Hi all,
I'm new to 3D printing and am working on finishing my Rostock Max-v2. I getting ready to buy my first filament for the printer and wanted to know what brand or brands are recommended.
Thanks in advance
recommended brand(s)
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Jimustanguitar
- ULTIMATE 3D JEDI
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Re: recommended brand(s)
You can't go wrong ordering from SeeMeCNC. They only carry premium filament, and it's worth the extra dollars because you won't be fighting quality, chemistry, colorant, and dimensional issues.
TaulMan makes excellent products, ProtoPasta makes a lot of neat mixtures, 3DX Tech makes some great industrial and automotive composites, etc. You can also use NinjaFlex if you mod your extruder the right way, and ColorFabb also makes great stuff. I've also bought from PrintRBot and been well pleased.
I tried some MakerBot filament at work (I know, I know... It was all that procurement had an account set up for at the time) and it was extremely brittle. We had multiple prints fail because the filement would snap between the spool and the extruder.
The cheapest I can bear to go is buying HatchBox on Amazon. I've used dozens of their spools, and while it's not perfect, it's nice that it comes in 2 days and that they have most colors in stock at a given time. However, I've had 4 or 5 issues that I've defected parts because of. Most of them were a band of filament that's not pigmented the same and shows a stripe in the print, and once I had freak encounter with PLA that jammed for a second and then squirted out like water (it literally dripped onto the build plate), but then was ok for the rest of the spool. I've never seen that issue again.
The bottom line is, if you buy cheap china filament from Ebay, you'll have water issues, dust and contaminants, even chunks of metal and nasty stuff like that, that you don't want to go to battle with. Spend $20-25 at minimum, and buy $30+ rolls for the more important prints that you don't want to gamble on.
TaulMan makes excellent products, ProtoPasta makes a lot of neat mixtures, 3DX Tech makes some great industrial and automotive composites, etc. You can also use NinjaFlex if you mod your extruder the right way, and ColorFabb also makes great stuff. I've also bought from PrintRBot and been well pleased.
I tried some MakerBot filament at work (I know, I know... It was all that procurement had an account set up for at the time) and it was extremely brittle. We had multiple prints fail because the filement would snap between the spool and the extruder.
The cheapest I can bear to go is buying HatchBox on Amazon. I've used dozens of their spools, and while it's not perfect, it's nice that it comes in 2 days and that they have most colors in stock at a given time. However, I've had 4 or 5 issues that I've defected parts because of. Most of them were a band of filament that's not pigmented the same and shows a stripe in the print, and once I had freak encounter with PLA that jammed for a second and then squirted out like water (it literally dripped onto the build plate), but then was ok for the rest of the spool. I've never seen that issue again.
The bottom line is, if you buy cheap china filament from Ebay, you'll have water issues, dust and contaminants, even chunks of metal and nasty stuff like that, that you don't want to go to battle with. Spend $20-25 at minimum, and buy $30+ rolls for the more important prints that you don't want to gamble on.
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Khayrisill
- Printmaster!
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Re: recommended brand(s)
Thanks for the review. I made the mistake of buying before you read...
Buying an Hatchbox ABS on Amazon, is not horrible but not WOUAW !
Buying an Hatchbox ABS on Amazon, is not horrible but not WOUAW !
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Qdeathstar
- Printmaster!
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Re: recommended brand(s)
matter hackers filament is good stuff....not much more than Hatchbox and free shipping. white abs is about 5 shades whiter with matterhackers than Hatchbox...
Re: recommended brand(s)
Maker geeks is always good stuff, high quality and made in America. They're also pretty cheap and have a much less expensive annealable PLA than you'll find other places. Anand if you only care about the type of filament but not the color they have a grab bag option: http://www.makergeeks.com/mafigrbag2kg.html
I've ordered from them probably 7 or 8 times now and never had any issues at all, they're absolutely my go to.
I've ordered from them probably 7 or 8 times now and never had any issues at all, they're absolutely my go to.