Flexible Filaments comparison

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I haven't forgotten about you. I just need to print something that I can show. I have good results with simple prints like the following but still get some issues with objects with infill and overhangs.

 

 

I do not oil the filament. I would prefer not to have to.

 

No problem...

Your print is definitively better than mine:

It's printed at 235°C, 20mm/s, Bowden oiled

I also tried to print the outer shell at 10mm/s; looks the same...

I tried to print it at 245°C; looks the same...

I have the impression that the grip of the knurled bolt (UM Original) is not sufficient to push the filament really into the Bowden tube...

 

[gr5 2,167]

Gosh - I haven't read this topic in a while. I've had good luck with taulman bridge and good luck with ninjaflex. I printed my first ninjaflex parts yesterday and struggled for a while but was victorious in the end. I think my main problem was that i was printing too cold (220C) and had to raise it to 240C but I changed SO MANY THINGS that I don't know which thing fixed it and which things are a waste of my time.

NINJAFLEX

I printed at 240C at 10mm/sec on UM Original with heated bed with PVA (elmers wood glue diluted 5-10x with water and dried until invisible on glass) on it at 40C and keeping the spool loose as mentioned above and putting a drop of oil on the filament (and watching it drip down to the base of the loop of filament under the spool) every 15 minutes or so. Other's said one drop per hour is plenty. ALSO I used a larger diameter nozzle (.65mm) and printed .2mm layer height (these 2 things were recommended by someone).

This came out very good. I have only printed 2 things (a gasket and a pumpkin head) and neither had any need for retraction. I suspect stringing and/or bridging and steep overhangs will be my next problem.

Failure: 220C at 7mm/sec with .4mm nozzle, .2mm layer and adding oil but not keeping the filament spool loose. the failure was occasional severe underextrusion (like nothing would come out for 10 seconds now and then leaving bad, ugly, disfunctional gaps).

edit: Since then I've printed with .4mm nozzle just fine (10mm/sec 240C with oil).

 

[gr5 2,167]

@yellowshark - next time send me a personal message if you have a question and link to the question topic and I will answer MUCH sooner.

Taulman bridge is a fantastic material and easy to print. It is much too flexible for most of my needs but it is strong. Very strong. I mean if you printed a UM robot and used a two vice grips and attached to ropes it would probably take 10 people to pull that robot apart (5 on each rope). If it isn't strong for you then raise the temp as you need high enough temps to get good layer adhesion. Printing at higher temps is noisier (bubbles, sizzling) and less pretty (less clarity - less transparent) but you need that layer adhesion or the part is worthless.

It also has a very high glass temp - higher than ABS I think. Above 100C I think.

I've been printing it like this:

TAULMAN BRIDGE

Ultimaker 2

glass coated with PVA (elmers wood glue mixed with water and painted on glass - dries transparent)

nozzle 240C

bed 70C

50mm/sec

.2 layers

 

[gr5 2,167]

PA6

I got my PA6 nylon from here: http://fbrc8.com/

PA6 is a great material. It is similar to PLA (but foggy/clear white or black only) - not as beautiful but very practical for parts. It is more flexible than PLA but close enough in stiffness for 90% of parts. For example it's a good material for gears, cases, handles, knobs and such.

It does not stick well to glass. I have been printing it on my UM2 on blue tape. It must be printed hot or you get bad layer adhesion. It also absorbs water like crazy but I don't care - I let it sputter and sizzle and the parts come out fine but many people heat it in an oven just before printing.

PA6 Settings

260C NOZZLE (at 240C the parts look great but when done they just pull apart easily)

blue tape (no isopropyl cleaning needed but if you have lifting issues I would try that)

50C bed temp (probably not necessary)

50mm/sec

.2mm layers

NO FAN (like abs). Ever. I'm sure fan helps certain things like overhangs/bridging but fan tends to be bad for high-glass-temp materials as you can get bad layer adhesion. If you use fan you may need to increase temp but you won't know until part is done and you have layers that split apart.

 

[pm_dude 27]

@gr5 check post #43 in this topic to see Roberts tests on Ninja Flex. Settings are well described.

