Clear Extruder Parts
I recently read this article on the prusa blog about sucessfully printing transparent objects by using tweaks like minimal layer size and 100% infill, and it says that PETG is a good plastic for this.
I'm curious if I could reprint my printer parts this way so I could see what's going on inside the extruder or what's going on inside the MMU2S without having to unscrew the whole thing. Apparently, we can print transparent in PETG, but I'm worried that the extra weight of 100% infill will throw everything off.
Is this feasible?
Blog link: https://blog.prusaprinters.org/3d-printed-lens-and-other-transparent-objects/
RE: Clear Extruder Parts
I suspect that while neat-looking, the optical distortion of non-flat surfaces and non-transparent components (PTFEs, bits that cannot be clear like IR sensor) would make it less than useful.
Weight wise... yeah, it'll probably make ringing worse unless you slow down your prints, and too much momentum on the axis will cause skipped steps. If you know the infill percentage of the parts you can get an idea of how much solid parts would weigh - multiply by the inverse. For example a part printed at 20% infill will be about 5x heavier at 100% infill (approximately, it depends on the ratio of surface area to volume)
But you could always try it in stages before committing whole-hog, e.g. just a transparent MMU2 selector.
Also note the sanding and polishing required may mess with fitment and tolerances.