Curious about the price point on the Phaetos Conch Plus... I looked at the link but didn't see any price (maybe I just missed it) Just recently upgraded to a diamond-tipped nozzle, so Phaetus' option is going to have to come in less than that, particularly considering even silicon-carbide can't surpass its wear nor thermal conductivity.
I work for UK filament manufacture, we just did a small run of TPU it wasn't easy. your correct remove as much friction in feeding even to pull a meter off the spool just let the extruder pull it in. if you can fit a stainless steel tube right up the extruder gears to stop filament getting stuck in the gears on the hot end side of the extruder. 3mm OD 2mm ID or cut up nozzle with long heat break tubes. Set the filament tensioner as high as you can TPU filament is tough and slippy, so don't worry about crushing the filament. A larger nozzle helps too. you make great content hopefully sponsor a video.
Just use a PTFE tube, cut in up and place it right before the wheels. I have been printing with my Bowden set up for ages. It´s not that difficult. You simply need to account for the very soft material from the spool all the way up to the nozzle. Retraction is higher because you don´t really retract material you deform the TPU instead and then move it. Clamp force squeezes the material as well more so and changes the diameter etc. Higher extrusuin multiplyer is also used for that same reason, it´s just to account for soft material
In my experience TPU benefits from less gripping. If you have the gears too tight it squashes the filament and displaces material so you end up under extruding by a decent margin.
@@freedomofmotion That´s the case with every flexible material. PETG more flexible than PLA this some people increase extrusion rate of PETG compared to PLA. It has to grip reliably, the extrusion rate can simply be changed accordingly.
@@sierraecho884I've even printed some softer TPU using a custom bowden extruder with good results, it's all about minimizing where it can go and reducing the 'unretract' speed can help to give it more time to rebound after retracting.
Funny enough, I've gotten 70a tpu to work on my slightly modded ender 3v2. Still a bowden, but with a dual gear extruder. It isn't perfect (might need a bit more tuning on my end), but it works surprisingly well. I use a bit of hand soap as lubricant (a little on the tip, insert the filament, and run it though until the soap stops popping out of the nozzle). A little cursed, but it works.
Great advice, even modern direct drive will struggle with long PTFE tube friction, but bumping up the flow rate, even mid print is an instant fix. If you have old soggy TPU and no dryer cranking up the flow rate mid print also works great, the surface quality won’t be smooth and glossy though. Fun fact an ender 3 can print ninja flex 85A TPU at 20mm/s quite nicely
I've been printing for two years and still haven't touched anything other than PLA, but TPU really does open up a ton of new applications. This video definitely removed some of the apprehension about getting to grips with an unfamiliar filament type, might have a buy a roll or two and see how it goes :)
If you are looking for matte TPU in 85-95A you can buy the "Add:North TPU pro matte". They come in several colours and are soft and matte when printed 😊
09:23 just letting you know, people with red-green colourblindness will have a very hard time reading this graph; the colours are extremely similar. maybe next time opt for a more saturated red and green 🙂
I just 3d printed my first flexible print out of beyond plastic PHA flex. It is supposedly fully compostable in a home composter or it can be thrown away. Sadly. The company isn’t making any more rigid or flexible PHA, but I know that some other companies are selling/working on making it commercially for consumers.
That last point (“it is and always has been about flow rate”) can’t be emphasized enough. I gradually came to that conclusion over the last year but it really needs to get into everyone’s brains who are used to fretting over 20 different speed settings in each slicer (and filament profile) they use. Deserves its own video!
I tried various brands of 95A TPU. I had no issues with all of them. Even Soft 83A TPE works fine. After a half year not printing any flexibles i want to print something and nothing works. My prints looks terrible and way underextruded. After some research i remembered that i changed the nozzle to a hardend steel one. I changed it back to brass and tata...... works fine again.
@@GarethLewin Yes, i did. I also tried a 0,6mm steel nozzle. 95A worked better but the 83A not. In the end i would recommend brass nozzles for flexibles.
I've honestly never had issues with the extruding part. It's just the bed adhesion that never works with tpe/u for me. I've textured and smooth pei, painter's tape, gluestick, magigoo, dried the spool, designed a custom brim with tabs that are easy to snip off. It worked a few times but now it no longer works and I have nonidea why. It really doesn't make me want to try a new spool, this stuff is expensive.
Try TPU, especially Bambulab HF TPU, with the Obsidian High Flow Hotend. With this combo you can push TPU to ca 12mm/s². I never thought it is possible to print TPU this fast
It's great these days, I started on a bowden equipped original ender 3 and it was possible to print 95a TPU, but it required extremely fine tuning to get reliable prints and a couple of mods to constrain the TPU feeding from the gears into the PTFE so it didn't do a Houdini and escape the intended path. Most direct drive setups these days will have no problem with TPU and can print relatively quickly. I accidentality used my "fast" SV06 PLA settings (around 120mm/s infill and 70mm/s outer perimeters) and on a retraction heavy print and was amazed when it not only succeeded, but looked absolutely solid with no under extrusion. I was using a bearing spool holder that is on the verge of running away so there is little to no stretch, but I was happily surprised at the results.
