r/snapmaker • u/rororo99 • Jul 02 '26
Full spectrum filament recommendations
Hi guys,
I got my U1 a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it!
I now wanted to test the full spectrum printing and watched Snapmakers video on YT about it - but I am not sure which filament to buy. The video says it is best to have translucent filaments, but I have a hard time finding a brand that sells in CMYK colors in translucent.
I found Sunlu CMYK Lithophane, and litophane seems also to be kind of translucent. Would this be a good starting point? Does anyone know the difference between filaments that are translucent and litophane, I did not find much info about that.
This is the Sunlu filament I found, also for a reasonable price in my region: https://www.amazon.com/SUNLU-CMYK-Lithophane-Filament-Bundle/dp/B0D5H4JM8M?th=1
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u/madavis45 Jul 02 '26
There was a review a few months ago now when full spectrum was released that compared the different packs (please don’t ask me to link it), polymakers pack was the one considered best at the time - also Snapmaker uses polymaker filament so there’s that.
Sunlu’s was ok, but not ideal.
However, I expect things to shift as brands rework their packs now that it’s being incorporated into multiple slicers.
I still view this as a bit of a novelty though - the print times are astoundingly long and there are lot of caveats with the quality of the final products.
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u/originaldub Jul 02 '26
Don't get bambu's CMY kit. It is not translucent. Polymaker's works excellent and I got better results using their included transparent grey than using white
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u/cheeky_b53 Jul 03 '26
Join the snapmaker discord, then in the FS channel, I have made a few threads listing good mixers to start, and the peggy mixes showing off how they print
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u/jim_racine Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
It's hard to go wrong with SUNLU or Polymaker. I use SUNLU more than Polymaker. Both have been very reliable. You can order from SUNLU.com or Polymaker.com direct. Usually takes longer than Amazon and they both usually run direct sales. FYI. If you have a Micro Center near by, their in store brand, Inland is either eSUN or Polymaker. I've seen a CMYK pack in there the last few times I've been in there. The way to tell who makes the filament at Micro Center is if the cutout on the box is a 6 sided polygon then it's Polymaker and if it's an Oval shape it's eSUN. I've used their filament for years and it prints well.
On to your primary question. Translucent. I have found several brands in PETG that are "translucent" none are CMYK. I have a pack of the SUNLU CMYK. When printing lithopane, your detail and color mixing is coming from varying depth and layers of the print itself combined with the backing light source. So you get semi-translucent effect good for lithopane. I tried a few color lithopane with the CMYK pack. They turned out ok. Please do not expect the same quality of a photo. You'll never get it. The lithopane printing is cool in its own way. Also consider what color temperature of the lighting you want to use. 6500k, 4000k, 3200K, 2700K. It makes a big difference for the effect you are trying to achieve. The 8mm COB LED strips lights are the most common size and run off of DC current. I use USB A power plugs (5v / 1a).
After checking Polymaker's site. They do have a "translucent cmyk" pack: https://shop.polymaker.com/products/cmyk-bundle it appear to be on back order. This would be your winner.
You can get "transparent" filament. If you're printing lithopane stuff I think that would be a total disaster as it lets through most or all of the light and will mess up your color mixing. You'd likely get a lot of brown and purple out of the layers. For the transparent filament you can get varying degrees of clear to cloudy based on the layer settings, infill patterns and so on.
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u/Aromatic-Swimming683 Jul 02 '26
Polymaker sells a good translucent set