this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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Multi-color FDM recommendations (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I think it's finally time to upgrade from my Ender 3, and the market has... grown substantially. I'm a bit out of my depth.

Definitely looking at a coreXY, and definitely prefer a multi-color system (multi-material really). My budget is around $600, but that's a bit flexible.

The Elegoo Centurion Carbon 2 looks attractive, and it's on sale. But I've heard good things about multi-head systems, particularly when it comes to waste from purging. Granted, that stretches my budget a bit.

What's the move? It seems like so many of the options (coughcoughBambu) have pretty gross anti-consumer practices. Are there any good options out there?

Update: Alright, I pulled the trigger on a Snapmaker U1. It seems like it's going to be the Ender 3 of tool changers: the open source darling that becomes the de facto standard for the mod community.

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[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Definitely avoid Bambu, they have been very hostile towards open-source developers! And this is speaking as somebody who owns an A1 bought before the ecosystem lockdown shenanigans (my printer is now in LAN-only mode to allow continued use of OrcaSlicer).

The Elegoo Centarui Carbon seems to be an excellent option from everything I've heard online. They recently released the "Canvas" multi-material unit, which looks pretty interesting, but the reliability of it is undetermined. It works fine now, but there hasn't been enough time to see if it will last. Could be a thing to consider if you will be using the printer for anything important! I've also heard that Qidi's Q1 Pro is excellent, and their new Q2 is the successor to that with support for their "Qidi Box". It looks like a neat option too.

Although much better than Bambu, as they support stuff like OrcaSlicer and OctoPrint out of the box, they aren't the most open. In both cases, they used a custom version of Klipper that is not open. I do know that there is the "OpenCentauri" project that is working towards an open Klipper for the CC, but full support (esp. for the Canvas) is not there yet.

Ideally, if within your budget, the Prusa Core One will be the most open option you can get. Great customer service, best in class build quality, repairable, etc. It supports the MMU and, in the future, the INDX for a toolchanger!

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 days ago

A toolchanger option you can purchase right now is the Snapmaker U1. It has a relatively low price tag for a tool-changer and uses a modified version of OrcaSlicer to print stuff, not some proprietary nonsense! It's pretty recent though, so reliability and such are not guaranteed.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Snapmaker U1 is amazing

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It looks nice, but 50% more than my budget. I'm not sure I can justify it.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As someone who has multiple printers, it’s worth saving up the extra amount. Especially if you plan on multi-color printing, just what you save from print waste will more than justify the cost

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

If I was still printing a bunch for TTRPGs then yeah I'd probably agree. I feel like to justify a $900 printer I'd have to start selling prints. I could do that, but then I'm turning a hobby into a side hustle, and then I've gotta find customers, and meet deadlines, and source models that are high enough quality to sell without legal trouble.

Idk, maybe. It does look nice.

Edit: Ugh, I went down the Full Spectrum rabbit hole. If I'm not mistaken, translucent filament on a 4 head printer can handle basically any color. The U1 is becoming more and more attractive. My poor wallet.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Dooooo eeet! Let the filament flow through you! I am your father.

Seriously though, I have 6 printers spanning Bambu, Anycubic, creality etc. 4 of them are multi-color and none of them can touch the u1 on pretty much every metric.

The U1 is fast, prints amazing, has open source firmware and minimizes filament waste by a ridiculous amount.

The Kobra 3 Max is my most used printer, but it only gets more use because it’s a large format printer and I’ve been printing some large art piece stuff(if it wasn’t for the constant filament clogs with the crappy filament cutter system it would be great).

Don’t even touch my p1S anymore unless I need to print a bunch of stuff at the same time.

(Other printers are used for more industrial prints so multicolor isn’t something I care about with them)

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It is done. My fate is sealed. My bank account, reduced to atoms.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

While you wait for shipment, start printing an ikea lid mount for the u1. It's not necessary but it's great to keep dust out. I did the beaverworks because it was first but I don't recommend it because there are better ones now. Beaverworks version has unnecessary extra material and needs toyou to unplug the hot extruders to install.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah I saw that, though I'll probably just wait and print on the U1 when it gets here.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd suggest starting now because you are going to want to have your U1 busy with multi color prints. Multi color tpu is amazing. I made a mini chess set with tpu and the pieces feel fantastic.

