We no longer able to order directly from abroad and buy from local vendors. Currently everything BL is out of stock and even if they were not, they would be too expensive for me. So I have to use Locally produced TPU A95 and A98 with external spool. With my Ender 3 S1 pro I get good result with 2 and 3 color change TPU prints. Due limited space i had to repacked it back to its box. Now I need to use P1S.
I know AMS and TPU are not getting along well. At the same time what i have been reading here and Reddit TPU with external spool option is not all sunshine and rainbows either.
I am curious if any of you tried multicolor TPU prints this way and How was your experience with it? I am not a Gcode expert and BL has its own Gcodes too. If you can share the pause - color change- resume gcodes i have to inject in to the slicer i will appreciate.
I read the thread and i see that you were planning to print with TPU filament changes. Did you tried. My main concern is that I read many people complain printing TPU with BL as the route from spool to extruder is to long and flex of TPU causes issues with consistency. Also filament breakage both during and during manually pulling back to change spools.
In your experience, was this a frequent issue?
Cannot comment on the TPU issue, but swapping colors manually is fine as long as you don’t have them on too many layers, just insert M400 U1 into the filament advanced tab and save and name the profile as multicolor or what you prefer.
It will pause print when there is a color change.
All the filament needs to be with the code in the print at hand, unless you print 2 colors and there will only be one color change, then the later printed color does not need this.
Be aware that if last filament in the print task has the code, printer does not understand to stop, instead fansetc stay on and it thinks you paused print when all filament has been printed, this is untill you press continue and it will home itself.
Since you might be in need of a external spool, shameless ad here
I am afraid that I am still planning to do so. Specifically, an exhaust nozzle for my pool. But having already emptied it for the winter, printing for X-mass and having just now set-up my new Plus 4, I am afraid that it will still be a while.
Regarding soft TPU, I myself have not ventured into that territory, but this thread may contain some useful information: How To Print NinjaFlex 85A TPU
To me, it stands to reason that key to printing soft TPU is to print without much of a PTFE from a dedicated holder above the printer and go slow to avoid the filament getting entangled in the Extruder.
There are also dedicated extruders which give filament better guidance close to the extruder gears, but I have not seen something like that for the Bambu’s unfortunately.
Within the last couple of days, there was also an interesting post on multi-material printing. It contained a video by I believe it was Tom Salander in which he compared different Material combinations. His conclusion relating to TPU was that PETG/TPU gives a pretty strong bond. While PLA bonds to itself and very little else.
So while I can not honestly answer your particular questions, I do hope that I was able to give you a few shortcuts to further, hopefully helpful information.
I print a fair bit of Esun TPE 83A on my A1 (and lots of Elegoo TPU 95A) and have no issues with the standard PTFE length for the external spool, with it mounted as customary on the top bar. It’s a bit of an odd sensation when manually pushing it in with it being so soft, but once the extruder gets ahold of it the PTFE length doesn’t seem to bother it.
In fact, the only issue I ever have with it is getting the spool to spin freely before it’s about half used up. I know that a shaft with bearings would fix that, but I just haven’t gotten around to making me one yet.
I only have an X1 and I think @Tbenker is working with a P1. So I did not consider the A series to have much less of a problem with TPU.
Many thanks for the heads up
Currently high on my wish list but not urgent - but I solved the issue through design solutions. I also did the last one on the Creality S1, which was actually the reason why I kept one for a long time - especially for ASA plates with TPU on them (a kind of ink pad for industrial stamps with 1000 impacts per hour, but there is now enough stock for 3-4 years since 1 plate now survives 6 months)
I don’t take a single gram of TPU from BL - this is also where I’m concerned with specifications such as residual content of soft substances, etc. Compatibility, etc. So BL is not only expensive, but from my point of view there is no background info as to the origin and use of the additives. When things get soft, the topic of plasticizers quickly becomes quick very sensitive. Laboratory tests for plasticizers are also very expensive (Something like $2000 across the whole spectrum of everything that could be mixed on one pattern) - it’s not worth it if you don’t check big quantities, even if you do so it`s just a spot check and they know that very well in China.
AD5X from Flashforge promises a TPU change - whether that is an empty promise or a reality remains to be seen. If that’s true, the topic has been killed very cheaply and spetitly forever.
In addition, my TPU supplier often has an empty stock of TPU as well. I already order more when I still have just 20 kg left. Which is in my case usually enough if he doesn’t have until it’s back on his stock.
I found that an interesting view both from a support material and a material combination point of view.