Good source of PLA

[Stub Mandrel]

I thought I had found a bargain on Amazon, then noticed it was 0.75kg rolls instead of 1kg!

Can anyone suggest a source of PLA at reasonable prices with decent delivery times? I'm thinking of buying a few rolls, if that makes a difference.

Ebay is useless as the 'real' good prices are hidden among people selling tiny samples or rolls of fluorescent snot colour.

[Xplode]

Don't buy the cheapest crappy filament you can buy, it will only cause you trouble!

I can recommend eSun PLA+, it's stronger than normal PLA and can take more bending beforte it breakes. Quality is great at ok prices.

Or you could go one step further and go for PETG filament  if your printer can handle the temperatures needed, i've used PETG for months now and are very happy with it 

[Stub Mandrel]

Well Hobby King has it at £14 a reel, but £10 shipping!

Amazon wants £40 a reel which they can keep!

I've changed my tactics - you need to find decent filament that normally sells for 20-25 a reel, then choose one of the unpopular colours (blue, dark grey, black).

I've ordered two reels @£15.90, one black, one grey of two different types - so I can compare results.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Following on from a recommendation from Tom Sanladerer (a useful source of info) I've started buying from Rigid Ink https://rigid.ink/

They may not be the cheapest, but they are very good quality, fast delivery 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Rigid Ink

They keep coming up, and the price is not ridiculous.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

and unlike some of the 'better' manufacturers, they are based in UK....

& the image is printed with Rigid's red PLA, but their ABS is superb

[Mognet]

I haven't got my hands on a 3D printer yet so I'm not entirely sure what's what, but I've found a company local to me doing PLA from £10 a kilo for 3mm filament, and at the cheaper end it's not all fluorescent http://shop.3dfilaprint.com/pla-199-c.asp

[Gina]

I think I've bought filament from them in the past - the name "rings a bell"   £10 a kilo is not a bad price these days.  I mostly use ABS rather than PLA and currently 1.75mm though my larger printer takes 3mm but that wants some work done on it to get it printing properly.  1.75mm filament seems to get getting a bit scarce but there's plenty of 3mm on ebay.  PLA and ABS are usually about the same price with other types more expensive.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

FYI, Tom Sanladerer has been running some group testing of filaments, an overview can be watched here

 

[Chriske]

Charlies3D sells good quality PLA  for 18.5€/kg

[Stub Mandrel]

Best 'cheap' filament found so far is marked 'bq' (black) from Amazon (i.e. sold by amazon itself). Works very nicely.

'Prima Value' grey - I'm having a lot of trouble with stripping, partly solved by going up to 220 degrees.

Excellent results with hictop flexible filament, once I had printed (and modified to fit my non-geetech Mk8) a little extension guide off thingiverse to stop it kinking between feed wheel and tube. Strong, bendy, stretchy and no signs of delamination when mangled about! Just a tendency to curl up at unsupported corners.

I have CT branded black and white to try.

The Dremel filament was brilliant, but costs £20 for 500g.

All PLA, except the flexible.

I also have a bit of abs to play with.

I don't have £300 - £600 to experiment with 30 different types.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

After some  considerable frustration, the Grey PLA seems to be feeding OK now, i have upped the filament stepper's current a bit so it now runs slightly warm (but not hot). A similar tweak solved the Z-axis issue I had with it stalling when homing quickly.

[p14b]

Having been printing for about a year, and building my own 400mm Delta Printer, here are my findings. 

You can't judge a Filament if your printer is at fault, which i would guess is the case with 90% of uses if not higher. (Printer also inc firmware and all software used through to setup)

From using Cheap Ebay £10 per KG to Named £40 per KG i would honestly say i find no difference in base PLA's , but size does matter ie - My delta uses 1.75mm filament, prints great with filament at 1.7 to 1.75mm but with such a long bowden tube! Filaments over 1.75mm can be harder to push through even more so if its a badly wound reel. this causes bad prints, a Verier Caliper is a must to measure the filament. 

