I am trying to print the TPU Handle. The first one came out mostly fine. A little issue with the layers moving upward in the curvature where being so flexible it doesnt lay down the layers nice.
The first one I printed with the 2 walls and 4% infill that the piece is set at. I’m trying to reprint it to avoid this weird issue but can’t seem to get it to work and look nice and smooth going up the curved surface. I’ve even tried changing the walls to 3 and changing the infill to 10% with no luck. Each time also having z-hop when retract so it would avoid any dragging across the print.
Am I the only one having this issue with it not coming out smooth toward the bottom of the print in the first 40 layers?
is it possible to split the piece in two to print from the middle to then finish on the curved ends sticking up
Have you tried enabling tree supports? I have had to do that to get the bottom to come out ok and it also seems to help with the upper section as well.
i thought about tree supports but wasnt sure how hard or easy it would be to remove them. I may print the piece along with the cushions on my H2C and use pla or petg as a support filament.
Did you do tree support to kinda cover the whole bottom to help prevent it from jiggling around?
I had problems with the holes on the foot straps. I manually painted the sides (not the hole itself) the result was 100% better. Funny thing the TPU support didn’t actually attach due to the separation, the gap was miniscule, but what it did was keep the end of the strap from moving around. I haven’t printed the handle yet, but I will definitely use supports. Thank you for bringing this up.
First - Thank you, You have been very helpful. I have painted supports around the bottom, but you mentioned the top section? Was it the outside that didn’t look good, or only the inside? My bridging has been fairly good so I wasn’t worried as much about the top section. Especially since it will be inside the handle. But if it helps in anyway with the outside (due to the height} I’ll manually paint the inside top section.
I didn’t manually paint supports for the handle. I just turned on tree supports and it took care of the bottom and it also ran one up for inside at the top. I cant say for sure if that one is needed or not, but it didn’t add enough print time or material for me to worry about it. After turning the supports on the part looks a lot better. Still not perfect but MUCH better than without.
If you print it with 0.6mm nozzle, it prints beautifully without any supports. My guess is 0.4mm produces a very narrow lines, and in the beginning the overlap is not enough to support the weight of the next layer; the latter sags thus creating this issue. Fotos are of a failed print due to operator error (printer got unplugged lol), but re-printed version looks fine
Good to know! Thanks for sharing! So far it seems everything except the straps prints great with a .6mm nozzle. The straps need the .4mm or they come out too thick.
If you print it with 0.6mm nozzle, it prints beautifully without any supports. My guess is 0.4mm produces a very narrow lines, and in the beginning the overlap is not enough to support the weight of the next layer; the latter sags thus creating this issue. Fotos are of a failed print due to operator error (printer got unplugged lol), but re-printed version looks fine
Layer height isn’t the issue. Its line width. They come out too thick with the .6mm nozzle and don’t bend like designed. The ones you have to fold in half and run though the slot on the end of the strap are too thick to bend tight enough and end up having issues or breaking the loop on the end.
You have to be careful when removing the supports so I find it’s easier to grab it with a pair of needle nose and twisting them out of there other than pulling. Pulling will sometimes rip it if it’s too tight.
