# Specific 3D Printers, Scanners, & Hardware > FlashForge Forum >  Printing Flex Filament with the Flashforge

## Geoff

Hey guys,

I am not sure if any of you have gotten into other types of filament, me personally the toughest time I ever had with any was the wood filament, and the ONLY time I have needed blue painters tape, as it just will not stick to kapton to save my life.. but that's another story. 


*Flexible Filament*.. Yep it's being sold pretty commonly now, and I sort of took a punt on buying a cheap roll from China. It cost me $80 for a 1kg roll, and when I say cheap for the Tolerance this has (super super low, can print at 0.1)  this is cheap for 1kg. Their wood filament is also $70 for 1kg, which is VERY cheap compared to 250gms of Laywoo d3 for $40!!!  *Ordered on a Friday, I watched DHL ship it from Hong Kong to my door by Monday. 
**** Update - Sadly, there is a reason Laywoo D3 is $40 for 250 grams, its GOOD!. I have now 1kg of wood filament here that will not stick to aluminum, kapton, blue tape, yellow tape, hairspray, abs slurry.. you name it. Argh.

Now, the first issue that got to me when trying Flexible filament was the extruder. It would not feed. Tried everything, tried feeding it with the fan off, different temperatures etc, nothing anyone suggested worked, and the manufacturer gave me incorrect temperature settings.

My original extruders for my Flashforge 3D were stock, they had no spring load, just a bearing and gear. Now, while these suck for ABS and PLA as they slip alot more, they are GREAT for flexible filament, in fact I could not use flex filament at all with the spring loaded extruder. Picture below explains how my experience went.



Since my original extruders had issues with the nozzles, I was lucky and had spares - I understand you may not, so I am making a printable version of the above left extruder for you guys, very simple but effective.

You can run it next to your other one at the same time,  me personally I use my left extruder for ABS/PLA and my right for Wood and Flex.



*Temperatures that worked well:
235c Nozzle
60c Hotbed
Kapton tape*


So how did my prints go?

First attempt terrible, second not so bad, Octopus came out well..



Third test print I tried a low poly pokemon..  What did I learn? INFILL INFILL.. INFILL..

*If you don't use enough infill  the flex sags and you get holes, I suggest 50% or more!!!

RAFTS* are VERY easy to remove. Easier than plastic. 

*Supports* AVOID if you can!!!. They are really messy with flex and leave alot of little bits you need to cut off.

*Retraction* Rate set low, if you are able to. You want a fast retraction so it doesn't leave mess when its travelling fast - *or* avoid big travel movements.

*Printing Speed* needs to be 30-40ms feed. Any faster and it gets messy.





So to print very nice Flex/rubber prints, follow the above and you should be ok to go! 


*****
I am testing the printable extruder for Flex filament, give me a couple of days, need to make it pretty solid.
****

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## Roxy

Wow!   Great write up!   It will be a while before I can play with this, but for sure it is on my To Do list!

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## curious aardvark

any files for the older extruder yet ? 
I'd really like to use ninjaflex - but discovered it just won't feed.

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## Geoff

> any files for the older extruder yet ? 
> I'd really like to use ninjaflex - but discovered it just won't feed.


No, but its almost done sorry, got held up with kids of school sick this week :/ 

It is a small print, will only take you max 25mins to print when I post it up here, so bare with me.

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## curious aardvark

I'm bareing I'm bareing :-)

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## Geoff

> I'm bareing I'm bareing :-)


Flashforge dead.

I have no comments right now, I am in mourning.

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## Roxy

> Flashforge dead.
> 
> I have no comments right now, I am in mourning.


This is the same Flashforge that the company would not stand behind?     Good riddance!

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## Geoff

> This is the same Flashforge that the company would not stand behind?     Good riddance!


Yep..

BUT it's all good  :Smile: 

Besides the prusa... I took a good look at my flashforge and thought hang on.. 2 dead steppers, that means I have 3 working ones.. and a spare off the old extruder.. So I shopped around today and got myself a delta kossel mini too to play around with.

The idea was to have the Flashforge as a spare, but now thats gone so I need another back up or two. If the kossel mini is as easy to build as it looks, i will build 2!

