Any special things to consider before printing the Tires in NinjaFlex? This will be my first ever NinjaFlex print, but just have 500g and the tires will be about 450g when printed, so would be very nice to be able to print them wihtout issues on the firt try if possible. Otherwise I will have to wait until next delivery before all four of them being printed.
Printing on a Replicator 2, going to test the standard “Makerbot Flexible Filament standard” (0.2mm) with 5 shells and 10% infill.
Is it recommended to keep the default of doing rafts, to get the supports fully stick to the base?
Any tips improving my chances for success on this print are welcome.
PS. other than that, my OpenRC is almost fully printed, just have to source some parts to get it running. Pics coming up
Go slow, like 30mm/s maximum or it might snag between the extruder and cold end. It sticks like crazy to slightly warm Kapton (40C). Good luck ever getting support off, layer bonding is nuts!
I also got some NinjaFlex and am planning on testing it out. I tried printing a iphone case using the ‘makerbot flexible filament standard’ on my Replicator 2x, and then it stopped extruding halfway through. Honestly, while printing the tires is cool, I am not sure you save any money over buying some.
Yea, money wise it surely not the most efficient. Even with perfect prints without any waste, the print cost would be about €35. But as you said, it’s “cool” to print as much as possible. My plan was to print 2 at a time since the print bed can fit them, but maybe I’ll try one first to see how it works out.
Reporting back tomorrow with my progress
The print of the Tires are still running, 18h and about 15% left (Printing two simultaneously). But they are looking really good, have a few printing defects on the inside of the tire where the angle is steep inwards, but thats probably a printing calibration issue, not with the model.
Used the following settings for my Replicator 2 (not heated bed) with NinjaFlex
Began with the standard 0.2mm profile and changed the following settings for the slicer
- rapidMoveFeedRateXY 150
- Number of Shells: 5
- InfillDensity: 0.1
- doRaft: false
- doSupport: true
- feedrate: 30 (on everything)
Printing on a glass bed (My local glazier made it for €8, best €8 ever spent) with blue tape on.
I think the print could be inproved with som increased “Retract”, I get some spill when traveling between edges. Slower “outlines” since that is what i had most problems with. Can upload photos later, but the “contour” closest to the center of the tire wont stick to its neighbor good on some layers when the angle is big (>~45). Could be solved with other settings to maybe, such as lowering insetDistanceMultiplier or infillShellSpacingMultiplier
Not very experienced with custom profiles, and this is also my first try with NinjaFlex. But there’s not much information at all on the interwebbs, so hope this might help someone.
David, this is really helpful for me since I am needing to make a profile for my Replicator 2x. Keep posting updates and share your results.