Printing with Filaflex 70A - any advice / experience?
Dear Members,
I've tried to print Filaflex 70A on Prusa i3 MK3S+ but without success and I don't understand what can I do to succeed! I've printed Filaflex 82A and 95A without any problems
Some utile information regarding printing TPU (not specific on Filaflex 70A) I found here:
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Now, on the Recreus website there is an interesting article regarding How to print with the flexible filament Filaflex?
In my understanding, the Direct Drive, E3D V6 hotend ( https://e3d-online.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017153277-V6-Datasheet ) has a similar design with the one described in the Recreus article because has the PTFE tube inside and there isn't "any gap that may exist between the thrust pulleys and the inlet hole of the extruder hotend". I've used a speed of 15mm/sec, MVS OF 1.6, extrusion multiplier 1.15, "Loosen your bondech idler until is seems too loose (around 1-2 mm above the extruder housing)"
Do you have any supplementary suggestions?
Thank you in advance!
RE: Printing with Filaflex 70A - any advice / experience?
Dear Daniel,
I had my problems with the Filaflex 70A and my Prusa MK3S, too. In the meantime, however, I could gain some experience and here are my suggestions
- dry the filament and afterwards dry it again and at last, dry it!
- speed of 15mm/sec
- extrusion multiplier 1.1
- loosen your bondtech idler (for me: 0.9 mm above the extruder housing were optimal)
- grant your filament spool holder ball bearings in order to ease the filament unrolling
- 240 °C nozzle temperature to further reduce the force on the filament required for extrusion (this will, however, increase unwanted filament dropping out of the nozzle)
I had to dry my Filaflex 70A for approx. 10 h in my oven. Out of the box it has been way too wet. Drying the filament improved everything, from a better filament transport to better surface quality. It was the key for getting reproducible results.
RE: Printing with Filaflex 70A - any advice / experience?
At what temp did you dry the filament?
RE: Printing with Filaflex 70A - any advice / experience?
Yeah so I bought some 70A a while back and it printed great for quite a while. But then started getting bad prints. Had some success drying it but wouldn't print for long before it was wet again. Decided to buy a new reel, which came and the bag was loose instead of vacuum tight like all other filaments. Tried printing and it was was so very wet!
I raised this with Recreus and they said the loose bag was normal, that they dont fully vacuum them - does that sound right? I dont think it does. Tried drying for 24hr in the oven at 80deg, and got one good print but it quickly went to pot, and Im only printing very small items so probably only couple of turns of the spool.
So I dont know? Seems like theres some issue with recent production. So far no good suggestions from Recreus. I'm now resorting to the microwave. Will update here if I have any success.