Unanswered Ninjaflex

So I've been trolling through quite a few articles and earlier posts. I'm not sure if anyone has posted a definitive answer on this. I recently picked up some Ninjaflex and fell into the trap that I needed a way to guide the filament into the extruder. Do I simply pick up some 2mm teflon tubing, feed, and cut where the bolt is that feeds?

Is there any easier method? Please guide me oh wise one's as this is getting very frustrating!

 

I stuck a brass tube in mine per the advice in the ninjaflex thread. It works reasonably well but I would think a drilled 4mm hole with 4mm OD, 2mm ID PTFE tube is the best way of doing it.

The easiest solution is not usually the best

 

So I tried the tube. In multiple ways. First by cutting about 3 inches off the length and trying to cut an angled opening where the hobbed gear can catch the filament. The second was to cut an opening a little higher off the end. None of this worked. My brain hurts...

 

Not printing at all actually, can't seem to get the filament fed into the printer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

If you remove the hot end does it feed through? I have some trouble getting ninjaflex into my filament tube. I have to take off the two tensioning screws on the idler, and using a flashlight shine the hole then look through the slot in the top.

 

I was able to get ninja flex printing after a bunch of trial and error.
I stuck a plastic tube I took out of a mechanical pencil down the hole where the filament feeds, and cut it slightly after it comes out of the hole. it just happened to fit perfectly, luck I suppose!
I then took the rest of the tube and glued it to where the filament feeds before it enters the print head.
i then feed the ninja flex down the top tube, then into the lower tube. then screw closed the feeder latch.
I'm currently printing at only 12mm/sec
slow,but working! if u want sample pictures of the setup i can take and post tonight.

 

Pics please! Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sorry for the extremely late reply. I'm terrible!
I hope you got ninjaflex printing, if not, i was printing something last night and remembered i never answered here, so i made an instructables with my steps.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Printing-NinjaFlex-With-Robo3D/

Hope it helps some one

 

Thanks for the Instructable! I've been trying to get Ninjaflex working and have had some spotty success. The Instructable helped get rid of the issue where it wraps around the hobbed bolt.

I managed a couple prints, but they were very poor quality (lots of gaps and holes in it). Now, I tend to get a single layer or two, and then it stops feeding entirely. Ninjaflex's print quality guide (forum won't let me post a link) says this is probably a clog/jam. So I clear it and it happens it again the next print.

I'm not sure if this is an issue with the print head too close to the bed, if I need to slow down some more on the first layer, or if there's something else. (Maybe the hobbed bolt loses its grip?)

 

Hey! glad it helped a bit! so wierdly enough, i started having that hole issue as well, k bumped all the speeds up to 12 and it seems to actually print better now.
Also, add an oiler. it seems to help a whole lot!
Let me know if it helps! i plan on editing the instructibles to comment for the speed difference.

 

Might have to look at adding an oiler.

I managed to get it to print a couple things again, but I'm still having issues with the top surface (it might just be trying to print too thin). Weird that printing faster helped. I'm printing currently at 3 mm/s for the first layer and 5 for everything else.

Also, I found my initial tube under the hobbed bolt might have been too long. I put in one about 1.5mm shorter and it seems to be working better. (For the curious, this is on a Robo3d R1+ and my current tube measures 30mm and is from some 1/8" x .014 aluminum tubing I picked up at the local hardware store.) I suspect the previous one was preventing the hobbed bolt from getting a good grip on the filament and/or was being squished slightly to pinch it, thus causing jams.

Still poking at it. I'm currently playing with how much solid surface and infill it does. Hopefully the jamming problem is fixed, though.

 

So the 30mm tube with a thorough cleaning of the nozzle, and printing at .2 mm per slice seems to have me going. I still have some weird holes/bubbles in both the sides and the tops of what I'm working on, but I'm still working through NinjaFlex's suggestions. (It might be heat related, as they say too hot or to cold can make this happen. I'm printing at 235 right now, so I might wiggle the temp one way or the other.)

 

So the bubbles on the side have gotten better by dropping the temp I'm printing at down to 225. I still can't get a good top layer surface. It seems it just drips into the interior of what I'm printing. It got better when I upped the infill %, but I don't want to have to print the things solid or near solid. (They're supposed to be buttons and squishy, so having them be solid rubber probably won't be ideal.) Currently I'm upping the thickness of my top layer.