Printing temporary structures in another material Hello, It would be useful if temporary structures could be printed in another material: e.g. wax or a mixture of pla and wax. It would be a lot easier to remove those temporary structures after the object is printed. Has anyone tried this? BTW: it requires some way of specifying which parts have to be printed using which material. AFAIK this is not possible with STL. Another problem is changing material: is this possible without adding a second extruder? Any thoughts/suggestions? Stefaan https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321446#msg-321446 Sun, 07 Jun 2026 04:25:00 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321560#msg-321560 Re: Printing temporary structures in another material https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321560#msg-321560 cnc dick General Fri, 07 Mar 2014 21:05:31 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321478#msg-321478 Re: Printing temporary structures in another material https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321478#msg-321478 stonedcoldskier General Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:26:09 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321462#msg-321462 Re: Printing temporary structures in another material https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321462#msg-321462
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sclaes
It would be useful if temporary structures could be printed in another material: e.g. wax or a mixture of pla and wax. It would be a lot easier to remove those temporary structures after the object is printed. Has anyone tried this?
Yes, many people have tried this, including myself. It's still very experimental, but some people have had good success. PVA as support for PLA, PLA as support for ABS, and HIPS as support for ABS have all been successfully used.

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sclaes
BTW: it requires some way of specifying which parts have to be printed using which material. AFAIK this is not possible with STL.
Just have separate .STL files for each material, at least until a better format is supported. Or, for a support material, have the slicer automatically generate the support material locations. Some slicers are better at this than others.

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sclaes
Another problem is changing material: is this possible without adding a second extruder?
Not really. An automatic way of switching materials on each layer is needed, and it needs to be done reasonably quickly. With a single extruder and hot end, you would have to purge the remaining melted material from the hot end before printing with the new material, and you would still need some way of switching materials automatically. This would take a long time, make a mess, and waste material.

It may be possible though to create a dual material print head with one extruder motor and two hot ends, which is what these guys are trying to create here: [www.kickstarter.com]]]> NewPerfection General Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:06:38 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321451#msg-321451 Re: Printing temporary structures in another material https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321451#msg-321451
Also, I believe there is a way to specify which material is the support material, but I can remember off the top of my head.]]> gmh39 General Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:57:00 -0500 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321446#msg-321446 Printing temporary structures in another material https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,321446,321446#msg-321446
It would be useful if temporary structures could be printed in another material: e.g. wax or a mixture of pla and wax. It would be a lot easier to remove those temporary structures after the object is printed. Has anyone tried this?

BTW: it requires some way of specifying which parts have to be printed using which material. AFAIK this is not possible with STL. Another problem is changing material: is this possible without adding a second extruder?

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Stefaan]]> sclaes General Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:42:20 -0500