Preferred PLA filament in the UK

PLA that isn't any of the brands we have already made categories for? Talk about it here
joncollins
Reactions:
Posts: 4
Joined: August 9th, 2016, 11:02 am
3D Printer(s): cel robox

Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by joncollins »

What filament brand do the UK member's prefer?
thanks
User avatar
Izzy
Reactions:
Posts: 604
Joined: February 12th, 2016, 2:29 am
Location: England
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Izzy »

Hi Jon, my two go to filaments are from Faberdashery & ColorFabb, both very good quality PLA's but there are some others I like to depending on what I'm after, my wife likes it when I use Aromatic Coffee from Proto pasta. Two Bears Linen is also a nice one.
danilius
Reactions:
Posts: 122
Joined: April 21st, 2016, 5:29 pm
Location: Salford, United Kingdom
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by danilius »

I don't use a great deal of PLA, but usually buy it from 3dfilaprint.com. I have tried cheap Ebay stuff, was not as happy as the 3Dfilaprint filament.
joncollins
Reactions:
Posts: 4
Joined: August 9th, 2016, 11:02 am
3D Printer(s): cel robox

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by joncollins »

thank you both
User avatar
Izzy
Reactions:
Posts: 604
Joined: February 12th, 2016, 2:29 am
Location: England
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Izzy »

Agree with Danilius, in the UK GlobalFSD is also part of 3dfilaprint.
What ever you do don't but cheap filament from Amazon or eBay only get it from a reputable dealer, Tim at Global FSD and Kayleigh at Faberdashery, are good contacts and can help you out.
danilius
Reactions:
Posts: 122
Joined: April 21st, 2016, 5:29 pm
Location: Salford, United Kingdom
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by danilius »

Oh, I wouldn't avoid cheap PLA entirely, especially if you are going to print a bunch of tests. I do a heck of a lot of that, and buy garbage ABS and PLA for that kind of thing. Most of my prints tend to end up in the bin, since they are there just for testing out various concepts for prototypes.
User avatar
Neotko
Reactions:
Posts: 1142
Joined: February 7th, 2016, 7:02 pm
Location: Madrid
3D Printer(s): UMO+ x2.5
Contact:

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Neotko »

Yeah it's always a good idea to have good crappy filament at hand for tests. I use benq for that. It has bad size consistency but sticks to bed like glue. So it prints meh but it's great for 70mm/s prototypes
joncollins
Reactions:
Posts: 4
Joined: August 9th, 2016, 11:02 am
3D Printer(s): cel robox

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by joncollins »

with cheaper filament I read that they cause more issues with blocking? is this true and thank you for the information
User avatar
Izzy
Reactions:
Posts: 604
Joined: February 12th, 2016, 2:29 am
Location: England
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Izzy »

A problem that can occur with cheap filament is what is actually in it?
If it has cheap materials or additives they can be affected by the temperature and burn within the nozzle causing deposits that then may block or partially block the nozzle the no extrude into you part. :-o
In my humble opinion why use cheap filament that you don't know what it contains, if you have paid a lot of good money buying a good machine why run cheap filament, if it's a cheap Far East import why support the ripoff market. Some good manufactures struggle getting good filament to give good prints, I recieved a sample to test that had a diameter range from 2.6 to 2.95mm in just 0.5m so a poor tolerance in live you get what you pay for, you don't buy a Rolls Royce and run it on chip fat bio diesel. :geek:
User avatar
LePaul
Reactions:
Posts: 3963
Joined: February 7th, 2016, 10:26 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine USA
3D Printer(s): 24 - Yes I have a problem!
Contact:

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by LePaul »

Izzy wrote:you don't buy a Rolls Royce and run it on chip fat bio diesel. :geek:
I use a similar analogy with foods in the body. Don't put junk in and expect to not get sick later in life!
danilius
Reactions:
Posts: 122
Joined: April 21st, 2016, 5:29 pm
Location: Salford, United Kingdom
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by danilius »

Izzy wrote:A problem that can occur with cheap filament is what is actually in it? If it has cheap materials or additives they can be affected by the temperature and burn within the nozzle causing deposits that then may block or partially block the nozzle the no extrude into you part. :-o
You are quite right, except that applies to the expensive stuff as well. I have no idea what anyone puts into their filament, and have experienced much the same problems across the board with the various brands I have bought. I use expensive PLA mainly because their tolerances tend to be a little better, and the dyes they tend to use are nicer in color. For some prototype test that's going in the bin, that would be a monumental waste of money for me.
Izzy wrote: if it's a cheap Far East import why support the ripoff market.
Agreed. If a Far East company are trying to fake a brand, then they are a ripoff. If they have their own brand, and are producing filament, are they a ripoff or simply competition?
Izzy wrote: Some good manufactures struggle getting good filament to give good prints, I recieved a sample to test that had a diameter range from 2.6 to 2.95mm in just 0.5m so a poor tolerance in live you get what you pay for, you don't buy a Rolls Royce and run it on chip fat bio diesel. :geek:
[/quote]

