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Multicolored 3D Printer with Sharpies

Mr. P was getting tired of the boring white filament? He wanted to help his students personalize their 3D prints without having to swap rolls of filament? It would also save Mr. P time and is a great project for you students!

We print in a lot of white filament in our classroom. Here is a simple little hack will have you printing in as many colors as you want without ever having to swap that roll of white filament out.
Sharpie markers can be used to color lengths of filament to create fun multi-colored prints. It is super easy to do and it adds a touch of personalization to prints without the hassle of swapping filament.

The thought of manually coloring a meter or more of filament seemed like it could be improved upon. It defiantly did with this great design on Thingiverse for a marker holder for 3mm filament. Turns out, that design works just fine with 1.75mm PLA filament too without any modifications. Just print the holder, run your filament through it and into your extruder, and you are done. Add markers as desired.

As the filament is pulled through the marker holder, the filament is colored for you by the marker. You can leave the marker holder on top of your printer and it shouldn’t affect the flow of filament.

For best results, always use two similar colors in the marker holder. You will also have to push the markers pretty far in or drill out the holes a little so the markers press against the filament.

With white filament, the markers come out more pastel, or milky, in tone. With transparent or natural filament, it will come out looking closer to the color of a gel pen with more of a glossy sheen as in the photo above.

This is an easy way to allow your youth to personalize their prints. I’ve also found that they have a stronger feeling ownership of the end product. It also allows you to have multiple colors without having to buy multiple rolls of filament, just an 8 pack of sharpies (or two).