Hi folks! Every day some people just come to me asking about flexible filaments just like “Ninja Flex” or “Filaflex” So here we will learn the basics about getting good results and maintaining your printer safe =]
Oh Wait?! Who is this guy? What is he doing here at 3Dprinterchat.com ?
Well, my name is Guilherme Razgriz, hum…. started working with Image Edition, Vector Drawing and 3d Modeling several years before I started with 3d printing in 2012/2013 *(Yeah, getting old…so… really don’t like talk about my age but i am only 32 hehe but by the looks 22), after 14 years of travels around the Latin America and US teaching “Joomla!” to 3D printing issues like 3d Modeling mechanical to organic etc..;=] i came to make what i really love to do: which is to Share good stuff about 3d Print with everyone writing tutorials and articles =]. By the way thanks a lot for the invite Håkan Fägnell!
(Ow! Thats me and one of my babies =])
Okay, just done with the formalities so lets “bring it on!”
Abs and Pla have some particular abilities to grant good printing results and with flexible filaments it’s not really different, so here we go :
To use flexible filaments your printer must be compatible with it, so take a look in the list:
– Nozzle minimum size: 0.4 mm
– Bowden : Yeah it might work fine but the PTFE tube cannot be too large and make a lot of curves, remember that the filament is not rigid at all. By the way! CONTROLING your print speed is a must, something between 15 mm/s and 20 mm/s is ok, watch out for empty spaces.*
Notice: Make sure that the manufacturer of the filament confirm that you really can use the bowden system, we have plenty of options in the market and a lot of different material compositions and it can directly affect your project and printer.
– Direct Drive : It’s the most common system that we can find on a RepRap printer so just make sure that your extruder way to the hotend is really short so it can pull the filament straight in and smoothly enough.
– Heat Bed is not necessary but if you have it, do not use it over 40Cº.
About Settings:
– Retract: No, forget it with flexible filaments. It will get the product stuck inside your printer and…everyone… knows the rest.
– Fill: It really depends on your piece but 50% is ok for most projects.
– Coolant: Don’t try this without a cooler on the hotend. (Very important for perfect prints)
– Print Speed: Slowwwly as a turtle but nice as a cat walk : 20 MM/S MAXIMUM speed.
Just a bit of Glue Stick on the heated bed and put it on!
So this is it =], see you soon on my next post!
Would a fan and shroud pointed at the print help?
This is great info because I just read another article on here about flex filaments yesterday and the extruders that are best for it. Thanks for sharing the information for printing flexible filaments! I’m wanting to print out some tires for my R/C cars. They can get high $$$. I would love to learn how to create some nice treads on the off-road tires but that will come with time and experience I guess.