…code, cg, electronics, 3d printing…

A number of months ago I picked up some Fenner Drives NinjaFlex (via ToyBuilder Labs):  I was really excited to give it a shot, but was unable to get it to load into my Makerbot Replicator (1) :  I’d done the drive-block upgrade long time back that should enable me to successfully extrude it.  After disassembling the extruder I’d watch as the filament would enter the thermal tube, then after some time bulge out the (really, really small) gap between the thermal tube and drive block.  I figured the extruder wasn’t getting hot enough, but the onboard firmware didn’t let me adjust the filament load temp, only the pre-heat temp:  I could pre-heat plenty hot, but it would cool back down (to an unknown temp) before doing the filament load.  Frustrating, and I had to abandon it.

Back in December I upgraded my firmware to Sailfish.  And today it dawned on me that Sailfish lets you adjust the pre-heat temperature.  Armed with this knowledge, I cranked it up to 240c, and it loaded without a hitch.  The resultant is this magnificently squishy 2x2x1 cm half-cube:

It was sliced in Simplify3D and printed with these settings:

• Extruded at 240 deg onto an unheated build platform covered in blue painters tape.
• 2 shells, 4 floor, 4 roof, 20% infill, 200 micron layer height.
• 30mm/sec extrusion (per all the online specs I’ve read), 120mm/sec travel.