A few questions regarding filament

[TheGhzGuy]

Hello all!
I just ordered my first 3D printer yesterday, the Original Prusa i3 MK2, fully assembled version. I know the single roll of filament won't last long, nor will it fulfill that many uses very well, so I came here to ask if there was anything this forum recommended. I know Hatchbox is a good, cheap PLA and ABS filament, and there are a few others such as PushPlastic, Inland, and MatterHackers. Where things get confusing is Flexible PLA, TPE, and TPU. PushPlastic has some, however it only comes in two colors. I found a company based in Turkey called OO-Kuma, who seems to have decent pricing as well. Matterhackers has plenty. I was curious about MakerGeeks though. I've heard that they're great, but I also hear they clog a lot.

Thank you for looking this over, and I hope your day goes well.

[ralphzoontjens]

Hi,
For flexible filament I only use the established brands - I recommend Filaflex and Ninjaflex as they also have elastic properties.
Check the shore hardness and elongation@break values.

[curious aardvark]

forget, abs unless you intend to enclose the printer.

For flexible filaments - The easiest one to use is polyflex from polymaker.

Your best bet is to go here: http://www.globalfsdusa.com/?target=main
and buy some samples to test out. Saves on money by not buying a big roll you might not like.
We all seem to have different experiences with different brands so it's best to try as many out for yourself as you can.

[curious aardvark]

lol round here people know who I am :-)

Ninjaflex is hard to print with. It's a very flexible and stretchy rubber like filament. A lot of extruders just can't cope with it.
Polyflex is stiffer and pla based rather than industrial rubber (polyurethane).

I find that for many purposes flexible pla is preferable to a flexible tpu/tpe.

I'm currently using a sunlu flexible filament - probably the stiffest flexible I've used to date.
I've just designed a print release hammer in it, on the grounds it's hard and stiff enough to make a hammer but the flexible side makes it damn near indestructible.

Going to put up a guide to flexible filaments in the near future :-)

As far as abs goes - unless you have a fully enclosed printer with a heated build area - it is an absolute bastard to get to print properly. Plus it's designed to shrink, so you end up having to resize everything before printing. The shrinking can cause cracks in the print and lack of bed adhesion, and yeah it does smell.

Essentially, pla,pet-g and most of the exotic and flexible filaments are much easier to print with.

[iDig3Dprinting]

We never had that many problems with Ninjaflex. Getting the tension right on the hobbed bolt is important as well as retraction settings, apart from that seems to print well.

We have just be using ColorFabb's new nGen Flex, we have been printing a molex seal for a motoguzzi bike. We printed it at 0.98mm layer height with a 2.5mm nozzle. After we had resolved first layer adhesion, which was due to the small layer area rather than the material, it printed out very well. It is a semiflex so a lot stiffer than Ninjaflex. We used it due to its high heat resistance.

When the recipient puts it on his bike we will post some photos.

p.s. ColorFabb nGen Flex will be available to ship soon, specs are on the website product listings page

[curious aardvark]

what printer did you use ?
That's some seriously large beads !

try sunlu flexible pla for a really stiff flexible filament. I actually think it's more use for normal items you just want to be virtually indestructible with massive impact resistance.

I'll have to look at the colorfabb stuff as well.

[iDig3Dprinting]

That was done on our Prusa i3 build, we use it for all our testing. Wade's extruder, E3D hotend.
We like ninjaflex though, it is so tactile.

[curious aardvark]

I like it - just can't get the bastard to print, unless it's green.

Monday brain-fart. For some reason i read those numbers as being a very large bead - rather than the really tiny bead it actually was.

[uncle_bob]

Hello all!
I just ordered my first 3D printer yesterday, the Original Prusa i3 MK2, fully assembled version. I know the single roll of filament won't last long, nor will it fulfill that many uses very well, so I came here to ask if there was anything this forum recommended. .......l.

Hi

What part of the world are you in?

A filament source that makes sense in Australia may not make sense in the US. One that works fine in the US may be nonsense when shipped to Europe.

The printer you are getting should print PLA, ABS, and PETG just fine. I print all three on a similar machine with very little trouble. Find a brand that makes sense for you and get a couple spools. Play with it on the printer until you get it dialed in for your setup. You will learn a lot about the printer as you go along. You may need to re-visit settings a couple of times as you figure stuff out.

Bob