What Filament Do You Guys Use?

Anybody have a recommendation for a quality filament at a reasonable price?

Nice Topic. I am relatively new to 3D Printing, but i think i will start with my few experiences.

  1. iGo3D red and blue 3mm ; igo3d.de ; Price: 23,95€/kg
    I would say it’s a good average chinese filament. Pretty flexible, you can’t break it by bending it. I print it with 50mm/sec at 215°C. First layer sticks ok to bluetape at 225°C. Colours are good but no 1st price winners.
    Overall, i can recommend it. Good price and a decent quality. Not the best, but good average.

  2. Innofil3D orange 3mm ; igo3d.de ; Price: 34,60€/kg
    Well, i am not sure what to say about this filament. It’s made in NL. The colour looks really nice. Printed parts look nice too. It is harder than chinese filament. Almost breakable by bending, but you will need to cut it. It sticks like glue. It’s almost crazy. If you print it on bluetape it kind of melted into the tape. I don’t like that. But if you are looking for a good sticking filament. This is it.
    It needs to get printed with a little higher temp. Below 220°C it’s not really “liquid” enough. If you want to print gears, for example, you need 230°C at least to get nice and sharp tooth.
    But, you can print it really hot without too much stringing or spider webs. The Temperature range is quite big. It’s easy to find a working Temp.
    However, i am having big problems printing it with my E3Dv6 Hotend. I got jamming or clogging or whatever, i don’t know. It’s really hard to print. If you search the internet you will find the same experiences, but there are really good experiences with E3D Hotends, as well.
    I don’t think it’s a bad product, but i think i won’t buy it again.

  3. Velleman PLA 3mm black ; different suppliers ; 31,90€/kg
    This filament is really hard, not flexible at all. You can break it by bending. I need to heat it with lighter just to get it straigt to fit it into my Extruder/Hotend. Without any heat, it would simply break.
    It don’t need that much temperature. Almost the same as igo3d filament. Maybe a bit less. Prints good, got no problems with it. Maybe a bit less stringing than the igo3d filament. But pretty close to it.
    Tip: Spin your Extruder Gear to get it out of the hotend. If you do it by hand it could break and you will have to dissamble the Hotend to get it out of there.
    I think it’s a bit too expensive compared to the igo3d filament. I don’t think to buy it again.

  4. ESUN PLA 3mm green ; hobbyking.com EU-Warehouse ; 15,25€/kg ; platinum member price: 13,34€/kg (prices are in US Dollar, i used 0,84€=1$, That’s what paypal charged me 2 weeks ago)
    Well, it’s chinese filament. The diameter seems to be very accurate. I measured ±0.02mm.
    It’s flexible but not quite as soft as igo3d filament. I print it at about 205-215°C. Sticks good to bluetape at 225°C. I got a good looking print out of it at my first try.
    Problem seems to be the stringing / spider webs. You have to lower the temp to get rid of the stringing. Not that easy to find a temperature without much stringing but hot enough to print at a decent speed. It’s the opposide to the innofil3d filament.
    Printed parts look good. The colour depends on the colour you bought. Green looks a little, well, i don’t know what to call it. On the other hand, orange looks really bright and nice.
    If you are looking for really cheap stuff, it’s good filament. But i don’t think you will buy it because it’s really good at something. It’s a good average. I am a platinum member at hobbyking. That means i just pay less than 14€/kg. It’s just really good for this price. I think i will buy it again. I got a few more colours of it and will test them in the next few weeks.
    (If you want to buy at hobbyking, be sure to buy from EU-Warehouse, not international Warehouse. Buddycodes can be found here: rcsearch.info/hobbyking/buddy/ )

Is there anybody else who wants to say something about the filament he is using?
Would be quite nice to got a little guide here to see what the big differents between filaments of different suppliers are.

I’ve had my printer for about four months and have used five rolls of Velleman PLA 3mm.

I print in the range of 180 to 190 degrees, but I have no idea how accurate those numbers are. I doubt the thermistors are accurate enough to compare different machines directly.

This filament sticks very strongly to blue tape. It also sticks very strongly to a heated glass plate with no tape.

The filament is brittle and if left in the machine overnight it is guaranteed to break, at least in my air conditioned apartment. When feeding into the extruder I straighten the naturally cuved filament by hand. It can easily snap off a piece while doing this. Instead of heating it before feeding, I just keep trying until I find a four inch piece that does not snap. As the roll nears the center where the radius is smaller, the curving and snapping gets worse.

The red filament is more orange than red. The blue and green are translucent if you like that effect. I don’t. But the translucent green was good for printing hollow Christmas trees with internal LED lights. The white is fine. I haven’t tried other colors.

