Flexible Filament Beta Testers (Page 2 of 2)

The filament is fully supported. Due to the filament being so flexible it has to be guided right after the hobbed gear.

Extruder or hotend? The E3D hotend can handle flexibles with any extruder, since it has a fully constrained filament path (adjustable length PTFE tube).

Thanks cor5151.

elmoret I was talking about an extruder, specifically one that can be printed from thingiverse. I have an e3d v6 hotend myself, but I am highly doubtful the extruder I am using would be able to feed flexible filament, as it does not closely guide the filament after the gear, nor does it use a spring to regulate the flow of material. (the bearing is on a printed arm that is tightened in order to move it closer/further from the gear)

I was wondering if there was a recommended extruder design for this filament(preferably one with STEP or solidworks files to allow for customization) as one was hinted at previously in the topic.

Hello all..

I have tried the flex pellets now, and must say it is very difficult to print with, at least for me.
I have an Bulldog XL extruder +E3D V5 hotend and have to print at about 25-30mm/sec, otherwise it curls up in the extruder.
The temp i have to use to print is 230c.
With ninjaflex i can use much higher speeds without curl'ups.
This flex is SO sticky it's crazy. It almost feels is has a gluelayer on it

EDIT: forgot to mention that retraction is a no go, when used it sticks in the heatbreak.

The blue color comes from CraigRK's masterbatch that is both PLA and ABS compatible. I just took a chance
and tried it. It worked great, and gets really colorful and shiny.
As the flex pellets uncolored is really translucent, almost transparent, just a tiny colorization get it really
nice. I just took too much so it got opaque.

The predrying as Trevor say is REALLY a MUST, otherwise it gets lots of bubbles in it. I dried it in an oven for 4 hours at 100c.
When that is done the extrusion diameter is pretty consistent. But masterbatch colors fuck it up, so one must dial in
the temps and nozzle size and eventually motorspeed.
My nozzle size is 2.95mm and i get a filament that is around 2.65 at 188c temp.

I extrude on my own constructed extruder and wind on my own winder.

Winding in a coil on the floor did not go so well for me, but on my winder it got much better.
I have about 1.5m between extruder and spooler, and about 50cm arc on the filament.

I will do more tests and upload more pictures.

(excuse the messines on the pictures. the winder is still work in progress)