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## curious aardvark

dead ? how'd it die ??

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## Geoff

> dead ? how'd it die ??


Turns out two things happened...

I thought just the steppers had died, I mean these things have done thousands of hours, and for such extended periods of time, I am not saying at all they were bad quality...  after seeing stepper motors die on photocopiers after a couple of weeks, I think I did pretty well.

Anyway, I took the dead steppers (lost Z and X.. would you believe it... ok fair enough one dies.. but two??!?! how bad luck is that lol... )  and plugged them into the extruder power output and nope, completely dead (extruders were still working fine, just piling plastic up on the messed up print...)

So I decided to take a working stepper and try the output for the X and Z before I bothered checking the mega or anything else, and bam... no go. So , basically the small drivers on the RAMPS board I am pretty sure are the problem..  Now, this is not to say I don't have a spare ramps, mega and pretty much an entire flashforge in spare parts, but you know what... after the past few weeks, and considering I literally was building one I thought, lol this has to be fate... 

Parts are so cheap now, to be honest I don't even know if I could ever buy a built one again. I managed to now get 2 printers for less than the flashforge cost me. I know it's been a while, but still .. 

Complete rostock electronics kit... $150 delivered (and thats with the good metal hot end)
kossel printed parts - easy, takes about 300 grams of plastic.
metal rods, etc... half of it is radio control helicopter parts... carbon rods, fittings etc - even in kit its pretty cheap - buy it all in one bundle for about $200-$300...
Powersupply? a laptop powersupply or pc ATX power supply... gee how many of those have I got?

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## palawanisland

why choose kossel design?

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## curious aardvark

so the kossel is one of those three armed delta jobs is it ? 

They do look very impressive working.

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## Geoff

> why choose kossel design?


a few main reasons I chose a Kossel design (as well as the prusa.. the prusa is meant for big wide prints, the kossel I got for tall prints. Even the Kossel mini is rated to 24cm high)

1. Parametric design. Once you build one, building a bigger one is easy.
2. There is now heated round beds for them, so ABS is ok now.
3. When they are set up correctly, there is absolutely no backlash, no stitching marks...  its perfect prints.
4. Only 3 stepper motors for each of the sliding arms.
5. Less power required.
6. less desk space required.
7. Build diameter 170mm. My heatbed element is 160mm.. A flashforge is 220mm.. but my hotbed is so warped, only really 150mm of that has ever been truly usable.

I just spent thousands of dollars in the past couple weeks on parts to build probably about 4 machines (I went a but nuts... drunken ebay splurge... )  And all I can say is "Told you so Flashforge"

They could have had another happy customer, but decided to be your usual "pop in and say we have a sale" type company.

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## basfud

The issue with the spring loaded filament motor is that it presses the filament too tightly, teeth cut in, and can pull it out of the head (that's what she said). Another thing is the hydraulic pressure that builds up on extrusion when you load the filament, if it enters head it heats too slowly and a lot of pressure builds up that's enough to curl the filament past motor and before head (due to slow heat transmission). You got to preheat the filament in the head before moving the motors. 

Put the filament into the motor by hand, as far as you can, with preheated head. Ideally you want it to extrude a bit while pushing by hand. Then pull up a little. It should print OK then. If not, loosen the pressure on the motor lever (place a toothpick in it or sth).

Geoff, as I said in another thread, good luck with the build.
I'm kind of worried about Flashforge that they have a good product that works fine, and instead of honing it into perfection they release new revamped better bigger harder versions. It's kind of stupid imvho, and I worry they will try to abandon the working Rep1 based design in favor of the other nice shiny glossy ones like MB and a lot of other companies did.

I wish they'd go the route to perfect the existing wooden design so you could buy those printers even more cheaply, run them down to death, then get more.

