Rage's first build!!! The MK IV and Halo 3 Assault Rifle

[Bird]

Well ... The past few days have been interesting. I was successfully able to glue all the pieces of my helmet together and got the magnets all oriented the correct direction. I did struggle a bit figuring that out and had to pry some magnets out to fix the polarity.
I was very excited to have a completed helmet and put it on without verifying the glue was dry.
Needless to say, my husband and I spent 35 minutes getting super glue out of my hair so I didn't have to cut it all off.
Now comes the million hours of sanding before priming.

I have also changed the order of my printing schedule. I will focus now on printing the under suit first. I'm using tpu. This will be a fun adventure figuring this out!

I talked to blafftat at Dragon Con and got to see his TPU suit and I got inspired to order some TPU for some test prints. I was thinking the same thing about using TPU for an undersuit, I like PETG for the hard parts but man now I can make a believable and flexible undersuit without having to mess with leather (my sewing is a bit rusty lol) and I currently dont have the experience or equipment/materials and space to use rubber/urethane! I'm excited to see how your TPU parts come out!

 

[RageGoblin]

I talked to blafftat at Dragon Con and got to see his TPU suit and I got inspired to order some TPU for some test prints. I was thinking the same thing about using TPU for an undersuit, I like PETG for the hard parts but man now I can make a believable and flexible undersuit without having to mess with leather (my sewing is a bit rusty lol) and I currently dont have the experience or equipment/materials and space to use rubber/urethane! I'm excited to see how your TPU parts come out!

So the TPU printing has been a HUGE learning experience. It's definitely something you can't buy the cheaper option and expect it to turn out well. I've been happy with the Overture brand.
There's also different hardnesses of TPU. The typical one (and in my novice opinion the best one) for the main part of the under suit is the 95A type of TPU. However, the big issue you're going to run into is when you try and print you joint pieces. 95A is great for being 'squishy', but it's terrible at bending or flexing. So you won't be able to bend your knees or elbows if you use it for those. If you try to put too much stretch on it the print will tear or split apart.
There's a foam type of TPU that is supposed to be much more flexible and very slightly stretchy, but it's much more expensive and I would assume much more difficult to get the parameters right for a successful print.
For my under suit, I cut the bendy parts out and am not going to try and have anything around my knee caps, elbows or shoulders for that. For my next suit, or after this suit is completed, I may go back and attempt these components with the foam TPU, but we'll see.

 

[Brother Drim]

So the TPU printing has been a HUGE learning experience. It's definitely something you can't buy the cheaper option and expect it to turn out well. I've been happy with the Overture brand.
There's also different hardnesses of TPU. The typical one (and in my novice opinion the best one) for the main part of the under suit is the 95A type of TPU. However, the big issue you're going to run into is when you try and print you joint pieces. 95A is great for being 'squishy', but it's terrible at bending or flexing. So you won't be able to bend your knees or elbows if you use it for those. If you try to put too much stretch on it the print will tear or split apart.
There's a foam type of TPU that is supposed to be much more flexible and very slightly stretchy, but it's much more expensive and I would assume much more difficult to get the parameters right for a successful print.
For my under suit, I cut the bendy parts out and am not going to try and have anything around my knee caps, elbows or shoulders for that. For my next suit, or after this suit is completed, I may go back and attempt these components with the foam TPU, but we'll see.

This is actually something I had an issue with even with my silicone pieces. I dropped the shoulders and elbows for the Dragoncon parade just to have the extra flexibility (and to not die to heat... >.>)

I have seen the self foaming TPU and have been curious about it myself. If you try it out let us know how it works out!

 

[Bird]

So the TPU printing has been a HUGE learning experience. It's definitely something you can't buy the cheaper option and expect it to turn out well. I've been happy with the Overture brand.
There's also different hardnesses of TPU. The typical one (and in my novice opinion the best one) for the main part of the under suit is the 95A type of TPU. However, the big issue you're going to run into is when you try and print you joint pieces. 95A is great for being 'squishy', but it's terrible at bending or flexing. So you won't be able to bend your knees or elbows if you use it for those. If you try to put too much stretch on it the print will tear or split apart.
There's a foam type of TPU that is supposed to be much more flexible and very slightly stretchy, but it's much more expensive and I would assume much more difficult to get the parameters right for a successful print.
For my under suit, I cut the bendy parts out and am not going to try and have anything around my knee caps, elbows or shoulders for that. For my next suit, or after this suit is completed, I may go back and attempt these components with the foam TPU, but we'll see.

