3D Printing is currently a big buzz word in the design, arts and crafts, and technology worlds. We make all of our jewelry with 3D Printing, and in the time we’ve been making 3D Printed creations, we’ve learned a lot about ways to manipulate the material to change its color and appearance. 3D Printing, also known as additive manufacturing, produces objects from CAD files by building up material layer by layer to create the final form. You can 3D Print in a wide range of materials from squishy rubber to hard metals.
Have you created something with 3D Printing? A lot of design students and hobbyists now have access to the technology thanks to services like Shapeways and Ponoko. If you printed your object in polyamide, you can dye them at home to whatever color you want. Polyamide is a porous material that accepts color really well. Some companies offer dying of your prints for you, but that adds extra processing time and is only available in a small range of colors.
If you’re tired of the boring white that many 3D Prints come in, we will show you how to add color to your prints. This is a tutorial for dying nylon (or polyamide) 3d Prints with fabric dye. This material is known by different names at different printing companies. Shapeways calls it “White Strong and Flexible”, Ponoko calls it “Durable Plastic”, Sculpteo “White Plastic”, and iMaterialise “Polyamide”. We’ll use Rit brand dyes in our tutorial since it is easy to find in craft, fabric, and grocery stores. You can also dye your prints with Jacquard brand acid dyes with a similar process, but that will require carefully measuring vinegar to change the acidity of the solution and constantly heating the solution.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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