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## Geoff

> The issue with the spring loaded filament motor is that it presses the filament too tightly, teeth cut in, and can pull it out of the head (that's what she said). Another thing is the hydraulic pressure that builds up on extrusion when you load the filament, if it enters head it heats too slowly and a lot of pressure builds up that's enough to curl the filament past motor and before head (due to slow heat transmission). You got to preheat the filament in the head before moving the motors. 
> 
> Put the filament into the motor by hand, as far as you can, with preheated head. Ideally you want it to extrude a bit while pushing by hand. Then pull up a little. It should print OK then. If not, loosen the pressure on the motor lever (place a toothpick in it or sth).
> 
> Geoff, as I said in another thread, good luck with the build.
> I'm kind of worried about Flashforge that they have a good product that works fine, and instead of honing it into perfection they release new revamped better bigger harder versions. It's kind of stupid imvho, and I worry they will try to abandon the working Rep1 based design in favor of the other nice shiny glossy ones like MB and a lot of other companies did.
> 
> I wish they'd go the route to perfect the existing wooden design so you could buy those printers even more cheaply, run them down to death, then get more.


Problem is, you can't *push* Flex filament into an extruder  :Smile:

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## curious aardvark

well you can try ;-)

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## Geoff

> well you can try ;-)


haha true, but unless you want a pile of spaghetti in your extruder, I'd highly suggest not  :Smile:

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## rovino

ahh this is bummer news. Ive had a FF dreamer for a little over a month.. Ive been pretty happy with the results overall, its my first printer. And although it has a "looks like its made cheap" quality to it. Ive been over all happy with PLA and ABS prints. I actually prefer abs.. just looks nicer imo.. But I digress.. I wanted to try some ninja flex and bought a spool and as you can guess could not get it to work. come to find out its my spring loaded feeders.. gah.. I shant give up!! 8)

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## Roxy

> I wanted to try some ninja flex and bought a spool and as you can guess could not get it to work. come to find out its my spring loaded feeders.. gah.. I shant give up!! 8)


You shouldn't be using one of those spring loaded feeders anyway!   I think the Thingiverse people grabbed somebody's design and patented it.  You probably owe them money for the license infringement.

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## Geoff

> You shouldn't be using one of those spring loaded feeders anyway!   I think the Thingiverse people grabbed somebody's design and patented it.  You probably owe them money for the license infringement.


I was sure I put a gigantic colour picture up on the first page.....  :Stick Out Tongue: 

Anyway, 3D printers do not have a limitation.

Whatever it can't do, you can make it do. Whatever it doesn't have, you can make for it.

I am not sure how the Dreamer extruder works, but seeing it's age it probably is not a lot different to a flashforge X or Pro,
So you need to go and find a DIRECT DRIVE BOWDEN EXTRUDER, print it out and make the conversion.

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## rovino

> You shouldn't be using one of those spring loaded feeders anyway!   I think the Thingiverse people grabbed somebody's design and patented it.  You probably owe them money for the license infringement.


not sure what this means... its the feed mechanism that came with the dreamers dual extruders.

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## Roxy

I'm just causing trouble.  Its a smart a$$ comment about what that corporate chain is doing with intellectual property.  Of course there are two sides to the story...   But this side makes the most sense to me:

http://traverseda.wordpress.com/2014...munity-design/

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## Geoff

> I'm just causing trouble.  Its a smart a$$ comment about what that corporate chain is doing with intellectual property.  Of course there are two sides to the story...   But this side makes the most sense to me:
> 
> http://traverseda.wordpress.com/2014...munity-design/


Lol I know, and had I had an extra ale or two in me, I probably would have joined in succession  :Smile:

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## curious aardvark

this direct drive bowden extruder. 
Given that the ff isn't a bowden setup - why would I want it ?

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## Geoff

> this direct drive bowden extruder. 
> Given that the ff isn't a bowden setup - why would I want it ?


It's just an overly used term for an extruder that is a direct input, sorry I should have said "chinese clone plastic injection molded direct drive extruder"  :Smile: 

there is many 'Bowden' setups that will work with the flashforge, ill find one on thingiverse, essentially you just want a block that holds the bearing and has a hole, it's about as basic as they get I reckon. It's just good for flex thats all.

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## curious aardvark

whatever works :-) 

Hinged one piece boxes with ninja flex at the hinge would be great, and useful  :-)

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## underwoodle

Hi,

    Did you ever finish the older version of the extruder?