Some of the 3d printer groups I'm on thought I was mad printing 95a at 15mm3s on a Kobra 2 max. It could probably do 20mm²s if I got rid of the Bowden. They're still printing at 3mm³s like were still on the original ender 3. I'm on a Qidi plus4 now which was an awful lot of Bowden but even still I think 10-12 mm³s would be doable.
The most important thing I learned with 3D printing years ago was to stop looking for advice from the internet. I've done so many things with a customized bowden printer that most people would say is a waste of time. Even the old E3-Pro I have is capable of so much more by simply running Klipper and upgrading its main weaknesses with very little investment.
I've had great luck with 95A overall on my Ender 3 both with Bowden tube and converted to direct drive, but at fairly slow flow rates of course. I just got some Siraya Tech 85A and I'm going to try it on my Qidi Plus4 soon. Excited to hopefully confirm your results for myself. Your videos on TPU have generally been some of the best out there. It's truly not that scary. Been printing some PP-GF30 filament. Trying to get it to adhere to anything, now that's scary.
PP - Polypropylene only stick to Polypropylene .I use ordinary packing-tape that is made of polypropylene and putting the tape on the heatbed .Use the transparent tape because you can't get it of the print again .
@@kimnielsen9320 Yep been using packing tape and it does work great, but even then the surface you put the tape on matters so it doesn't peel up. I also bought a large polypropylene sheet to cut up and use as build sheets, but when I use it, as with the packing tape, it becomes one with the sheet. The prints are incredibly strong though, so even trying all my might to tear it, no luck. Can just cut it out and sand off the bottom. Not worth the hassle over tape. Gonna try glue on the sheet. May buy a build sheet and glue designed for PP eventually if I need to make a really expensive part. Thanks!
@@802Garage Your welcome .It is a fantastic material .I have only printed small objects ,therefore i have no experience with how bigger objects will behave in the printing process when prints are stuck to only packing tape
@@kimnielsen9320 The packing tape definitely sticks way better to a smooth glossy surface than textured. It loves to peel off the stock PEI bed and let the part warp, but I have a smaller PEA bed the tape sticks to very well.
As a T1 owner I was most curious about the T1 results. With all the variation there was between the printers and filaments somehow the T1 ended on 15mm³/s on every of your filaments.
Good stuff, thank you! I haven't tried any flexible filament yet, but i feel better about giving it a go after watching this. Also, i appreciate you not sharing your printing profile, not only for your reason but also because some people seem to rely WAY too much on profiles instead of knowing their printer and learning to really dial it in (ESPECIALLY the bambu crowd 😂)
My best tpu/tpe printer is also my cheapest printer. My two much more expensive printers are ridiculously hard to dial in for tpu/tpe. Definitely between brands and even different colors within the same brand. My Anycubic Kobra Neo which cost less than 25% of the other two prints tpu/tpe easily. It's my go-to for most soft filaments. Little setting change between brands and none for colors within the same brand.
Super soft TPU in my geared Ender 3 Extruder always failed miserably BUT the cleaning line the printer lays down before the actual print always is perfect. There must be some setting I can get from that pre-print action... not sure what to look for and where.
If the line goes down clean and it fails directly afterwards to print the actual job, I would say there is an aggressive retraction after the purge line. This just crumbles your filament in your extruder gears and jams the filament
My kids have been pushing to print squishy stuff. but I just can't be arsed to get a dryer box. Perhaps I should get going on it. a P1S just printing PLA does feel like overkill.
@@LostInTech3D on a more genuine note haha what climate do you live in? I'm in Midwest USA and think the ambient humidity might be too high for just out there TPU storage how's the climate around your area? Do you think I'd be fine with it stored in the open?
judging from your previous taste of music (which is very nice taste in my view), I was really expecting smooth jazz. I guess this round we just need to zoom in on the scale of measurement to get the smooth-ness between the beats.
What did you do to print tpu on the mk4? I printed a bunch in mine and it revealed a manufacturing oversight: it wrapped around the shaft behind the drive gear and ripped off the conductive paste circuit... that is under the drive gear...! Prusa did warranty the parts and fix it. They also advised me to loosen the idler screws. But the conductive paste circuit still seems insane to have that close to a spinning planetary gear.
@LostInTech3D did you personally make any physical changes to prevent that from happening? I want to try my best to keep that from happening again, because I lost a heat sink and build sheet.
Ive had successful prints with varioshore on the prusa mini stock extruder. Its the only tpu ive tried but it seems to work great with some tweaks. Namely loosening the idler gear on the extruder.