I think I saw you have a P1S? Is one of the brands you tried Bambu's own filament? I've used their PETG for my ODST build and the print quality was fantastic so I was going to try their TPU out but if you've tried both and Overture's is better I may have to try it out instead!

 

[RageGoblin]

I think I saw you have a P1S? Is one of the brands you tried Bambu's own filament? I've used their PETG for my ODST build and the print quality was fantastic so I was going to try their TPU out but if you've tried both and Overture's is better I may have to try it out instea

Yes. I have a P1S. No, I haven't tried Bambu's own filament. I will order a roll when I run out of the TPU I currently have and update on the differences, if I notice any. I know the Overture brand is a little cheaper, which is why I switched to it.

 

[Bird]

Yes. I have a P1S. No, I haven't tried Bambu's own filament. I will order a roll when I run out of the TPU I currently have and update on the differences, if I notice any. I know the Overture brand is a little cheaper, which is why I switched to it.

Awesome! And yeah I was looking at that price, like double most standard filaments oof. Well I'm excited to see how they compare and if I get my printer set back up soon enough and order some (in the process of moving) before you get to it I'll share my results too! Maybe save you some extra bucks if its not any better if not worse!

 

[RageGoblin]

ALRIGHTY, Y'ALL! September has been a crazy month: my printer jammed up and wasn't working for a little while and then I got COVID that kicked my butt for a week and a half straight.
Now I'm back at it and have good news to share. I have hopefully figured out the settings for printing TPU now. (I know I keep saying that, but this time, I mean it for real. >_<)
For reference, I am using Overture 95A TPU.

So far, I have figured out to print TPU pieces the following:
1. Slow all of the print speeds by 75%
2. Turn off retraction in the filament settings.
3. I set the nozzle temp to 10 degrees higher than the max of what the spool says for the initial 5 layers, then I set it to 5 degrees higher to the max for rest of the print.
4. vertical printing is your friend for anything with a curve to it.
5. slow part fan to 20%
6. I have a P1S that has a glass top and door to create a full enclosure. Normally, I have the lid cracked open to prevent heat creep into the extruder. However, I found the issue I KEPT running into was that the top of the prints had gaps in layer lines, were jagged, and would sometimes fail. I feel like this was because the print was getting further away from the heat of the build plate, and the ambient temperature around it was too low.
So when printing with TPU, I close the lid to have the full glass enclosure to help create as even a temp as I can.
7. Every three days, I put the TPU back into the dry box for a day. This has helped so much prevent stringing and uneven textures.
When I am running low on TPU and know I will be needing to switch to a new roll soon, I will take the new roll out of the packaging and put it into the dryer for at least 6 hrs before using it, even though it's brand new.
8. I use tree supports for any threshold angle > 30degrees, as well as "Support Critical Regions Only" and "Remove Small Overhangs" selected under the support tab.
9. Every couple of hours, I will check the nozzle temperature to make sure it isn't too hot since I have all the doors closed. Again, this goes back to trying to prevent heat creep and clogging my extruder.
10. I have my build plate set to the upper limit of what is on the spool with it only being 10 degrees hotter for the initial layer.
11. I am printing with 2 walls.
12. I have the the shells as such:
Top surface pattern: Concentric
Bottom surface pattern: Monotonic (probably could be the same as top)
Internal solid infill pattern: Monotonic.
13. SPARSE INFILL SETTINGS:
Sparse infill density: 10%
SPARSE INFILL PATTERN: GYROID
-- I have spoken with several cosplayers who print with primarily TPU, and they have all said Gyroid is the best for support and strength for TPU. Thanks SamuelHan for all the help so far with the TPU. I don't think I ever would have figured this out without you.

Now, I know that I could probably print with slightly faster speeds (most prints take 12+ hrs for one part), but I feel like I would rather the part take half a day to print and have a good looking part that I don't have to reprint or have wasted 100+ grams of a costly filament.

I have printed the front part of the waist/pelvis portion of the outer armor, and the part of the under suit that goes under the cod piece. I will continue to print the front part of the ab wrap undersuit.
I will attached pictures of the failed TPU prints before closing all the glass doors and making the temperature adjustments with afterwards. I had more parts that failed spectacularly prior to these changes, but I threw those away.

My plan is to also put slots into the undersuit for the rigging to go through that will hold the outer suit and the undersuit together on my person as one piece essentially.
Thanks to billeybob250 for telling me about the negative space component in the Bambu Lab slicer program. I was really struggling with this.

Photos to come! I hope this helps!

 

[Fox3455]

You’re way braver than I am to print in TPU. I need to look for Mark VII under suit. So that would help me get out of my comfort zone of PLA only lmao