Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I am using Cura and a bit of a Newbie. The settings Jesef provided are working well for PLA but have a few projects I want to print in flex. I have never printed with this material and could use some advice on settings etc. Thanks!
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
What are the exact problems?
Set very low tension on the extruder springs, turn off retract and slow the printer a bit (you can test this on the LCD panel)
Our flex is much easier to print and can run on PLA settings 🙂
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
Hi Todd, I'm not sure this will apply to the MK2, but here was my experience on the 1.75mm Plus. I used the Slic3r printer and material profiles provided by Josef for flex. I had an initial issue trying to load the filament. I found the load function's extruder speed is too high. This caused the filament to fold back on itself, past the pulley but before the hot end, and a loop of filament would come out of the viewing port on the side of the extruder. The initial loading process was still enough to purge the previous print material (ABS) from the nozzle. I ran the filament load a couple of times to ensure the purge was successful.
Before the first print I would pull the looped filament back out of the extruder and cut a clean end on it. Pulling the idler back and sliding the filament as far down as it would go, I would start a print. After getting past the initial loading issue I was able to blast out many awesome prints in Flex. I have heard that you may want to use glue or kapton tape with Ninjaflex as it may stick to the PEI bed too well. I can't wait for my MK2 upgrade kit. So excited.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
What are the exact problems?
Same problems as mentioned with filament looping outside of the nozzle housing.
Set very low tension on the extruder springs, turn off retract and slow the printer a bit (you can test this on the LCD panel)
How do I turn off Retract?
Our flex is much easier to print and can run on PLA settings 🙂
I wish I had known this when I ordered mine! Will know next time.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I got a beautiful ninjaflex print the first try on my mk2. Used Flex settings, turned speed down to 35%. Found I could go as fast as 45% if I wanted the infill to not be stringy. The perimeters were flawless, but the infill is printed way too fast, and the fill layers way too slow (it looked like a bad hot glue job), while the bridging speeds were perfect.
So I'll have to make a new profile with ultra low speeds at 100%, slower infill (like 50% slower), and simply match the bridge speeds of the Flex preset for all fills and bridges.
Biggest problem: OMG IT STICKS TO PEI. I could have lifted my printer just by the 3cm x 1cm footprint printed. I pulled at it for 10 minutes. I think it started to life the PEI off the bed. Fortunately the PEI is stuck to the bed SLIGHTLY more strongly than the Ninjaflex was. Any tips for removal or making it stick less?
(Next time I'm gonna try and rub my finger oils all over the print area ahead of time to weaken it.)
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
Try lightly dusting the PEI with talcum powder, then use a tissue to wipe it off, this dulls the PEI and reduces bonding...
wiping with IPA afterwards restores the adhesion for normal prints.
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I've done alot of testing with flexible filaments.
I also had extrusion problems, and the models sticking to the bed like hell. I've actually damaged the PEI surface on a few stops, just because the brute force needed to get it off the build plate.
I've tried talk and all kinds of stuff, whats working good is to use the glue stick that comes with the printer (to be used for better adhesion when printing PLA for example). Use the glue and the prints just comes off really easy. I also almost "airprint", not squeezing the first layer onto the buildplate at all.
To dont have any extrusion issues I'm printing slow, and with ALL retraction settings turned off, I do get some more strings, but thats not a big issue for me.
I've used FilaFlex from Recreus, but think the above applies for all kinds of flexible filaments.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I am also having some problems printing with flexible filament on my new Original Prusa i3 MK2 but my issues doesn't seem to be with the loading. I can get it to load and it prints fine for about an hour (into a 3 hour print). After an hour or so, the filament that binds up and starts coming out side on the extruder (through the hole by the drive gear).
Do you think this has something to do wit the print speed? I am using the stock flexible settings (provided off the prusa3d site) for Slic3r. What should I try next?
--- Kirk
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
Kirk, try loosening the springs on the drive gear. It should be just enough to move the filament gently. Too much will cause it to bind and come out the side.
That said, I'm surprised it works well for an hour if they were too tight already. Maybe that part of the print has a lot of fills and the extruder isn't extruding as much as is going into the print head. Maybe reduce the extrusion multiplier a bit, or print thicker layers? Just guessing as I'm not an expert TPUer yet.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I have trouble printing with Filaflex filament as well. I get a lot of stringing.
I loosened the idler screws and use the provided slic3r profile for flex filament but deactivated retraction as suggested. As soon as I load the filament it starts to pour out of the nozzle. Is that normal?
