Full colour first layers on your 3D prints - Sublimation guide

Check out my 2nd channel, TT Racing: / @ttracingyt
Johan from Nerds.ph has created an amazing process that combines full colour 2D printing with 3D printing, using sublimation. In this guide, I will take you through the cheapest way to get started, and explain all of the best slicer and print settings so you can replicate these results.
‪@TheRealSamPrentice‬ What a guy!
PS. I got some glitter spray in my mouth.
0:00 Introduction
Nerds.ph video: • Sublimated 3D printing
Nerds.ph website: nerds.ph/
0:59 What is sublimation?
1:35 Finding the cheapest 2D printer for sublimation
Epson Eco-tank printers: epson.com/ecotank-ink-tank-pr...
Epson ET1810 (Aus): www.officeworks.com.au/shop/o...
Epson ET2400 (Amazon affiliate): amzn.to/3XCbAWn
Epson ET2400 (Staples): www.staples.com/epson-superta...
Epson ET2400 (Walmart): www.walmart.com/ip/Epson-EcoT...
2:56 2D Printer setup for sublimation dye
HBT bottle transfer video: • How to convert an Epso...
Angie Holden syringe transfer video: • Converting an Epson Ec...
Sublimation supplies kit (Aus): www.sublimationsupplies.com.a...
5:37 T-shirt example
Follow Sam Prentice on the gram: / therealsamprentice
7:04 3D printing initial test
Bambu Lab A1 (affiliate): shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=248535...
8:50 Settings and Tips
Bambu Lab X1/P1/A1 bed template: www.printables.com/model/9259...
15:12 Applications and durability
Phone case by Lindh3D: www.printables.com/model/5731...
3D printed projects video: • Six incredible 3D prin...
Twin joystick: www.printables.com/model/7171...
Christiano Ronaldo image by Илья Хохлов/Ilya Khokhlov/Ilja Chochłow: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
17:23 Conclusion
Buy quality and affordable filament from X3D. Buy 3, get 1 free and a free sample pack with every order: www.x3d.com.au
Get Quality Resins from 3D Printers Online. 5% off storewide for Teaching Tech subscribers [Code: tech5]
3dprintersonline.com.au/
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[@PaulLemars01]

Absolutely brilliant. I just contacted my local print shop (They're about a mile away) and I found out they do dye-sub printing. I can design artwork for my project, email it to them and later in the day nip over there and pick it up. My shop quoted $6.00US for an 8x10 sheet for singles and a sliding scale for multiples. Instead of buying a printer and all that entails just call up your local print shop and see if they do dye-sub. Oh, and my shop can do prints bigger than my Artillery Sidewinder X2 print bed.

[@animodeoh]

$6 for a regular sized sheet of paper?? Thats expensive. I made my own sublimation printer a few years ago like mentiomed in the video and maybe spemt like $200 total on the printer, ink, paper and a few sub blanks

[@MaxMichel89]

​@@animodeoh Yeah, but If you only want to Test it or use this technique ocasionanally it Checks Out. I don't have more space for another printer, but might want to try IT on a Phone Case.

[@markmorgan8378]

The body spray in the face was the best. LOL Great video as always.

[@Juksemakeren]

13:03

[@komradkyle]

The humor here is deadpan but genius

[@hadjjicus]

shaq the sublimation soldier

[@thequickestfox6106]

This is fantastic - I can't wait to use the T-shirt making excuse to justify a new printer to my wife :D

[@jpeero]

better make her some t-shirts

[@rachaelb9164]

You can’t ever use it for regular printing again. You can also sublimate mouse pads, magnets, coasters, etc. basically anything with a poly base.

[@dan-nutu]

I wonder if using transparency sheets for inkjet printers would work better than printing on regular paper. They could stick to the 3d printed part - depending on how it works it may be a bug or a feature :)

[@user-uf8nn6he3e]

I want T-shirts!!!!!

[@CrAzZyTheCodingBoss]

Same

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Would be interesting to see the effect with translucent filament

[@ValTek_Armory]

You could possibly do a stained glass effect that way

[@xXGeth270Xx]

I randomly decided to watch this and this video may have accidentally solved a problem I was having. I needed the bottom surface of my print to be as close to perfectly flat as possible for a specific purpose but I was getting those gaps with the default infil pattern. I will now try the different fill patterns and extra squish. The sublimation technique is also something I'll keep in mind, for a future project.

[@dan3a]

Props to Johan!

[@StephenSmith304]

It would be neat to see you try color laser toner transfer using an over head transparency and see how the process and quality compares using the same source image and 3D printer.

[@DWIT3D]

Interesting and definitely fascinating, but a lot of steps and set-up/calibration for how often it would get used. I used to do a lot of sublimation, but if it's not done daily (or even weekly), the inks in the printer end up drying on the head(s), or if the printer has automatic cleaning/cycling, the ink gets used up in the cleaning cycle and just goes to waste. Sublimation can cost you more than you make if you are not using it on a regular basis... but... I do love this concept!

[@beermanuk]

Another way to do this is to use a laser printer and ohp paper. It's called FDM toner transfer. Like the sublimation method it likes a lot of squish.

[@arthurmoore9488]

That was my thought as well. Classic method to etch circuit boards.

[@onerob4141]

This is genius! I already do both sublimation and 3D printing, but never in a million years thought about combining the two! Thank you!

[@VibesWidRaj]

same here, will try this

[@xX_Zieva_Xx]

Likewise! Can't wait to try this!

[@ragwafire]

My partner is a digital artist, and I'm so excited to be able to use this to imprint their illustrations on my 3D prints!

[@FranklyPeetoons]

After 28 years of struggling with troublesome printers, I broke down and got an EcoTank last year. I don't use it for sublimation, but its performance has been relatively stellar. Why? It works. I press PRINT and it prints properly, even after not using it for weeks. No extra steps needed. No driver reinstallation required. No fighting with ink cartridges required. No intrusive, periodic demands to set everything up all over again. When you say it's good for this particular 3D printing purpose, I believe you

[@kimmotoivanen]

Our ET (2650) was the worst, because when not used, the print head dried and didn't recover with any number of cleaning cycles. For non-frequent use cheap printers with expensive cartridges (with new, clean print heads) are easier. Cartridges can be stored "forever" :) Also the ET colours were not as and saturated as in HP and Canon, and I didn't find any way to adjust them.

[@FranklyPeetoons]

@@kimmotoivanen I can see that being a problem. But I use it every week or three for non-color-critical purposes. For that it's been superior to all my past printers, which managed somehow to quietly break or get a corrupted driver between uses

[@andreamitchell4758]

​@@kimmotoivanenjust get a laser printer ink jets are crap

[@kimmotoivanen]

@@andreamitchell4758 I have one B&W, but it doesn't have scanner. Colour laser printers did fair job even 20 years ago, not sure if they have improved to match ink jets in photo quality (glossy paper, dithering/screening). Laser "ink" is somewhat transfer-able with heat, but I doubt it works like sublimate or even normal jet ink 🤨

[@andreamitchell4758]

@@kimmotoivanen oh I just meant for regular 2d printing not for this use case Yeah I am sure color laser printers are as good if not better than inkjets I know they were even being used for counterfeit US currency so they must be pretty good. But yeah I don't even see the need to own any color printer really 99.9% of prints will be in black and white and color ink is just so ridiculously expensive it is just easier and cheaper to download the big pharmacy chain apps and send it off there. I have a nice Canon PIXMA all in one inkjet photo color printer but I think we have maybe printed a color photo on it twice and as for color prints maybe a bit more but it seems like it needs ink every 5 pages and even the cheapest Chinese ink from Amazon is still way too expensive when you compare it to just ordering prints from the pharmacy chain especially when they always have coupons or deals for free prints.

[@noliebowtie1315]

Wow, this is actually amazing. If I start a 3D print farm, I'll 100% have to add sublimation to supplement the services provided.

[@benjaminmichael5719]

I've been wanting a sublimation printer for quite a while. This just gives me another use-case for when I eventually pick one up.

[@stewartarmitage6095]

Brilliant video Michael. My wife already has a sublimation printer for her etsy store so will now have to combine that with some of my 3d print designs.

[@arklanuthoslin]

this combined with prints that fold up from being printed flat could be very interesting. no need to paint after you fold it all up. Like an unfolded cube, say. print flat, each face gets it's own section of sublimation imagery. Then take it off the print bed, fold it up and glue together, or model in some snaps. boom, full color printed cube. For low poly models this could be really interesting.

[@drewgossage8842]

Fantastic and so creative! I love how you shine light on community projects!!

[@g3i0r]

Great investigation and thanks to Johan!

[@o.e.r.3287]

Just buy a cheap older Epson printer for like $50 and use a $20 set of refillable cartridges. Ecotank is fine and all, but the ink tanks are pretty big and vulnerable to ink settling and lots of clogs. You have to refill more often, but also much easier to take the cartridges out and give them a good shake every few weeks as needed. To put down more ink on a page, make sure to use the setting for matte paper, puts down more ink than gloss profiles.

[@andreamitchell4758]

You can most likely get one for free and why does it have to be Epson? It can be any inkjet and you can probably find people who will pay you to remove it.

[@o.e.r.3287]

@@andreamitchell4758 Epson printers use piezo printheads, printers like HP and Canon are thermal heads which are not compatible with most sublimation inks.

[@baschz]

I tried this a while ago as well and it worked great. I did just a quick test, so I didn't change any settings from a normal PLA print. Still came out very well. Cool and informative video as usual.

[@kaperevets6372]

This is exactly why you are my favorite 3d printing youtuber! I have learned so much on here and since we already have sublimation equipment i cant wait to try this too.

[@allenpaley]

Outstanding, Michael. Another banger of a video.

[@miserablepile]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[@properprinting]

This is awesome! This sparked some new ideas, thanks!

[@wildwalkeruk]

Cool video dude, we bought a sublimation printer (converted Epson) couple of years ago, and have made T-Shirts, Cups, Coasters etc, but being able to something with my 3D printer is awesome :)

[@TripodsGarage]

Absolutely loved this video! Couldn't have picked a better face 😀. My daughter and I have been doing sublimation with an Epson Ink Tank for years. We have to run test pages basically every week to help prevent nozzle clogs.

[@billytalentrocks345]

This is a game changer, it adds a new dimension to multi colored printing, unlocking new possibilities. Great discovery!

[@ondrejliptak131]

Simply brilliant. Although I have to work on my wife first to make room for another machine :) btw. EPSON deserves a praise for the design too.

[@NoTimeForThatNow]

This is brilliant, both you and Johan did a great job!

[@KevinLemarchand]

This is a really awesome technique! Thanks for sharing ❤

[@DTyrannosaurus]

I've been doing dye sublimation at home for the past couple of years and had lightly wondered how to combine the two. VERY excited to give this a try. Thanks for sharing all the info!

[@olafb.2929]

This is a great technique! Thanks for sharing!

[@lucasrezende7214]

This is seriously awesome.

[@jaxbade]

I was looking for a way to produce customised New 3DS facelplates for a few days and you make that video... Thanks! 🥳

[@naeem5071]

Thank you for the amazing content! Your videos always show me incredible things I never thought were possible.

[@BorisMinor]

Love it! The practical application for instructions just goes to show how useful all of these techniques are. Great video.