Im completely lost. I thought flow rate just increased the amount of material put out in the same amount of time. So for example when printing ASA I have to go down to about 95% or it will be really blobby. In the video I dont see anything that resembles a percentage increase or decrease?
Recently I wondered whether there was some conversion formula between the D hardness scale and A hardness scale. I've only found tables, so I picked one (the one from wikipedia to be precise) and entered the values in excel and plotted it. Looking at the graph, I assumed there to be a logarithmic relationship (D -> A) and decided to add a logarithmic trendline. The formula it gave was A(D) ~= 31.748 * ln(D) - 27.465 with an R^2 value very close to 1. The funny thing is, we can approximate this appromixation as A(D) ~= 10 * (pi * ln(D) - e) + 1.
I've tried to find some literature on what the exact relationship is. Couldn't find any. Maybe I didn't look that extensively, but I kinda find it strange there not to be any (or there is very little of it).
steel nozzles (bambu, some others) do need higher temps than brass due to the surprising difference in thermal conduction. I would advise not going past 240 though, for TPU, for safety
did you have CHT printers? I had big clogging issues with foaming tpu and my cht nozzle. edit: well, you have the S1 which should be close enough to my T1
Awesome! Just as I was about to order my first TPU spool lol, now I'll wait for part 2. Do we still need to put glue stick or tape on textured PEI beds? I'm reading so much conflicting information 😵💫
Textured is usually fine, but can stick too well, glue stick makes it easier to remove. Mostly with all these tests I put glue stick on as my hands were getting sore 🤣
I recently printed some 85A Ninjatek Ninjaflex on my MK4. All I did was select the generic flexible filament profile in PrusaSlicer and reduced temperature by 10 degrees -- literally no other adjustment, either in software or hardware, and it printed *pitch perfect*. Like, literally, I didn't even get any stringing. On the other hand, the 92A Fiberlogy flexible filament I have is oozing all over the place, it's always stringing massively and no matter how much I try to fiddle with the settings, it just really sucks arse. I dunno if I have any real point here other than that some brands are clearly better than others.
@@LostInTech3D It's what I typically adjust first with all new filaments and only start messing with other settings if tuning temperatures isn't enough. It's the one, single thing that tends to have the largest effect on the outcome, in my experience.
okay, so, imagine "max flow rate" as a master control that overrides all the speeds. The nozzle has max flow rate that it can do, so it's better to tell the slicer what that is, and not have to try to match that with speeds. If that makes sense?
The creality k1 cannot print tpus below 85a. Your test does not cover longer prints. I print shoes and doing multiday prints with e.g. esuns 83a does not work, the extruder is not strong enough and the tolerances are not tight enough even when you set retraction to 0, the print fails sometimes after 6 hours, sometimes after 12 no matter the volumetric speed. If you want to print consistently, you need an orbiter with a steel guide rod for the filament right after your extruder gears or a belt extruder like the papilio.
"While you listen to some smooth jazz, immediately puts on heavy metal"..and that sir earned my sub. Even though your use of "irregardless" annoys the hell out of me.
My flow rate is already so low with my ender 5 pro i just slow down the first layer to 15mm/s and cut the other speed roughly in half and slightly bump retraction E voila tpu is good. Don't be scared of TPU it's easy
@LostInTech3D 90A is what I print for the last 7 years. Back then, it was a fun challenge. 40mm is the max speed I can do. My parts have heaps of retractions and are 9hr prints. 0.4 nozzle, 30 deg bed, 240 deg hotend, 5mm retractions. Tried larger nozzles, but 0.4 gave the best results for me. Can't go any faster, tried that, extruder issues arise and/or parts fail the quality tests. Still, the biggest issue to date is the actual filament diameter. I've seen under and over size within the reels. Looking forward to your results.
"IRREGARDLESS" is a word, it just doesn't mean what you think it means. We understand what you mean regardless of the fact that you don't understand what you're saying 🙂
"a nozzle-heatsink thing" that needs a name... If you clamp the heater+thermistor to it, it's already called "hot end" for ages, so just call it hot end and inform the fact that heater+thermistor are not included
😂😂 3:07 Unfortunately ‘irregardless’ is a double negative in one word so it will always sound dumb like undon’t or nonshapless… 🤷♂️ Either way have fun. Unfortunately no one will ever be positively affected regardless of how many people like to use nonsense words.
Yeah, I assume you're talking about cura. I've asked them to actually add a flow rate based control setting (and clarify the existing flow rate compensation setting wouldn't hurt either) for a while now.
I was really enjoying the esun 83A toe filament until I was about halfway through the roll. After that I could not get it to extrude for the life of me and even replaced the extruder on my x1c thinking the gears were wore out. After all that effort it turned out that the filament in the middle of the roll was thinner to the point where it could not be grabbed by the gears anymore. I was super frustrated and haven't bought it since though that could have been a one-off. Also, that is some of the best smooth jazz I've ever heard.
