3D printing discussions

General Discussion
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I tried looking up for a topic to discuss 3D printing related stuff but didn’t find any. Hopefully this thread will be used to discuss cool techniques, equipment, upgrades, materials, speciality filament deals. For general printer related issues we already have reddit and facebook pages, so I hope this will be less of that.

Ok, let me start. So printed TPU for the first time, just amazed how tough it is. Even surprised that a metal insert can adhere to it so well. So I am thinking of printing enclosure from TPU rather than from abs or petg which just cracks eventually. image

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Damn my hopes of a petg enclosure just went out the window

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Well depends on the flex and the impacts from rocks. You can make a petg enclosure and then skin it with epoxy with Fiberglass/carbon fiber/fabric. That should do it.

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Isn’t TPU some kind of flexible filament ?

Can you show us how flexible it is ?

Might be a good solution for impact resistant parts if it does not just wobble around :slight_smile:

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I have not done any printing with TPU but as far as I know it comes in various shore ratings.

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The one that I have is hardly stretchable(by hand) but bendable when printed into 2mm thick sheet.

I have sainsmart TPU from Amazon. Shore hardness of 95A image

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On what printer and did you do any upgrades to get it working

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The best hidden feature I’ve found is the ironing feature. It leaves your top layer buttery smooth.

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I’m part way through printing a tpu enclosure, I have used some carbon panels to save on printing. I’ve been using it for years for making canopies for drones, The stuff is amazing.image image image image

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TPU is amazing; Possibly even magical.

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I would 100% agree with magical.

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Yeah TPU is very very cool, but a real pain in the ass to print What do you all have in 3d printer and upgrades ? I got a alphawise U30 (like the u20 but a bit smaller), it’s good but it hasn’t got any upgrade yet

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The first thing you need is a direct drive extruder.

I print mostly tpu and have it dialled in on my wanhao i3 plus. I’m printing that in 0.3 to save time

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That’s good to hear that using tpu for enclosure is a thing. It seems nonporous too. BTW, how did you join the different tpu sections?

And yes, it’s magical. The layer adhesion is incredible. It’s so tough. I could lift my entire board from one insert heated and pressed into the standoff made from TPU. I don’t think even abs or PETG can do that.

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I upgraded my ender3 with $50(1.2+2.2+3.1) worth of parts to make it direct drive. I had posted the details somewhere else on the forum. Make sure to select 24Volts parts. Let me know if you need any more details.

If anyone else is interested, you need just 3 things for making a direct drive all metal upgrade.

  1. Extruder
    option1(original) $80
    option2(cloned)$31
    option3(cloned)$16
  2. All metal hotend
    option1(original) $55
    option2(cloned)$16
    option3(clone)$7
  3. pancake stepper motor
    option1 $8

I also found that they have a combined cloned package for $37 here:

I combined them all in a compact bracket, that I designed, which keeps the nozzle almost at the old position. I also put holes to mount the ABL sensor. image image

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Because I have such a small bed I’m printing in 8 sections. They are bolted together then I will glue them into 2 main sections.

Each section overlaps.

image

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Ninjatek cheetah tpu is hands down the strongest and easiest to print tpu i have ever used.

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I have heard all good things about cheetah but it’s pretty expensive at $30 for 0.5kg from amazon(Maybe there are better deals). I am using Sainsmart TPU and it’s awesome at $27/kg. It appears from the youtube reviews that sainsmart tpu is less flexible than cheetah.

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Interesting, ive been looking for a stiffer tpu.

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Thanks for the idea, is it abrasive resistant ? PETG and nylon are kinda self lubricated (not as much as POM or Teflon but still a bit) so it doesn’t shred easily.

Seeing you’ve already done pressfitting with this, I’m tempted to try it now.

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