[@333donutboy]

Very interesting process. I'm not sure if I would ever do it but still, very cool. Thanks

[@mlubecke]

Wow…. I’m speechless. Totally took this to a new level. ❤❤

[@aPyroDesign]

This is fantastic. I may be able to incorporate this into some projects. I've used sublimation a ton in the past. Combining it with 3d printing is game changing. Thanks for making this video.

[@LelandHasGames]

Holy crap! That is AMAZING!

[@TheTsunamijuan]

One of your best videos yet imo!

[@nerdsph1]

The Sharpie solution made my day. Thanks for the video.

[@roland_eiden7555]

This is brilliant! Thank you for sharing this.

[@floridafoilers]

I love how you’ve shared this new technique and given us great directions to reproduce! Thank you 🙌🙌

[@Zeldur]

This is suuuuuper cool. Will save this for later if I ever need it for a project. Also, love the humor

[@jeffharrison5265]

Fantastic idea, thanks for sharing!!

[@MarkDotExe]

really cool. Thanks

[@antoniomromo]

Absolutely love this!!! Thanks for the new and interesting ways to use my printer.

[@Rizzler420-uh4yd]

Nicely presented, thank you.

[@mmill631]

Love it, what a great idea!

[@AseGarcia]

Awesome technique! I think it opens a big world of possibilities. Thanks for sharing!

[@TheMrbrookster]

Thanks Johan and Michael your both stars.🌟

[@adamantize]

Good stuff man. Thanks for sharing.

[@NicksStuff]

Johan, you're a legend!!!

[@terryevans1976]

Very cool project.

[@SebastianCanale]

Very complete video!!! Amazing

[@avejst]

WOW, great job Johan !! Another great video Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us :-)

[@makerlindh5372]

Wow nice idea. And also really cool that you used my phone case design on printables 😍 it looked awesome

[@twincast2005]

"Squish" is objectively a funny word. I don't think I've ever heard it as often in as short a time. 😂

[@howardhamaker2708]

OH this is great. This fits into my soon to be home based printer business. Thank you ! And I already own all the equipment.

[@narwhalking2788]

This is great for hologram props/future screen miniatures.

[@Abyssaal1]

Cool!

[@edmarfilho2000]

Thanks!

[@jasongooden917]

This is quite amazing

[@cebau1]

Amayzing 😮

[@kronisknatur]

So great. I have to try it

[@Seaofjitsu]

UNREALLLLLL WOW

[@martythestines]

I have an old printer that I don't use and will work perfectly for this. I'm excited!

[@JunkieVirus]

extra tip! epson sells sublimation ink for there ecotrank printers. and for the best results I advice a very good icc file to have the best colours printed. the normal settings are ok. but with a good icc file results are 10 times better. I have the file for eco tank printers that will greatly improve the quality of the prints. maybe @teaching tech, you can do another video, with high release paper and my icc files, to see the difference. another tip, when you use a eco tank printer for sublimation. you must print 1 page a day minimal, the paint tends to stick to the printhead if not used in a while.

[@rosskappa5410]

pretty amazing !

[@peircedan]

Wow. One could make some amazing front panels for enclosures and great images for keycaps on custom keyboards. I'm not going to run out to purchase a 2d printer for this, but may reconsider some day in the future if an extra wad of cash comes my way.

[@andreamitchell4758]

You could probably pick up a normal ink jet for free or Next to free from. Craigslist or somewhere else arnt just get a cheap refillable cart kit from China and inject the sublimation dye into the carts instead of ink. I really don't see why it needs to be an eco tank specifically other than Epson sponsorship of the video or a very trivial convenience feature That becomes even more trivial when you consider the process of transferring the due to the bottles outlined in the beginning of the video. It is just as easy if not easier to inject the dye into a refillable after market ink cart with a syringe

[@SeanLumly]

I've also wondered about heat-gun printed shrink wrapping techniques (similar to bottles of soda). If you can use adhesive to ensure a secure mount of the shrink wrapped plastic, you can technically shrink individual parts for later assembly. This should make it possible to apply a durable full-colour "skin" on nearly any object (given a bit of assembly). A thin single layer of PLA, and a bit of glue may be effectively used with heat gun 'srhinking' to attache the full-colour surface to a separately printed object! Oh, and ECOtank is a blessing in a market of historic gouging. The amount of ink you get is SUBSTANTIAL and is cheap to replace. You get to print as you would with a laser printer: you don't have to think about consumables.