Lenore

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## alisonleanne

My flexible (premium sebs filament from ebay.com.au) arrived today and no luck printing it on my falshforge dual. however after many googling if came to this post and found out the spring load feeder is the problem. i tried to hold down the spring tab with my hand when feeding it fed nicely! i end up putting a piece of plastic into the gap above the spring tab then all problem solved! thank heaps Geoff!

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## curious aardvark

Hmm, wonder of that'd work for ninjaflex. I feel an experiment coming on :-)

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## LASERMAN

> My flexible (premium sebs filament from ebay.com.au) arrived today and no luck printing it on my falshforge dual. however after many googling if came to this post and found out the spring load feeder is the problem. i tried to hold down the spring tab with my hand when feeding it fed nicely! i end up putting a piece of plastic into the gap above the spring tab then all problem solved! thank heaps Geoff!


What size was this piece of plastic?

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## curious aardvark

as I've now got three different types (might be 4 with the ninjaflex) of flexible filament, I will get this issue sorted :-) 
Thinking maybe changing the spring in the tensioner might work, But initially I'll try wedging it open.

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## jfkansas

I have a prototype feeding mechanism if you want to print and try it out.

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## curious aardvark

I'll give it a go :-)

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## Assaf

> Yep..
> 
> BUT it's all good 
> 
> Besides the prusa... I took a good look at my flashforge and thought hang on.. 2 dead steppers, that means I have 3 working ones.. and a spare off the old extruder.. So I shopped around today and got myself a delta kossel mini too to play around with.
> 
> The idea was to have the Flashforge as a spare, but now thats gone so I need another back up or two. If the kossel mini is as easy to build as it looks, i will build 2!



Welcome to the world of the delta printers  :Smile:  have a look at the Rostock Max of SeeMeCNC, not so easy to build for a first printer but after your mini kossel...

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## Geoff

> Welcome to the world of the delta printers  have a look at the Rostock Max of SeeMeCNC, not so easy to build for a first printer but after your mini kossel...


Built 3 now  :Smile:  I have almost finished designing my own actually, I ended up making 2 full delta towers and selling those, and after making that I realized that I could make it in even less parts, and simpler. So I have done away with the linear rails (mainly to lower cost)  and a new top and bottom frames, and carriages etc..  I think for anyone actually keen on making their own printer, kossel is like a magic solution I found... no real headaches of re-designing parts by changing printer size etc instead, just recalculating your firmware values. I love the fact you can just about build them any way you like as long as you follow the general rules. Linear rails, V rollers... so many different options. I want to eliminate the rails altogether and increase the diameter of the machine without the head extending outside the print area.

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## curious aardvark

100% hassle free printing flexible filament on ff. 

Just wedge the tension lever open and it all works perfectly. Wedge I used is metal about 1mm thick and cut to the width of the lever.
That's it - job done :-) 
In fact I've just left the wedge in for everything else as well. 

Wondering why the head was tensioned so much in the first place as it's obviously not necessary.

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## Stigern

I had some issues where the extruder-feeding start making knocking noises, and filament won't go in or out. So I do a unload and load procedure when it happens. Could it be too much tension on that spring?

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## curious aardvark

yep - flexible filament won't work unless you've wedged the tension lever open - or rebuilt the extruder, guess which one is easiest :-)

Basically the extruder exerts way too much pressure on the filament. Flexible filament deforms and feeds sideways into the extruder itself rather than down the little hole. 
But reduce that tension and it works without any problems at all.

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## jfkansas

> I'll give it a go :-)


Base.jpgLever.jpg

Finally had a chance to test these with flex filament this weekend. All went well. Should me your email and I will send the STL files.

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## Lab C

Many thanks for sharing this info. I'll inroduce your article to my Korean friends ! ^^;

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## Stigern

Thanks jfkansas, is it recommended to print your mechanism in ABS?

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## basfud

> Problem is, you can't *push* Flex filament into an extruder


I was talking from experience  :Smile:  I mean, I did print a* lot* of Ninjaflex on Creator. It worked brilliantly, did dual materials too. 

