Flexible 3D Printing Filaments Tested - Which Flex is Best?

in today's video we're testing not one not two but six different flexible 3d printing filaments you can use on your 3d printer you're going to compare them to each other and do a filament shootout let's get started welcome back to makers muse guys so printing with flexible filaments can be extremely handy sometimes when you want a 3d print that has some give to it you might want it to be out of Bend flex stretch but if you've been 20 putting for a while you'll know that there's tons of different variations of flexible filaments on the market and some of them work differently to others actually all of them work differently to each other even propose same types of filaments between different manufacturers so what I have in front of me are six different types of flexible filament across a range of manufacturers and a range of price points and what I've been doing is testing them out by printing these octopuses octo-octo-octopus ultros eye on Thingiverse and you can print them and download them put a link in the description and it's a great test file for printing flexible filament so if you've never printed with flexible filament efore I can recommend my video on 3d printing one on one with flexible filaments using simple v 3d now you don't have to use simplify 3d you can just go through that video and change things in your own slicer of choice the things should be fairly transferable so to test the filaments I use two different machines I used the one how I three which is my original cocoon create version of it's a rebrand with the flexi on extrude another flexi on extra is specifically designed to print flexible filaments well and this is important if you want to be printing flexible filaments a lot you might want to move to customized hardware to give you the best chance of success however I didn't want to limit the testing to just printing on a specialized extruder so I also went to see if they would print on the standard pressure mark to virtualize remarked to with no modifications at all which will give you a good idea if you can run the filament that I'm testing enough talking let's get into the range so let's start with poly flex from poly maker so this is one of the oldest flexible films you can buy it's produced by poly maker in I've used this box things just might pull maker in China and basically they have a very very nice approach to quality boxes are nice the filament spools are nice and this is basically a flexible filament that prints quite easily so it's flexible but it is not elastic and this is important some of these filaments you'll find are flexible but no elastic and some of them are elastic as well which will definitely influence your purchasing decision if you want something to stretch or you just want something to flex so Poli flex printed quite well at 220 degrees C using my default when how I three flex your own profile and simplify 3d and this is the results so the octopus has fantastic detail apart from one area of missed extrusion are not sure what caused that has a small ministry now I have told simplify 3d to run within the part four during Rapids so there's not as much string as you would expect flexible filaments do usually string quite a bit keep that in mind but what I've noticed is it's not actually that flexible once you print a solid part like that's quite hard the legs are flexible when they get quite thin but they're definitely not elastic so I will class Poli flex as a semi flex material you want something to flex a bit and be compliant but you don't want it to be really squishy and rubbery and it's definitely not going to be elastic so that's pretty a good use of poly flex I would say it prints quite well and quite nicely with a good finish and it's pretty quite tough as well so I use this in my off-road robot platform as well and in case you're wondering yes it prints perfectly final approach or i3 mark - in fact it's the film are used in my testing video and that's little cube printed perfectly no issues at all no missed extrusion so you can print poly flex on you're pretty sure I three mark - and probably any other similar I three platform or similar design extruder alrighty so up next is this and I will cast this as generic TPU filaments so I purchased this years ago actually from Jamie which is 3d printed gear he's actually in based in Australia and this is a phenomenally elastic filament you can see here how stretchy it is is fantastic so TPU thermoplastic polyurethane is a elastic and flexible filament and you'll get different which means you'll get different ratios of flexibility on the market because this is elastic printing it can be very challenging so what I did is I printed my octopus on the Flexi on again using the same settings but I did I did put it a little bit hot hotter actually I printed at 230 degrees C TPU sometimes likes that depending on the brand and the quality it was actually we got again fantastic and I can definitely tell it's a little bit more flexible or a lot more flexible than than poly flex but also has a bit of stretch to a bit of elastic not too much into which is interesting so feels like such wet noodle on the spool at 1.75 but this is definitely something you want if you want something to be a bit compliant in terms of a bit elastic as well as being flexible but what about printing generic TPU on a standard 3d printer well to my surprise it did print on the pressure I three mark - however the top infill as it started to move quickly failed quite a lot so if you're going to print this kind of really flexible stuff on something like the pressure write three mark - first start be prepared for it to start securing out the side because flexible fillings will find the path of least resistance but don't run very fast changer in fills to very low speeds because it's compressing it's flexible it stretches but also compresses in the extruder assembly which means you get a delay you get a lag between extruding and on the the actual gear and extruding out the hot end all right so that's generic TPU next is this one which gets the award for the wackiest spool in the lineup so this filament is from fibre Lachie I can't say your name right fibre ology fibre lurgy sorry guys but these guys are based in Poland and then reach out to me with their specific brand of flexible filament which they say was easy to print with on almost any any machine at quite high speeds and yes I did specifically asked for pink so starting the apart from the spool being absolutely funky and the boxes being nice as well I did notice that it is quite flexible more I would say more flexible then deepali flex filament on the spool and it's not really elastic it is a little bit elastic but um not not nearly as much as the generic CPU so I printed this again using the same same G code no issues at all at 220 degrees C on flexi on and this is the results so again fantastic finish pretty much no stringing less string I'd say then the the TPU and about the same at sayers of poly flex but I'll definitely classes as a semi flex because although the end of the arms are flexible the rest the body is actually really rigid I can't compress it in any direction it's really tough it may as well be solid plastic like a rigid plastic and again you know it's not as I guess let it's a little bit damp and compared to the poly flex but