I want to branch out from PLA. Should I try ABS or TPU?
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?
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
A direct drive extruder is one where the motor that runs the filament sits right above the hotend. Since TPU is squishy, the long tube from a Boden setup gives it too much room to squish.
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.