I’ve printed probably 5 kilos worth of prints with a lot of success, but exclusively PLA. I’d like to branch out to a new material. Should I start with ABS or TPU?
I would try PETG. It doesn’t need an enclosure.
How is PETG different (better?) than PLA?
It is better in every way except easy printability and water absorptionon the spool (wet petg Is much harder to print but it can get wet after printing no problem)
Stronger, UV resistant, more watertight, much more heat resistant, more resistant to creep at room temp, less brittle, can print clear, and doesn’t have a bad warping problem or need and enclosure like printing ABS.
It is essentially just PLA but better and a bit harder to print. I completely switched over to PLA because I found good settings for FormFutura recycled PET (more stringy than petg)
ABS needs an enclosure for anything above around 10 layers. Even a room closed with it warm and no one inside is not enough to save an ABS print. Just the air from the moving tool head and the bed are enough to disturb a print and cause layer separation. An IKEA Lack table and a garbage bag over it is enough of an enclosure to count and get most prints alright. It stinks though.
TPU will have holes and look terrible unless you print out of a filament drier. You can dry the stuff a lot and print for around 45 minutes with it in open air before it will absorb enough moisture to start expanding steam in the melt zone and blowing holes in your print layers.
IMO having the ability to do TPU is way more versatile than going to another rigid structural filament.
ABS/ASA is just “pla but more impact resistant”.
TPU is “haha funny squishy wait this turns into a living hinge?” and opens up a TON of print opportunities.
I had a lot more fun trying out TPU (both high and low durometers) than switching to any other kind of filament. Whatever you print basically becomes shockproof l, is squishy/bendy, and you can chuck it across a room full-force with no problems. Super fun.However, TPU is happiest with a direct drive extruder. High durometer (95a) TPU’s are fine, but not optimal, in bowden extruders, while low durometer (Ninjaflex) straight up won’t print right thru a bowden. So keep your type of printer in mind when shopping for spools of test filament.
Petg or Tpu
Fear ABS and ASA like your worst nightmare
Fear ABS and ASA like your worst nightmare
ABS and ASA are awesome, but if you don’t have an enclosure the warping and odor can make them a pain to work with (the odor is powerful, irritating, and potentially dangerous).
But the end result is strong and can be smoothed with acetone fumes. I consider ABS and ASA my “okay, this one is serious” filaments. Parts that need to be able to withstand stronger forces and higher heat, or stuff that I want to look really good with some very easy post-processing.
I personally would start with TPU(after PETG) - the different shore grades provide a large usability for a lot of things and it print comparably well once you find the right calibration. Especially with a A1 as you mentioned you have one.
To be honest I would skip ABS totally in an A1 unless you have an external enclosure with a good filtering and exhaust solution. Be aware of the noxious fumes ABS will produce that have a potential to intoxicate you and are suspected to cause cancer depending on the additives. (Among others ABS produces hydrogen cyanide when printed - which is often better known under it’s former German brand name: Zyklon B…)
ASA nowadays provides a far less problematic (but not unproblematic) solution and while it’s a little bit more complicated to print it’s still manageable depending on the filament manufacturer. But you will need a temperature stabilised enclosure for both anyway, while ASA is a bit more sensitivitie,it doesn’t really matter that much for me.
Within ASA I personally found a far larger bandwidth of printability between the manufacturers. The major manufacturers for PLA often suck - especially Bambu Lab ASA is hideous to print. If you are in Europe I cannot recommend the Black Forest Filament ASA enough, their stuff is not comparable to any other ASA I printed. Alternatively material4print. If you need a filament that is available worldwide Filamentum Apollo X is a solid choice, so is Polymaker,but both to a lesser extend.
In theory PMMA, PCTG and CPE are also worth a consideration, but besides CPE all of them are far more difficult to print.
BTW: All variants need to be printed very dry, ideally out of a warm dry box.
TPU.
ABS is a beautiful filament, but it’s somewhat similar to PLA in its properties.
TPU I fun to play with and its flexibility offers different properties than PLA
It really depends on what you’re looking for. Are you just looking to learn how to print new materials, or do you have specific requirements for a project?
If it’s the former, I’d say the easiest thing to try is PETG. It prints pretty reasonably on most printers though has stringing issues. It has different mechanical properties that make it suitable for other applications (for example, better temperature resistance and impact strength). It’ll be much less frustrating than trying to dial in ABS for the first time.
ABS and TPU are both a pretty large step up in difficulty, but are quite good for functional parts. If you insist on learning one of these, pick whichever one fits with your projects better. For ABS you’ll want an enclosure and a well ventilated room (IMO I wouldn’t be in the same room as the printer) as it emits harmful chemicals during printing.
I designed and printed a fender for my kid’s bike. It would be totally usable as a fender but he’s a savage so he broke the first one within 30 seconds of me installing it. Then I changed the design to add more support and that one lasted a full hour before he broke it off. So I’d like to print the same design again in a new material. I think either of these two would work, as they would put up with more abuse in different ways. one would be much harder and the other more forgiving.
I don’t love the idea of the toxic fumes. I don’t want to get an enclosure and the printer is in my home office off of my living room. I could crack a window and let it run overnight but that sounds inconvenient.
TPU will be nearly impossible for your kiddo to destroy. ASA/ABS are rugged, but if your print has thin surfaces it’s less strong in my experience than PETG.
I didn’t find TPU hard to print personally, just go slow and turn retraction way down or completely off. It will string pretty good, but most slicers have a setting to avoid crossing perimeters that will keep it in check. The only thing I would be wary of is ending up with a floppy print, so make sure the part has some structure.
Adding to what others have said: You can print TPU with Bambulab A1. You just need to feed it directly to the extruder and not through AMS. The generic TPU settings in BambuStudio/Orca should be fine, but make sure to run some tests and slow it down if necessary. If you need supports and have trouble removing them try printing support not in tree mode, but the grid one. They should peel off easily. You should also give PCTG a go if it’s readily available where you live. It prints like PETG, but it’s stronger and more heat resistant (which you’ll need if you want to print a reusable spool)
You just need to feed it directly to the extruder and not through AMS.
Though Bambu Lab’s “TPU for AMS” works great (as long as it’s dry).
TPU really needs direct drive extruder to work well. ABS needs an enclosure, but you could just make one from an 8x4 sheet of foam insulation and tape for cheap.
I don’t know what a direct drive extruder is but I have a Bambu A1
That’s a bowden extruder, you’ll have problems with TPU.
Try PETG, just dial up the retractions a bunch and slow it down.
A1 has a direct drive extruder. It does function as kind of a hybrid thing with the AMS though. Use of the AMS with TPU isn’t recommended, but there are a couple of harder TPU filaments that supposedly work.
Oh, ok. Every picture I saw made it look like a bowden extruder sitting on the end of the X gantry, with the tube going over to the hotend.
The Bambu Lab printers resemble Bowden tube printers because they use lots of PTFE tubing to make the AMS work smoothly. But they’re all direct drive, with the complication of the AMS feeding system making it a sort of hybrid.
It’s a genius design (albeit wasteful due to the purging process), I just wish they’d open it up and let other companies use the concept.
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