Hi!
Long time lurker, first time really dipping my toes into antweights (and combat robots as a whole).
I’ll be getting a Bambu P1S in the near future and I was hoping for recommendations for reliable brands that make ABS and TPU filaments. My budget is flexible so I’m open to the more expensive stuff too. Alternate filament recommendations are also very welcome!
Thanks in advance!
Hi, welcome to the forum!
I would say ABS has kind of dropped out of fashion for ants in the past few years as has quite nasty fumes and likes to warp - probably the most popular filaments at antweight are PLA-ST (super tough) for rigid bits and then TPU for wobbly bits! (external armour usually)
I’ve seen E-Sun PLA-ST & Overture Super PLA+ thrown about as go tos.
For TPU - Overture is a brand I use and see plenty of others use too, a filament dryer is recommended if you have it out of the vacuum sealed packet for more than a few days.
More stuff for TPU
Seconding the filament dryer, even kept inside the packet the filament tends to slowly absorb moisture, making your prints bubbly and stringy
95A is the standard shore hardness for TPU filament. I’ve noticed very little difference between brands for it
A number of brands also make high speed/high flow 95A variants. These are slightly more rigid, and can print much faster. They are a bit more prone to forming cracks when hit, but the impacts at ant scale probably wont be big enough for that to matter
TPUs outside of the 90-100A range are generally best avoided. Most are specialist engineering filaments that are pretty prone to warping. The main one I’ve seen that is designed to print nicely is the Bambu 68D TPU for AMS, but it’s very prone to cracking
As someone who uses TPU 95A on the regular, I’ve tried Overture, Sainsmart and E-sun, and the most reliable one I’ve had most success with is Overture. I also advise on getting a Polymaker dryer box, though they can be a little bit expensive, though having said that, if you sprinkle a little more desiccant beads in the base of it, it dries it down to at least 10% moisture, which is perfect to print at.
Another bit of advice for TPU printing (I’m using a Bambu Labs A1), it very much prefers printing slowly (Unless you’re using the High Speed stuff which I have no experience in). Like at 20 mm/s for almost everything, with the travel speed at 200mm/s.
Temp wise, nozzle at 225 Celsius and the Textured PEI plate at 55 Celsius. And run the fan at 100 all the time. And to reduce stringing a little further, put the retraction length at 3mm with a retraction speed of 20mm/s.
One last bit of advice is if you’re using the Textured PEI plate, get a glue stick, and use it from the bottom to top in a even manner, let it dry, then, go from side to side, so you get a nice cover on it.
Hello,
For my ant I use overture pla plus (on a Bambu labs a1) and so far has been super reliable and tough although to be fair the bots only done 1 tournament (GRoCS) so far which was plants and I’m looking to throw it into some spinner fights to see how it holds up!
So yeah I’ve found overture pla+ to be good but it’s not like I’m a filament expert either!
Thanks for all the help, tips and suggestions!
The PLA thread was extremely informative. I’ll look into getting a filament dryer as well!
A stiffer TPU I have been using is 64D TPU from RS. It seems much better at resisting cracks than the Bambu one but as Jed mentioned I wouldn’t recommend it as it is pretty prone to warping (at least without a heated enclosure). There are still much worse materials for warping. It is also quite expensive for TPU.
Speaking of warping some brands of Nylon are also very good but are also expensive and even more prone to warping. Hence why I tend to get Nylon parts printed from Ranglebox as they end up much better quality.
The BASF brand 64D TPU? A friend gave me a roll after buying it by mistake and I tried printing some bits from it, it printed great but unfortunately it still does the cracking thing on hard hits.
Yes that is the BASF TPU. I have only used it in ants so I think the cracking risk may well be a question of the scale it is being used at. I have seen others use other harder TPUs well in ants but come to think of it every time I hear of it in beetles it is about it cracking.
