Adventures in 3d printing tyres

[AlwynTurner]

I've bought both my printers from hictop, one direct and my cr10 through Amazon. All I can say is that you need to check that all screws/nuts have been tightened. My hot end was not properly fastened to the z-axis head so you need to check that. Also the z-axis spiral rod is purposely not tightened to the stepper motor to prevent damage in transit.

Anyway enjoy your new hobby and persevere through the vertical learning curve - don't be afraid to ask for advice.

Alwyn

[Springman65]

Thanks Alwyn! Will Do!

[Springman65]

Well, I setup my CR-10S this past weekend and have been getting to know it and the printing processes. I am just starting out and working with PLA. And, mostly printing little items for the CR-10 itself. I guess my quest for tank road wheel tires and other items is a going to be a ways off....but, I am getting there.....

Best Wishes,

Springman

[AlwynTurner]

Received my reel of TPU filament
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Surreal- ... 2749.l2649

and ran my first print run, I ran at 30mm/sec print speed, temp at 230 C, print time was 2hrs 35mins. There are a couple of problems, some design, some CURA settings. I didn't specify a thick enough wall and the infill density was only 10% so I got some delamination, plus I think the temp needs to be 235C to give better layer adhesion. The filament ran through my CR10 with absolutely no problems. Here's the result:
Underside before removing support

Front of tyre - looks great

Tread view

and on the rim, but I set the internal diameter too large so it slides around on the rim - changed the design to a smaller internal diameter and just doing a reprint

Picture of the delamination, just need to tweak some parameters to fix that


Aaah trial and error, that's the name of the game!

Alwyn

[Max-U52]

Keep on trial-ing, Alwyn. It's looking great. This is really going to change the way we build soft-skinned, and will open multitudes of options for new vehicles.

[AlwynTurner]

A few small tweaks and it worked perfectly. Changed the tyre internal diameter, changed the wall thickness (1.2mm) and fill percentage (25%), increased the print head temperature to 235C and it worked perfectly.




And there we are! No magic involved, Harry Potter wasn't here, so now anyone with a 3d printer can design and print their own tyres to any desired size. The only thing to watch out for is that in order to get the tyre over the rim, you need to hollow out the centre of the tyre and just leave 2mm front and back to allow the tyre enough stretch to go over the rim.

And there you go. Now I just have to print another 23 tyres for my trailer at 3hrs 20mins per..... and I still have other jobs for the printer.

The good thing about this is I worked out the tyre cost in terms of filament used and it works out at 30p each, just quite a bit of print time... that's a hell of a lot cheaper than moulding compound.

Alwyn

[AlwynTurner]

I've just altered the print nozzle temperature to 230C as I was getting wispy fine bits of filament on the print, so after reducing the temperature the wispy stuff vanished and the print quality improved, so for those planning to try TPU filament, 230 is the nozzle temperature.

Alwyn

[Max-U52]

I've just altered the print nozzle temperature to 230C as I was getting wispy fine bits of filament on the print, so after reducing the temperature the wispy stuff vanished and the print quality improved, so for those planning to try TPU filament, 230 is the nozzle temperature.

Alwyn

I also read that for TPU it helps to turn your print Speed way down, to about 15 millimeters per second.

[AlwynTurner]

It seems to be printing fine at 30mm/second, and halving the print speed would double the print time which is already 3 hours 18 minutes per tyre, and with another 12 tyres to print, I think I will stick with the current parameters

Alwyn

[Max-U52]

You know what I'm always saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.