According to the MSDS on esun's website, the eLastic TPE-83A is 97% Tetraphenylethylene (or TPE for short, a different expansion of that initialism). It's probably a good idea to check the MSDS (Material Safety data sheet) on new filaments (assuming it's available) so that you know what it is you're actually printing with (like knowing what the the + part of the PLA+ filament you're using is). It's also good to know how to dispose of it (apparently this TPE has to be disposed of as hazardous waste).
I've been made aware, but also on enquiring , I've been made aware most devices have accessibility settings specifically for this. Are you colour blind yourself? Can you comment on whether these work?
My Prusa i3 MK3S+ is terrible with TPU (even 95 - 98 Shore A) whereas my other direct-drive printers (Elegoo, Creality, and Anycubic) handle it very well, even with 92 A filament. With them, I can print for months without a jam whereas with the Prusa, it is difficult to print for a few hours without jamming. This is yet another illustration of why Prusa is overrated and not deserving of its illustrious reputation.
Curious about the price point on the Phaetos Conch Plus... I looked at the link but didn't see any price (maybe I just missed it)
Just recently upgraded to a diamond-tipped nozzle, so Phaetus' option is going to have to come in less than that, particularly considering even silicon-carbide can't surpass its wear nor thermal conductivity.
They announced it yesterday on twit
24 USD for Conch Hotend
39 USD for Conch Hotend Plus
I'll...try to pin this when I get on PC
@@LostInTech3D Cool, thank you ^_^
That is some extremely smooth jazz.
The absolute smoothest I could find 👍
@@LostInTech3D Who is it, it sounds familiar? Severed Fifth perhaps?
In the future, I'll be coming for the smooth jazz.
Technology Connections eat your heart out!
I too enjoyed the smoothness of the jazz
Nothing like smooth jazz on Sunday morning
I appreciate the joke with the smooth jazz
What joke? That smooth jass was very calming
I work for UK filament manufacture, we just did a small run of TPU it wasn't easy. your correct remove as much friction in feeding even to pull a meter off the spool just let the extruder pull it in.
if you can fit a stainless steel tube right up the extruder gears to stop filament getting stuck in the gears on the hot end side of the extruder. 3mm OD 2mm ID or cut up nozzle with long heat break tubes.
Set the filament tensioner as high as you can TPU filament is tough and slippy, so don't worry about crushing the filament.
A larger nozzle helps too.
you make great content hopefully sponsor a video.
Get in touch with me please 👍 😁 email should be in yt profile
Just use a PTFE tube, cut in up and place it right before the wheels. I have been printing with my Bowden set up for ages. It´s not that difficult. You simply need to account for the very soft material from the spool all the way up to the nozzle. Retraction is higher because you don´t really retract material you deform the TPU instead and then move it. Clamp force squeezes the material as well more so and changes the diameter etc. Higher extrusuin multiplyer is also used for that same reason, it´s just to account for soft material
In my experience TPU benefits from less gripping.
If you have the gears too tight it squashes the filament and displaces material so you end up under extruding by a decent margin.
@@freedomofmotion That´s the case with every flexible material. PETG more flexible than PLA this some people increase extrusion rate of PETG compared to PLA. It has to grip reliably, the extrusion rate can simply be changed accordingly.
@@sierraecho884I've even printed some softer TPU using a custom bowden extruder with good results, it's all about minimizing where it can go and reducing the 'unretract' speed can help to give it more time to rebound after retracting.
3:58 The best laugh I got in this week. Thanks man! That was so great! 🤣❤
Oh no, you said "irregardless" :)
Is that something similar to how inflammable is? :)
@@Qwarzz You're thinking of "uninflammable"
@@Qwarzz For all intensive purposes it's the same thing.
Wow, loved the Jazz!! Great testing...glad to know TPU is now pretty straight forward.
Funny enough, I've gotten 70a tpu to work on my slightly modded ender 3v2. Still a bowden, but with a dual gear extruder. It isn't perfect (might need a bit more tuning on my end), but it works surprisingly well. I use a bit of hand soap as lubricant (a little on the tip, insert the filament, and run it though until the soap stops popping out of the nozzle). A little cursed, but it works.
Soap 😅that's a new one. Whatever works I guess.
@@LostInTech3D I was in a bit of a pinch, so I looked at that dawn bottle and figured I'd give it a shot
Great advice, even modern direct drive will struggle with long PTFE tube friction, but bumping up the flow rate, even mid print is an instant fix.
If you have old soggy TPU and no dryer cranking up the flow rate mid print also works great, the surface quality won’t be smooth and glossy though.