This is a bigger problem with PLA than with ABS. With the latter, I have yet to find an ABS that provides a superior performance that justifies the price difference. Take, for example, FormFutura's Premium ABS, at around £25 per kilo. I buy Excelvan off ebay for around £7 a kilo including postage. Now, the only issue I have with that stuff on a regular basis is warpage. Does FormFutura's ABS warp? Probably. In which case, why would I buy it?

Now with PLA, tolerances are the biggest issue, although I have had other issues as well. I bought some natural PLA and it was horrible to work with, until I tried it in a 0.8mm nozzle and then it was pretty good.
Izzy wrote:you don't buy a Rolls Royce and run it on chip fat bio diesel. :geek:
Oh absolutely. Except that I have an Olsson block, so I can remove the nozzles and burn them out once they are completely gunked up.

I think it's horse for courses really. If you actually use all your good prints, then buying good quality and nice-looking flament makes a great deal of sense. If, like me, most of your prints go into the bin after a few minutes of testing, then getting the cheapest filament possible affects your bottom line.
User avatar
Izzy
Reactions:
Posts: 604
Joined: February 12th, 2016, 2:29 am
Location: England
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Izzy »

I can understand you views Danilius,
I occasionally get errors with good quality material I just had some intermittent underextrusion with ColorFabb black PLA on a 30hour print and about 40m lost, I thought it might have been feeder issues etc but I've just run another job with several parts with ColorFabb Standart White and not a problem with any of the prints so perhaps I have a duff reel, it can happen to the best of them.
I have my printer available on the 3DHubs and I won't use a poor filament for any of the jobs, my preference is for Faberdashery and ColorFabb, but I will use other makes if I think they print good quality, or can offer an advantage over my preferred goto filaments, but I will always discuss material choice with the customer.
danilius
Reactions:
Posts: 122
Joined: April 21st, 2016, 5:29 pm
Location: Salford, United Kingdom
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by danilius »

Izzy wrote:I can understand you views Danilius,
I occasionally get errors with good quality material I just had some intermittent underextrusion with ColorFabb black PLA on a 30hour print and about 40m lost, I thought it might have been feeder issues etc but I've just run another job with several parts with ColorFabb Standart White and not a problem with any of the prints so perhaps I have a duff reel, it can happen to the best of them.
I've had jams or other issues with both expensive and cheap filaments, so this seems to be a really tough nut to crack.
Izzy wrote: but I will always discuss material choice with the customer.
If I'm delivering a final print to a client then I do likewise, and offer them a range of options. I think they love being able to choose different materials and colours, it gives them a sense of being involved in the process, which is already pretty cool to start with!
reibuehl
Reactions:
Posts: 506
Joined: February 9th, 2016, 9:56 am
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by reibuehl »

Izzy wrote:I just had some intermittent underextrusion with ColorFabb black PLA on a 30hour print and about 40m lost, I thought it might have been feeder issues etc but I've just run another job with several parts with ColorFabb Standart White and not a problem with any of the prints so perhaps I have a duff reel, it can happen to the best of them.
I have currently also problems with Black ColorFabb PLA - maybe they had some quality issues on that one? I need to start my prints with 220-230°C to avoid a blocked nozzle. After the print is running, I can tune back to the 210°C that I usually use for PLA.

Does yours have a batch number, Izzy? Mine is production date FEB 15 2016.
User avatar
Izzy
Reactions:
Posts: 604
Joined: February 12th, 2016, 2:29 am
Location: England
3D Printer(s): Ultimaker 2

Re: Preferred PLA filament in the UK

Post by Izzy »

Hi Reibuehl, mine has MRT 2 2016.
I as printing at 218'C with a ruby nozzle, at 42mm/s
As you can see from the photos it would be fine for 10 hours or so and then...
This was a 30hour print,
image.jpeg
image.jpeg
I aborted the 1st one after 12 hours with the same problems but power down, I had set it going at 9pm and when I checked it in the morning it was not worth finishing as you can see in the 3rd photo. The White stripe was were I tried som glue to see if it could take bonding, filling and then painting,
Attachments
image.jpeg
Post Reply

Return to “PLA Filament General Discussion”