Nozzle & SpoolWhich printer to buy, what it'll really cost, and what to avoid.

Filament splicers and multi-material systems (Mosaic Palette 3 Pro, SUNLU FC01)

Published · Researched 2026-09-20

Research date: 2026-09-20. Every price and claim is dated; conflicting or unverifiable data is flagged openly. Per standing instruction, social sources (Facebook groups, forums, YouTube) were searched before manufacturer and retailer pages.

Overview

Two very different products answer two different questions:

  1. Mosaic Palette 3 Pro — "how do I print 8 colors on a printer that only takes one filament?" The Palette sits beside the printer, splices up to 8 input filaments into one continuous strand with timed color/material transitions (3rd-generation P3-SCP Splice Core Pro), and feeds it into any 1.75 mm printer — no printer modifications. The 8-color Pro and 4-color base Palette 3 run through Mosaic's cloud Canvas slicer over Wi-Fi. It was the pre-Bambu answer to multi-color; Bambu's AMS ecosystem and Prusa's MMU3/INDX have since eaten most of its market. 2026 status: the line is fading — sold out at multiple retailers (3DPrintersDepot AU, Voxel Factory US), Mosaic's energy has moved to the industrial Element/Array line with the embedded Palette X, and reseller pages still carry the old chip-shortage notice.
  2. SUNLU FC01 Filament Connector — "how do I use up partial spools?" A $35–45 handheld heated splicer: cut two filament ends, slip them into a consumable PTFE sleeve, clamp, heat to a material preset (PLA 185 °C, PETG 210 °C, ABS 220 °C, PA/PC 230 °C), and get one continuous strand. The budget answer to filament waste — a print-farm owner on Amazon reviews turned a month of dead rolls into 2 full spools with it.

Key specs

Spec Value Source / note
Palette 3 Pro inputs 8 filaments, 1.75 mm only Mosaic specs via resellers
Palette 3 (base) inputs 4 Mosaic specs
Splice core 3rd-gen P3-SCP (Pro: all-aluminum); 10% faster than P3, 30% faster than P2 3DPrintersDepot AU; 3DMart
Palette size/weight 309 × 235 × 74 mm; 3.2 kg 123-3D.ie specs
Palette software Canvas (cloud, internet required), 4" touchscreen, Wi-Fi/Ethernet/USB reseller specs
Palette warranty 24 months or 50,000 splices reseller specs
Palette materials PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, PVA, HIPS; TPU shore ≥95A reseller specs
SUNLU FC01 Presets PCL 85 °C / PLA 185 °C / PETG 210 °C / ABS 220 °C / PA-PC 230 °C; heats to 185 °C in ~3 min; max 240 °C 3DJake specs
FC01 power USB 5 V/2 A (adapter not included) Amazon UK listing
FC01 consumable 200 PTFE sleeves included; sleeves are single-use SUNLU; 3dwithus review

Pricing

Observation date for all rows: 2026-09-20.

Item Price Source Notes
Mosaic Palette 3 Pro (EU) €889.00 incl. VAT (€722.76 excl.) 123-3d.ie (EU warehouse) Appears in stock at this reseller.
Mosaic Palette 3 Pro (US MSRP) $799.00 Voxel Factory listing Sold out at this retailer; chip-shortage notice still posted.
Mosaic Palette 3 Pro (AU) — 3DPrintersDepot AU Sold out.
Mosaic Palette 3 (base, US) $799.00 (listed) Voxel Factory Sold out.
Mosaic Palette 3 Pro (SG) $1,049.90 SGD after voucher Shopee SG (Make3D) Ready stock claimed.
Mosaic Palette 3 Pro refurbished (TW) ⚠️ price not captured 3DMart Taiwan Customer-display refurbs, 3-month warranty.
SUNLU FC01 (US retail) $44.99 (pre-sale was $34.99) 3dwithus review (crawled 2026-09-19) Ships US Sep 13–30 window (note: date may be stale).
SUNLU FC01 (EU) €42.50, in stock 123-3d.ie (crawled 24 days before 2026-09-20) —
SUNLU FC01 (UK) £36.99 (incl. 200 PTFE sleeves) Amazon UK (crawled ~5 months before 2026-09-20) Slightly stale capture; price may have moved.
SUNLU PTFE sleeves 200-pack (refill) £9.35 3DJake UK Consumable.
DIY splicer (printed jig + PTFE tube + soldering iron) ~$5–15 in parts Tom's Hardware guide Free STL designs (Zielandy, NoWarrenty).

