Printing rubber bands?

3D Printing
#1

Hi,
I am trying to restor a vintage wireless that has elastic rubber valve retainer straps (see picture). These straps have to be stretchy like elastic bands and whilst I bought some TPU super flexible and printed a perfect replacement it IS NOT “incredibly elastic” At 2mm thick it is impossible to get any longitudinal stretch whatsoever!
And yet the seller says:-
The TPU A95 has been specially designed to make it perfect for 3D printing applications. TPU A95 is a flexible filament with incredible elasticity.
However The ‘Shore’ rating of elastic bands is somewhere around 30A - 40A and this TPU is A95.

Sop my quwstion is what £d printing filament is stretchy enough to print rubber bands?

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Thanks in anticipation
Dave

#2

Did we not already discuss this where I suggested using DIY silicon for molding?

#3

Hi Don,
Yes you are correct but I I decided to try to 3D print some valve retainers and failed miserably having misled myself with the manufacturer’s description ‘extremely elastic’ for the TPU filament.
I (maybe wrongly) thought that laser cutter folk would only read their laser cutting topics and 3D enthusiasts would only read the 3D printing topics.
Hence my posting my question again but from a 3D printing aspect rather than a laser engraving one.
At the moment I have 3D printed a negative of the valve retainer as a mould and will try your recipe for Oogoo to see if it is like ‘rubber band’ elastic which will be great.
I will report back on progress…
Sorry if I shouldn’t ask twice, I am newbie here :cry:
Dave

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#4

I figured I was the one that forgot something, No worries, good luck on the goo!

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#5

There’s a lot of crossover in interests here, enough that many folks follow the “latest” view instead of any particular category view. :slight_smile:

(For example, I showed up here mostly interested in 3D printing and just helping out rescuing years of community information in the adjacent laser cutting community from the demise of Google+, and… now I’m building my #monocle large-format laser cutter, which I have reasonable confidence in building as my first-ever laser cutter thanks to all I’ve learned here.)

3 Likes
#6

@daveb That is how it works in your world. We all develop narrow views of things, initially.

I have a ss laser, co2, 3d printer and a little CNC for pcbs… These machines are just the tip of the iceburg because of costs.

In the end, they are the same except the part that does the work.

I’d like to modify one of mine to decorate cookies, maybe I’m delusional…

I still haven’t ventured past 3 axes. :crazy_face:

:smiley_cat: