fact of 3D printing life. An innovative way to clean nozzles on a 3D printer is to use an air gun. We have air guns in our production facility and use them to keep our operations dust free. To use the air gun to clean the nozzle one would need an adapter to make a perfect fit between the air gun and the push-fit connector of the bowden tube.
As for the material, we used colorFabb_HT – our high temperature resistant engineering grade filament.
The adapter was designed by the colorFabb team for this particular application.
We printed this part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.25mm nozzle. The layer height is 0.06mm and we chose 100% infill for maximum strength and almost airtight threads.
3D printing has allowed for the creation of gadgets, cosplay and other fun stuff, but materials like colorFabb_HT, enabled by Eastman Tritan™ co-polyester technology, allow for truly disruptive uses in day to day life.
colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied.
colorFabb_HT is uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particular those who need their creations to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and temperature resistance. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.
Aside from its functionality in practical prints, colorFabb_HT Clear also allows to print near transparent prints. Another feature, as a recent post shows, is the ability to print with extreme detail.
At colorFabb we have stressed again and again and again and again that it is more fun to print the things you need than to buy them. It is September 1st and for most of the younger colorFabb users it is back to school again. No worries, younger colorFabb users, this will change when you grow up: you will go to work instead of school.
Anyhow, we thought it would be fun to print a few much needed things that are useful for everybody heading back to school: a drafting set and a pencil case. For these prints we used nGen, our all-round 3D printing filament made with Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer.
Both prints were printed with nGen on the Ultimaker 2+ at 0.2mm layer height. Temperature was 230 degrees C with the heated bed at 85 degrees C.
The protractor handle was printed with nGen Red, the print was stopped and we finished the numbers, etc. with nGen Black.
Material of choice is our trusted nGen filament. nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!
nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate. nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range.
With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.
Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews and is on sale right now! (Sale occurs at the moment of publishing and only for a limited time).
nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.
You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking hereor check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:
Every so often you come across a print that it needs extra attention. We saw Dutch engineer Rein van der Mast’s post on LinkedIn and were immediately triggered by his craftmanship. Using his own design, he printed a fountain pen with colorFabb’s bronzeFill 3D printing filament and the results are simply stunning:
Rein designed the pen himself and used an Ultimaker 2+ Extended with a 0.25mm nozzle to print this true piece of art. He patinated part of the surface to make it green. Rein has 3D printed the world’s first fountain pen nib in titanium – the results of his extensive research. Believe us if we say you have not seen or heard the last from Rein about this fantastic new development!
Rein van der Mast studied Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology (NL). He also immersed himself into machine construction. In the mid 90s he led the design department of a manufacturer of consumer products, where he successfully implemented 3D CAD and 3D printing to rapidly obtain prototypes of consumer products.
You can find more information about Rein’s activities in 3D printing on his SOLide website.
This print was intended as an experiment, but the results exceeded Rein’s expectations and he considers more commercial applications of bronzeFill in the near future. The surface quality is outstanding making it look not 3D printed at all! This is due to the printing resolution combined with the careful post-processing.
bronzeFillwas our first truly special filament, launched 3 years ago and still one of our most popular filaments. The added weight and unique aesthetic properties have made this an extremely popular material. Seeing a project like the fountain pen materialize with this filament is fantastic!
If you want to have more information on how to print with bronzeFill, visit our handy tutorial: How to print with bronzeFill
Unprocessed prints
If you are looking for more tips and advice regarding post-processing bronzeFill and our other metal filled filaments, we have a nice collection of articles collected on our site.
Interested in bronzeFill? It is readily available in our webshop as 750 grams and 1500 grams spools.
Here in the colorFabb print lab we like to see what 3D printing can offer us to make our lives a bit easier. Especially when it comes to small tools we need on a daily basis. Sure, you can go to the store and buy stuff, but where is the fun in that? Plus, with 3D printing we can design, customize and print with a lot of choice in materials. Our own, of course. For instance, consider the micrometer holder we printed with colorFabb_XT. Or spool holders for our XL spools, which many not fit on all printers.
We came accross this simple but clever design by Raphael Bruno. He designed a wire cutter which uses standard cutter blades as inserts. This model was printed on the Lulzbot Mini, with woodFill filament.
Our woodFill performs very well on the Lulzbot Mini. We printed at 0.2mm layer height at 215C and a 50C heated bed.
woodFill was launched nearly 4 years ago during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we recently discontinued) and more recently corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.
Check out the product page on the website and read the 5 star reviews!
Speaking of Lulzbot… Did you know we have the Lulzbot Mini available on our website and ship from stock? Better even: we ship for free in Europe and send out two free spools of nGen with the printer!
The LulzBot Mini was built to work out of the box, with no complicated assembly process getting in the way of you creating. Operating the Mini is the same- straightforward software, easy to read documentation and an army of LulzBot enthusiasts eager to help out people getting started. This printer is not only easy. you will still find flexible, industrial strength capacity from this machine.
You can print a wide range of materials on the Lulzbot Mini: of course the woodFill and our other specials, but especially nGen – our go-to, all-round 3D printing filament.
Read Make Magazine’s review of the Lulzbot Mini here.
The Lulzbot Mini is now available in our webshop at € 1.573 including VAT / € 1.300 excluding VAT. (Free shipping in the EU+ 2 free spools of filament)
The special filaments are truly unique 3D printing filaments. Our first special, woodFill, was released in the fall of 2013. Not the first wood filled filament in the world, but one that made people notice colorFabb more. From there we knew that special filaments would be one of the focal points of the years to come. In May 2014 we released our first truly special filament: bronzeFill. As printed, bronzeFill already looks great: a rough and distinctive surface and of course four times heavier than a regular printed object. Now, where the metal filled filaments truly shine (yes, that is a pun and we’re proud of it) is the ability to post-process them and bring out the metal particle aspects of the filament.
For today’s showcase we have chosen Makies Tea Pot by Makies, part of the Makies tea set. Not only is it a great model, it also fits the material from an aesthetical point of view. We used the second metal filled filament, copperFill, for these prints.
We printed these little tea pots on the Stacker S2. Where we normally focus on big prints, functional prints or a lot of prints (small series production) on the Stacker printers, the special filaments also work very well on the industrial grade line of printers.
We used two ways of post-processing. One tea pot was manually polished. We did this the same way we did the gCreate Rocket Ship a long time ago (read the original post here). Manual polishing takes a long time, but it gives such a beautiful result it is well worth that time. Most people do not even believe such a print is even a print and reckon it was store bought!
Another way we post-processed (and give it the old patina look) was by using salt and vinegar. To achieve accelerated aging, add salt to the vinegar until the salt does not dissolve anymore and the vinegar is saturated. The Lulzbot team already did an extensive blog about this, which you can read here.
copperFill was launched in the fall of 2014 and it was our second metal filled filament, after bronzeFill. The red shine that comes from the copper after post-processing has made it a fan favorite ever since. As with our other metal filled filaments, the aesthetics and weight are the key factors for choosing this filament and these characteristics make it a perfect filament for fidget spinners, for instance.
There are several five star reviews for copperFill on our website:
Learn more on how to print with copperFill with our handy tutorial. You can learn more about post-processing our metal filled filaments by visiting our blog or FAQ page on this topic. We will post more blogs with tips & tricks in the time to come about post-processing our special filaments.
These prints were made on the brand new Stacker S2.
For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.
As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 4 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another (as detailed here)
Both the Stacker S2 and Stacker S4 ship from stock right now!
What makes this printer so different from the rest? First of all, it is based on the technology that has made the Stacker S4 such a success.
You can also expect the following:
Copy mode for printing two objects at once for 2X print speeds
Dual print heads can be offset to prevent the idle head from dripping on the print when not in use to achieve super clean dual material prints
Built-in mobile base, essential for EDU and work groups
Superior print quality
STACKER designed and manufactured hot ends and filament drives produce a superior finish, and work with all filaments, including flexible and metal filled
Uses 1.75mm filament for high-speed printing.
Quick change nozzles in a range of sizes from .4mm to 1mm
Comes with a license of Simplify3D slicing software
Includes a sheet of BuildTak print bed surface but will accept glass
