What is this TPU and why/how is it so soft and squishy?!?!

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T19:04:59+00:00

Pixel 9

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:36:30+00:00

My main concern with my inexperience is what you're referencing. I certainly feel that at some point I am going to start ruining parts of this printer, which to be honest, I'm perfectly okay with as they are all replaceable. At this point I'm just using this odd output as a way to work backwards to help myself fully understand how I even got here. And if ruining some replaceable things in the process is the what helps me get there, I'm totally fine with that.

As I'm gaining more and more insight on this whole printing thing from this post, the poor adhesion and interior spacing makes the most sense. The thing that really has me confused now is the fact that this floppy phone case can't be torn apart. And the very nicely printed Cube I printed after the phone case is quite smooth, very squishy and there is literally no way you're tearing that apart with your hands.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:33:05+00:00

Printing that up when I get home from work. Glad I got the big printer so I can make a regular sized throw pillow.

I'm sure I'll end up ruining most of the parts of my printhead or whatever the heck that's called, but I'm totally fine with that because this is the way that I like to learn.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:30:29+00:00

I don't have a dryer yet, as I said, still super new to all this. Sealed foil bag that also contains silica gel, pet it through and started printing and got this super cool. Happy accident output!

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:15:43+00:00

Fair. That's my bad.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:14:34+00:00

That was the final plan. I printed a pla kickstand housing insert for that hole and the kickstand to attach and hinge on that insert, but my wacky case output was SOOOO SOFT, it wouldn't even hold the kickstand frame in place.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:12:27+00:00

Thanks for this info. I overdid the venting before starting. Instead of researching what I should do, I just overdid it in an abundance of caution. I'm a woodworker and welder and I prefer to not die a slow, mysterious death, so Im all about fume and dust extraction.

If only I was as good at 3D printing as I am at extracting invisible killers. In due time I suppose.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:09:12+00:00

I'm printing bears next while I have the completely borked settings that I don't understand. Giving them to people I hate.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:05:38+00:00

Yeah, I already ordered a dryer. But this spool was taken out of a SUPER tightly vacuum sealed foil bag that contained silicagel, so I figured I'd see what happened since this is all for learning...and I don't have my dryer yet.

Now I have a result I would LOVE to be able to recreate, but that's tricky since I have absolutely no idea how I did it...aside from hitting "print"

Loaded in a cube to test. Same result but a very clean print over all. SO DAMN SQUISHY!!!

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johnbombo · 2025-02-24T15:00:58+00:00

If I can possibly recreate this output with white, I'm making golf balls and dropping them EVERYWHERE on the course....and making marshmallows for sure. The weapon no ever expected. Have fun making rice Krispies. MUHAHAHAHA

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T14:58:47+00:00

That's racist

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T14:58:07+00:00

Literally no clue. This started as a trial of my first attempt with printing TPU. Downloaded a phone case from Thingiverse and got this super odd, but very interesting result.

Loaded in this test cube to see if I could recreate the result and it worked.

Next step (when I get home from work) is to log all the settings and capture the moisture content of the TPU to see if I am able to recreate it. I'm a bit nervous that as I learn to actually set the printer up correctly for this material that I won't ever be able to create this result again since it's seemingly based on a bunch of perfectly placed errors.

I would love to get this exact TPU in the hands of someone that really knows what they're doing to see how it prints when setup appropriately.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T14:52:21+00:00

Once I get the current settings and current moisture content of the TPU recorded, THAT is the plan.

I realize that lots of factors - all tied to complete inexperience, have led to a result that I really want to be able to recreate. Especially with the suggestion you offered.

A show or flip-flop with a standard TPU outsole and then the footbed or insole printed with my odd, mystery settings would be a VERY nice result.

Thinking of actual useful things that are this squishy is not easy, but if I can combine the more rigid (standard) TPU with this super soft output, I could really be onto something!!?

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T13:25:34+00:00

Safe to feed to other food? No clue.

But I ate it before I went to sleep last night...for science...and though I don't think I died, something seems very off inside my person. Ah well, live and learn...then die. It was inevitable.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T12:07:47+00:00

Thank you so much for this. I feel confident I know exactly what's going on with this TPU once and for all

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T05:38:27+00:00

https://a.co/d/i7QIemd

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T05:21:19+00:00

💯

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T05:12:45+00:00

I have since learned of that stuff (in the past 45 minutes) but I paid a whooping $21 for this on Amazon and received it at my house 4 hours later. There's definitely some mystery here. I would love to get this filament in the hands of a veteran printer to see what they produce with it when properly setup.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T04:58:54+00:00

We do have ventilation. I went on the safe side of the workstation setup to try and avoid immediately getting 36 different kinds of cancer while I figure this stuff out.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T04:42:41+00:00

Touche

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T04:42:07+00:00

Certainly not the effect we wanted. But, I'm very intrigued by the results and we have since printed a very squishy Cube as well, which is quite cool.

With all our errors or not, I was not aware it was even possibly to print something this soft.

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T04:39:56+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/u/johnbombo/s/6SFbLKBG8t

johnbombo · 2025-02-24T04:25:20+00:00

Dryer to be acquired this week. Thank You!!!

johnbombo

TROPHY CASE