Printing Flex Filament with the Flashforge

[palawanisland]

why choose kossel design?

[curious aardvark]

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

They do look very impressive working.

[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.

[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.

[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

[curious aardvark]

well you can try ;-)

[Geoff]

well you can try ;-)

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

[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)

[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.

[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.....

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.