Hi @mdevisser. We mainly print with Ultimaker’s flexible filament and filaflex from recreus. Ultimakers filament available only in black and white has a leathery feel to it. While filaflex is quite soft and elastic and comes with a wide variety of colors.
Check out makezine’s review of flexible filament which gives you tips on printing flexible materials. Also gives a comparison of strength and stretch.
If you are looking for a printer that prints flexible well. Best look for printers with direct drive extruders( drive motor on the print head) compared to Bowden tube printers (drive extruder not on the head)
The main challenge with flexible is that you have to print very slow. I generally print at a slow 15mm/s. Because of this it’s hard to do complex prints with overhangs and cantilevers. You might want to have a look at lewihe 3dprinter. They apparently can print flexible at an amazing 150mm/s
Filaflex and the Ultimaker filament are the only two I have tried. I cannot comment on the other filaments. the softness and smoothness really depends on how you print.
Softness can be defined by you infill percentage. How solid the print is.
Smoothness depends on the material you print on and the resolution of the print. If you print on a glass bed like the Ultimaker 2 both filaments are super smooth.
really the only way is to try out the filaments and see for yourself. Maybe best is to tell us what you wanna try to achieve and what printer you intend to use. If I don’t know the answer, I’m sure someone else in the community would.
