I am wanting to print a part of a cosplay item that requires flexible filament like ninjaflex. The part in question is only one part of the item and I do not really want to spend 300 dollars on the flexystruder for just one part of one item. This is the only item I intend to print in flexible filament. Is it possible to print out a piece on the normal extruder with flexible filament or would I be wasting my money ordering some ninjaflex without the flexystuder? Again just to be clear this is the only part I will ever have any interest in printing in ninjaflex. Would a different flexible filament be better with the stock extruder setup?
As far as i know it should work as long as you print really slow, maybe 10-20mm/s. But you also need another bed coating as ninjaflex sticks to the PEI way too much. I recommend searching for some threads how to deal with it.
I’ve never printed flexible filament myself, but there are a few somewhat flexible-somewhat firm filaments out there that may or may not work for your purposes on a regular extruder setup.
I think the Wade extruder body just needs a slight tweak to the bottom filament path to print flexible filament. Extending by a few mm would close the gap between the idler bearing and hobbed bolt. The gap seems to be big enough to allow the filament to be sucked into the idler bearing.
So my attempt at closing that gap. I haven’t had a chance to actually print with the body, but it assembles and grips ABS just fine… teeth marks in filament too. I don’t have any semiflex to check how well it grips. So I’m 95% sure it will print hard filament and 80% sure it will deal with semiflex just fine.
Thanks kcchen_00 for the semiflex extruder model, It works for me. Just printed the same model on abs and semiflex flawlessly!!
I’ll try some ninjaflex next…
From left again: abs, semiflex and ninjaflex, this time printing a single wall cylinder with .2mm nozzle and same extruder.
Thanks again for the model!
