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Hello 3D Hubs world,

I have an UP! Mini 3D printer and am planning on printing a bunch of pencil grips in flexible plastic. Only problem is, I have never used this plastic or even seen it before. I would love to know what is some of the cheaper, budget plastic (is flexible filament from Hobbyking fine?) that still prints fine and some of the do’s and don’ts when printing with it using a raft. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Don’t use a raft would be my first do or don’t. Why do you need a raft?

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You will need another printer to be able to do that, or mess a lot with the code to get it printing.

Flexible filaments requiere very low speeds, and at least on Printers like Makerbot replicator and clones, some of the plastic parts of the extruder need to be changed in order to allow the printer to print with flexible filament.

Search over the internet.

Just use Ninjaflex on Up mini.

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I gave up with flexi filaments and Up Mini. It just isn’t designed for it as the distance between the gripper bit and the guide is fixed (unlike some other printers, where there is a spring so they can adapt a bit more with non-rigid filaments). Without significant modification, I doubt you’ll get consistent results. Also you’d probably need to add a mod for the extruder temp (I have this also, but still results were sketchy). If you have success, let me know, though!

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All of that is what “the internet” said about my Rostock with a 375mm bowden tube. I used a single piece of pfte tube and 10 minutes with an exacto knife to fix the extruder. It printed ninjaflex great and was tested up to 25mms. I haven’t used the printer you have but if you lookup the hotend max temp and pop open the extruder to attach a picture of the gear, roller and filament tube or injection spot it would be easier to see if it’s possible.

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The difference between your rostock and the mini is that the rostock allows for settings modification. the upmini software doesn’t. Even if you modify the printer, wothout the proper software settings it will not print with decent results.

Now the upmini can use gcode, so that opens the chance but the most difficult part is to modify the mechanical setup.

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I need an up mini. We’ll make it print flex filaments and setup an instructions page. There are some forum posts of other successfully printing with ninjaflex. Can someone grab a picture of the extruders internals from their printer or the web and post it?

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I actually designed and printed a springed solution for the up mini for variance in filament shape.
It also has makes it easier to change filament and clean the gear.
with the flexible material you will still need a big desk fan pointed at it to stop the filament from overheating on the gear side and improve the layer cooling.

let me know if you are interested in the files. :wink:

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Hi there…

I’ve got an up! mini and I printed with black and white flexpla from formfutura (now called flexifil)

First prints I did with ABS settings becaus it seems that the pla settings did not work…the filament got stuck

Only printed small things so far but it works.

Recently had a extra fan installed to cool down the steppermotor a bit more so pla settings are working now.

Also put blue tape on the printboard so it sticks better because I don’t want any raft or support because it is hard 2 remove when using flexpla

there are some flex prints pictures on my hub profile…

So in my experience u can use the mini for printing with flexpla but coolermod is recommended

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You will need to order some FPE (flexible polyester) from PlasticToPrint, I think they are in Spain. This is the only flexible filament that will run perfectly in your Up Mini, it is also the only flexible filament that you can remove the raft and support from the print. That said though it is not cheap, God knows why you would ever want to run cheap filament in your printer, just asking for failed prints, clogged nozzles and poor results, guaranteed.

Couple of things with the FPE, only the 45D shore will work on the UP printers, it warps like crazy on larger prints, your grips will print fine though, needs to be printed on BuildTak or Blue Tape.

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Hi there,

Thanks for the response. I originally I thought I needed a raft because of the perfboard in my printer however other suggestions have said that I can use blue tape. I might give that a try. Thanks again.

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Thanks Gilbert,

I just looked up the Flexifil website and their filament seems to be within my price range. I do have a bit of the buildtak sheets left to cover the perfboard so I might give those a try before I use the blue plumbers tape. Thanks for all the information though !!!

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I just read some of the previous posts, I would strongly recommend not playing around with the extruder, it is unnecessary when you use quality filament. The reason most flexible filaments are no good is due to being undersized, trust me, they are usually 1.65mm OD, consistent at 1.65mm but still 0.1mm undersized when they state 1.75mm when buying, no filament will run well in the Up printers at 1.65mm.

TPE from PlasticToPrint is 1.75mm accurate, prints at ABS temperatures on the Up’s, can be printed on a raft and easily removed (wow!!), can have removable complex support structures (super important), in my experience no other flexible filament does this. I’m not a sales person for Plastic To Print in case your wondering, I run a print service in NZ I have 2 x Up plus, 4 x Up Box and 2 x Inspire D290’s all from the Up family of printers, I run around 700-900 hours of printing each week, I typically change the nozzle on my printers every 1000 hours or sometimes after printing rubber as it seems printing ABS after rubber can clog the nozzle, I run Up Fila in all my printers (exception of specialty filaments) and have around a 5% fail rate. I used to run cheap filaments, I changed the nozzle every 50-100 hours and had a fail rate of around 30% , also the surface finish was average in comparison.

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If it helps I can also try to print an example for u if u send me the stl file…

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Hi Gilbert, I should be fine. I will try some different filaments in small amounts and play around with the printer’s print speed with fix up 3D loaded on my computer. Thanks for the offer though and thanks for all the help…I really appreciate it.

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Hi Hayden_1, I have had a look on the Plastic2Print website and it seems to be what I’m looking for and within the price range. I might give it a try something shortly. In regard to the cheap filaments, I have started using ESUN filament which I am really happy with. When I first got my printer I didnt really know what I was doing and purchased from eBay (big mistake) but have definitely been getting better prints since changing the plastic. In the future I hope to print with some wood filament however that is another story. Thanks for all the help in regard to this matter (it would have taken a long time to type!), I do appreciate it. Cheers.

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Please send me the files and how to set this up! I am struggling to print ninjaflex on the up mini!!

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Hey, I have recently been experimenting with some of the Hobbyking flexible filament and have had some good results so far. I’m printing on a Malyan M180 printer, it seems to cope with it with no issues really. Printing at 210oC and I found that no bed heating was required, it sticks really well straight onto the platform when using builders tape. I had to slow the print speed down a bit, but have been getting good results at about 25mm/s. Loading the filament is a bit trickier, I had to remove the fan on mine and manually guide it into the nozzle as it bends so easily. Haven’t had any issues with jamming etc!

It’s a really neat material and has been great for creating protective covers and casings for cameras, I also printed some well nuts which allowed me to fix my toilet seat! :slight_smile:

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just saw this post as i was browsing for a solution for printing some ninja-flex material that i have and it just keep blocking my extruder up so pleas may you send me the files