Fun fact an ender 3 can print ninja flex 85A TPU at 20mm/s quite nicely
I've been printing for two years and still haven't touched anything other than PLA, but TPU really does open up a ton of new applications. This video definitely removed some of the apprehension about getting to grips with an unfamiliar filament type, might have a buy a roll or two and see how it goes :)
If you are looking for matte TPU in 85-95A you can buy the "Add:North TPU pro matte". They come in several colours and are soft and matte when printed 😊
09:23 just letting you know, people with red-green colourblindness will have a very hard time reading this graph; the colours are extremely similar. maybe next time opt for a more saturated red and green 🙂
I'm red /green colorblind and was extremely confused by your charts lol I hate to be a diva but can you not do red green charts and graphs 😅
Red or green with blue or yellow is a good alternative
Noted. I'll see what I can do
Varying value instead of hue works well. Test by converting to b&w temporarily.
@@LostInTech3D also patterns are a good idea
I just 3d printed my first flexible print out of beyond plastic PHA flex. It is supposedly fully compostable in a home composter or it can be thrown away. Sadly. The company isn’t making any more rigid or flexible PHA, but I know that some other companies are selling/working on making it commercially for consumers.
That last point (“it is and always has been about flow rate”) can’t be emphasized enough. I gradually came to that conclusion over the last year but it really needs to get into everyone’s brains who are used to fretting over 20 different speed settings in each slicer (and filament profile) they use. Deserves its own video!
Makes Ultimaker Cura's refusal to implement such a setting even more annoying!
I tried various brands of 95A TPU. I had no issues with all of them. Even Soft 83A TPE works fine. After a half year not printing any flexibles i want to print something and nothing works. My prints looks terrible and way underextruded. After some research i remembered that i changed the nozzle to a hardend steel one. I changed it back to brass and tata...... works fine again.
I had the same experience with steel nozzles on the ender 3, oddly enough.
I never tried them again.
Did you try raising the temperature a bit? At least for me steel needs to print about 5-10c hotter than brass.
@@GarethLewin
Yes, i did. I also tried a 0,6mm steel nozzle. 95A worked better but the 83A not. In the end i would recommend brass nozzles for flexibles.
I love your videos. Legit laughed my ass off when the music started playing! 🤣
always enjoy your videos!
Thanks 😁
Irregardless of whatever anyone may say, that smooth jazz was the smoothest jazz I've ever heard.
Well can't say i have heard jazz this smooth before...
I've honestly never had issues with the extruding part. It's just the bed adhesion that never works with tpe/u for me. I've textured and smooth pei, painter's tape, gluestick, magigoo, dried the spool, designed a custom brim with tabs that are easy to snip off. It worked a few times but now it no longer works and I have nonidea why. It really doesn't make me want to try a new spool, this stuff is expensive.
I was 🤏 this close to call you out on "irregardless" before seeing your keychain.
Try TPU, especially Bambulab HF TPU, with the Obsidian High Flow Hotend. With this combo you can push TPU to ca 12mm/s². I never thought it is possible to print TPU this fast
My kind of jazz.😉 Thanks for the info, I've not printed with TPU as yet, so this will help me a lot when I do.
Cheers!
It's great these days, I started on a bowden equipped original ender 3 and it was possible to print 95a TPU, but it required extremely fine tuning to get reliable prints and a couple of mods to constrain the TPU feeding from the gears into the PTFE so it didn't do a Houdini and escape the intended path. Most direct drive setups these days will have no problem with TPU and can print relatively quickly. I accidentality used my "fast" SV06 PLA settings (around 120mm/s infill and 70mm/s outer perimeters) and on a retraction heavy print and was amazed when it not only succeeded, but looked absolutely solid with no under extrusion. I was using a bearing spool holder that is on the verge of running away so there is little to no stretch, but I was happily surprised at the results.
I do like the bit about flowrate. I almost view it as the dominating speed setting. the rest are just extra slowdown to get a better surface finish.
I had no idea I would like jazz.
Thank you for expanding my music tastes.
Some of the 3d printer groups I'm on thought I was mad printing 95a at 15mm3s on a Kobra 2 max. It could probably do 20mm²s if I got rid of the Bowden.
They're still printing at 3mm³s like were still on the original ender 3.
I'm on a Qidi plus4 now which was an awful lot of Bowden but even still I think 10-12 mm³s would be doable.
The most important thing I learned with 3D printing years ago was to stop looking for advice from the internet. I've done so many things with a customized bowden printer that most people would say is a waste of time. Even the old E3-Pro I have is capable of so much more by simply running Klipper and upgrading its main weaknesses with very little investment.
I've had great luck with 95A overall on my Ender 3 both with Bowden tube and converted to direct drive, but at fairly slow flow rates of course. I just got some Siraya Tech 85A and I'm going to try it on my Qidi Plus4 soon. Excited to hopefully confirm your results for myself. Your videos on TPU have generally been some of the best out there. It's truly not that scary. Been printing some PP-GF30 filament. Trying to get it to adhere to anything, now that's scary.
PP - Polypropylene only stick to Polypropylene .I use ordinary packing-tape that is made of polypropylene and
putting the tape on the heatbed .Use the transparent tape because you can't get it of the print again .