[@jeffreycutler7364]

Just wanted to point out that the printer manufacturers are up to their old shenanigans with this type of printer too. Since you've got long lines with "stale" ink in them if you don't run your printer daily the first thing it does is dump a bunch of ink into a sponge. The sponge is not a "user replaceable part" and has an electronic counter on it. Once the counter is exceed, the printer is junk. So yes, still better than the old inkjets, but still some ways to go.

[@SeanLumly]

@@jeffreycutler7364 Somehow, I am not surprised!

[@dan-nutu]

​@@jeffreycutler7364Making that sponge non user replaceable is despicable!! But do you know for sure that it's daily? I.e. that you need to print every single day to avoid the cleaning part? I'm asking because I have a similar problem with a regular (i.e. 2d) printer from Canon that has "XL" ink tanks (that's the main reason I chose it). I very rarely print anything on it and so every time I do use it it does its cleaning thing, which wastes a lot of ink, so even though the ink tanks are "XL" size I get few pages out of them. I scheduled a task every Sunday morning to print a page of text, to avoid the cleaning phase. I choose once a week to minimise ink and paper loss but it's too seldom, as the printer still does its cleaning thing. If it needs to print every day to avoid the cleaning then there is no win, as the scheduled task itself would waste 365 pages and the ink for them each year.

[@ultramegax]

​​​​​@@jeffreycutler7364AFAIK, this is false. If you're referring to the maintenance tank, which it sounds like you are, they're a few bucks on Amazon and one step to replace. If there's some other pad in the printer that I'm not aware of, I guess I'll have to look into it. -- Upon doing some further reading, it seems like this might be dependent on the model you buy/age of the printer. Newer models, like the one I have, the ET-3850, have the easily replaceable maintenance box. Not sure about other/older models. Again, unless there's some other pad I'm not aware of.

[@jeffreycutler7364]

@@dan-nutu It probably doesn't have to be daily. That's what one youtube review I read say. You probably don't have to print a whole page, just a quick print with all of the different colors.

[@yobson]

thank you shaq for this innovation 💖

[@TeachingTech]

Most dominant sublimation user ever.

[@kirkpreston7]

I will be certainly combining my 2 hobbies together with this technique, always looking for some thing different to expand my product range

[@3DHP]

Great video Michael , I shared on my Socials.

Wow. This looks like the perfect way to make custom key caps for custom/mechanical keyboard with detailed legends.

[@MoTheFcker]

great video! ❤

[@ads-365]

This is genius 👍

[@NoahKainWhittington]

Nice! I've been doing this using a laser printer and transparency paper for about a year now! It even works with regular printer paper when using a laser printer if you rub off the paper with cold water. This is definitely a cheaper method, especially because of the high cost of color laser printers and toner! Nice job! I may replace my current laser printer setup with this just because the ink is so much more affordable.

[@CyanTiger]

I would totally put some sort of UV blocking coating on the top of your prints. I have noticed that some D-Sub Prints tend to fade out under UV/Sunlight over time. Thanks for sharing an awesome video.

[@Dode.Bogdan]

amazing channel :)) thank you !

[@whatyoudo9773]

wow! the stuff you can do in the mad lab!

[@JardaBar]

This is great! And the Czech glue KORES too 🙂

[@grzegorzawniczak583]

This is Great! I own L1225 and one may change printer settings so colors are more dense.

[@hallowedshade125]

This is the type of idea that takes off! 🎉 now I have to spend MORE on my hobby 😂

[@collie147]

Cases with labels and colouring is a great idea. You could also make any kind of signage. I wonder what it would look like back lit with a few LEDs behind it.

