Bright, Buoyant and Multicolor- Zortrax M200 Makes It Possible!

Summer is finally here and as our company is located in the middle of the beautiful land of lakes we simply couldn’t do nothing, but 3D print gadgets for water sports. This time we went classic and decided to try our hands at fishing. As none of us can call himself a master of a rod we put all our hopes in the good equipment – 3D printed fishing floats and the richness of the local fauna.

3D printed fishing float inside Zortrax M200

Testing and Relaxing

There’s no better way to test the product than go and try it out in the real environment, especially when it all boils down to visiting a lake during a hot summer day. Having our pockets full of 3D printed floats we couldn’t wait to use them and see the fish coming.

Fishing floats by Zortrax

Fine and Fancy

As you might noticed the choice of fishing floats is really rich. They come in various shapes and colors, depending on the type of fish, water depth, speed of wind or other parameters. Yet another important thing is the buoyancy of the items, which can be modified by the density of infill and also by the number of weights attached to a float. As most of the hobbyists of this sport claim, the best way to find the optimum equipment is testing, we took their advice seriously and 3D printed models with different shapes, colors and infill.

Multicolor fishing floats 3D printed on Zortrax M200

What’s so Special?

Just take a look at this small colorful pieces which were 3D printed on Zortrax M200, a device which is obviously a single nozzle 3D printer, without applying any post-processing, e.g. painting or priming. Those of you who have read one of our previous articles and watched the attached film may already know the trick. The key to obtaining colorful 3D models is to pause the 3D printer and change the spool with a printing material each time we want to change the color. It simply allows to obtain blocks of colors without leaving any blobs, hairs of other residue of differently colored materials which is a common issue with multi-nozzle 3D printers. As you can see, it works even with very thin layers, so obtaining multicolor stripped models wouldn’t be a problem. Although, we have to admit that in case of some objects it might involve more patience and closer control over the 3D printing results, it can also help you to save time and eliminate the necessity of painting, polishing and priming the finished models.

Multicolored floats 3D printed with Z-ABS

Crash-Test of Z-ULTRAT

Before we went to the beach and indulged ourselves, we went through all the designing, 3D printing and redesigning stages. Finally we got the desired shapes that could undergo the testing in the lake. As you can see in the picture our designer came up with three different shapes, each of them representing a different color palette. Thrown into the water the floats passed the test and floated on the surface of the water. Of course these that were 3D printed with lighter infill required attaching more weights to them. Those of you who would like to play with various colors, just as we did, should definitely try out Z-ULTRAT printing material and its 22 shades.

3D printed float

Creativity on Your Side

It’s really up to you how you decide to benefit from the Zortrax 3D printers ability to create colorful prints. The floats presented in this blogpost make just a one from a variety of possibilities of utilizing this technique. Of course, if you’re a fan of fishing we encourage you to try out 3D printing such floats at home. But if you are rather into marketing or promotional gadgets check out our blogpost or visit Zortrax Library for more inspirations.

It does float.