Thomas tests various filaments

Discussion of brand name filaments (ColorFabb Brand, NinjaFlex, Taulman, etc.)
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LePaul
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Thomas tests various filaments

Post by LePaul »

Have you been following his latest videos?

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasSanladerer
reibuehl
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Re: Thomas tests various filaments

Post by reibuehl »

The #Filaween series? Yes :)

It is nice that he tests so many under the same conditions but the conclusions at the end of each episode are a little bit too vague for me and do not always make sense to me if you compare it to the numbers in his "test results". It seems that no matter what the test results are, the conclusion is always a "so, so, not too bad not super" - but maybe that is just a misunderstanding since both, him and I are not native English speakers.
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Re: Thomas tests various filaments

Post by LePaul »

I have the same frustration with the reviews too. He doesn't mention shrinkage, which for those of us making assemblies, would be nice to know. The hot water test seems a little silly.

I see the bridge test fails on many filaments, but they still get a pass. I'm not sure I follow all his parameters correctly.

I do like the strength tests, tho
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Re: Thomas tests various filaments

Post by Izzy »

I don't fully get his strength tests, so much can vary with temperature.
I've been testing quite a few filaments for the last two years, mainly the PLA types but now testing some ABS.
First I try and find the best temperature and then speed, then I try the Ultimaker robot, 3Dbenchy, and the tree frog, looking at overhangs, bridging surface finish and stringing etc.
Some time these can vary between colours for the same make, trying to find the best settings for printing.
I'm now putting together filament reports on each test I do, I get sent filament samples to test from GlobalFSD/3Dfillaprint as well as the odd ones from Filaments Directory I am sending both of them reports for their reviews as well as uploading the settings for each filament to FilamentsDirectory, for who have now asked me to write a little blob every now and then.

Shrinkage can vary, depending on environment as well as material and print temperature. As I still have a lot of my test prints, I will also use Benchy and add in the approximate shrinkage ratios.
I had a tall print in PLA, at 200mm tall which ended up at 199.76mm so this was a vertical shrinkage of 0.12% in Faberdashery's Artic white.
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Re: Thomas tests various filaments

Post by danilius »

He slated ABS, which is a bit silly since it's so useful if you need a great surface finish and the part does not have to be particularly strong. Of course PETG will give you a really good surface finish as well, but it's much more expensive. You can sand and hand polish PLA, but it gets hot really quickly so it's tricky to polish with a hand grinder or polishing machine.
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Re: Thomas tests various filaments

Post by LePaul »

True, Izzy....we've all gone crazy with the different manufacturers versions of white and getting a good result
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