definitely a semi flex don't don't use this filament for like really flexible applications but it did print well and again as I would expect it printed beautifully on the pressure I three mark two with no issues I didn't have to slow it down or anything like that so if you're looking for a flexible filament which is a slightly elastic but still kind of a semi flex without too much issues printing yeah I can go behind what they claimed the fiber g fiber flex 40 D did actually print really well on both machines so well done guys you lived up to your claims alright next filament ascent iam TPU so just a disclaimer this is an early batch and they have reached out to say that there's a new batch on the way so they are trying to fix a few of the issues they've had with some machines and I will say I did actually encounter some of those issues but in terms of the flexibility it's not as flexible as the generic TPU but it is definitely nice and soft nice sort of clear color as well and it is elastic as well not as not as elastic I would say but still quite stretchy and this is the result so again this printed out great no issues on the Flexi on and it is actually quite soft I can crush the the octopus's head in a lot no issues in both directions and the other legs are flexible and a little bit elastic too so it worked great on the Flex yawn but sadly on the pre try three mark two I couldn't get it to extruded it Jam up so I couldn't get it to work there but as I said this is an early version and they're working on a new one and yeah it printed out quite well but I did have to use specialized extruder hardware to make this one work alright now I'm moving into the last and these last two come on tiny rolls so you know there's something special this is make shaper TPU it is 85 a shortness which means it's quite soft how soft you might say well look at that so as you saw it's quite elastic but again interestingly enough when you print something that has some form to it like this octopus the head is squishy but I'd say less squishy than this this one from from a centium you know I can crush this head in quite a lot this one not so much it's quite a bit more rigid on the actual main body of the octopus the legs are nice and flexible and you know they've got a bit of stretch to them but again not a huge amount so again even though the filament feels very flexible and elastic the solid object itself is actually quite a bit more stiffer although this one does bundle up on itself quite um not quite nicely which again lends to its elastic nature and it's another thing about getting these prints off your print beds for the print bite it had pretty much suctioned itself down it was really hard to remove I had to do one leg at a time then kind of lever it off once it started getting really flexible and to my surprise on the pressure I three it actually printed no problems this actually looks gorgeous so yeah the make shaper 85 a TPU printed good on the on the pressure my 3 mark 2 with no mods again using the the inbuilt semi flex preset in the Purusha edition slicer no other changes printed great so you can print these TP use on the pressure if you're careful again keeping your speeds very slow the same also to be careful is the Pei surface on the Purusha if you heat it up too much and get the surface to closure I'm never going to remove flexible filaments off it so be careful of that keep your distance a little bit further away than you normally would and you'll be fine alrighty and moving on to the last but certainly not least filament in the lineup this is X 60 from dire bass engineering the guys that make the flexi on it's a guy thing are you making an extruder design for printing flexible and materials you gonna put your money where your mouth is and produce one of the most flexible filaments on the market which is what they've done so this stuff is ridiculous as you can see here just look at that you know I put some out on the table and it just just just absol lutely ridiculously flexible so they've raided it here at 68 short hardness this is 85/60 that is stupid soft it's getting to the point of skin softness actually in terms of sha hardness and when I printed this I wasn't even sure the Flexi on would work to be honest without some serious tuning but it did the pre quality is not fantastic you can start to really see how flexible materials start to under extrude even on the Flexi on system but look at that you can hear the air coming out of it it's absolutely nuts it's crazy flexible the arms are even stretchy so if you want something ridiculously flexible this is the way to go but unfortunately although I did get a product to print on the pressure I three mark - it's full of under extrusion so maybe if I slow my print speeds down to like 15 millimeters a second it might work but do not expect something this flexible to work on stock hardware you need something to support the filament extrusion path which is what the flexi on has so which is you know why you can print it on a guess why they developed the filament in the first place okay so final conclusions I guess let's do some awards what is the easiest filament in the surround up to print with what I'd probably would actually say fiber ology maybe maybe entire tie with the poly flex but the print quality I got off the Purusha is completely comparable to what I got off a flexi on and I like their spools and I like their color range as well so as a brand I've never heard of till I reached out yeah well don't go has that's pretty impressive in terms of the most flexible filament what's going to be the X 60 obviously this is ridiculously flexible you can see just how much I can stretch this it's not damaging the filament at all it resumes its shape how they extrude this in factories I have no clue but it exists and it's really flexible and you can buy it from their website and the filament that I'd say probably is the most cost-effective in the lineup would be the generic TPU so that would be something like this you can get again in crazy colors various companies like Hobby King you can great at grab it straight off ebay lots of people make this stuff now do not expect similar results across the whole band but if you've got the patient to print slowly you probably can get it to work but I don't expect it to work as easily as a normal filament it's just not going to do it so thanks for watching guys hope you enjoyed this flexible filament roundup I certainly did enjoy testing these filaments it took a long time again I've had some of these filaments be more than 2 years and they work great and I'd certainly enjoyed printing these flexible that's more like it flexible octo peds so if you enjoy this video guys hit that subscribe button helps us out a huge amount I look forward to seeing again very shortly here on makers muse happy printing guys bye

Channel: Maker's Muse

Views: 338,515

Rating: 4.9165058 out of 5

Keywords: best flexible filament, flexible 3D Print, flexible filament, flex, squishy, filament, test, trial, shootout, tested, review, guide, how to, softest, flexible, shore hardness, TPU, TPE, polyflex, fiberlogy, fiberflex, X60, diabase, makergear, essentium, pink, black, green, makersmuse, maker's muse, angus, australia, technology, 3D Printer, wanhao i3, prusa i3 mk2, flexion, extruder

Id: 7wMKp6q9ktE

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2017