Four colors aren’t a problem with the AMS. The problem is when somebody unfamiliar with any sort of optimization for multi-color printing tries to use it.
The things they do:
Not realize that every color change costs about 1-2minutes, per layer, then find out that the 6" high four-color pokemon they want to print is going to take 18 hours, while a single-color version of it would take 3 hours. They’ll do things like put a thin stripe of color that could have been added with a paint pen in 3 seconds, but adds 4 hours to a print.
Run abrasive filaments through it, which wear down the PTFE tubing inside the AMS, wear down the stock nozzle, wear down the filament guides in the AMS, and are generally more brittle, leading to segments of filament stuck inside the AMS.
Silk PLA tends to not go down the chute very well either. It thickens as it comes out due to viscosity differences, and has a much greater chance of plugging the chute, and you get a snowball effect in the tube, so if it fails once, the rest of the purges don’t go down the chute, and it eventually can reach the extruder, and attach to it and get pulled out into the print, or block movement of the nozzle and ruin a print through layer shifts.
If I were running 3D printers in a library, I would reach out to a local makerspace to try and get somebody to volunteer to help with keeping the printers going. Colleges generally have programs where a student would love to get volunteer hours doing the same as well.
the 5 color PLA we got is Silk. I’ve posted about this on other 3D printer tech sites and no one warned me re: the PLA getting stuck in the nozzle or extruder. I don’t plan on using it a lot as I want to print out an articulated dragon in 5 colors. Is there a step I can take after this silk print to ensure the nozzle/extruder won’t start getting stuck with non-silk PLA? Thank you.
One filament with five colors is different than five filaments of different colors!
If your printer has the ability to print five colors with five different filaments, then, as @Wrathernaut points out, allowing the public to use that feature without supervision can be a problem.
As for a single filament in one or more colors, these can print just as well as single color filaments.
In a public environment, I strongly recommend that you have some cleaning filament on hand. 3D-Fuel has both 1.75 and 2.85 variants available. eSUN is another brand (search for 3mm instead of 2.85).
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Hi b-morgan… I never knew there was such a thing as cleaning filament! Thank you so much for sharing that. How often do you use that cleaning filament? How much of that filament do you use to clean each of your 1.75 and your 2.85 printers? Thank you again.
I use the cleaning filament along with a cold pull when I switch tool heads or when I switch filament types and sometimes when I switch colors.
As for how much, that depends. I feed enough so that it is coming out clean and then do the cold pull. If the cold pull shows residue, then I may do another round.
With the TAZ 6 stock single extruder, after a successful cold pull I can shine a light through the top of the extruder and see it with a mirror at the bottom. Other tool heads may not have a straight path but a cold pull without any filament residue and a nice “inside of the nozzle” pattern at the end indicates a clear path.
5-color silk as a single filament would be fine. Clogged purge tubes is more of an issue with the enclosed CoreXY machines with a built-in purge (Bambu X1 series, Creality K1 series, etc).
The Bambu A1 series purge off to the side, so it’s much less of an issue.
I still stand by having any sort of multicolor setup non-available to the public. With a limited number of machines (or just one!) it will, at best just monopolize the printer due to extra time printing, leading to far fewer people having access to it. The downtime from extra complexity is going to further reduce public access, and people constantly think that just because they paint the model correctly in the slicer that it will automatically select the correct filament. One roll on the printer means they know what color is coming out.
Additionally in any library setup, if the public has access to the filament to load it themselves, leave PLA out, and any other material needs to be locked up. Running PETG at PLA temps is bad, and running ABS in an open environment is going to lead to some bad fumes.