Topic: Filastruder Filament
I haven't had my Filastruder for long, but I've noticed something about the filament I produce that really surprises me. Before I got a Filastruder I only bought ABS when I could get a good deal. It wasn't 'cheap filament', it was filament that was on sale - like saving up points from Fitstudio (now defunct) that let me buy filament that was normally $50 for $20. I had tried numerous brands. I always considered ABS the 'pain in the butt' material - only do small things, and be surprised if it works out ok. I had been using Verbatim ABS filament before the Filastruder came, and it wanted to randomly come loose completely, if not then it still warped real bad on the edges (I always needed large rafts around the parts), it seemed weaker than the type of plastic I normally used, cracked easy, brittle, just overall very inferior to PETG.
Then my Filastruder comes. ABS is the easiest to do, so I figure I'll start with that. My first ABS plastic is PA-747. I go to use the filament, and it doesn't need a raft. I went to a brim instead. Then, I started to find the brim wasn't even necessary. It doesn't warp, it doesn't shrink as much when cooling, it's the opposite of brittle (you would have to stand there moving it back and forth many times to break a section of filament off), and parts just feel stronger in my hand. I thought - maybe my Verbatim ABS had gotten moisture in it since opening the package. I thought maybe it's warmer outside now - and that's why it doesn't warp like all the other brands of ABS I've always bought before. Well, I just opened a new package of Verbatim that I already had (I don't know if it was intended or not, but Jet once had it at $17 for a 2 pack of Verbatim ABS), and come back to find an enormous mess. The print completely broke free of the bed.
Why does the Filastruder filament I produce (every type so far) perform better than every type of ABS I had bought before getting the Filastruder? Is it just luck in what ABS resins I've been buying? Is it something they do to mass produce large quantities of filament that makes the Filastruder's more individually paced production produce better ABS filament?
On a side note - I'd actually looked at a Filastruder about a year to a year and a half ago, and I ordered some filament from Filabot (Filastruder doesn't sell it's own filament). I figured, they make a home extrusion machine, if anybody would know how to produce the best filament from it, it would be the maker of one of the machines right? It was easily the worst ABS I've ever seen - jammed constantly, and if you put it in acetone parts of it would dissolve completely while leaving chunks of I don't know what that would never dissolve. I thought - well, home extrusion must not be able to produce good filament. Fast forward 1-1.5 years and I decided to give Filastruder a try. WOW - what a surprise it was that my Filastruder is producing better ABS filament than any I'd bought.
You never expect to both save money AND have a better end result. The machine was even pretty easy to put together, and ABS is pretty easy to extrude. Now to just do that review program in the DIY section, save up some store credit, and get a Filawinder (hopefully store credit is good for that even though it's Ian Johnson's thing and just distributed at Filastruder.com)