[@D-One]

This is great for prints that need text, like panels and such... will def try it.

[@jonbondy]

The method you demonstrated for registering the paper to the 3D print is ingenious but inflexible. If you could incorporate some registration dots into the 3D print, have them print first and then pause, you could then position the paper prior to allowing the 3D print to compete. This would allow you to create a variety of geometries while retaining the registration feature.

[@mmill631]

Hi everyone, tried this method and got some good result with some added technique, when printing from photoshop there is an option to print with extra ink (no need to run the paper through the printer again), when cleaning the paper from the 3D print don’t use hot water (around 30C), and the final tip is to clear spray the 3D print as a final step makes the colors pop.

[@DIYTinkerer]

ooh, custom board game tiles! :-) I love this idea :-)

[@1stWorldProblemsSolved]

Cool AF (or should I say HOTAF)! I picked up a couple large format printers really cheap via government auctions and repaired them, can't wait to try this.

[@Gounesh]

Wish UV Printers are cheaper as posibilities would be endless. But it’s nice to see sublimation works directly on first layer! Great for flat models. Ty for sharing.

[@squidcaps4308]

You can do black&white images with a regular laser printer and transparent sheets made for overhead projectors. Printers heat is enough to sublimate the ink (edit: it melts the ink).

[@flagman3116]

That's cool to hear, since I'm not nearly creative enough to make use of full color, but I could use some labels on my prints occasionally. A bit of a nit-pick though: laser toner is actually fine plastic particles, so it's not sublimation anymore, just melting the toner into your print.

[@squidcaps4308]

@@flagman3116 Thanks for the correction, that makes way more sense. And adding labels to printed lab power supplies etc. is quite important, that is where i found the method.

[@LincolnWorld]

Just a few days ago, a friend got access to a sublimation printer. I told her that I wondered if it could work with 3D printers. Then, here you are just a few days later putting out a video about how to do that. How do you do it? I was just wondering if it could be printed then ironed onto a print. Looks like the heat needs to be too high for that based on this video, but I hadn't even thought about printing right onto it. Nor about how to convert a cheap printer to be a sublimation one. You are constantly putting out the most useful 3D printing content I have seen. And 3D printing/maker stuff is the majority of what I watch. Thanks for another great video! (*Edit for typos, but not sure I caught them all)

[@nerdsph1]

No, you can't do sublimation on the printed part, the pressure and temperature would melt the print or result in delamination. I was trying it for some time with at best (on ABS) some sublimation but warped prints, on TPU I ended up with a mess behind recognition. The technique came as a last resort and came out great from the start (as you can see at the start of the video). Although not recommended you can convert an existing printer to a sublimation one by cleaning the tanks and tubing. (IPA or printer cleaning fluid), then flush the ink till you have the sublimation ink in the system. Important: The printer has to be like Epson, meaning no heated print nozzles.

[@freelectron2029]

no. sublimation is the process of turning from a solid to a gas as stated at the beginning of the video. if you 3d print on top of the paper then it is converted to a gas by the hot plastic making contact with the dye. so the process is done at that point. you cant re animate the gas to a solid. make sense? when you understand what sublimation is you understand how it can be used.

[@LincolnWorld]

@@nerdsph1 Not sure you read my whole message. I point out that from the video I see it needs to be too hot.

[@LincolnWorld]

@@freelectron2029 Not sure you read my whole message. I point out that from the video I see it needs to be too hot.

[@newmonengineering]

I have done this, it is a bit tricky to get right the first few tries but it works well.

[@alexfedorov1160]

A vivid example of thinking outside the box.

[@eaman11]

This could be very interesting for adding color to laser engravings.

[@marks7502]

cool

[@AnthonyClay]

Color me impressed - pun intended! I didn't realize that dye-sub was so obtainable.