They were wondering if we sold our filament by weight of 2.5 lbs per spool. We were thinking since we are an American company we might just go with lbs and be .3 lbs more than the standard spool. Thoughts?

Secondly we are looking into providing spools/sets with 3-4 colors at a time as some have suggested.

ABS will be coming soon and I did find out we have the capability to produce 12,700 lbs of filament a day. Anyway I know I have been gone but all of the comments in this thread were printed and reviewed and we certainly appreciate everyone's input.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ … sp=sharing

Measurements taken about every 2mm, for 5.5m (18ft).  The width of each cell in the chart represents about 50mm (2"), the horizontal lines are .06mm.

Looks like it stays mostly within .03mm, with a total range of about .05mm.  It's a little dusty, it would be a good idea for them to find a way to run it through a sponge to wipe it as it runs on to the spools.  I'm not sure how much that would help since spooling generates a lot of static but it would be worth a try.

I have been a filastuder for almost a year and for me the MG94, Toyolac, whatever are just fine. Some extrude a bit faster than others but if the properties are close on the data sheets the materials are fine for what I do. I like to extrude natural ABS and stain it afterwards to the color I want. I mostly use magic markers (31 colors available) and am please with the results.

I always wondered if that staining caused filament to swell from moisture

I said in my post that rude was not my intent either but just being frank about info provided compared to many previous experiences, some with long time USA big name companies that have also gone China on us while still advertizing "proudly made in USA" on there web sites. I have called some of them and talked to the CEOs when I was purchasing agent for a large multi site health centers in St Louis MO. most just told me "our competition did it so we followed suite" instead of keeping their namesake.
that being said if you truly are earnestly trying to retake our USA made world standard back then most of us here will be more than glad to aid you in this.

+1

+1 yet again. I would not mind paying a little extra for a superior product. I would just like to see some results by comparison via a neutral party. (e.g. Octave/Makerbot/etc. vs PVC Spiral)

to give a start on market demands I will say most of us would like to see at least 12-16 various colors (not shades of 4 colors nor colors that discontinue each run) that we can reorder with confidence when out, and not have to explain to customers why half their items are dif colors from b4.
try to keep prices of a 1kg/2# roll under $40 retail at least. all this needs to be available in 1.75mm ABS and PLA then others later if enough demand.

also one thing no other filament manufacturer has done is offer more than 2 selections of rolls with 4 different colors on a roll for average users to use without stocking 12-16 rolls of each type plastic (we are hearing talk of shelf life under 2 years b4 plastics degrade or fade, I think thats only white from China turning yellow as I stll have 50 year old ABS models not faded etc).
myself I would like to buy 4 rolls with 4 colors each and have a rainbow of 16 true colors to offer my 3Dhub customers at same prices.

then the new clear color PLA makerbot sells for over $65 a roll is another market you could win. we use these for items like Vases, cups, lenses (Red, Green, Amber, Blue, even Yellow, Purple and clear).

just stay with us and we will guide you to what we buy.

Gods speed, Mitch

Offering smaller quantities would be helpful.  Custom lengths might be hard to do economically, but while I might want some Orange or Pink I would probably never go through 1kg of it.  Or if I did, it might take a year during which it would absorb enough mositure to ruin its quality.  If you could find spools to fit smaller amounts that would be great.  Faberdashery and others sell <1kg quantities in loose coils which is more prone to tangling when you print from them.

The big problem is knowing that MG94 (comparable to what Stratasys uses) material cost is less than $4 a lb. (in bulk). So if you plan to break into this market, your going to have to change your pricing practices. You wont get volume just by being higher quality. Your not going to get volume for pricing equivalent either. Your only going to get the volume by aggressively proving your better quality at the same price point the garbage is at. Your company has the advantage of doing this. Your already experts at extrusion processing, you probably already have the equipment costs matured from other products you produce. You already have contracts with raw material vendors and purchase in bulk. And it sounds like you have done your homework with what the key-points of this market is. Which is not to simply make a rod of ABS, but to make a rod of ABS that can easily be reformed after the initial extrusion.

Good luck to you Precision 3D.

I ordered one.  At $50 shipped with the discount, it is steep.  I'm fine with paying a little extra for higher quality and US manufacture, but it is going to be hard to sell at that price.  Better precision isn't enough, if you want to stay in the premium price range you need to look at something like Faberdashery http://www.faberdashery.co.uk/products-page/.  They command a premium by offering a range of colors that are beautiful and unique.

I also like that you order as low as 5meter of a color. That makes it easy to have more colors on hand without spending alot of $$$$  Do something like that and offer mixed color lots and you should have no problem selling it.

You are correct we need to encourage and support  USA manufacturers.

3D precision good luck with your entry into 3d filament and I will keep you in mind when I purchase supplies.

Tin