
3D Printer Hack: Embedding Water and Metal - akumpf
http://makefastworkshop.com/hacks/?p=20160920&v=1
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akumpf
This has been a lot of fun exploring over the past few days. Let me know if
you have suggestions/questions about this kind of hybrid approach using 3D
printers.

Anything else you'd like to see printed with multiple materials?

~~~
chris_va
(I can't tell from the post if you are able to print 2 materials, or just
embed 1 in another, so I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for)

At one point I wrote a STL converter for medical images (DICOM -> STL), for
MRIs and CAT scans:
[https://github.com/chrisvana/printer](https://github.com/chrisvana/printer)

It would be interesting to print a cancer tumor with one material the and the
surrounding tissue with another. Some data here:
[http://www.cancerimagingarchive.net](http://www.cancerimagingarchive.net)

~~~
pen2l
> It would be interesting to print a cancer tumor with one material the and
> the surrounding tissue with another. Some data here:
> [http://www.cancerimagingarchive.net](http://www.cancerimagingarchive.net)

Wow, that's like the first cool reason I have stumbled upon for a dual-
extruder printer. :) (a lot of people think they need a printer with dual-
extruders -- they don't, and actually the biggest reason they don't need it is
3d printing suddenly gets twice as difficult when you're doing it with dual-
extruders)

~~~
kefka
> 3d printing suddenly gets twice as difficult when you're doing it with dual-
> extruders

Not really... If you use something like this
[http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1680034](http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1680034)

In this case, you extrude motor 1 and print. Then to switch, you retract until
you're before the Y, and extrude with filament 2. Use a wipe-tower to get a
consistent flow, and you have 2 colors (of the same material) with 1 hotend.

~~~
iamflimflam1
My experience would be that it is a lot more difficult.

I've got one of these (the cyclops) and when it works it works well (although
even with a wipe tower you get some colour bleed).

[https://printedsolid.com/products/e3d-dual-extrusion-
chimera...](https://printedsolid.com/products/e3d-dual-extrusion-chimera-
cyclops)

It is very easy to jam one of the colours, you have to be very careful about
retraction distances because if you retract to far the other colour can leak
into the cold end part and solidify and then you only have one colour working.

