Filament supplier reviews

From RepRap
Revision as of 23:02, 24 October 2011 by Nudel (talk | contribs) (Added blue and white PLA review.)
Jump to: navigation, search

Please enter reviews of different filament suppliers here.


ABS from Qingdao TSD Plastic Co., Ltd

Date: 02. June 2011

Quantity ordered and payed for: 21Kg

@ Cost: 16.77usd/kg (shipping to Norway included)

Quantity received: 18.627kg


Ordered thickness: 3mm

Filament test measurements :

3.4mm

3.2mm

3.3mm

3.2mm

2.8mm

2.9mm

3.0mm

2.7mm

2.5mm


Ordered shape: round

received shape: oval:

sample: 2.7mm->3.5mm in one spot on filament.


Other: The filament had oil on it some places from the manufacturing process.


ROTORIT

ABS from New Image Plastics

Contact details:

                 2411 S. Locust Street
                 Canal Fulton, OH 44614
                 USA
                 Tel: +1 330 854-3010

Date: April 2011

Quantity: 30 lbs {one full spool}

Minimum order: 10 lbs

Cost: $7.95/lb {exclusive of shipping}

Ordered thickness: 3 mm

Tested thickness: 3 mm +/- 0.04 mm

Ordered shape: round

Delivered shape: round

Notes: The filament was made from ABS resin produced in Taiwan. It is of high quality and delivers good prints. One thing noticed was that there is a larger than usual amount of volatiles in this resin. If your extruder hot end is left at extrusion temperature for more than a few minutes the volatiles will cook off and extrusion will not begin immediately after the stepper driving the extruder is turned on. With this filament you should run in your extruder manually for 10-15 mm of extruded thread for a 0.5 mm orifice hot end before you begin a print. Other than that, it is a pleasure to work with.

Last year, New Image had a great deal of difficulty finding a broker willing to fill small consignments of ABS resin. As a result it could often be months before an order could be filled. That's changed and now filament is made within 30 days. It is important to know that New Image is a producer and does not keep an inventory of filament. For that reason, deliveries take a little longer.

When you order you should call Donna directly. Do not order by email. 1.75 mm filament in ABS costs $9.95/lb.

New Image does not currently produce PLA. They do also supply first rate quality polypropylene and HDPE. I have experience with both of these. That said, neither is a good material for beginners and both have a very long learning curve.

Forrest Higgs 04:44, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

ABS from Qingdao TSD Plastic Co., Ltd

Date: 23. July 2011

Quantity ordered and payed for: 21Kg

@ Cost: 16.15usd/kg (shipping to Germany included)

Quantity received: TODO

Ordered thickness: 3mm

Filament test measurements :

3.14mm

3.03mm

3.42mm

Ordered shape: round

Other: The filament is full of 0.5-1.0mm air bubbbles, surface is marred and not smooth.
Delivery was delayed, was tols a machine has broken down but this batch was from after the repairs.

Marcus Wolschon

PLA from Supply3dPla.com

Date: 11 May 2011

Bought: 400g blue, 400g red.

Free sample: Black, natural.

Price: €35 (including shipping to Norway). ~$60/kg.

Extrusion temp: 185deg C.

Filament diameter: ~2.75-2.85. Slightly oval.

Bottom line: Excellent! Easy to extrude, bonds well.

Full length review (with pictures!): http://repraprip.blogspot.com/2011/05/pla-review-supply3dplacom.html

--Nudel 14:43, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

PLA from Ultimachine.com

Date: 12 May 2011

Bought: 1 spool each of silver, transparent blue, and white.

Price: $297 (including shipping to Norway, not including tax ~$110). ~$58/kg.

Free sample: Black.

Extrusion temp: Silver@200deg C.

Filament diameter: [email protected].

Bottom line: Silver: Good, looks great. Comes on spool, easy to handle.

Transparent blue: Excellent, easy to handle and print, looks incredible.

White: Looks good, but behaves very different from any of the other PLA. It seems to have a different viscosity, it flows and spits/bubbles more, and needs to be printed at a higher temperature. I would not recommend this color, though the other PLA from ultimachine is great, so it could be a bad batch?

--Nudel 14:43, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

ABS from Tianjin Wallbosen Industrial Co., Ltd

Date: somtime late in 2010

The filament was oval in shape.

Other: Lots of bubbles and strains. abs granules were not dried before extrusion.

ROTORIT (for someone else...)

ABS from Esunpla

July 30 2011

I bought 5lbs of 1.75mm ABS in coil form.