@@kimnielsen9320 Yep been using packing tape and it does work great, but even then the surface you put the tape on matters so it doesn't peel up. I also bought a large polypropylene sheet to cut up and use as build sheets, but when I use it, as with the packing tape, it becomes one with the sheet. The prints are incredibly strong though, so even trying all my might to tear it, no luck. Can just cut it out and sand off the bottom. Not worth the hassle over tape. Gonna try glue on the sheet. May buy a build sheet and glue designed for PP eventually if I need to make a really expensive part. Thanks!
@@802Garage Your welcome .It is a fantastic material .I have only printed small objects ,therefore i have no experience with how bigger objects will behave in the printing process when prints are stuck to only packing tape
@@kimnielsen9320 The packing tape definitely sticks way better to a smooth glossy surface than textured. It loves to peel off the stock PEI bed and let the part warp, but I have a smaller PEA bed the tape sticks to very well.
Great jazz tune choice!
As a T1 owner I was most curious about the T1 results. With all the variation there was between the printers and filaments somehow the T1 ended on 15mm³/s on every of your filaments.
I would recommend waiting for part 2 this week before drawing conclusions about the T1.... hehehe
@@LostInTech3D Yeah no conclusions here so far as I didn't even try 95 A TPU so far. But I am keen to see part two.
Good stuff, thank you! I haven't tried any flexible filament yet, but i feel better about giving it a go after watching this. Also, i appreciate you not sharing your printing profile, not only for your reason but also because some people seem to rely WAY too much on profiles instead of knowing their printer and learning to really dial it in (ESPECIALLY the bambu crowd 😂)
My best tpu/tpe printer is also my cheapest printer. My two much more expensive printers are ridiculously hard to dial in for tpu/tpe. Definitely between brands and even different colors within the same brand. My Anycubic Kobra Neo which cost less than 25% of the other two prints tpu/tpe easily. It's my go-to for most soft filaments. Little setting change between brands and none for colors within the same brand.
I tried fuzzy skin .1, and it has removed a lot of the shininess from my 95A TPU
Irregardless: without lack of regard.
Super soft TPU in my geared Ender 3 Extruder always failed miserably BUT the cleaning line the printer lays down before the actual print always is perfect. There must be some setting I can get from that pre-print action... not sure what to look for and where.
If the line goes down clean and it fails directly afterwards to print the actual job, I would say there is an aggressive retraction after the purge line. This just crumbles your filament in your extruder gears and jams the filament
That ... sounds like a retraction issue. Speed or distance or E acceleration.
@@kaizoor @LostInTech3D Thanks guys
My kids have been pushing to print squishy stuff. but I just can't be arsed to get a dryer box.
Perhaps I should get going on it. a P1S just printing PLA does feel like overkill.
You generally don't need a dryer for tpu, it can get wet but it typically takes a fish tank in the room (ask how I know!)
@@LostInTech3D how do you know?
oh, do I have to answer now? I set up a fish tank in the studio. Not the smartest move.
@@LostInTech3D on a more genuine note haha what climate do you live in? I'm in Midwest USA and think the ambient humidity might be too high for just out there TPU storage how's the climate around your area? Do you think I'd be fine with it stored in the open?
One more tip: set your extruder grip as low as possible. If the grip is too tight, it will bend the filament and cause a jam.
8:41 I love this new banana scale!! 😂
You reminded me how much I love smooth jazz.
judging from your previous taste of music (which is very nice taste in my view), I was really expecting smooth jazz. I guess this round we just need to zoom in on the scale of measurement to get the smooth-ness between the beats.
What did you do to print tpu on the mk4? I printed a bunch in mine and it revealed a manufacturing oversight: it wrapped around the shaft behind the drive gear and ripped off the conductive paste circuit... that is under the drive gear...!
Prusa did warranty the parts and fix it. They also advised me to loosen the idler screws. But the conductive paste circuit still seems insane to have that close to a spinning planetary gear.
Yeah I think they did something to fix that, off the top of my head. I've certainly wrapped tpu round those gears enough
@LostInTech3D did you personally make any physical changes to prevent that from happening? I want to try my best to keep that from happening again, because I lost a heat sink and build sheet.
I did not, no. I have done the mmu upgrade which changes some parts but I don't think it would have an impact
Ive had successful prints with varioshore on the prusa mini stock extruder. Its the only tpu ive tried but it seems to work great with some tweaks. Namely loosening the idler gear on the extruder.
Ngl i would like a direct drive for the prusa mini but i dont know if it could handle the weight.
Have a look at this github.com/Mobile-Dom/Prusa-Mini-Revo
I always hated jazz.. i think ive changed my mind
Im completely lost. I thought flow rate just increased the amount of material put out in the same amount of time. So for example when printing ASA I have to go down to about 95% or it will be really blobby. In the video I dont see anything that resembles a percentage increase or decrease?
you're thinking of "flow rate multiplier" I think. Flow rate in the slicer is like a global speed limit. Of flow.