You got to make sure the motors are aligned perfectly with the nozzle inlets in the alu block. Then the filament goes all the way down into the heater without problems. 

Once you get it feeding, it works like a charm, but initially I had issues on having it not pull the ninjaflex into the motor. It would extrude a  bit of filament and then jam. But if you do as I said, it should work OK.

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## curious aardvark

So tried some polymakr flexible pla last  night. 
bottom right of this page: http://www.polymakr.com/web/pro.html#pro_r15_c1

Initially I had the tension lever wedged, but this stuff is a bit firmer than ninjaflex and works best with the standard setup so removed the wedge. 
You just feed and use as normal pla. 

I just printed a test bobble hat to go on the owls on the christmas cake :-)
Worked brilliantly. Printed at 210. Clean, crisp print, no stringing. Had the printbed at 30c - as it's bloody cold in my workshop at the moment and a consistent bed temp makes for easier calibration and printing.  

Great stuff. If you don't need ultra strong elastic properties and just want something flexible - definitely recommend this over tpe filament.
Just works :-)
I printed fairly slow - but polymakr reckon you can print at normal speeds. I'll try that next.

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## DrUsual

> So tried some polymakr flexible pla last  night. 
> bottom right of this page: http://www.polymakr.com/web/pro.html#pro_r15_c1
> 
> Great stuff. If you don't need ultra strong elastic properties and just want something flexible - definitely recommend this over tpe filament.
> Just works :-)


Would you use this for something like a living hinge, possibly?

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## curious aardvark

they recommend it for such things. 
And it's one use I'd like to use flexible plastic for. Just need to sort my right extruder out. 

So yep living hinge should be good for.

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## curious aardvark

So currently playing with the flexible filaments. 

After an aborted attempt at a sling pouch with easyflex. Currently trying filaflex.

Decided to take the wedge out of the tensioner for the filafflex and it's printing way better than the easyflex did with it in. 

Think m,aybe once you've gopt it loaded you just don't need to reduce tension. 

These pouches are only 4 0.2mm layers.
Work great with the flexible pla. Curious to see how they do with the tpe.

pictures later :-)

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## James___UK

Holy smokes, can't believe this thread has just been posted up!

I've nearly lost my mind trying to get filaflex to work in my flashforge creator, best I got was half a later of the 20mm calibration cube. Even after printing and fitting this http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:231310 (which didn't seem to fit the flashforge that nicely in places, oh well) I still got the exact same clogging issue where the filament just gets caught around the drive wheel (exactly like the picture in the first post). I'm guessing that I'm getting that thermal expansion problem clogging up the tube but I'm not sure how to counter that :/ Or do I just fit in a ptfe tube into the hotend and voila? (I'd imagine not if Recreus' proper hotend solution also has some sort of thermal barrier around where it would clog up

For now until I get this sorted I've used 3D hubs to print the parts I need but otherwise, I need a good corner to curl up in and rock back n forth XD

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## curious aardvark

weird - I've printed two pouches with zero issues. 
Just reloaded the easyflex (1/3rd the price of the other tpu filaments) for another try with that. 
No wedge 240c and 50mms print speed and it's looking pretty good. 

But filaflex just loaded and printed with no issues. 

Pouch on the bed - this stuff just peels off with no hassle. 



In hand and with cords added and a new star wars robot model loaded :-)





So these are pretty minimalist. 6gm weight and 0.8mm thick. 
But with this design you overlap the ends so the part that takes the most strain is actually 1.6mm thick. 

I haven't had a chance to field test these with rocks yet. But they work great with tennis balls. 
And so far flexible filament just loads and prints without any hassle. 
They also pass the pocket test. Ie: being folded up in my back pocket for a week :-) 
The flexible pla tends to crease, the tpu - not so much.

Where abouts are you james ? 
I could probably print your bits cheaper than 3d hubs. 
Though you should be able to print them yourself.

Not sure if it makes any differences but I load the filament at 220 (because that works for both pla and abs and i can't be bothered to change temps every time I change filament) and print at 240.