Except for the brittleness and snapping, the filament works well. It is on the higher end of the price scale, so I’d like to find a filament that is less expensive, and if possible, less brittle.

Printed objects are not brittle. In fact, they are very strong, so any post printing work like sanding or trimming is hard to do. Brims and support are hard to remove.

At higher extrusion temperatures, the filament sags making overhangs and steep inclines very difficult to print.

At reduced flow rates, spider webs and stringing are a big problem. At normal flow rates holes are too small and other parts too fat. So it is hard to build objects with articulated joints, or pieces that are supposed to fit together.

I started this thread hoping to find a better filament than the Velleman if such exists. Perhaps brittleness is a problem with all PLA

Hi art, i fully agree that the Velleman filament is quite brittle on the spool ans snaps quickly after a print is finished and it’s not moved.
Also it is quite fluid and saggy at high temperatures. But as you say it prints quite well and rigid parts.

But the problem with the stringing or over/undersized parts you mention is mainly caused by the design of the Stock K8200 extruder.
I found it exactly as you describe.
After changing my Hotend to an E3D v6 that stringing or webbing was completely gone, at least for pla and abs.

I also used some Velleman black abs wich i found sticks very bad, and warps extremely, even on a very hot heatbed. (90°c or above)
The parts i got out after fiddling with te settings looked nice and were quite rigid.
But sadly the roll turned out to be quite impure, wich lead to those fabric like ipurity repeadedly clogging the nozzle.

I recently bought a 1 kg roll of kiboplast yellow pla for 18.99€ from here :https://youprintin3d.de/filament/filament-3mm/abs-3mm/8/filament-abs-3mm-gelb.html
To my surprise it prints way better than the price will let you think of.
It sticks well on heated glass when printed with brim and has less warping than the Velleman black.
The parts come out quite smooth and rigid. At higher temperatures it also gets saggy when printing overhangs.

I also got a 3 pack of 0.27 kg Orbitech pla in various colors from the same supplier for about 53,- €
All colors i got (clear blue, clear green, opaque blue) print quite well too. Even for overhangs. Warping is almost no issue.
They all stick nice on the glass plate heated to about 60°C or 70°C. The Orbitech filament is relatively stiff, but not nearly as brittle as the Velleman.
I can leave it in the printer for days without snapping.
Especially the clear variants are almost impossible to remove without complete cooldown.

cheers,

Christian

I can recommend you the igo3D (not innofil3d). Good price and it doesn’t break when left in the extruder after print. But i don’t think it sticks as good as the velleman PLA. I really like it when printing on bluetape. If you want to print on bare glass, i am not so sure. If this is a necessary feature, you should try to get some samples and test it yourself.

youprintin3d.de sells kiboplast (1kg rolls) and orbi-tech (750g rolls). Both cheaper than velleman PLA. I have no experience with both of them. You will find people who like it and some who hate it.
Maybe “ichbinsnur” writes a few words about orbi-tech. I am pretty sure he has printed with it already.

[quote=“cantax”]I can recommend you the igo3D (not innofil3d). Good price and it doesn’t break when left in the extruder after print. But i don’t think it sticks as good as the velleman PLA. I really like it when printing on bluetape. If you want to print on bare glass, i am not so sure. If this is a necessary feature, you should try to get some samples and test it yourself.

youprintin3d.de sells kiboplast (1kg rolls) and orbi-tech (750g rolls). Both cheaper than velleman PLA. I have no experience with both of them. You will find people who like it and some who hate it.
Maybe “ichbinsnur” writes a few words about orbi-tech. I am pretty sure he has printed with it already.[/quote]

Sure i have, cantax.

The vase here (viewtopic.php?f=53&t=13114&hilit=+vase#p57499) is printed with the kiboplast clear blue.
I print the clear kiboplast materials at about 220°C (e3d hotend!)
The prints stick extremely well to bare glass. If they are not completely cool the won’t come off. Bit if cool, they go off easily.
The result (link) speaks for itself i think.
The opaque blue kiboplast constantly clogged my hotend nozzle, regardless of which size i usen, but otherise printed nice too.
The reseller already agreed to me for an exchange spool.
So aside that i’m quite happy with kiboplast till now.

The orbitech abs also gives nice prints and sticks relatively well whne printed with brim and heatbed at 90°C, but it sticks not as good as pla. (which is normal i think)
It warps very little compared to the velleman abs.
I print it at about 230°C. Maybe i should go a little lower for less warping and better overhangs.
Here is the Makerook printed with the orbitech abs at 0.2mm layers and 0.6mm nozzle. (i had the big nozzle in cause i printed ninjaflex earlier that day)

pictures follow soon

cheers,
Christian