Vase with the MOARstruder

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:

Design by Eggnot: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2376777

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 available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide. Also, check out Lulzbot’s webshop for nGen availability.

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 here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

 

Lulzbot TAZ 6

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.

The Lulzbot TAZ 6 is now available in our webshop at € 3.025 including VAT / € 2.500 excluding VAT.

Not sold yet? The TAZ 6 was recently reviewed by Richard Horne (RichRap) and Joel Telling (3DPrintingNerd). See their videos below:

You can find Richard’s full blog here.

And of course Joel Telling‘s review:

Richard and Joel have convinced you, we’re sure, but we’ll throw in a bit more:

  • free shipping in Europe
  • 4 (four!) free spools of our nGen filament!

Interested in the Lulzbot TAZ 6 and the MOARstruder? Contact us at sales@colorfabb.com to discuss the options.

BB-8

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.

 

About the filament

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November last year. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver.

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!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

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.

Air gun adapter

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.

colorFabb_HT is available in our webshop.

Back to school kit

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.

Back to Basics Drafting Set by asbeg
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:152531

Nested Pencil Case by Gyrobot
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:146792

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 available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

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 here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

Robo available at colorFabb soon

We are proud to announce our new partnership with Robo and the addition of the Robo C2 and R2 3D printers to the colorFabb portfolio of 3D printing solutions. The Robo printers will be a great addition to the expanding range of printers we offer. This new partnership perfectly fits in colorFabb’s strategy to offer a complete solution to address our customers’ needs. We do this of course by producing a wide variety of high quality filaments, but also increasingly by offering carefully selected hardware solutions.

The Robo line-up consists of the C2 and R2 models.

Robo C2

The Robo C2 compact smart 3D printer with Wi-Fi gives you the freedom to make whatever you can imagine right from your mobile device using the Robo app.
  • Engineered to fit anywhere in your home or workplace
  • Efficient 12.7 x 12.7 x 15.2cm print size
  • 8.9cm built-in color touch screen
  • Class-leading print speed
  • Automatic self-leveling

 

 

Robo R2

The Robo R2 high-performance smart 3D printer with Wi-Fi lets you tackle large-scale projects and make whatever you can imagine right from your mobile device using the Robo app.
  • Built for serious printing
  • Sizable 20 x 20 x 25cm print size
  • 12.7cm built-in color touch screen
  • On-board camera for remote print monitoring
  • Class-leading print speed
  • Removable, heated and automatic self-leveling print bed
  • Ability to add an additional extrusion head and print two materials at once

 

 

In the past months we have been testing both the C2 and R2 printers in our print lab, seeing excellent results with nGen, our all-round go-to filament, on the R2 but also PLA/PHA which runs extremely well on the C2.

 

Ryan Legudi, Robo’s Managing Director says: “We are tremendously excited to announce our two-way partnership with colorFabb. We have long admired how Ruud and his team at colorFabb have built a premium brand in the desktop 3D printing segment, constantly innovating their filament product offering to meet the growing demands of users for more sophisticated materials. This is a huge validation for our company, and our printers, as colorFabb has completed the most extensive testing of our printers to date. With an established global distribution footprint extending into 60+ countries, colorFabb will be able to leverage Robo’s products to its already vast customer base.

“Similarly, we are equally excited to be able to re-sell colorFabb’s extensive range of premium filament to our own customer base, who are increasingly demanding higher quality, more specialized materials. With the release of Robo R2, we have activated our strategy to expand deeper into the prosumer and professional segment, which is the fastest growing segment in the industry. By partnering with colorFabb for their filament, we are now positioned to provide professionals with an exceptional 3D printing solution.”

Adds Ruud Rouleaux, CEO of colorFabb:  “At ColorFabb we have had the luxury of testing many desktop printers in the last 6 years, developing valuable experience and know-how along the way. Early this year we started working with the Robo 3D team and have become extremely impressed by the level of professionalism and dedication that Robo 3D is investing in their new line of Desktop 3D Printers.

“We have been in the position to test both the Robo C2 and R2 with various colorFabb filaments and fine tune printing windows and optimize settings. After months of testing we are excited to announce a two-way partnership with Robo 3D enabling colorFabb to enter the desktop 3D printing landscape with a highly-established brand, in the same time enabling Robo 3D with a well-tested hardware/filament combination, of which we believe will enable a perfect user experience.”

Extensive testing has resulted in some really good results with our filaments:

 

The Robo printers will be available in September in our webshop and colorFabb will act as Robo’s distributing partner in the Benelux. Pricing will be € 799 for the Robo3D C2 and € 1.399 for the Robo3D R2.

