250 g. Skin 2 FlexiSMART 2.85 mm Flexible filament TPU for 3D Printer - Flexible filament for 3D printing - TPE filament, TPU filament, elastic filament

I used this filament on a Qidi Tech I 3D printer. FlexiSMART produce an excellent guide with their product and didn't shy away from stating that this filament, because of it's flexible nature, could be difficult to use on some printers and they're not wrong. The first problem arose because I was using an injector that had been previously used for ABS. It's always a fiddly time when changing materials until the new material flow is established but it was particularly difficult changing to TPE because of it's lack of stiffness to flush out the old material, but eventually it did. I used the settings as advised with the material. The second problem was caused by the pinch wheel kinking the soft filament which allowed it fold and jam up. Eventually following a suggestion in the guide, I experimented by backing off the pressure on the pinch wheel by jamming several layers of paper between the release lever and the frame. The optimum being just enough pressure to ensure filament feed. Success at last! I haven't used the TPE much so far but what I have done has been successful. I did find that I got a better result if I used a raft. Perseverance wins in the end!

Information is a little limited on this filament unless you can read spanish but essentially a TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) material.But to mention that I did have to add a small adaption to my Makerbot Replicator 2, by adding a small piece of thin walled plastic pipe to cover the hot end securing screw (in between the hob drive and the start of the hot end assembly) which allowed a piece of 2mm bowden tube to be inserted into it. I then trimmed the end of the bowden tube to match the profile of the hob drive diameter (as best as I could). This adaption was to improve the guiding of the filament into the hotend as like all flexible filaments they need encouragment to get pushed through small holes without buckling or wrapping around the hob gear!...I have to say that I was amazed to have this material printing on a Makerbot Replicator 2 (with added heatbed).In my setup using the heated bed (at 50 deg) gave me more confidence to use the filament but the manufacturer does state that this is not necessary and it can be printed on an unheated or untreated surface. Quality was excellent with just a few strings attached to the part after printing. Extruder temp was 220 deg and printing at 25-30 mm/sec. Layer height 0.2mm with a 0.8mm retraction. FlexiSMART has around a 80-90 shore rating from my estimation which can be a little hard for some items, but again this will need time and testing to discover the best combinations for different projects.The manufacturer does claim that this will work in most direct drive printers but as like anything in 3D printing you need to prove theclaims...I'm happy to say that with a small alteration I have now the capability of using flexible filament (I tried Ninjaflex without success) in the Replicator at last so I am very happy and can recommend FlexiSMART as a consequence.So I can highly recommend FlexiSMART

250 g. Red FlexiSMART 1.75 mm Flexible filament TPU for 3D Printer - Flexible filament for 3D printing - TPE filament, TPU filament, elastic filament Superb flexy filament, easy to print with. Colours are good, nice solid opaque colours. VERY strong prints, basically treat as a solid rubber model! Near impossible to seperate layers etc, will stretch and snap like regular dense rubber items if pulled hard enough.Really great for quadcopter parts that need to be strong and a felxy.Its not super soft / squishy like some, more like a flexible rubber - great for camera mounts, motor soft mounts etc.Extrudes easily and reliably.I have used their red and green versions of this, both perform the same.My settings:(Wanhao Duplicator i3, 0.4mm nozzle, Glass plate bed)Flexy mod - only needed a short length of PTFE tube to bridge the small (4mm) gap between the ext gear and cold end throat opening - also the fine toothed ext gear.Clean the glass with alcohol and wipe to remove any dust or finger print grease etc.220 deg nozzle60 deg bed0.2mm layersfirst layer 115% extrusion to get a good squished first layerslow first layer (15mm/s)print speed about 25mm/sfan on after first couple of layers.Retraction on (about 2.5mm at 40mm/s)Supports work very well in latest Cura, easy to pull off and come off clean.

Background**************I bought this to begin experimenting with printing fingers and hands out of a combination of PLA and a flexible filament, in this case TPE.The Filament/reel***************The filament is on a very small reel, measuring just 100mm in diameter by around 56/57 mm deep (it kinda has a ridge on the reel)Centre hole is a very small 16.8 mm.I generally found the TPE measured at 1.67mm so be warned.Printing*********I don't have a flexion extruder, so simply printed on my Dreeml 3D40 using the stock head.No heated bed.The filament was tricky to feed in, had to try a few times :(As can be seen from the image included, it took a few tries and many changes to get to a stage where I can get it to print.Settings I used******************190 degrees CBuild Speed 30 mm/sTravel Speed 40mm/sShells 4Layer Height 0.1I will continue trying.With my basic Dremel software, I have limited control at this point, but will try again over the coming week using Autodesk Print Studio (It stopped working with Windows Creator Edition, a known problem)The final print is a lovely flexible material.Any questions, let me know, hope the images help, will put some more up as I work with it more.Sarah