firstly the solidoodle filament is measured at around 1.7 (rather than 1.75 over several points in the length, this filament is a measured 1.81mm over several points in the length)
is seems to melt at a lower temperature, as my parts are building up the bottom of the parts are sort of seeping outwards under the weight of the filament.compared to the solidoodle filament.
I've been printing some carabinas, the solidoodle supplied filament is more flexible. it's easier to bend the plastic, whilst the 3dPF filament is much more brittle. when manipulating the part,
small bend that don't even colour the surface to show stress on the SD filament turns the surface white and cracks can appear on the 3dPF printed part. at bends where the SD filament printed part shows discolouration and stress the 3dPF printed part snaps.
still I would not say that's a bad thing.
for the carabinas that I'm printing I'll probably order some more filament from solidoodle, or if someone can say who their supplier is I'll get it from them.
on the other hand, parts that it really doesn't matter if it's brittle, (like the panelolu casing) this filament is perfectly fine, it does the job well, and at the incredibly cheap price it's pretty unbeatable.
it's a shame I can't use it to print the carabinas as I need a bunch of those at the moment, (but need them to be strong) but I will be using this to create Christmas decorations/tree hangers my panelolu casing and any other little bits and pieces that I want.
I won't use it for making cookie cutters as they need to be reasonably thin walled and I think that making something thin from a material that you know is brittle isn't a great idea.
whilst the filament starts of a kind of matt/dull colour, after it's been through the extruder there is absolutely no difference in colour to the filament supplied by solidoodle.
I printed with the black filament for a solid five hours after getting in from work yesterday.
no clogs/blockages.
Basically, this material (whilst being ABS) appears to have slightly different properties to the ABS I have been using, it's a little more difficult to work with.
so the questions is would I order again?
the answer is (at the moment) a pretty emphatic yes.
the product quality is good.
the shipping is fast.
the pre-sales contact is very good (very friendly very helpful)
the only problem is that cost of shipping. -but if they can sort out regional distributors then that might come down. the only thing that I wonder is, will regional distributors cause the price to go up?
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