A couple of years ago I bought some ESUN TPU and two rolls of PETG. I finally got around to trying the TPU and was surprised to see how strong it is and it’s characteristics. I have been looking around for things to print with it to show off it’s qualities. If anyone has any bright ideas on the subject please share them.
I am slowly trying to experiment with PETG and see what that is like. I like the feel of the filament. It seems somewhere between PLA and TPU when you play with a strand of filament.
The pain in the butt I find is changing from one filament variety to another. I can see why Ender 5er changes his nozzle when doing so.
Changing from TPU black to PLA white without changing the nozzle is quite an amazing experience but not one I would care to repeat often. Not only was I getting gobs of black from time to time with long stretches of white but suddenly I noticed (perhaps I’m old and crazy) that though neither filament printed with any noticeable odour this mix was very noticeable and quite alarming. I print in a closed area.
The PLA white filament that had been printing so nicely before was gobby and a different texture as if it had changed it’s characteristics.
I have some cleaning filament that came with an order of filament, but I have no idea of how to use it. I mean, how is it really different from actual filament.
Cleaining Filament? Thats just clear filament, which sometimes has a lubricant applied and is sold overpriced.
I consider those a SCAM. How should that work? Does the magic filament evaporate inside the nozzle taking the gunk along, too? I don’t think so.
It just leaves transparent filament behind, which is harder to see than black filament. Do a proper cold pull a few times using the filament you want to print next and extrude some afterwards in advance. The result will be the same.
If there is burned filament inside use a softer material like TPU. It will stick to the gunk. Remember it is just a pipe you need to clean and nothing more. I
Without paying 15 Euro for 20cm of magic cleaning filament.
@Geit I, too, have wondered about just what ‘magic’ cleaning filament possesses. The only cleaning filament I found that might have some sort of ‘magic’ is 1 that apparently foams up inside the hotend, which supposedly allows it to scrape out the old filament better than others. I haven’t tried it, so I have no idea if it’s true or not.
I need some neat ideas for something rubbery to print. It was much easier to print on my Ender 3 pro with a bowden tube then I ever would have thought. I was expecting more trouble with stringing and it makes me laugh when you print a vase in vase mode because it dances after it gets up to a certain height but it bounces back so quickly that it still prints. Perhaps not the way PLA would have done but more amusing.
My grandson is a year and a half old now so I plan to print stuff for him that his parents can give to him as he develops. TPU is great for tough things like tires and belts but I don’t know if I would want him chewing on it.
Maybe I will try to make a nice jack in the box. If my bed were big enough I would print myself some sandals. We tried to print at an angle but stopped the print after the sole was 2,5 mm and you could tow a car with it. I printed a lacy vase in vase mode and tested it for ages now and again by squishing it and torturing it and it is amazingly resilient. I was astonished. I would have used it a long time ago if I knew it was this easy.
I’m testing a sink strainer made with TPU to see how it holds up. I was using PLA but after a while the bottom bows down. I like TPU now that I can print it, my 1st attempts several years ago were all failures and I just gave up messing with it. Now that I have several different colors and always finding stuff to print with it.
If you just want to test your TPU you could print a Calcat. I printed a Octopus for my great granddaughter, the sink strainer. Just pick something that might be neat made out of rubber and print it. I just printed a cover for the steering wheel on one of my RC transmitters.
I didn’t want it smooth so I used the texture feature in Prusaslicer to ad some texture to the outside. I printed one without texture and it was to smooth.