 

Full design attributions

Big Guardian Dwarf (72mm) by meyo

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:971046

Material: PLA/PHA Pale Gold – 0.2mm layerheigth – C2

 

Right Fractured Lateral Tibial Condyle By Hamish Mead

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/right-fractured-lateral-tibial-condyle

Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight – R2

 

Water Jet Drive by benny90

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153579/#made

Material: PLA/PHA Natural – 0.2mm layerheigth – R2

 

Batman by LeoDDC

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:352540

Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight – R2

 

Mini Trash Can with moving wheels by DrLex

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1935572

Material: PLA/PHA Pale Gold / PLA/PHA Shining Silver– 0.2mm layerheigth – C2

Fountain pen

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.

bronzeFill was 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.

 

Summer sale!

Back to work. Back to school. Back to life… We think it is time for a flash summer sale.

It is that time of the year again. Summer holidays are over or will be soon. (For those reading this and still enjoying their holiday, we apologize, but there is an end to all this summer fun). We hope you have enjoyed your holidays this summer and are ready to head back into the real world again, re-energized.

At colorFabb we would like to make the transition back into the real world as smooth as possible. For this, we have a flash summer sale as from now and which lasts the entire weekend (until Sunday midnight CET):

20% off on all filaments!

Fairly simple and straight forward. Does not work with other discounts and does not apply to the printers we sell, but other than that all filaments, including the samples, apply! Use coupon code SUMMERSALE when checking out or use this link (and the discount will automatically apply).

We also add a free sample of nGen filament to your order (as we do with all orders nowadays) and you can see if you are eligible for free shipping (EU customers only – sorry) on our website.

Find out more about nGen, our all-round 3D printing filament on our dedicated landing page.

Either click here or go to our webshop and use coupon code SUMMERSALE to get that 20% coupon code today!

Enjoy 3D printing!

– Team colorFabb

Wire stripper

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.

Design by raphaelbruno3d: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2468753

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!

woodFill is available in our webshop and also at Lulzbot’s webstore. You can find a handy tutorial here.

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)

Post-processing a teapot

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.

Design by Makies: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:178668

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
  • Large build volume: 395mm (X) axis, 325mm (Y) axis, 525mm (Z) Axis
  • 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

You can find more information on the dedicated Stacker page or contact us directly to get a quote at sales@colorfabb.com

Abrasive filaments

In a world where 3D printing users require more functional and exotic filaments, we try to keep up with the demands. Although we aim to make sure our filaments work on as many printers as possible, we know that not all materials are a good fit for every printer. One of the reasons can be that some filaments wear the standard brass nozzles too much.

This summer our printlab sees a lot of testing with the Olsson Ruby nozzle, a nozzle which works especially fine with our abrasive filaments like XT-CF20 and steelFill.

Full credits for the designs at the end of the post

We printed with the brand new 0.6mm and 0.8mm Olsson Ruby nozzles on the Ultimaker 2.

The Olsson Ruby nozzles we printed with provided to us by its manufacturer and very own distributor for the Nordic Region: 3DVerkstan, based in Stockholm. In the words of Daniel Ljungstig, CEO of 3DVerkstan: “The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. He designed it to be able to print extremely hard materials for scientific research at Uppsala University in Sweden.”

 

During our test printing the mask we have seen quite some benefits over the regular brass nozzles that are the current industry standard: The ruby nozzle retains the excellent heat conducting properties of brass, while being extremely resistant to wear. This means that you can print your standard materials as usual, but also very abrasive materials such as XT-CF20 and steelFill. Daniel Ljungstig adds: “In addition to this, many of our test users have reported an improved surface quality compared to standard nozzles.” 

The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. You can visit the website here.

 

About the filaments…

XT-CF20

XT-CF20 is our first Amphora based special filament, launched nearly two years ago, made with colorFabb_XT and 20% carbon fibres. More information can be found here. XT-CF20 has received some really good reviews on our website. It may not be the easiest filament to print with, but the results can be stunning. The functionality, stiffness and the matte finish are true selling points of this material.

colorFabb’s XT-CF20 is available in both 750 grams and 2.2kg spools. Click here to see the availabilty.

steelFill

With steelFill we are added a fourth metal based filament to our portfolio after succesfully releasing bronzeFill in 2014, copperFill later that year and brassFill in early 2015. As with these other filaments, the key is post-processing and you can use similar techniques as with our other special metal based filaments.

You can find the full tutorial on how to print with steelFill here.

Iron Man Bust by Geoff.W (not printed with the Ruby nozzle, by the way) – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571321

As with XT-CF20, steelFill is available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

 

The designs

3D printed bike dropout right by colorFabb: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:892442
OpenRC F1 250% Front Upper BOM by colorFabb: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1834126
Misumi Aluminium Extrusion 2020 profile (scaled) by Beverageexpert: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:280318
SteelFill anvil by Steve Cox (original post)
Mother’s Day Sculpture by MakePrintable: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1541512

The nozzles were generously supplied to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor and partner in the Nordic region and manufacturer of the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. For more information about the nozzle, contact 3DVerkstan: info@3dverkstan.se or visit the Olsson Ruby website.