U1 tip: make sure all the plastic trim is snapped in inside the printer, especially behind the toolheads. It took me a month to figure out why my toolheads sometimes didn't park. It looked fine but with more pressure I got a click and haven't had problems since.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

My throughput isn't as high as it used to be, I'm not constantly printing, plus I'll be too busy to do much for the next month or so. That should only be what, 10-15 hours of print time tops?

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But from atoms, greatness!

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And then that greatness reduced once again to atoms when I inevitably get a full color 3d scanner to start making perfect miniatures of everything. Luckily I've probably got a few years before there's a decent markerless scanner in the hobbyist price range, so I have time to recover.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yea, all the hobby level ones suck horribly unless you set everything up with perfect lighting, sacrifice a goat to the elder gods, and get lucky.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Uh oh, the Revopoint POP 4 is actually looking pretty decent, at $643 if I pledge soon. Uh oh.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I can second the U1. I got it after my modded Ender 5 that I fitted with a two-head toolchanger.

It's night and day. The U1 isn't quite as fast in real life as the marketing material says, but it's still much faster than the Ender 5. It prints perfectly every time. Since I had it I had a single print failure, and that was because I didn't clean the bed propperly and the print detatched from the fingerprinty bed. Other than that, every single print worked flawlessly.

The toolchanger also saves so much waste compared to a filament changer.

I know it's beyond your stated budget, but I wouldn't want anything else (except maybe a Prusa XL, but that thing is ridiculously expensive).

Btw, the U1 is rather open sourcy, and there's a custom firmware that improves a lot of issues with the OG firmware.

[–] StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My wife preordered the new Flashforge printer (Creator 5). Still waiting for it to come in, but early reviews look interesting.

4 head tool changer design. It's a little over your budget, ($699 USD currently) and they don't seem very linux friendly, but it does seem to be compatible with orca slicer. Don't seem to be as bad as Bamboo though.

Downside is you have to wait for it to ship. They seem to have had some sort of shipping snafu and preorders have gotten delayed. Looks like we'll be getting ours sometime end of June. Not sure when regular orders will ship.

A couple of years ago, I had an Ender 5. Can't recommend it. Went through 3 main boards before I decided to start modding it. Never did get it truly reliable.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The Flashforge Creator 5 caught my eye, it's only a bit outside my budget. Right now it seems like either that or springing for the $899 Snapmaker U1. Downside of the Flashforge is that it's newer, seems to have some bugs, and like you said the shipping issues.

Definitely an option.

[–] Lexam@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I love my A1 and A1 mini! But don't buy a Bambu labs printer.

[–] fufu@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Alternative idea, wait a few more months until indx is released, then buy whatever corexy you want and slap indx on top.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah that's $999 just for the tool changer, then a printer on top of that. We've left my price range behind.

[–] Kanzar@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's not awful to consider the anycubic Kobra X, takes a rather unique way of handling multicolour.

I'm personally using a qidi q2 combo, as I wanted multi colour and the ability to print ASA well... And not spending over 1k AUD.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

I'm hesitant on the Kobra because I'm trying to move away from bedslingers (and an enclosure would be nice).

Qidi looks interesting tho. Looks like a bigger build volume than the Elegoo CC2. I'm curious how it compares.

[–] rustyricotta@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

I recently got an Elegoo Centurion Carbon. You can get them direct from Elegoo as open box for $250 shipped. And they just released the AMS upgrade for that printer for only $50. Granted, the AMS upgrade doesn't ship until at least next month, so I can't attest to the quality of that. I have enjoyed my time with the printer though. My first printer, and it's been painless.

I think overall, it seems to be a pretty low price for multi-color, and pretty decent printing.

PS: there's also a small community that are releasing custom firmware that'll let you fully escape the grasp of the company in case they also do silly things.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

I've only had one exposure with a multi-head printer, and it was incredibly messy. No matter what settings I used, there ended up being drips from the unused nozzle.

My most recent printer is an Anycubic Kobra Max 3, and I'd take the wasted filament over the sloppy prints any day. It's a bed slinger, so maybe not what you had in mind, but they do make one with an enclosure.