Printing with flexible filament, NEED a belt generator.

[Flateric]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a timing belt generator utility that I could use to output belts for printing in flexible type of filament.

Plugin, standalone, anything really. Just really need to output accurate an specific type of belt and lengths.

Had great success printing with the flexible filament and the belts are really tough. Just a major PITA modelling each and every belt I need each time when a tool must exist somewhere for this purpose.

I am versed in blender, maya, 3ds, you name it. But I cannot find anything anywhere with my searches.

[Eric]

I'm no help on the tool, although the circumference of a circle is easy to calculate for length purposes. Up to the size of the bed, anyway.
I'm curious exactly which flexible filament you're referring to? How much stretch does it have as a finished product?

[geneb]

Flateric, give this a shot: http://www.durabelt.com/beltlengthcalculator.php

g.

[dpmacri]

I think you might consider this: http://industrial.beltcorp.com/access-o ... d-drawings

[enggmaug]

I'm interrested in printing flexible filament too, but as I understood, you need direct extruder as opposed to bowden, and as it is direct it shall be just above the hot end. Because our machines need the platform to remain as light as possible, I can only imagine a micro extruder.

Also, flexible filament only exists in 3mm diameter... Am I right ?

The only flexible filament I know of is Filaflex....

Flateric, would you mind opening a thread and share your experience with this kind of filament ?

[Flateric]

Nope, nope and nope.

I have been printing with the flexible stuff for some time now. 1.75mm, bowden fed and the stuff I get is from NewZeland. Fantastic Plastic. Don't let the newzeland part throw you off of it however. I have no idea how they do it, but I get it as fast or faster than the local stuff.

I'm not at the printer right now so I will get you a bunch of info later when I am.

Thanks for the suggestions guys will check out the links then too..

[Navkram]

also check out http://www.sdp-si.com/

you can look at catalog and select your belt and go into cad model and generate a 3d model of that belt and even select how many teeth you want in the model, decide the format and generate the model. there is not a .stl file format but you can select a format that whatever your cad software you use can read, import it and then export a stl from there.

mcmaster carr also has alot of their products that you can download solid models.

[lordbinky]

Well this got me thinking... I'm entertaining the thought of making a program to generate a belt model from some basic parameters. Anyone have a suggestion for a simple data/file format to dump it into? Maybe a reference to it's specs too..?

[enggmaug]

Nope, nope and nope.

I have been printing with the flexible stuff for some time now. 1.75mm, bowden fed and the stuff I get is from NewZeland. Fantastic Plastic. (...)

Would you mind giving us the name of that product, or better, a link to where to purchase it ?

[foshon]

http://bit.ly/1g1Smjk

[bubbasnow]

http://bit.ly/1g1Smjk

haha

[Eaglezsoar]

http://bit.ly/1g1Smjk

That's one COOL app you got there Neal, I got a good chuckle out of that one!

[mhackney]

Fashon, that was cool!

I just received a roll of white NinjaFlex today. Ordered it from Fenner Drives. It looks like pretty cool material.

[enggmaug]

http://bit.ly/1g1Smjk

I've gone that road before, and the quantity of google replies does not substitue to the quality of a human being's answer.

As I said before, I only know of filaflex which requires a direct extruder. If I ask for a specific reference to a product someone tried before with the rostock Max bowden extruder, it's because we are here to share each other's experience.
As you may know, filaments quality is not consistent from one brand to another.

So, ok, lmgtfu is funny, but my request is still up to date.

[mhackney]

enggmaug, I listed NinjaFlex and its supplier (Fenner Drives) in my response immediately above yours. It can be extruded on a Bowden setup on a Rostock Max - I'm doing it. If you want to try flexible, this stuff is pretty darn good. Watch their video (Fenner Drive site).

[foshon]

http://bit.ly/1g1Smjk

I've gone that road before, and the quantity of google replies does not substitue to the quality of a human being's answer.

As I said before, I only know of filaflex which requires a direct extruder. If I ask for a specific reference to a product someone tried before with the rostock Max bowden extruder, it's because we are here to share each other's experience.
As you may know, filaments quality is not consistent from one brand to another.

So, ok, lmgtfu is funny, but my request is still up to date.

I had intended to be more helpful, but the original supplier (listed in the op) appeared to be defunct..

[enggmaug]

enggmaug, I listed NinjaFlex and its supplier (Fenner Drives) in my response immediately above yours. It can be extruded on a Bowden setup on a Rostock Max - I'm doing it. If you want to try flexible, this stuff is pretty darn good. Watch their video (Fenner Drive site).

Thanks !