Hello,
We are trying to print clean parts, using our brand new TAZ 5 + Flexydually V2. So far using the ‘stock’ profiles, retractions are very bad (as bad as on our Ultimaker 2+).
What retraction settings do people use to get clean parts printed using ninjaflex/filaflex? We are currently using the ninjaflex_high-quality_TAZ_flexystruder-v2_0.6 profile settings and it leaves a lot to desire…
Please advise/suggest!
Edit: It’s now printing properly, but the bed leveling is a nightmare:
Anyone? So far it looks like $2500 of wasted money. Our UM2+ has the same amount of stringing/blobing with ninjaflex than our brand new Taz 5 + Flexydually…
We tried the stock flexydually settings (with a modification to the gcode so we print with only the flexystruder part of the flexydually), and those are horrible. Retractions are near non-existent, i have no idea how Lulzbot can give those settings out… Unless something is already broken/not working as intended on a brand new printer…
If anyone can help, it would be awesome. 2 weeks (and a lot of money) wasted with the Ultimaker, different extruders, etc…
Some settings used with barely ok results (nothing sellable):
Print speed 18
Travel speed 175
Layer 0.2
Temp 220-225
Retraction speed 15 (Tried all the way from 4 to 15, lulzbot recommends 4, its horrid)
Retraction Distance 3 (Tried all the way from 1 to 3, lulzbot recommends 2, it’s horrid)
Please help 
If you can’t print ninjaflex on two of the best printers around, when many other people are printing it just fine on those machines, blaming the machine for your inexperiance is kind of not really a great idea if you want people to help you. Look at the disks and corner pieces on your Taz, they were printed on a taz with that extruder with those settings. It works well enough on those settings that they use it an a production industrial environment.
I usually have 1.5mm retraction distance and a speed of 4. I usually print near 30mm/s for ninjaflex. For a layer height I generally go wiht 0.3 and for a print temperature of 210c. I use real ninjaflex. I generally use my upgraded bondtech core extruder, but the stock one also works the same. I can just push the bondtech based one alot faster than that.
Filaflex is a different, inexpensive material that is basically crap and should be avoided. That may be the root of your issues right there.
It oozes and blobs much more. If you are seeing bubbling in the extrusion (extrudates will have a rough surface like a foam), then your filament is wet. Polyurethane (ninjaflex) absorbs water very well, so any ambient moisture can result in ruined fillament.
I personally have over 5 years of experience in the 3D printing industry, my partner 3 and we also run a 3d printing company full-time. We print everything from PLA, ABS, exotic filaments on our army of Ultimaker’s and even metal on our stratysis. Telling us our printer can print regular PLA/ABS properly really defeats the purpose of buying a duallyflexy extruder to print flexible filaments…
So far after 30+ test prints, we are getting very similar results than a stock UM2+, which are unacceptable. With the ninjaflex settings given by Lulzbot using a flexydually on a TAZ5, this is our result (We tried a variety of retraction settings with similar results):
Maybe we are doing something wrong… but 3d printing isn’t some mythical thing… We do it for a living and are very good/successful at it. Even settings for that specific filament, on a machine designed to print it, is giving us very poor results (and we tried different rolls too, red and white ninjaflex, white and black filaflex, brand new rolls of course). Different files too and still get poor results accross the board.
So if it is us, then i would love to know what we are doing wrong. I even installed Lulzbot Cura on a different computer, just in case the software was an issue (although our other slicer gives us the same poor result).
Lower extrusion temps should help with the stringing. 220-225C seems to be the high side of ninjaflex.
If you have S3D try using the coast setting.
Could be some overextrusion too. Try lowering flow rate by 5% and try printing the calibration cubes.
Can also try lifting the nozzle in addition to retracting filament.
Trying that right now. I just did 3 more prints, one with the other poster’s settings, and 2 more with very different settings, all tinkering with the retraction settings. Nearly zero changes… It’s like the Taz 5 is ignoring retraction settings (except for on/off) and using some ‘other’ settings… I’m starting to fear it’s the way the flexydually ‘works’…
After a TON more tweaking, this is our best print so far, which is far from acceptable/good:
Using Cura profile for ABS/Ninjaflex, fixing the cut off bottom object (mm) setting, adding the T1 code (so it prints only from the flexystruder).
Then i have to set the temp to 210, flow to 95%. We get issues of holes from not enough material put down, still have ninjaflex oozing (a lot) and the stringing is still there (but less). Still nowhere acceptable.
It honestly seems to me that when i input retraction settings into cura, the TAZ 5 ignores them, or at least the flexystruder part ignores them (the regular extruder works perfectly fine).
Is the “disable retraction” setting checked? Cura has one of those, it is profile specific. Changing the numbers would have no effect at that point.
Retractions are set to on. After a few more hours into it, reducing the flow, reducing the temp and then increasing the layer thickness i finally had a good print. Now we have issues of layers not being closed enough for a ‘flat/clean’ print (on the same X/Y axis).
Welcome to 3D printing… surprised you haven’t had to tweak settings like this over the 5yrs experience…
Of course i often have to tweak settings, but never so far off what people normally use or the base line settings a company suggests to use.
We are now getting perfect prints with filaflex and ninjaflex and on our way with another viral product. I’m just surprised the settings have to be quite different than what lulzbot has on their website. It’s a great little printer.
@Kcchen_00 - turn down the snark. Not constructive.
@ Ronan - Would you mind posting your profile INI? What slicer are you using etc. I’m sure your experience could save a lot of time and frustration now that you have it dialed.
We got it to print properly using a modified ninjaflex cura profile. But now it’s the bed that isn’t leveled. And i have leveled it 30+ times… The flexydually makes it difficult to level, so that’s not adding to it. In the dozen’s of different printers i have used, it’s the first time i have a stubborn build plate. Any tips?
I live in 'MURICA… 1000+ posts, gaurantee something constructive in a few of those. But point taken, I’ll continue to be PC.
I thought it was funny
post deleted
I’m making production parts with Ninjaflex. The only way I’ve found so far to make nice clean prints is to print one part at a time. All attempts to print two or more parts results in stringing between the parts. It’s slow, but it’s okay for me because the flex parts I make are small and don’t take much time to print, but this adds extra time to start and unload each print. I’d like to print multiple parts of course, but it’s just not pretty when I do.