# 3D Printing > 3D Printer Parts, Filament & Materials >  What dissolves/glues ninjaflex & filaflex ?

## curious aardvark

reason being I've got a few short lengths that I'd quite like to glue together. 

making jigs to cut at the same angle and glue cleanly are pretty straightforward. 

But I need to use  a solvent as the joint has to go through the extruder/hotend.

Any ideas ? 
Preferably solvents that are easy to get hold of and won't cause me to instantly sprout tumours :-)

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## jimc

nothing i have found. i have even used methylene chloride on it. nothing melts it the way abs/acetone deos. its rubber so it swells and gets soft and spongy but it cant be solvent bonded....atleast by anything i have found.

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## curious aardvark

damn, I'd risk glue. But given the joint needs to go through the melting stretching process, I suspect I'd just end up jamming the extruder with hot glue or solid cyanoacrylate. 

There's got to be away to join lots of little bits of filament. 
I've just acquired another couple different rubber filaments. At some point I'll have 8 lengths too short by themselves to make anything with. 
Got to be  way to join them. 
Maybe a little heated tube.. 
Hmm

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## DBFIU

I also wondered how to do this. I would imagine using heat and nothing else would be the least prone to clogging since you arent introducing any new chemicals into the extruder. Just finding a way to do it will be the tricky part.

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## curious aardvark

well cutting a diagonal on the end is pretty simple. just need a way of heating about a 10 mm length to about 240 and then getting it out of the thing it was heated in. This stuff sticks to just about everything lol

A cheap hotend with 2mm metal tube might do the job if I could run it off a pc psu. And then sand it to exact diameter 
Not sure how I'd get it at the right temp though. 
I don't really do electronics. 

But there's a market for someone who can !

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## jimc

how about one of those soldering irons that holds a razor blade. a hot knife. heat the two ends to be joined at the same time. slide them off the razor blade on to each other. trim off the melted excess. just an idea....

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## curious aardvark

that could work. 
Bought 10 metres of the new semi-flex from globalfsd this week. They actually sent me 3x3m(ish) lengths.  Not the same thing at all. 
So intstead of ending up with one bit that's too short to use you get three. Which is a waste.

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## LambdaFF

Rich rap made a post about it on his blog : he showed a tool he made to heat weld bits.

Since it expands when you heat, you need to do that in a tube-like enclosure. Depends on the hardware you have at hand.

There was an indiegogo about that as well but it seems it was a sham (FUSEclamp).

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## curious aardvark

what's a rich rap ?

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## LambdaFF

:-)

Should be somewhere in there : http://richrap.blogspot.fr/

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## Mjolinor

Roll a 50mm wide length of aluminium foil round one end then slide it over the one to be joined, make sure they are firmly touching and heat it. Apply a bit of pressure to make sure they are together but not enough to make the foil spread. That is how I join filament and as long as it melts then it should stick together.

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## curious aardvark

so what do you heat the foil with ?

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## LambdaFF

> so what do you heat the foil with ?


A lighter ?

That's a good one, I'll definitely try it.

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## Mjolinor

I use one of those lighters that has a proper flame, small blowtorch type thing for pipes or a small blowtorch. A gas cooker will do it just fine provided you don't set your fingers on fire, well it will probably work even if you do set your fingers on fire but you may regret it.

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## curious aardvark

got one of those :-) 
i will try it.
cheers

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## Odys

> reason being I've got a few short lengths that I'd quite like to glue together. 
> 
> making jigs to cut at the same angle and glue cleanly are pretty straightforward. 
> 
> But I need to use  a solvent as the joint has to go through the extruder/hotend.
> 
> Any ideas ? 
> Preferably solvents that are easy to get hold of and won't cause me to instantly sprout tumours :-)


Hi, i m on the same wagon.I read about the epoxy smooth on has for top coating the prints.it works on ninjaflex  try it to glue the parts maybe it  works if you apply the epoxy on both surfaces and then attach them to each other before it hardens it has 10 minutes working time, amount  and an other solution is to use a 3d printing pen to extrude ninjaflex  :Smile:

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## Mjolinor

> Hi, i m on the same wagon.I read about the epoxy smooth on has for top coating the prints.it works on ninjaflex  try it to glue the parts maybe it  works if you apply the epoxy on both surfaces and then attach them to each other before it hardens it has 10 minutes working time, amount  and an other solution is to use a 3d printing pen to extrude ninjaflex


I suspect that would irretrievably block your nozzle.

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## Odys

> I suspect that would irretrievably block your nozzle.


There are 3d pens that can print with ninjaflex so i dont see the reason to block the nozzle.If you refer to the epoxy coating used as adhesive  that you apply after in the surfaces of the printed objects that you want to glue.

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## Mjolinor

> There are 3d pens that can print with ninjaflex so i dont see the reason to block the nozzle.If you refer to the epoxy coating used as adhesive  that you apply after in the surfaces of the printed objects that you want to glue.


This thread is about joining pieces of filament before use so that you can use all the bits you have about the place and your suggestion is not a good solution for that. The epoxy would trash the nozzle.

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## Odys

> This thread is about joining pieces of filament before use so that you can use all the bits you have about the place and your suggestion is not a good solution for that. The epoxy would trash the nozzle.


O sorry my bad you are right  :Smile:

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## curious aardvark

also ninjaflex prints quite well from my cheap print pen. 
I use it put a flexible seal round things. pretty useful.

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## Odys

> also ninjaflex prints quite well from my cheap print pen. 
> I use it put a flexible seal round things. pretty useful.


I think i will buy one of those pens pretty soon  :Smile:

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## Geoff

> also ninjaflex prints quite well from my cheap print pen. 
> I use it put a flexible seal round things. pretty useful.


My Doodle only uses 3mm  :Frown: 

Don't suppose anyone knows a good way to feed 1.75 into a 3mm pen?

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## Odys

> My Doodle only uses 3mm 
> 
> Don't suppose anyone knows a good way to feed 1.75 into a 3mm pen?


Yes let him hungry for couple of days LOL he will eat everything you feed him. Sirius now i think you need to see the feeding mechanism although i m sure needs a lot to do what you want is better to buy one that uses 1.75 there are some cheap ones from china just check if they can handle ninjaflex.

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## curious aardvark

easy. take some 3mm filament, and hollow out a 1.75mm space in the centre, then push your 1.75mm in the hole and print :-) 

Other than that, dissemble the pen and fettle the gears a bit closer together. 

Or simply buy a cheap 1.75mm pen :-)

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## Odys

> easy. take some 3mm filament, and hollow out a 1.75mm space in the centre, then push your 1.75mm in the hole and print :-) 
> 
> Other than that, dissemble the pen and fettle the gears a bit closer together. 
> 
> Or simply buy a cheap 1.75mm pen :-)


  the trouble is big with the gears the 3d pens are really cheap  :Smile:

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## Geoff

> the trouble is big with the gears the 3d pens are really cheap


I won my pen in a competition here, so far I've only been using it as a repair tool  :Smile:  ABS gap filler basically.

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