Well the easyflex is now looking as good as the filaflex. 
As long as it's as strong I'll order a roll, think it was £35 for 1kg. 
Given that filaflex and ninjaflex are £50 for 500gms, it's a much better buy. 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flexible-3...item2ed8085434

just need to pick a colour.

Interesting, says print temp is 200-220. But it definitely didn't extrude properly at that temp. Definitely needs 240.

In case you were wondering what this thing is for: www.slinging.org
They are also the worlds first ever 3d printed sling pouches. 
The easyflex ones also cost out at 22 pence each. 

Which given that i usually make them from leather is well cheap :-)

Hmm, it's still not as good as the filaflex. Not as clean coverage. And there are slight areas of missing filament which I didn't get with the filaflex. 
Shame, oh well just have to hope the filaflex gets cheaper. 

Right next up - I'll try a ninjaflex pouch.

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## curious aardvark

quick update. The easyflex pouch just pulled to bits. No stretch, no strength, waste of time really. 
So there's a reason the other makes are so bloody expensive lol 

So to date: ninjaflex and filaflex and polyflex. All work great. 
easyflex - just rubbish.

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## James___UK

Huh, no printer modifying or anything? What settings are you using? Also I'm in Reading but sorry I went to get an order through on 3D hubs right after I posted that XD Thanks though.

Also I may have figured out a solution instead of using a PTFE tube (unless that does give thermal insulation anyway?) - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THERMOCOUP...item3a9aeb15f8

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## curious aardvark

Well I've finished this first flexible filament experiment. 

So to rate the filaments in 4 categories.

1) cost
2) ease of use
3) toughness
4) stretchiness

So in no particular order. 

*Easy flex:* 
1) very cheap, 
2) Very hard to print with,  
3) weak. Printed parts just fall to bits
4) no real stretchiness - NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYTHING
I had hopes for this stuff - it's the only one I could have afforded for larger projects. But it's just useless in every category except cost.

*Polymakr polyflex flexible pla*: 
1) Very Expensive - particularly if you live outside america, 
2) A real joy to print with, hands down the most user friendly of the batch, prints just like normal pla. 
3) Super tough, you can't imagine this stuff ever wearing out, 
4) little stretch but enough for super tight push fittings. - BRILLIANT STUFF, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - JUST WISH I COULD AFFORD IT

*Ninjaflex*: 
1) expensive, 
2) prints with tensioner wedged, can be a sod to load but once loaded works great. 
3) very tough, 
4) super stretchy, but thicker parts are more like a hard rubber. - GOOD STUFF, CAN BE TRICKY TO GET PRINTING, BUT ONCE YOU DO IT WORKS WELL.

*FilaFlex*: 
1) Less expensive than ninjaflex - In fact just found it here at almost half the price of ninjaflex
2) Very easy to use, no modifications needed, Just load and print. Cold bed, nozzle 240
3) super tough 
4) stretcy but not quite as stretchy as ninjaflex - not a bad thing -  I LOVE THIS STUFF.  GIVEN THE CHOICE I'D TAKE THIS OVER NINJAFLEX EVERY TIME. 

So that's my first flexible filament test. I'm hoping there'll be a whole new set come the next tct show in september, and in the meantime the cost of these will - hopefully - drop. 

The next interesting thing, will be how the slinging world reacts to a 3d printed rubber pouch. 
I'm off to the second international slinger meeting in mallorca in  a couple of weeks and I'll be taking a selection of hi-tech printed sling pouches with me. 
Given that the balearic slingers only use traditional braided slings made from natural materials and leather. It could be an interesting few days :-)

Anytime I find a new flexible filament, I'll print a pouch out and add it to this list.

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## James___UK

Wow nice roundup! Thanks for the info. I was curious as to what specific settings you used for the filaflex?

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## curious aardvark

same settings for all three tpu filaments. 
240 nozzle.  bed temp starting at whatever my workshop temp is and getting slightly warmer as the print goes on.
0.2mm layer. 

For the record. Green ninjaflex prints really well at 240 and 50mm/s while the red/orange ninjaflex needs to be printed a lot slower. Did two pouches: the one at 50mm/s is somewhat patchy while the one I printed at 30mm/s isn't bad. Not as good as the green ninjaflex. Which is very nearly as good as the gold filaflex pouches.