What's included / what's needed

  • Palette 3 Pro box: the unit itself, splice core, filament guides/tubes, power supply; Canvas software is cloud-based and required (internet connection mandatory for slicing and firmware updates).
  • FC01 box: connector, 200 PTFE sleeves, manual; 5 V/2 A USB adapter not included (a phone charger or USB power bank works).
  • Needed for Palette: a 1.75 mm printer, tight-tolerance filament (Mosaic's own PLA recommended for reliability), patience for the splice-tuning learning curve.
  • Needed for FC01: a printed filament holder/fixture is strongly recommended — YouTube reviews show the filament "flops away" without one (free designs on MakerWorld).

Support reality

  • Mosaic's support posture in 2026 is industrial-first: the company now leads with the Element/Array line; Palette 3 firmware and Canvas still exist, but new-unit availability is spotty and the community consensus is that the Palette era is ending. Buy a Palette today as legacy hardware, not a growing platform.
  • SUNLU FC01: budget accessory support (SUNLU store + resellers); the 200-pack PTFE sleeves are the ongoing cost; community-printed holders fix the main usability complaint.

Community verdict

  • Palette 3 Pro (2026): respected engineering, fading ecosystem. Users who own one still praise the splice quality, but new buyers in 2026 are almost universally steered toward AMS/MMU3/INDX instead — "the Palette was the answer before Bambu changed the question." Refurbished units and EU stock are the remaining channels.
  • SUNLU FC01 (YouTube + 3dwithus, 2026): 4.1/5 — "inexpensive… easy to justify for print farm operators or power users" with partial spools; the filament-holding problem is real but solvable with a printed fixture; PTFE sleeves as consumables undercut the "zero waste" marketing but the math still works.
  • DIY splicers (Tom's Hardware, YouTube): the PTFE-tube + soldering-iron method works well for PLA and costs nearly nothing; the FC01 is essentially this idea productized with temperature control.
  • Facebook groups (2026-09-20): "Palette 3" query in the "3D Printing" group (~17,000 members) returned 0 posts — CLI search limitation; not evidence of no discussion.
  • Instagram/TikTok: no usable public results surfaced; sentiment not established.

Sources consulted

Image notes

  • filament-splicer-01.jpg — Mosaic Palette 3 Pro product shot (3dprintersdepot AU), exact model.
  • filament-splicer-02.jpg — SUNLU FC01 filament connector official product image (fr.store.sunlu.com), exact model.
  • filament-splicer-03.jpg — Mosaic Palette 3 multi-material sample print (filament2print), exact product line.
  • All three final images were file-magic verified and PIL decode-checked on 2026-09-20; re-encoded to baseline JPEG RGB.

Open questions / UNVERIFIED

  • Palette 3 Pro new-unit availability (US) — sold out at checked retailers; whether Mosaic still manufactures new units is UNVERIFIED.
  • Canvas software future — no 2026 announcement found; cloud-dependency risk for buyers.
  • SUNLU FC01 US current street price — $44.99 from a review; SUNLU's own store page not captured this pass.
  • Splice strength through AMS/MMU feeders — FC01 welds are hand-tuned; reliability through automated feeders is user-reported, not tested.
  • Palette vs AMS cost-per-color-change — no current comparative data captured.

Deepening pass (2026-09-20)

Social-source attempts this pass

  • Facebook CLI group-post search: query searches returned empty datasets — substituted with retailer reviews (shop.app April 2026, 3dwithus), YouTube review (with MakerWorld holder files), ThePhonograph review, and SUNLU's official blog (users' voice compilation).

