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Terracycle Chain Idler Tires: TPU Tweakage

Although the 3D printed tires for our Terracycle chain idlers fit nicely, adjacent TPU threads didn’t bond well:

Terracycle Chain Idler Tire - delamination
Terracycle Chain Idler Tire – delamination

Based on some earlier items, I’d been printing TPU at 220 °C, but 230 °C fuses the threads together:

Terracycle Chain Idler Tire - correct settings
Terracycle Chain Idler Tire – correct settings

The filament turned out to be 1.79 mm diameter, rather than the nominal 1.75 mm, and a few iterations showed a 0.95 Extrusion Multiplier worked much better.

Those were printed at 30 mm/s with 0.25 mm layer height.

I now have a good stock of spare tires, each slightly different than all the others:

Terracycle Chain Idler Tire - spares
Terracycle Chain Idler Tire – spares

The first two slightly delaminated printed tires will remain in service until they show signs of falling apart, because I’d rather ride the bike than fiddle with it.

Comments

One response to “Terracycle Chain Idler Tires: TPU Tweakage”

  1. Makergear M2: BuildTak Platform Alignment – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning Avatar

    […] on the Makergear M2 put Z=0 on the surface of the BuildTak platform and a quick leveling got the TerraCycle tires printed, but a more thorough alignment seemed in […]

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