First time poster, so preemptive apologies if this post is incorrectly categorized or labeled, etc.
So, I’m using a TAZ Workhorse (I’m not sure which generation), with a single extractor and I’m having difficulty getting a multi-color print sliced and printed correctly.
The STL file is located here Titleist Light Box. The file is named obj_1_Titleist v1.step.stl
(Sorry for the link. As a new user, I could not upload the stl file directly.)
I’m trying to print the lettering in white, with a black border. I’ve managed to only print the first layer as all black or all white, which is not ideal. Is the STL file itself preventing me from singling out the correct layer? Or am I completely inept?
You could create a new custom printer in CuraLE, copy over all the start code, end code, and other profile settings and tell it it has 2 extruders, and work the extruder start/end code to get some sort of working setup, but it sounds like that would be out of your current skill level.
If you do OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer, you can do some tricks to do manual color changes, but setting that up is a bit involved as well.
The easiest thing to do with what you have, is to open the 3MF files in OrcaSlicer so you can separate the components of the text out and save as separate STL files. Print those separately on the Workhorse, and glue them back together afterward. To make it easy to put together, I’d say to print the white text with the side that would be inside the box down, add a 5mm brim with no brim gap so you have a lip to mate up with the black part and do it that way.
I’d love to see Lulzbot make proper profiles for PrusaSlicer/OrcaSlicer. My printers are now too modified, so my profiles for these slicers would not be of use to others without the same mods. If I had a bone stock Workhorse to work with, I’d be happy to put one together.
The .stl file is not in the proper format for multi-color printing. It looks like the “lettering” has less layers than the “background” so a light “in the box” will shine through and the “lettering” will be brighter than the rest.
I sliced this with CuraLE 4.13.4 at the recommended layer height of .2mm (initial layer at .2mm). Examining the sliced model one layer at a time reveals that the lettering is only one layer thinner than the surrounding structure (layers 1-4 are filled, layer 5 is surround only, layers 6-40 are the lip around the outside edge).
I don’t believe this model can be manipulated into something that can be printed in multiple colors. I also don’t believe that this model is very well designed as a single layer difference isn’t going to show much contrast.
Thank you looking! You are 100% correct, not possible with that file. But, knowing that, in and of itself, is still really helpful. At least I know I’m kind of on track.