So one more piece of info. Green ninjaflex is way better than orange ninjaflex :-)

So just ordered a 500gm roll of red filaflex for £32 all in. nearly £20 cheaper than ninjaflex. 

Just hope it works as well as the gold sample :-)

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## Bobbler

> same settings for all three tpu filaments. 
> 240 nozzle.  bed temp starting at whatever my workshop temp is and getting slightly warmer as the print goes on.
> 0.2mm layer. 
> 
> For the record. Green ninjaflex prints really well at 240 and 50mm/s while the red/orange ninjaflex needs to be printed a lot slower. Did two pouches: the one at 50mm/s is somewhat patchy while the one I printed at 30mm/s isn't bad. Not as good as the green ninjaflex. Which is very nearly as good as the gold filaflex pouches.
> 
> So one more piece of info. Green ninjaflex is way better than orange ninjaflex :-)
> 
> So just ordered a 500gm roll of red filaflex for £32 all in. nearly £20 cheaper than ninjaflex. 
> ...


Thanks for the links and info - I do like Ninjaflex but could only really justify one colour at the prices, but that Filaflex is more on par with decent ABS/PLA prices so will give it a go.

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## curious aardvark

well it's still 4x more expensive than good pla. 
£32 per 500g versus £18 per kg for the reprappertech pla I get from 3dfilaprint. Which is really good stuff. 
Mind you I've got some white pla that was only £13 kg which isn't half bad either.

That said - you're probably not going to be making huge structures from the filaflex. 
And it does give you some great options for weird and wonderful models :-) 

Now I just need to sort out my right extruder and start playing with dual material, dual extrusion.

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## James___UK

Thankyou very much for your help!

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## curious aardvark

right I'm currently slightly pissed off at 3dfilaprints subsidiary 'globalfsd'. 
I ordered a 10 metre sample of the new fenner drive semi-flex. They sent me 3x3 metre lengths. 
That is not the same thing. 

Just thought I'd vent where it might do some good. I've emailed them with the same comment. But pretty sure that's not going anywhere.

Also got a 5metre length (I will measure it) of flexifill by formfutura. 
Seems to be about the same stiffness as the semi-flex.

I've also got a 500gm reel of filaflex. 
And the bloody spool has a 16mm hole. Which is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. 
So I've snapped the 4 supports off te open end and I'm going to cut a bigger hole in the closed end. (soon as I find the case with all my rotaty tool accessories in)

What's wrong with people - either make the smaller hole removeable or just make all the centre holes 32mm.

right done that.  Seemed the better option than printing a spool and respooling - like i did with the nylon.  

So what bigger thing should i make with the filaflex  ?

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## James___UK

Yeah I hate that bloody spool hole, what the heck is it made for?.....

I still can't print with filaflex but I don't know why (I suspect thermal expansion). I'm curious about this flexible PLA stuff though

EDIT: Shoot, only 3mm? :/

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## curious aardvark

well the stuff I used was the polymakr polyflex. 
At the moment I think it's only available from america. so that's the cost, plus $26 shipping plus tax. makes it the most expensive flexible filament you can currently buy in the uk. Which is a real shame. 
The only other flexible pla I managed to find was out of stock. 

Don't understand what your issue is with filaflex though. 
We've got the same machine and in mine it just loads and prints with no hassle or changes. 

What colour do you have ? 
I haven't tried my red yet - but the red ninjaflex was nowhere near as good as the green. And the red easyflex was totally useless. Extruding it seemed to change it's characteristics completely, it literally tore into pieces instead of stretching, with very little effort. 

go to globalfsd.com
and try some of the other flexible filaments. Stick to the 5m lengths. 
The new fenner drives semi-flex should be fine, and the flexifill also seems a little stiffer as well. 

But still seems weird that you're having issues with filaflex.

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## James___UK

Aha, thankyou. I've bookmarked both pages.

