I’ve been working on a new ereader case platform and wanted to find a way to print bigger than the max volume, and have it extremely durable is was the result.
Need to do some more work with the cover but overall I am very happy with how this turned out.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, the clear material is TPU, and the Purple material is PETG. The holes are for Threaded inserts.
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Do you mean this is larger than your bed size? How did you achieve that?
I dunno how OP did it but you can override your machine's normal travel limit parameters in your slicer settings. Often the nozzle can physically travel further than the bounds of the build plate and is actually limited by hitting its rail endstops (or limit switches!) or striking some other part of your machine.
My Qidi can position the nozzle about 20mm beyond all four sides of the plate before it hits anything, but on the left and right sides it needs to be above z height 10mm or so to clear the Z axis gantries, and at the front and rear it's just empty space. So you can't print on the bed in that area because there is no bed. But if your object were shaped as such you could put overhangs out there in no man's land. It would be risky, perhaps, but you could.
Neat, but this print is larger than the total print area. TPU retains it's heat, allowing you to print multiple separate parts together so long as you can align it properly.
That sounds like a capital-N alignment Nightmare, so good on you for getting that figured out!
I think it's less to do with retaining heat than the fact that the lower temperature printing materials like PLA and TPU will readily adhere even to a cold part, so the time in between nozzle passes is irrelevant. You could add to a PLA/TPU print with a layer time of 10 or 15 seconds or, if you prefer, tomorrow. In fact, with the zooty new printers when using PLA they have whole-enclosure forced air cooling to cool the part off as fast as possible to aid with overhangs and bridging, and prevent sagging when printing fast and thus at high(er) temperatures.
As you have observed, TPU has a ridiculously high layer adhesion in exchange for (or more likely, because of) its rotten temperature stability. It's also very sticky as a result of its thermal properties, which is also why it strings so durn much.
Actually I’ve gotten it reliably printing now. Last failure was my fault.
Now I'm really curious. Did you make some sort of jig?
Nope, just a curvy surface I can align and held it down with magnets
I have an earlier post here going over it. But this 1 print is 3 separate prints. I first print the Spine, which has alignment groves. Then I remove it from the print surface and print the back. The print will stop after the first layer so I can add in the spine which is held down with magnets. The I resume. This will print the next layer ontop of the Spine, which melts it in and creates a solid connection, no weaker than a normal TPU print. I then remove it and do the same to the cover.