With the same settings I have excellent results with FlexPLA. Much better than Ninja Flex but its not for the same use since it doesn't react well to stretching.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Many thanks for that George; I knew you would respond but take your point

 

[pm_dude 27]

I received my White FlexPLA from Ultimaker. Roberts feeder v4 printed v6 after a few months of good labor and now I have flawless prints with White FlexPLA. At least when retraction is not really needed

 

Settings:

235C/45C

0.1mm layers

40mm/s

 

[drayson 75]

@ george, thank you for your info and setting tips reg. nimjaflex on UMo. Will try this week printing sealings with this material...

Crossing fingers that it works....

[ejennings 0]

 

I also found this one: 3d2print, different from those of above list. Tougher and less brittle compared to regular PLA.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Tried the homebrand material from Makerpoint , MP Flex 45, a medium flexible material.

Printed this cilinder from 240 to 210 celcius, without any problem (0.1 layer, 20 speed).

Unlike PLA it does not stick to just your glas bed ..

It does stick to PLA, (colorfabb blue grey) but the adhesion is low, not good enough for any mechical part, the plus is you could use a first layer of PLA for bed adhesion, and peel it of after printing.

 

I was adviced to use "Cubestick" for bed adhesion, and this stuff works really wel (got it from "alternate.be"). I did not try it myself but have been told "prit" will not work with this stuff.

 

Printing around 20 to 35 speed at 0.1 layer went perfect, moving the speed to 50 resulted in failure...

Tried manually feeding after this failure and this was no problem, so no blocked nozzle, just printed to fast ...

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I was adviced to use "Cubestick" for bed adhesion, and this stuff works really wel (got it from "alternate.be"). I did not try it myself but have been told "prit" will not work with this stuff.

 

 

Blasphemy... :wacko: Seriously: Do you know what's in there?

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

No clue whats in there, its a liquid glue ... and it works perfectly for this flex material .... almost never use glue for PLA ...

Getting info like this is a benefit of visiting a shop that sells more than just ultimakers :-P

 

[gr5 2,167]

arjan consider adding a drop of oil to the filament before it goes through the feeder. One drop every meter or two. It works incredibly well and doesn't affect the print. It lets the filament slide through the bowden with much less friction.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Gr5. I know about the oil trick but how can adding something not affect the print? Will it not have an impact on layer bonding? Will it not collect extra dust and stuff? I just thought if it works without oil (and i dont mind slow) it must be better.

And does it matter what type of oil?

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Did a little speed test with the Makerpoint MP45flex on my updated feeder design.

All fine till 8,5 mm3/s at 230 celsius.

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/feeder-for-ultimaker-2-rail-system

 

[kvones 5]

Just finished printing my first model with Ultimaker Flexible PLA. It turned out great - in my beginner's naivety I just used my usual PLA settings and ramped up the temp to 220C. Then I found this thread...obviously I didn't oil, and I used quite heavy retraction settings, so maybe just beginner's luck.

 

[zews 1]

Roberts feeder v4 printed v6 after a few months of good labor and now I have flawless prints with White FlexPLA. At least when retraction is not really needed

 

I do not understand what you mean with "Roberts feeder v4 printed v6 after a few months". I assume these are two different alternative feeders of Robert's design? Which one is the one you used for your successful prints?

When I look at one of the models of Robert's design it says "Alternative UM2 Feeder - version two". Some of the parts have part names that have "V6" in it. I don't see anything that has "V4" in it. In the comments for that feeder you are the only one talking about v4 and v6 also. The comments also make no sense to me. Would you please explain.

Since it does seem that using this alternative feeder improves printing with flexible PLA quite a bit, and I need to print some parts with a flexible material, I'd like to get my understanding of all of this right.

 

[pm_dude 27]

Hi Zews,

Yes if you look at the pieces they contain the version number. The V4 was a previous iteration of that same design with some minor changes to it and in my comments I'm just stating that the V4 worked well for a while but that the V6 is better now.

V4 pieces have been removed from the youmagine page by now.

[francfalco 37]

My latest little project -

Ninjaflex via a standard UM 2 feeder.

0.2mm 240C @ 20mm/s 30% infill, no retraction.

Took 15 hours but came out really well.

I'll test a quicker speed and less infill next time.

Cheers

Edited May 11, 2015 by Guest

[pm_dude 27]

Nice!!