Filament Review

[TommyDee]

I wanted to start a place to review filament.

I was at B&H photo (who still sells stock cartridges for Cube 3) and they have a wild assortment of bulk filament.

Their brands are:

XYZ
Makerbot
Afinia
Printrbot
BuMat
ROBO
Dremel
Flashforce
Tiertime

Recommendations from others

Hatchbox
MG Chemicals
Esun
Spool3D

New entries:
BQ
FILAFLEX
Inland
SmartFil
SmartFil Flex http://smartmaterials3d.com/es/tiend...tfil-flex.html
3D Solutech
EMOLEN
MatterHackers

I wanted to focus on all aspects of filament including hybrids.

We can track the following:
1st impressions
Long term impressions
Pro's
Con's
Comments
Take Away

Filament features:
We need a way to determine opacity. One plus for the 3DS filament is their highly pigmented filament.
This gives you parts an extra "pop".
Published temperature range
The color you are testing
Country of origin
Breaks, rewinds, storage, spool provided...

Over time, we might be able to zero in on "budget filament" or "interesting filament"... "failed filament"... etc.

I'll add names to this post as they are presented.

Thank you for your participation

External reference to a filament database site:
https://www.filaments.directory/

[TommyDee]

Hatchbox Filament - Beige Pantone 720C

1.75mm PLA Filament 1KG

Made in China

1st impressions:
Shiny and brittle
A bit "wet"

Longer term impressions:
This filament has a niche use-case.

Comments:
From the 1st print, this filament was "off". Not something easily described.
But when the print is complete, you can give it a slight squeeze and the part "crackles".

This is useful in some instances like removing a lot of supports.
It is brittle enough that it crumbles or separates between layers.

Pros:
No clogs or breaks as yet.
Support connections clean up better than 3D Systems filament.

Cons:
Poor adhesion to the previous layer (the crackle).
Not as suitable for structural prints.
No manufacturing date.

Take-away:
Does a nice job on organic shapes and facilitates support removal.
Does not bond well with the previous layer.


Continuing History:
I had a break in the cartridge today failing the print using this filament.
Was able to re-feed using the purge. This filament does snap on occasion.

Break...




Break...











break...


break...

Done with this one! Yuck!
This was part of the 1st re-spooling into the stock cartridge.
It seems to age very quickly when left open for a week or so.

...and today I found many short pieces of filament in the cartridge.
I'm trying to finish a chess set out of this.
This time I just careful "moved" the spool into the cartridge rather than "winding" it.
The bundle is hanging free on the spool's hub.
And Bo, this filament wouldn't purge at all!
Maybe purge temps are lower?

[TommyDee]

Esun Filament - Natural - temp 190-220C

1.75mm PLA Filament 0.5KG

Made in China

1st impressions:
Nice: Something 3D Systems never offered us.
No fuss printing

Longer term impressions:
Hard to see features due to the material being translucent.

Comments:
This material seems to behave very similar to the 3D Systems filament (as this is my primary comparison).

Pros:
No clogs or breaks as yet.
Translucent colors is a great option for Cube 3 owners.

Cons:
Hard to see details on your part. Not a fault of the maker, just the type of material.
Large spool diameter makes transfer a little more challenging.
No user-traceable manufacturing date.

break, break, break, break..... DO NOT REWIND!

Take-away:
Recommended for the Cube 3 printers.
This filament doesn't like to be rewound.
I have breaks all over the 3DS spool onto which I would this filament.


edit: Interesting conversation with the USA supplier:
The supplier decided that a refund is in order and is being processed.
However, I gave the supplier an option; send me a fresh any-color PLA so I could test to see if this is in fact old material.
They also requested information on what the spool went through and why I re-spooled it.
Upon informing the supplier that I keep this at room temperature and zip-locked when not in use,
the reply stated that Esun filament doesn't like working in lower temperatures.

The supplier would have resent a new spool if I would not be re-winding it.


esun_breaks.PNG

[Programeitor3d]

Probé el filamento de la marca BQ, compré en pccomponentes.com de aquí España y va muy bien, en un primer momento se movía con el pegamento, luego descubrí que es mejor no usar pegamento, funciona perfectamente sin pegamento en la cama. .. Como se puede ver en las fotos, que hace un buen mierda !!
WhatsApp Image 2017-02-02 at 18.03.36.jpgWhatsApp Image 2017-02-02 at 23.59.04.jpgWhatsApp Image 2017-02-03 at 01.07.27(2).jpg

- - - Actualización - - -

También probamos para imprimir con Filaflex flexible, pero sin éxito, la primera sonda con el cartucho de PLA y luego con el cartucho de ABS para ver si funcionaba temperatira .. Pero creo que al girar tanto el tubo original de el cartucho deja de empujar así la flexibilidad ..-- usted no probar con un tubo mod directa sin doblar ...WhatsApp Image 2017-02-08 at 15.37.34.jpgWhatsApp Image 2017-02-08 at 19.57.30.jpgWhatsApp Image 2017-02-08 at 19.57.30(1).jpgWhatsApp Image 2017-02-08 at 20.47.22.jpg

[TommyDee]

Thank you for posting Programeitor3d (Google translation)

I tried the filament of the brand BQ, I bought in pccomponentes.com from here Spain and it goes very well, at first it moved with the glue, then I discovered that it is better not to use glue, it works perfectly without glue in the bed. .. As you can see in the photos, it does a good **** !!

