3D Printing in 2026 — Multi-Filament Magic, Snapmaker U1, and the Joy of Water-Soluble “Cheating”

There are a few moments in life when technology makes you stop, squint, and say:
“Hang on… that’s basically witchcraft.”

Multi-filament 3D printing is one of those moments.

Not long ago, changing filament meant hovering beside the printer like an anxious parent at sports day, ready to leap in at the exact moment it paused. You’d pull one filament out, shove another in, try not to drip molten plastic everywhere, and then pretend the crunchy bit on the print “was part of the design”.

Now we’ve got proper multi-filament exchange systems — and printers like the Snapmaker U1 pushing the whole thing towards “load it, start it, walk away” territory.

And then… someone looked at supports (the bane of every print) and said:
“What if we just… dissolve them?”

Reader, I have never felt so emotionally understood by a spool of filament.

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1) The progress: from “single colour bravery” to “multi-material grown-up printing”

Multi-filament isn’t just about pretty colour changes (although yes, I absolutely want a boat in club colours, and no, I will not be taking questions).

It’s also about materials:

• Rigid + flexible in one print (think grips, bumpers, seals)

• Strong core + cosmetic shell

• Different colours for labels, scales, arrows, safety markings

• Support material that behaves itself

The big leap is reliability. Early multi-material printing could feel like running a relay race while also juggling. Now the exchange systems are getting smarter: better sensing, better feeding, better calibration, fewer “spaghetti incidents”.

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2) Snapmaker U1: why it’s interesting (and what to watch)

The Snapmaker U1 is part of that new wave: printers designed from the start for modern workflows — not “a printer plus a collection of add-ons held together by hope”.

What makes a multi-filament system genuinely useful isn’t the marketing headline (“Up to X filaments!”). It’s:

• How cleanly it swaps (stringing and oozing are the villains here)

• How it handles purge/waste (more on that in a second)

• How well it keeps calibration (because “nearly aligned” is just “wrong” wearing a polite hat)

• How easy it is to keep running (loading, drying, unclogging, and general un-dramatising)

If you’re thinking about using it for real projects (fixtures, mounts, teaching aids, camera brackets, science kit parts), the practical question is:
Will it do the boring jobs predictably, not just the flashy demo prints?

That’s the bar.

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3) Water-soluble filament: the best kind of cheating

Supports are essential… and also awful.

They:

• weld themselves to surfaces you wanted smooth,

• snap off and take half the corner with them,

• leave scars that need sanding,

• and generally turn “print finished!” into “print finished… plus two hours of nibbling plastic with pliers”.

Enter water-soluble support filament (most commonly PVA or BVOH):

• Print your part in PLA/PETG/whatever

• Print supports in soluble material

• Drop the part in water

• Wait

• Supports vanish like they’ve remembered they left the oven on

For complex shapes this is game changing:

• internal channels

• undercuts

• trapped volumes

• intricate text

• mechanical parts that need clean moving clearances

It’s especially brilliant for education, where you want students to focus on the design and the science, not “the support removal trauma”.

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4) The less glamorous truth: soluble supports come with rules

Soluble filament is marvellous… but it’s also a diva.

Moisture is the enemy

PVA/BVOH loves absorbing water from the air. That means:

• popping and fizzing at the nozzle,

• weak, blobby extrusion,

• clogged hotends,

• and a print that looks like it’s been knitted by a spider in a hurry.

Dry storage isn’t optional. A filament dryer (or a very well-sealed dry box) suddenly becomes part of the “multi-filament lifestyle”.

Compatibility matters

• PLA + PVA/BVOH is a common pairing.

• PETG + PVA can be trickier because PETG prints hotter and can cause interface issues.

• Sometimes the best results come from tuning interface layers, temperatures, and cooling.

Purge/waste is real

Every swap usually means some purging. That can mean:

• purge towers,

• wipe lines,

• extra filament used,

• longer print times.

It’s the price of reliability — but it’s worth planning for, especially on long prints.

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5) What I’m using it for (and what you might too)

In the Philip M Russell Ltd universe, this is where it gets fun:

Practical kit

• Cable clips and strain reliefs for camera rigs

• Custom mounts for sensors, PASCO kit, and lab demonstrations

• Protective bumpers for equipment

• Brackets for lighting and sound gear in the studio

Teaching aids

• Colour-coded molecular models

• Cross-section parts (different colours for different layers/materials)

• Equipment replicas for “hands-on” learning without fragile originals

Sailing bits (because of course)

• Small fittings, covers, labels, organisers

• Prototypes for bespoke parts before committing to “real” materials

• Colour-coded training aids (port/starboard — fewer arguments, more sailing)

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6) Where this is heading

Multi-filament exchange + soluble supports is one of those combinations that takes 3D printing from:
“hobby printer that sometimes behaves”
to
“tool you actually rely on”.

The next big improvements are predictable:

• better auto-calibration for multi-material alignment

• less purge waste

• more intelligent material profiles

• more “just works” reliability (the dream)

And I am entirely here for it.

Because honestly, anything that reduces the amount of time I spend picking supports off a model like a crab opening a packet of crisps… is a technological miracle.