1 Topic by mark.giblin

  • mark.giblin
  • mark.giblin
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Topic: A question of filaments...

Anyone with any filament horror stories?

I avoided fleabay for good reason, got my first three rolls from two places, 3DPrintz and Hobby king.

So far, there has been no appreciable smell as some tubers have said that can build up.

Anyone had any experiences that should be avoided, maybe a filament that was very stinky...

Or, you bought what you thought was a quality filament to find its print quality was total pants.

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

2 Reply by Tin Falcon

  • Tin Falcon
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Re: A question of filaments...

one of the visors at ERRF bought some cheap pla from e bay for IIRC like 12 $ a roll it jammed his machine. 
IMHO if you find a supplier you are comfortable with stick with them . Or look for a better grade. no horror stories here but the lowest i go is the pla from micro center. or i use printed solid .

Soliddoodle 4 stock w glass bed------Folger Tech Prusa 2020 upgraded to and titan /aero extruder mirror bed
FT5 with titan/ E3D Aero------MP mini select w glass bed
MP Utimate maker pro-W bondtech extruder
Marlin/Repetier Host/ Slic3r and Cura

3 Reply by heartless

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Re: A question of filaments...

MakeShaper seems to be a quality source - I ordered several small spools for testing out from them, happy with it so far (bear in mind I use primarily ABS)

Inland from MicroCenter can be hit or miss - their red & orange caused me issues with clogging, but the blues, green, black & yellow were all fine
(again, mostly ABS - I do have a couple of spools of their PLA - with the silver being a favorite)

find quality suppliers and you will be fine. Stay away from ebay, alibaba, aliexpress and the like

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

4 Reply by mark.giblin

  • mark.giblin
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Re: A question of filaments...

I have made 3 prints from the reels and find that the best print came from the better quality filament than the happy-go-lucky better than ebay quality filament which was lifting at the edges, something I figure is either wrong temperature bed.

The current hotbed is set to 100 degrees, there is Kapton tape on the glass print surface.
The hotend was increased in temperature to 250 degrees C for the cheaper of the filament.

I found that the 3DPrintz filament printed pretty much fine at 235 deg C on a hot bed of 90 degrees, something I only noted AFTER the print job, that settings had not saved !!! So first print was possibly a fluke.

The printer is housed in a cupboard space which has the main heat exchanger unit that brings in the thermal feeds from the heating system. So the ambient temperature is around 35 degrees C in the cupboard, so draught is not the issue...

What is (in practice) a good hotbed temperature?

Bob's your uncle (and likely your father too...)
I laughed that hard, I burst my colostomy bag.... (When I got my GeeeTech Pi3 ProB)
Prusa i3 MK2 clone by GeeeTech aka Pi3 ProB with a GT2560 board on MX17 Linux.

5 Reply by heartless

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Re: A question of filaments...

that kind of depends on the printer and the bed heater involved... and of course what material you are printing

I upgraded my SD4s to the Printit Industries Hale Heatbed and don't ever need to go above 90C now for ABS - i get consistent, even heat across the entire bed.

before the upgrade, using the stock, undersized silicone heater, I ran 100C for ABS but had issues with the outer edges not being warm enough, so larger prints were always a problem.

for PLA no real need to go any higher than 55-60C, TPU is around 65-70C, been a while since I ran any Nylon, but iirc, the Taulman 910 was also around 70C for bed temp

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1