Printing with the default settings (210°C first layer, 230°C all others) gives me a lot of stringing.
What settings did you tweak to reduce stringing? Slow down? Reduce temperature?
Would love to print more with flexible filament, but Filaflex seems to be quite challenging. Maybe I'll try another vendor next time.
Thanks for your help!
Design, Print, Repeat
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
You should check the material kit and work as per the data sheets. Every filament extruder has its own specifications. So, you should rely only on the data sheets provided to you at the time of purchasing. If you don't have one with you then you can download them from the company official website.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
My printer settings for NinjaFlex 85A ... Max print speed set to 10mm; length of tension screws 14.55mm -1.55mm out from PLA or standard unloaded extruder tension.
Retraction feature was used as at standard setting in Slic3r.
Print temp at nozzle 225c
Bed 55c.
Increase non-print moves to 150-170mm/s
Print speed decreased to 90% during bridging.
Be sure to unspool enough material and re-spool it as it has a tendency to stick to it-self.
The print bed was covered with 3M blue tape.
HMMM... 🙄 Cannot attach Configured bundle message me if you want me to email it but I'm still fine tuning more.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
My printer settings for NinjaFlex 85A ... Max print speed set to 10mm; length of tension screws 14.55mm -1.55mm out from PLA or standard unloaded extruder tension.
Retraction feature was used as at standard setting in Slic3r.
Print temp at nozzle 225c
Bed 55c.
Increase non-print moves to 150-170mm/s
Print speed decreased to 90% during bridging.
Be sure to unspool enough material and re-spool it as it has a tendency to stick to it-self.
The print bed was covered with 3M blue tape.
HMMM... 🙄 Cannot attach Configured bundle message me if you want me to email it but I'm still fine tuning more.
Addendium, I forgot to mention that I'm using an extrusion multiplier of 1.12 and with firmware retraction on and pressure advance set to 1.
Good luck,
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
My printer settings for NinjaFlex 85A ...
Hey adam, i'm printing ninjaflex85a as well (or trying to) I have created this profile from your notes and will try giving it a go.
I'm a newly-registered user here so can't PM, but perhaps you can PM me and you could send your complete profile my way ?
thanks!
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I followed Adam.d4's advice and it worked like a charm other than my pressure screws are at 15.5 not 14.5 I am guessing machine specific. I started with the the screws at 14.5 but about 1/2 way through the print the filament would stop feeding due to the feed wheel spinning on a crushed filament.
After figuring out the pressure, everything (including using glue stick to stop permanent adhesion to the bed) worked great
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
My printer settings for NinjaFlex 85A ...
Hey adam, i'm printing ninjaflex85a as well (or trying to) I have created this profile from your notes and will try giving it a go.
I'm a newly-registered user here so can't PM, but perhaps you can PM me and you could send your complete profile my way ?
thanks!
Yeah I can't PM you I'm not active on here enough but I can email it to you if you want.
Adam
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
Yeah I can't PM you I'm not active on here enough but I can email it to you if you want.
3 posts now, so you can use PM.
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
Could you send me your profile as well. I am having problems with TPU and TPE.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
My printer settings for NinjaFlex 85A ... Max print speed set to 10mm; length of tension screws 14.55mm -1.55mm out from PLA or standard unloaded extruder tension.
Retraction feature was used as at standard setting in Slic3r.
Print temp at nozzle 225c
Bed 55c.
Increase non-print moves to 150-170mm/s
Print speed decreased to 90% during bridging.
Be sure to unspool enough material and re-spool it as it has a tendency to stick to it-self.
The print bed was covered with 3M blue tape.
HMMM... 🙄 Cannot attach Configured bundle message me if you want me to email it but I'm still fine tuning more.
Addendium, I forgot to mention that I'm using an extrusion multiplier of 1.12 and with firmware retraction on and pressure advance set to 1.
Good luck,
Thank you for this. I used these sentings in Slic3r Prusa on my Mk3 and got a good print the first time. Not sure about the tension setting - I did that by feel, not actually sure how it's measured that precisely. I also used the Mk3 PEI steel sheet with glue stick, came off like a charm. Bit of stringing, but not bad at all.
Re: Advice and Settings for printing Ninjaflex?
I did some experimentation after my printing attempts failed with NinjaFlex, even if it worked earlier.
http://www.intjblog.de/index.php?archives/47-English.html&serendipity [lang_selected]=en
The conclusions were: