Hey guys, just claimed my first build a few days ago.
I’ve got plenty of PETG-HF on the way to me for the main parts, but I’d love your input on the TPU.
I’ve been reading in the posts here about the cushion and using foaming tpu, and of course the 98a TPU for tires.
My questions are:
Who here is using a foaming TPU for the cushions instead of 95a and loves the way it prints? My hope is to print the more comfortable seat for the child so I’m willing to spend more time and money on a proper filament here.
What 98a TPU are you sourcing and using for tires? The kits seems out of stock at the moment, but filament productions has become a bit of the wild wild west, and its hard to know what brands to trust. I want the tires to perform well, but also last.
Also - do any of you ever print and send extra user replacement parts like tire tread or grips that may get worn?
I can tell you for the 95/98A TPU I’m using whatever I find on Amazon. I’m not playing with the foaming stuff just yet.
I’m still on my first chair so I haven’t anticipated needing extra tires yet. But I believe the family can still contact the maker down the road should they need parts or they can email MakeGood
I’ve been using Foaming TPU (Sirayatech TPU Air) for the cushions. It’s been working out fine and is nice and soft, but very stringy and a little bit of a pain to clean up the slots in the cushions. There is a modified cushion here somewhere that somebody made without the slots, and I’m going to start using that one next time.
I have not tried 98a TPU yet, I’ve just been using 95a. I hear the 98a can print faster, which would be amazing.
I have not provided any replacement parts yet, but for each of my builds I shared my email address with the family in case they run into any issues.
I used Bambu TPU for my first build but after a seeing @Little_Charlie (I believe) reference Geeetech TPU several times in other posts I went that way for my second build and it was great. Hadn’t heard of the brand before now and haven’t tried anything other than their TPU but it seemed to work well. Relatively cheap, just got mine off of Amazon. Tried the Siraya TPU air and printed one headrest but found that had alot of stringing issues (which was probably due to my initial general inexperience).
Did my first chair last month and used the Siraya Tech Flex Air for cushion. I went on their site and got filament profile and then combined that with a file from “mcgybeer” on Instagram. His file for the air has small supports you put in place as cushion prints. This worked great for me and I had no major stringing or problems using the TPU Air. It is slowwww but super worth it to me as it was so much softer. I am running a Bambu P2S.
Edited to add if you use his file, put blue tape on those support before inserting so that it doesn’t stick as much to the TPU and tear when removing supports.
This is exactly the advice I was hoping for, thank you. I do want the more comfortable seat like you mentioned and I saw the supports discussed in another post - I’ll go seek that out.
So you’re a +1 for the Siraya TPU Air then? If you have a saved file for those or can link the post to the settings and supports, I’d appreciate it! I’ll go digging myself as well.
I don’t think he would mind… here is the Siraya printed on mine, I did go back and reprint with the tape on the support pieces as I didn’t like how that area on the bottom cushion was open in the front. There was a small bit of what I would call pilling on a few areas but it rubbed right off. Like I said I did download the filament profile also and that seemed to be the ticket with his files and supports. oh and make sure it is dry!
I use Priline 98a TPU on Amazon for the tires and it prints great. 98a prints 12hrs faster per plate so that’s a whole day saved by using 98a. Another bonus is they have a bunch of colors. I do have a spool of Siraya Tech TPU Air but haven’t tried it yet.
Okay, great. I ordered some of the Priline 98a for the tires myself. Mind sharing your settings that you have found work well, or any specific Bambu profile?
So when I first printed them I decided to just use the default profile in the file to see how it did which is the Bambu TPU 95A profile, obviously it’s not 95A but it printed perfect. I’m actually printing some right now.
So, looking at the filament use in the slicer, it seems like I would only need 1 kg of TPU Foam for the cushions and 1 kg of TPU 95a/98a for the tires?
I accidentally bought some TPU 90A on a Bambu Flash sale, is that too soft for even the cushions, or will it just be much harder to print cleanly for a good presentation?
I was able to use it for the 5-point harness, straps, and the grip handle. Seems really strong to me. I even printed a test strap and tried to break it… I couldn’t… even gave it to my 4-year-old boy… he can break anything… he couldn’t break. I was very impressed