I'm using transparent filaflex

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## curious aardvark

okay. 
well I'm just testing the red. Got it in my right extruder (finally got my s3d script sorted) - currently printing a 1cm cube at 220
looking pretty good. 

I've got a dual extrusion business card file around somewhere. 
Might try a flexible white card with white pla text.

I've also got a 0.5mm nozzle on the right extruder. Figured that might the flexible stuff a little easier to use. Plus I don't currently have any spare 0.4s and you have to change both nozzles at the same time due to nozzle wear. Otherwise they're never the same height.

***
cube is good - but for some reason the infill didn't. And I'm still getting temp issues with the right extruder. bum.

loaded new right nozzle profile. We'll see how this works.

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## iDig3Dprinting

Curious aardvark, what a great review of flexible filament. Thank you for that. The Filaflex looks, on the basis of it, to be a great product.

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## curious aardvark

yep got to say so far filaflex is my favourite.
And I'm guessing if it'll work without adjustment in a flashforge creator it should work just as well in pretty much every other non-bowden machine out there as well. 

But still got two more to try out over the weekend.

The trick is finding something that you actualy want a lot of. In this case rubber sling pouches :-)
They'll mostly be given away, but it's a good part to test, as with irregular shaped rocks, they take a bit of hammer.

One thing I've discovered - load at a relative low temp. 
215-220. I use 220. 
And the 1cm cubes I printed yesterday were all at 220. 
I'll try lower next. Obviously the lower the temp you can print at the stiffer the filament is being pushed through your hotend and the cleaner and more precise it should print.

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## ssayer

Since I'm in the States, you've almost got me sold on buying the Polyflex to give it a try out...  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## curious aardvark

Almost convinced ? 
Buy it - brilliant stuff !
Hell buy 2 rolls and I think it's free us postage.

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## curious aardvark

Oh yeah I emailed globalfsd about the three short lengths of semi-flex instead of 1 10 metre length. And while they didn't really believe me, they have sent me a 10 metre length. I have offered to send the other stuff back - but so far they haven't said they want it. 

So if you fancy a length james, drop me your address and I'll post you 3 or 4 metre length :-) 
Likewise if you fancy a play mjoilnir.

English only. I don't mind paying for a stamp, but forget international postage :-)

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## James___UK

Sorry my post never, posted! :/ I was gonna say I'd love a few lengths to play with, and I was thinking that you can have my filaflex

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## jimc

I have used all the ones caa listed except filaflex and semiflex. In addition to that i have used ecoflex from formfutura as well. This is easy to print as far as feeding goes but it does like to curl off the bed and in a year and a half i have not found anything to firmly hold that down. Its good for smaller or low parts. I was not a fan of the polyflex at all. It did print nice and no warp compared to ecoflex so i would recommed it over that BUT these are flexible plastics not rubbery. If you are looking for rubbery then ninjaflex is the only one like that. It stretches like a rubber band but if thick its harder rubber like a soft car tire. Again i have never tried filaflex to see what that stuff is. I have also tried esun's flexible stuff. That is a very odd material. Not ever using semiflex and going off the description of it i would say that esuns flex is probably more like that. Esun is releasing more versions of flex filaments very soon as well. Supposed to be more rubbery like ninjaflex. Ill test those when they come in.

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## SpragClutch

Anyone have any experience with Inlands Flexible Filament?  http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...g_Spool_22_lbs

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## SpragClutch

Well, I bought a roll of Inlands Flexible Filament and am printing with it right now.  Using a Flashforge Dreamer, with no mods.  I loaded the filament by releasing the tension spring and pushing it in.  Then re-engaged the tension spring.  Printing at 215 at extruder and 50 bed.  At a speed of 30 mm/sec at a resolution of 300 microns.  The bed is glass with Elmer glue stick.  So far it seems to be printing good and clean.  I will update later.

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## jfkansas

Ya I have a roll of that stuff laying around un opened somewhere. Have been meaning to load it up and try it out but haven't had a chance.

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## SpragClutch

Well, the Inland Flexible printed just fine out of my Dreamer.  I think it will print fine up to speeds of 50 mm/sec although I have been sticking at 30 mm/sec for now.  I'm glad I bought it.

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