@@LostInTech3Dyeah flow rate should be in your filament settings if in Orca it's a measure of volume/time I believe
Recently I wondered whether there was some conversion formula between the D hardness scale and A hardness scale. I've only found tables, so I picked one (the one from wikipedia to be precise) and entered the values in excel and plotted it. Looking at the graph, I assumed there to be a logarithmic relationship (D -> A) and decided to add a logarithmic trendline. The formula it gave was A(D) ~= 31.748 * ln(D) - 27.465 with an R^2 value very close to 1. The funny thing is, we can approximate this appromixation as A(D) ~= 10 * (pi * ln(D) - e) + 1.
I'll be honest, I thought it would be simpler given its derived from springs!
I've tried to find some literature on what the exact relationship is. Couldn't find any. Maybe I didn't look that extensively, but I kinda find it strange there not to be any (or there is very little of it).
My favorite kind of JAZZ 🤘🏻
I have that ESun TPE filament, i somehow managed to print it with our old ender 3
As always, it's fine to print, as long as you take care to make sure your set up for it is good
what about temperature? i find myself going to 240C to achieve better flow rate (about 7mm^3) is where defaults have issues for me
steel nozzles (bambu, some others) do need higher temps than brass due to the surprising difference in thermal conduction. I would advise not going past 240 though, for TPU, for safety
did you have CHT printers? I had big clogging issues with foaming tpu and my cht nozzle.
edit: well, you have the S1 which should be close enough to my T1
Yeah the prusa has cht now. I've not used varioshore on it though, I'll note that down.
My favorite kind of jazz
Awesome! Just as I was about to order my first TPU spool lol, now I'll wait for part 2. Do we still need to put glue stick or tape on textured PEI beds? I'm reading so much conflicting information 😵💫
Textured is usually fine, but can stick too well, glue stick makes it easier to remove.
Mostly with all these tests I put glue stick on as my hands were getting sore 🤣
@@LostInTech3D Thanks! I read someone say that they got TPU off by putting the bed in their freezer, but I haven't seen much more info on that
I recently printed some 85A Ninjatek Ninjaflex on my MK4. All I did was select the generic flexible filament profile in PrusaSlicer and reduced temperature by 10 degrees -- literally no other adjustment, either in software or hardware, and it printed *pitch perfect*. Like, literally, I didn't even get any stringing. On the other hand, the 92A Fiberlogy flexible filament I have is oozing all over the place, it's always stringing massively and no matter how much I try to fiddle with the settings, it just really sucks arse.
I dunno if I have any real point here other than that some brands are clearly better than others.
I think getting the right temperature is often underestimated for tpu. Maybe it's worth investigating 🤔
@@LostInTech3D It's what I typically adjust first with all new filaments and only start messing with other settings if tuning temperatures isn't enough. It's the one, single thing that tends to have the largest effect on the outcome, in my experience.
Are you coming to SMRRF? I really hope you are, and hope you stop by. This was excellent BTW.
Doom guy approved smooth jazz
Can you tell us something about this Apus 2 extruder?
Not yet, but it does look good. Everything is kinda sealed inside so I can't really say until I've mounted it
Can you elaborate on this "only touch flow rate and not speed" thing? I'm a beginner.
okay, so, imagine "max flow rate" as a master control that overrides all the speeds. The nozzle has max flow rate that it can do, so it's better to tell the slicer what that is, and not have to try to match that with speeds. If that makes sense?
Irregardless is actually a real word and perfectly acceptable, regardless of what folks may think when first hearing it. 😅
The flex king is back
Love the googly eyes
Man, I love smooth Jazz 😂
Now that's my kind of jazz.
The creality k1 cannot print tpus below 85a. Your test does not cover longer prints. I print shoes and doing multiday prints with e.g. esuns 83a does not work, the extruder is not strong enough and the tolerances are not tight enough even when you set retraction to 0, the print fails sometimes after 6 hours, sometimes after 12 no matter the volumetric speed. If you want to print consistently, you need an orbiter with a steel guide rod for the filament right after your extruder gears or a belt extruder like the papilio.
i see we enjoy the same type of jazz ;)
I knew there was going to be irregardless trolling as soon as you said it. 😩
Oh my god, will he be struggling with the box again???
the struggle is eternal
what about prusa i3 mk3 ?
i have printed tpu using my 5 year old ender 3 so many times, just go very slow like 10 mm/s.
"While you listen to some smooth jazz, immediately puts on heavy metal"..and that sir earned my sub. Even though your use of "irregardless" annoys the hell out of me.
You subscribed irr... I'll see myself out.