Upping the current or volts measured on the stepper can add more torque but if too much this will cause problems of missed steps and over heating, if your motors get warm this is normal to a degree, but its your steppers that will now be a lot hotter. 

I've just started using a newish UK seller on ebay, 1.75mm 1kg reels are £19.99 delivered tracked in 48hrs (All colors) i have a few rolls to test but they seem fine so far, postage was on time and rolls are evenly wound and filament measures 1.75mm.

I agree with someone above bq prints good, as does prima value (my friend only every uses Prima value and his prints are very good)

1st Picture using cheap china filament that others said elsewhere was rubbish, cost ebay £10.62 1kg delivery was free about 5 days from UK stock, as you can see it prints great for me.

2nd/3rd Picture using this new UK ebayer, at £19.99 a roll 1kg, ok results so far but yet to find best settings for it, mainly due to using a different heated bed whilst i waited for a new mirror bed without holes, which by the way is a every day glass mirror bought from ebay for £20, tested in my own oven to 200degs cel, (equivalent 3D Borosilicate mirror of 17inch is £80 if you can find one)

People can call me a cheap skate but people only pay silly prices because they know no better. 

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm having a few problems with the PrimaValue - it's a really badly wound spool and has virtually jammed solid several times :-(

I also had to up the stepper current to get it to feed OK.

Still, it managed to print ED209's right leg!

[Stub Mandrel]

Just swapped out the grey filament for white (which is more like translucent white). Same brand, no change to settings and the results are excellent, I got the grey almost dialled but it curls up or overhanging angles.

Downside is my hot end became a bit loose, so as it was a 5 hour print I got burnt brown blobs dripping into the print. Cured now but still getting a smell as what i couldn't wipe/chip off the hot end degrades.

Looking round the web it seems black/white filament tends to print well. Presumably the simple pigments have less impact on the properties of the filament?

[PeterW]

Protopasta does some good stuff, otherwise generic RS material is fine. I tend to add some over extrude just to ensure things are nicely bonded together... checking that the layers are not too wrinkly.

 

cheers

 

peterW

[Stub Mandrel]

If colour isn't too important to you, I've noticed that 'baby blue' (11.99) and pink PLA and (10.99) don't sell on eBay and people sell them off cheap.

I couldn't quite bring myself to order pink  but I now have a reel of baby blue

 

[PeterW]

You can never have too much.. though some of it has a habit of cracking on the reel... feed fails.... gggrrrrr.

 

peter

[Gina]

Buying cheap filament is a lottery - some of it I've found quite good but several reels totally unusable.  Oversize that simply won't go through, badly spooled, inclusions of rubbish and just plain unpredictable.  Having had years of trying to find decent cheap filament and becoming thoroughly frustrated, I have gone the other way and buy the best I can find.  Trying to get your home made 3D printer printing well and reliably is definitely not helped by using bad or unpredictable filament.  Best make I've found so far is rigid.ink - a small British company and so far their best filament is PETG which can produce beautiful prints.

[Gina]

Being particularly interested in printing items that can be used for observatories and other outdoor astro stuff I've been looking further into available types of filament (there's a lot of them) and come across ASA which is similar to ABS but specially UV and weather  resistant.  Review here.

Want to Use ABS in Hot Sun? We Compare ABS vs ASA Filaments

[PeterW]

I have had good and diabolical prints in PETG. I use RS generic PLA mostly, been thinking about Nylon and PEI for more robust and resistant printing.

one thing I am very careful about when changing material is that the reel coming off does not unwind.... filament jams make me mad... especially on 72hr builds!

 

peter

[Stub Mandrel]

Wow, the baby blue PLA printed a small test piece beautifully! All I did was allow for it being only 1.73mm in diameter. Now doing the first of six big prints for a commercial project where a cheerful colour will be a big plus, hope it lives up to its promise.

Oh the joy of being paid to play with the toys!