Ordering was fairly straightforward, but you are currently limited to whatever color they happen to have on hand, or a minimum 20KG order and some additional wait time.

From the time I sent the money via paypal, it took 13 days to receive the package in Pennsylvania, USA.

There were a few issues at the customs office when it entered the country, as the shipping company they used did not do some of the necessary paperwork. After a short phone conversation and faxing a copy of the original invoice (along with a simple form) everything was sorted out without delay.

The filament feels like it weighs 5lbs, and is the same physical size as makerbot's 5lb coils so I'm assuming I didn't get short changed there.

The filament measures from 1.67mm -1.77mm. The vast majority is between 1.68 and 1.71mm. It has a uniform, smooth surface almost without exception.

There are about a dozen small black spots on the surface of the filament. They look like tiny black abs shavings, and extrude through my .35mm nozzle without issue.

I had to dry the filament for 1hr at 100C in an oven, since it was oozing quite a bit when idle in the extruder. After that, and adjusting my extruder/software for the 1.7mm filament, I started Printing.

The temperature to extrude this filament needed to be set to 270C. (255C is what I use for makerbot filament)

It seems to extrude very well. Overhangs/bridges are also quite successful. I was extruding it up to 60mm/s with a .35 layer height and 1.3 w/t.

I hear 1kg spools are now available in paper and plastic.

--Andrew Diehl

PLA from Esunpla

Sept 26 and Oct 17, 2011.

I bought 5 kg of 3mm PLA, 2kg black (opaque) and 1kg each of green, yellow and orange (translucent). This was a discount sale as the plastic coloration was not perfect (they were testing), resulting in faint colors (the black is gray, the translucent ones are more translucent than expected).

The shipping time was excellent (I think it made it to France in less than a week). The black PLA is made of 2 hard paper spools with a plastic core, while the other colors were in coils. Every individual piece was under its own sealed plastic bag with a desiccant. Pictures to come. The total weight of plastic delivered is a little above the ordered 5Kg. Fair.

Test of the black PLA :

  • Consistent diameter centered around about 2.8mm. Never goes over 3.0mm. Good point for Bowden cable
  • Very soft, difficult to break by binding. Good point for Bowden cable.
  • Sticks very well, even on non heated glass.
  • Not much warping encountered so far with a glass bed at room temperature, only on large prints.
  • Takes a bit longer than other PLA to solidify once extruded (probably explain the good sticking). This might make overhangs and bridging more difficult to achieve.
  • Some slight bendings present in the roll. Not a problem, still goes through my Bowden cable.
  • Seems to contain some moisture (emit a little white smoke from time to time during extrusion, especially at the beginning). Did not try drying in an oven yet.

Will post pictures of printed objects later.

Test of the green translucent PLA :

  • Diameter is fine to go through the bowden cable. Measurements to come.
  • Less soft than the opaque one.
  • Sticks a bit less than the black opaque, but much better at bridging/overhangs.
  • Warps less than the opaque PLA (IE nearly not at all).
  • A bit brittle, the filament might break into the bowden tube (which renders retract impossible to achieve).

I would buy again (but then, I'm far from having used all that plastic) regarding the quality - Still have to compare for nearest sellers total price (shipping was far more than an half of the cost).

--DeuxVis

PLA from RepRapWorld

One of the few in the €15-20/kg range (maybe imported from other china suppliers ?), I gave it a try.

Ordered 26aug / Received 31aug

Reprapworld review package.JPG

The package seems to be shipped with TNT, in the delays announced of 4days


Quantity ordered : 5x500gr (green/yellow/red/blue/black) for €69.40 (with shipping Netherland->France)

Reprapworld reveiw filament.JPG

They have some bending (one in the blue, 4-5 for the black), a bubble sometimes (mostly for the green translucent), and little bit dirt (mostly visible on the black, and few black dusts on the others) probably need to clean it before extruding. The black roll of 1,75mm have also some interruptions (it's not a continuous roll).

Beside that it seems correct (I'll complete this review after real use)


Shape: rounded 3mm and 1,75mm (I didn't see that black was 1,75mm)

Diameters : 1.64-1.73mm and 2.79-3.11mm

--Emmanuel 08:55, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Each 3mm filament is fine, they required some tweaking (average diameter) but printed good.

However I wouldn't recommend the 1,75mm-black, I don't know why but the print quality is far from the other filament and the uneven diameter has finally led to a nozzle jam (fortunately the bowden tube broke before a critical failure).

--Emmanuel 17:58, 28 September 2011 (UTC)