An Early Christmas Gift for All

[Comrade]

I posted this design to Thingiverse last night, for those with a 3D printer.

Edit: It's EUC pads inspired by Grizzla Flow (minus the reflectors, but with an improved shape). Grizzla's shin pads curve away from the leg too far and don't conform to the leg shape as well, so I decided to make my own. The currently published set is the 4th and likely final version

The thing number is 6201784. If I get enough likes to float to the top of the search there, I'll add the source Blender file (for those who like to tweak the shape)

Merry Christmas everyone =)

Edited September 4, 2023 by Comrade
Added content

[Hellkitten]

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

[skunkmonkey]

Thanks, I'm sure I'll be buying a 3D printer at some point this year. Maybe for Christmas, so this really might be a Christmas gift. 

[Comrade]

If you plan on printing pads, get a printer with a direct drive extruder. TPU (rubbery material used for pads) pretty much requires it. Otherwise you'll likely have issues with your prints.

I saw some folks on YouTube get by without one, and with some printers it's definitely easier to cut corners. But my TPU prints were crap till I got my printer upgraded, and in most cases direct drive is a necessity for TPU

[MadVlad]

2 hours ago, Comrade said:

If you plan on printing pads, get a printer with a direct drive extruder. TPU (rubbery material used for pads) pretty much requires it. Otherwise you'll likely have issues with your prints.

I saw some folks on YouTube get by without one, and with some printers it's definitely easier to cut corners. But my TPU prints were crap till I got my printer upgraded, and in most cases direct drive is a necessity for TPU

 Were you clogging up at cooling block or into the tube or was it something else?

[Comrade]

1 hour ago, MadVlad said:

 Were you clogging up at cooling block or into the tube or was it something else?

The extruder was just too far away from the hot end.

When you print with PLA, there is enough filament rigidity to instantly transfer the extrusion and retraction force to the hot end. But TPU is too flexible for that - its stretching and compressing inside the Bowden tube dampens all changes in pressure. It's like a shock absorber, so rather than getting the extrusion when you need the pressure and retraction when you don't, you just get a smooth ooze out of the nozzle all the time.

Basically not enough pressure when you need it, and too much when you don't. Makes a mess of a print - blobs, holes, strings - it's not petty.

A cheap solution for that is to slow down your printer to a fraction of the PLA printing speed. But even then you can expect a lot of issues, and it can be a nightmare to eliminate them all.

The easiest fix it is to put the extruder right on top of the hot end instead, which is what direct drive is. You still need to slow it down a smidge, but nowhere near as much as with the Bowden setup.

[MadVlad]

13 hours ago, Comrade said:

The extruder was just too far away from the hot end.

When you print with PLA, there is enough filament rigidity to instantly transfer the extrusion and retraction force to the hot end. But TPU is too flexible for that - its stretching and compressing inside the Bowden tube dampens all changes in pressure. It's like a shock absorber, so rather than getting the extrusion when you need the pressure and retraction when you don't, you just get a smooth ooze out of the nozzle all the time.

Basically not enough pressure when you need it, and too much when you don't. Makes a mess of a print - blobs, holes, strings - it's not petty.

A cheap solution for that is to slow down your printer to a fraction of the PLA printing speed. But even then you can expect a lot of issues, and it can be a nightmare to eliminate them all.

The easiest fix it is to put the extruder right on top of the hot end instead, which is what direct drive is. You still need to slow it down a smidge, but nowhere near as much as with the Bowden setup.

Outstanding explanation, thanks!

[mhpr262]

On 9/5/2023 at 4:37 AM, Comrade said:

If you plan on printing pads, get a printer with a direct drive extruder. TPU (rubbery material used for pads) pretty much requires it.

These particular prints shouldnt be hard to do with a bowden setup. If you print each of the pads separately you wont have to do any retractions at all.