@@TechieSewinghahaha
My flow rate is already so low with my ender 5 pro i just slow down the first layer to 15mm/s and cut the other speed roughly in half and slightly bump retraction E voila tpu is good. Don't be scared of TPU it's easy
What's the nozzle size. 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0
All stock 0.4, I don't recommend changing in most cases.
@LostInTech3D 90A is what I print for the last 7 years. Back then, it was a fun challenge. 40mm is the max speed I can do. My parts have heaps of retractions and are 9hr prints. 0.4 nozzle, 30 deg bed, 240 deg hotend, 5mm retractions. Tried larger nozzles, but 0.4 gave the best results for me. Can't go any faster, tried that, extruder issues arise and/or parts fail the quality tests.
Still, the biggest issue to date is the actual filament diameter. I've seen under and over size within the reels. Looking forward to your results.
I did tests on filament diameter on PLA but never on TPU, interesting
"IRREGARDLESS" is a word, it just doesn't mean what you think it means. We understand what you mean regardless of the fact that you don't understand what you're saying 🙂
That's not smooth jazz that's classical harpsichord music played at brunch at those exclusive country clubs.
2:30 that dirty print bed hurts my soul
It's glue, otherwise the print won't release. Remind me to mention that actually in future 🤔
@@LostInTech3D It looks like small globs of left over 3d print which is what made me think otherwise.
I mean....that also might be a thing 🤣
Not going to lie, you definitely trigged me with irregardless :D
not a word!
/runs
🤣
"a nozzle-heatsink thing" that needs a name... If you clamp the heater+thermistor to it, it's already called "hot end" for ages, so just call it hot end and inform the fact that heater+thermistor are not included
😂😂 3:07
Unfortunately ‘irregardless’ is a double negative in one word so it will always sound dumb like undon’t or nonshapless…
🤷♂️ Either way have fun.
Unfortunately no one will ever be positively affected regardless of how many people like to use nonsense words.
Did you say that unjokingly? 🤔
@@LostInTech3D Exactly 😊, your joke was funny, I responded so by any definition it has to be the unjoke. 🥂
Using the A scale at 95 is actually a bad idea, and going to D is a much better idea. The resolution at 95+ is awful whereas at 40D its not.
A fair point
5:37 I hate Z hop whenever it's at all possible
Shouldnt it be volumetric flow everytime you talk about flow rate? Its a bit confusing as flow rate is a different setting in common slicers.
Yeah, I assume you're talking about cura. I've asked them to actually add a flow rate based control setting (and clarify the existing flow rate compensation setting wouldn't hurt either) for a while now.
The existence of smooth jazz implies the existence of rough jazz. Do with this information what you will.
Textured jazz 👍😅
"I don't like jazz. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
For the algorithm gods
I was comfortable printing ninja flex on an ender 3
Call them hammers.
Irregargless is not a word.
Geetech tpu is very matte, instead of shiny.
_Irregardless?_ ha ha, I see what you did there 😜
Where's the message for us other pedants in the audience who want to complain about no reviewers seeming to know how to pronounce "conch"?😅
Funny enough we had that argument on discord 😂
They called their extruder apeth? That's silly.
I was really enjoying the esun 83A toe filament until I was about halfway through the roll. After that I could not get it to extrude for the life of me and even replaced the extruder on my x1c thinking the gears were wore out. After all that effort it turned out that the filament in the middle of the roll was thinner to the point where it could not be grabbed by the gears anymore. I was super frustrated and haven't bought it since though that could have been a one-off. Also, that is some of the best smooth jazz I've ever heard.
Haha that's terrible. Probably the end of the production run or something
@@LostInTech3D Yeah. I might be willing to try it again but since then I've been using Siraya Tech 83a and I'm happy with it.
"irregardless" HA!
I only fear its price haha 😅
🤣 you aren't wrong
This video is sponsored by a fetus. Nice
According to the MSDS on esun's website, the eLastic TPE-83A is 97% Tetraphenylethylene (or TPE for short, a different expansion of that initialism). It's probably a good idea to check the MSDS (Material Safety data sheet) on new filaments (assuming it's available) so that you know what it is you're actually printing with (like knowing what the the + part of the PLA+ filament you're using is). It's also good to know how to dispose of it (apparently this TPE has to be disposed of as hazardous waste).
The charts like at 9:32 are very hard to decipher for color blind people.
I've been made aware, but also on enquiring , I've been made aware most devices have accessibility settings specifically for this. Are you colour blind yourself? Can you comment on whether these work?
My Prusa i3 MK3S+ is terrible with TPU (even 95 - 98 Shore A) whereas my other direct-drive printers (Elegoo, Creality, and Anycubic) handle it very well, even with 92 A filament. With them, I can print for months without a jam whereas with the Prusa, it is difficult to print for a few hours without jamming. This is yet another illustration of why Prusa is overrated and not deserving of its illustrious reputation.
Smoooooth Jazz \m/ d-.-b \m/
Its just regardless.