- - - Upgrade - - -

We also tried to print with Filaflex flexible, but without success, the first probe with the PLA cartridge and then with the ABS cartridge to see if it worked temperatira .. But I think that when turning both the original tube of the cartridge stops pushing like this The flexibility ..-- you do not try with a tube without direct bend dub ...

[Programeitor3d]

Sorry, I forgot to translate English! My tests with Flexible without success, I think that if I make the modification of direct tube will work well with the cartridge of ABS, I have to buy tube PTE of 4mm, 3mm and make the modification to load the flex from above without double ...
Since with the original tube is folded and the flexible needs to go straight since it is less rigid and needs a free push ... In the tests of purging cartujo if it was injected correctly, stopped when printing the head moves and the felxible It hurts

[TommyDee]

Printrbot White PLA ordered from B&H. Placeholder.

[TommyDee]

Inland Filament - Grey - temp 205-225C

1.75mm PLA Filament 1KG

Made in China

1st impressions:
Handled well, no breaks during a short-load into a cartridge case.
No fuss printing the Rook with 10 coils of filament in the test cartridge.

Longer term impressions:
So far so good. Break away supports will discolor but that is normal.
The material "tears away" rather than "breaks away" which is similar to the 3DS material.
At this point I have no reservations about this budget material.


Comments:
The gray is consistent in color. Same spool manufacturer as Esun.
This gray is not highly pigmented. This is a new feature I'll be looking for.

Pros:
No clogs or breaks on a 2 hour run.
Nice white printed box
Qualifies as budget price but demonstrates quality as well.

Cons:
Large spool diameter makes transfer a little more challenging.
No user-traceable manufacturing date.

Take-away:
Recommended for the Cube 3 printers.




I have to add Inlands ABS. I got a 2Kg spool of yellow. Very yellow indeed!

This is a very easy to handle material. Perfect purge and a temperature range from 220-260*C

Printed this without sidewalks...

rosettes.PNG

I like this stuff too. I may just have to start printing more ABS now.

Update on this yellow ABS from Inland. It had a rough time when I put it in a modified cartridge.
And I don't know that I can blame anything on the filament, but further studies will have to wait.
I ran dry two re-wound refills in the last ...what 3 weeks? ...and have come up with some very excellent prints.
The problem I was having became much less noticeable when I put it back in a stock cartridge setup.
Somehow, I was getting micro-plosives which would blow out the bond but couldn't tell where the trapped air came from.
These plosives were quite audible. That is how I can compare. Doing solid walls like a thin wall vase really made it obvious.
The problem didn't disappear, as most filament will do this from time to time. But it is worth noting.

10-02-2017 note: FYI - Inland "GOLD" is in fact a transparent Mango color. Unfortunately this filament is failing spectacularly.
I peeled every layer off on the 3DS test print. That makes for 2 failed spools from Inland. Amazon will get this one back.

UPDATE: 11/12/2018 - I may need to eat a lot of crow about the words I've spewn about regarding Inland ABS:
I still thank MakeShaper endlessly for forcing me to learn how to edit the .cube3 file. I ran the Inland yellow, now quite old BTW, using the MakeShaper parameters and I have heard NO PLOSIVES! This means there should be no pinholes anymore!
Anyway, if you use a file modifier, lower temps on Inland ABS to 240-ish and cut the retractions in half.

Update: 11/19/2018 - I've printed several parts using 245 degree C for the filament temperature and cutting the retraction in half. This seems to have solved my Inland ABS issues. Furthermore, a look at the Ekocycle print files, I'm going to suggest that Ekocycle may work well with 3rd party ABS filaments. Cube3 owners can slice using the Ekocycle slicer and then swap a few data packets in the header to make it a Cube3 print file.

[bolsoncerrado]

Nice thread tommydee!! Are you gonna link each filament actual post on the first post?

programeitor de que parte de españa eres

greetings

[Programeitor3d]

Nice thread tommydee!! Are you gonna link each filament actual post on the first post?

programeitor de que parte de españa eres

greetings

I am from Murcia, this is the page where I buy the filament, it is a company also from Murcia (, it has good price and I am delivered in 24 hours .. I do not know if they have international shipping, you can try to order ...
I would like to be able to print in Flexible, the problem is that this printer has no options for manual adjustments, such as print speed and retraction ... I do not know if with the new hack and telnet could be configured.

https://www.pccomponentes.com/bq-bob...m-azul-topacio