Create your own color gradient 3D printing filament

The color gradient filament is a fun thing to play with. It allows you to make 3D prints that slowly change from color to color along the Z axis. [David Gozzard] wanted to print with this effect and learned how to make his own filament to make work.

[David] intended to 3D print a spectrogram of a gravity wave and wanted the graph to turn from blue to yellow. Only having a monochrome printer, he needed color changing filament, but couldn't find any blue to yellow filament online.

The color-changing print that result is superb, demonstrating the value of the technique.

So he chose to create it himself. He started by creating a spiral model in Fusion 360, with a hexagonal section and slowly tapering to a point. Slicing it and printing it blue results in a filament that slowly fades to a point. The opposite shape can then be printed in yellow, shrinking from a dot to a full size filament. The trick is to print one shape and then the other, mashing the G-code together and changing the filament from blue to yellow along the way. The result is that the blue and yellow plastic are printed together in a single filament that gradually changes from one to the other.

Notably, the filament is smaller than the original filaments used to create it, so it is necessary to run slightly different settings when using it. [David] has shared the patterns on Thingiverse for those wanting to recreate the technique at home. His resulting gravity wave impression is impressive, showing that this technique works well!

We have also seen different similar techniques used to create multicolored filaments. Video after the break.