Laser Toner Multi-color extruder

Hi all

I heard that laser toner is a polyester plastic. So I dug around and found a supplier of white toner. I took tiny amounts of white and black toners. They easily mixed into a very smooth grey. They flow like water. I heated them until they melted and let them cool.

I imagine 5 tiny augers/screws pushing toner(s) into a central mixing chamber. The augers can spin at different rates to control the color blending. Somehow the mixed powder has to be forced into a melt area and pressure provided to extrude them.

I came up with the idea, tried it out, and am presenting it to all. Does anyone care to try to build such a thing for the community? I'll donate the toner cartridges I bought.

Mike

Of course, if we can find powdered PLA, that should work too.

... I have two big bottles full of powdered PA - one white (only with CO2-laser meltable), the other black (too with blue and NIR-diodes possible) ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hi Viktor!

It's been a while since we spoke! How are you? I don't know if this was the best place for this post.

Have you tried to blend colors and melt them with any other kind of heat? If the powder is fine enough, it should blend smoothly, appearing as a solid color. I was really happy the laser toner is so finely ground. White laser toner is so weird!

... did some intermixing, but notized, that different additives have too different melting properties and/or will change colour regarding to end temperature or some "chemical interaction" with different additives around ... but it's a pretty interesting "alchemy" option, similar to emailles, changing colour while melting and after solidifying (or oxidizing).

Was more interested in clearly separated colours for better contrast/visibility ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I hope to obtain very near matches in the chemistry of the base 5 colors so they melt well. Please ask around and see if anyone wants to build this. I imagine it will be a very good multi-color option. Thanks