Printing Flex on Kodama Trinus 3D Printer

Although I’ve had my Kodama Trinus 3D printer for a long time (I was one of the first Kickstarter backers back in 2016), I had never had occasion to use flexible filament

Early reports said this was difficult on the Trinus; I had printed a filament guide (thing #2041586) that was to make flex possible, then for some reason never got around to using one of the two samples of flexible filament that I had on hand.

When the strap retainer on my watch broke, I decided it was time.

I had the broken part, and used it as the basis for a design in Fusion 360. The design was sliced in Simplify3D. I did a quick draft in black AMZ3D PLA to check dimensions, and made some minor revisions to the design.

The flex filament I used was from RepRap Warehouse, a local printing supplier. It was a sample of flexible blue TPU that they gave me with another order. It printed well enough at the manufacturer’s recommended settings, though there were some bridging issues. Since this is for a decade-old work watch that is falling apart and due for replacement soon, I didn’t worry about that and kept the first print.

We’ll see if this little blue replacement lasts the rest of the life of the watch.

At any rate, the Trinus did a good enough job with the TPU, and would probably do better with some slicer tweaks. For now, I’m satisfied.

But I still have a couple of metres of the blue TPU. What shall I print next?