New evidence: SUNLU FC01 — the holder-jig problem

  • The unspoken accessory: a printed holder. A 2026 YouTube review finds the FC01 "isn't a bad filament connector, but you really need to download and print one of these holders to get a good experience" — free MakerWorld holder models (Sunlu Filament Connector (FC01) Holder V2.11; Guide Ultime) fix the core complaint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5pIQqYYnU0
  • Holding the filament is the recurring complaint. 3dwithus (review score 4.1/5): "Holding the filament in place during splicing can be a challenging process, and a fixture or jig for holding the filament steady and preventing it from winding back on to a spool would be beneficial." Cons list: PTFE tubes are consumable; difficult to hold filament: https://3dwithus.com/sunlu-fc01-filament-connector-filament-splicing-made-easy
  • The "zero waste" tagline has an asterisk. Same review: "The PTFE sleeves are a consumable that are disposed of after use, which stands in direct contrast with SUNLU's tagline 'Achieve efficient printing projects with zero waste'." 200 sleeves ship in the box; long-term users must restock.
  • Owner learning curve (shop.app, April 2026): "Works as intended, takes some trial and error at first to hold straight during the process but very effective in joining all those little spools... when doing a multi day print, you don't want your printer sitting around waiting for you to refill" (4.5/5, 124 ratings). Feb 2025: "It is not as easy as shown on the videos. You need to practice, practice, and practiced again."
  • Safety design praised: ThePhonograph review (4/5 accessories, 4/5 design) calls out the transparent hinged lid protecting users from the hot welding piece; confirms one PTFE sleeve consumed per splice: https://www.thephonograph.net/sunlu-filament-connector-review/

New evidence: Mosaic Palette — the fade continues

  • No new 2026 retail listings or price points surfaced for the Palette 3/3 Pro this pass; the earlier pass's sold-out-at-retailers finding stands. Mosaic's public energy remains on the industrial Element/Array line with embedded Palette X. Secondhand market is now the de facto channel — watch for Canvas cloud-service longevity risk before buying used hardware that depends on it. Current availability/price: UNVERIFIED.

Price re-verification (2026-09-20)

  • SUNLU FC01: $44.99 retail; $37.24 (17% off) on shop.app; SUNLU direct pre-sale was $34.99 (historical). US/EU shipping windows were staggered through late 2025 — now presumably normalized, UNVERIFIED.

Open questions carried forward

  • Splice strength across mixed-brand filaments (diameter shrinkage at the weld) — SUNLU's own experience officers claim "no significant difference" printing spliced PLA, but that's vendor-published.
  • Palette 3/3 Pro 2026 street price and Canvas service status — UNVERIFIED.
  • No raw-quotes file exists anywhere in this project — all evidence paraphrased.

Deepening pass 3 (2026-09-21)

  • Facebook one-time confirmation: --query "splicer" in the 3D Printing group returned [] on 2026-09-21 — the known --query defect, not evidence of absence.
  • Fresh owner/reviewer evidence observed 2026-09-21:
    • 3DWithUs joined four mixed-brand PLA scraps with the SUNLU FC01 and printed them straight into an X1C (rear spool holder, not via AMS) with no visible weak layers or feed failure — 5 PTFE sleeves consumed for 4 joins after one failed cut. The author expected ~39 more similar prints before needing to restock sleeves, which frames the per-joint sleeve as the real consumable tax.
    • Clever Creations (crawl 8 hours old): 3.5/5 "GOOD" — splices don't always form perfectly (practice matters), heating takes 3–5 minutes, the lightweight body moves during use, and — a new failure mode — manual temperature adjustments can overwrite the presets without warning. No cutter included.
    • Game2Gether: good joints if cuts and alignment are precise, but warns against excessive bending of the joint; lists €32.96 vs. €42.38 MSRP.
  • Price context: FC01 street prices remain in the pass-2 band ($44.99 retail / $37.24 shop.app / €32.96 DE) — still affordable against $35–45 alternatives. The preset-overwrite issue is now the clearest caution to carry into the review.
  • Gaps carried forward: splice strength across mixed brands still rests on SUNLU's own published claims; Palette 3/3 Pro street price and Canvas service status still UNVERIFIED.
filament splicer — photo 01
filament splicer — photo 02
filament splicer — photo 03

Sources