multicolor skeleton on single filament printer

thingiverse

This 5-color design is printed on a single-filament printer (Ender3). You print one color at a time, very thin, then change filament color and print the next file. The layers are thin enough that the extruder tip is able to pass over them. The final piece is about 1mm thick. The filament touching the bed becomes the front of the finished piece, and the design gets reversed left to right. Do not relevel the bed or disturb the print in between colors. 5 files, each numbered for the order to be printed and named so you can figure out your own colors. I used: 1) purple for the outline of flowers and leaf veins 2) pink for the flowers 3) green for leaves 4) white for bones 5) black for background. The white came out rather translucent and spread; I probably needed to use a cooler bed and/or extruder temperature. I started with an original line drawing, then used Pixlr* to create the different color layers, and AnyConv to convert them to STLs. *Photoshop would work well, too; MS Paint might even be enough. I saw a YouTube where somebody did this using all kinds of fancy apps, but I simplified it to use apps I had on hand. Design your own! --the finished design is a mirror image of the original, so if you include words or anything that would look weird backward, you have to start with them reversed. --Include registration marks in each layer of the print. a 1 mm dot at each corner is enough to make the layers line up properly. --print the outline first --This technique could be used to decorate any flat 3D print. Print the design first, then print the object (box lid, cell phone case, whatever) on top of it, instead of the background file.