Filament supplier reviews

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FilamentNewSupplierCompanyEntryTemplate (In the supplierslist) + FilamentNewCompanyReviewTemplate + FilamentNewAnswerEntry = FilamentReviews Qingdao TSD Plastic Co

ABS and PLA from Amazon.com

Date: 10, Feburay 2012


Quantity ordered:

1.5kg Black, 3mm ABS 1.5kg White, 1.75mm ABS 1.5kg Red, 3mm PLA 1.5kg Natural, 1.75m PLA

@cost: 48USD for 1.5kg material (excluding the spool) plus shipping $6.99 Total=48+6.99=54.99, that is, 36.67USD/kg or 16.67USD/pound.


Pros:

  • Fast shipping for USA directly. Got it in 6 days.
  • Trutable website - Amazon
  • High availability of stock
  • Clean extrusion and melt at expected temperature.


Cons: Not found so far. Will report if I see any during the usage.

Other comments: I would continue to buy if there is no probelm withe ABS/PLA plastic.

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)

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)

Date: 9th March 2012

Bought: 3 rolls of 2.5kg White 3mm, 2.5kg Silver 3mm

Total price inc shipping: €194 (To be fair, the shipping was miscalculated, but I was given a cheaper rate.)

Filament diameter: 3.05mm-2.95mm

Unfortunately, all 4 spools arrived broken, which made it difficult to handle. The white PLA is not a clear platinum sort of white, rather an ivory-ish colour. Prints well at about 185c.

OoiTY

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 on build surface, even on non heated glass. But doesn't stick well on itself.
  • 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.
  • Is too liquid once melted, leading to problems with high speed or thin layer prints - I have to experiment with lower temperatures to see if that helps. Bad adhesion between layers.
  • It stinks during extrusion. Wonder if there is only PLA inside ?

Test of the green and yellow translucent PLAs :

  • 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).
  • UPDATE : it becomes more and more brittle with time (maybe because it's winter now) to the point of not being usable anymore (even on non bowden extruders).

I changed my mind and would NOT buy again that PLA - the translucent because it breaks too much, and the opaque both because of its printing quality and the fact it's probably a recycled one with garbage that maybe an health hazard.

Moreover, it seems esunpla is servicing more and more resellers, so you might end up with buying his PLA without knowing. Ask your reseller before buying (and consider an absence of answer as a 'yes', looks like some resellers are trying to hide their source).

--DeuxVis

PLA from RepRapWorld

september/november 2011

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

Ordered 26aug / Received 31aug. Shipped with TNT, in the delays announced of 4days

Quantity ordered : 5x500gr (green/yellow/red/blue/black)

Reprapworld review package.JPGReprapworld 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.

Shape: round, but the diameter is between 1.58-1.99mm for 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)


I tried again to use the 1,75 black but failed again (and the min-max diameter is worse than previously measured)

--Emmanuel 10:34, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

december 2011

Ordered red, black and green PLA plus a bit of white ABS. ABS is untested so far but looks fine.

Green PLA had some black lumps (twice in 500 grams), probably ABS as increasing temperature to 250 degrees melted everything and unclogged the nozzle. The red is fair on spool but becomes shiny and gets a deeper color once extruded, very nice.

Diameter of the 3mm PLA is between 2.77 and 3.05 mm. Its possible to correct for this diameter but very large prints (full trays) might become an issue as the diameter might change too much.

Red and green came on a spool, black and white did not but were neatly bundled.

--Cyberwizzard 20:50, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

january 2012

Ordered yellow PLA from them in mid 2011 and january 2012. The lots look and feel quite different, the most recent is significantly less intense in color (faint colors have also been described by DeuxVis in his review) . The first lot from 2011 was a real pleasure in printing and gorgeous yellow. The latest roll (2.7 Kg) bears a sticker from Shenzen Esun Industrial Co. www.brighten.net item 300-Y, batch 20111020 Filament near the start of the roll measures 2.84 x 3.01 - 3.04 mm, oval section. I dialed in a diameter of 2.90 in Slic3r and Skeinforge. Printing: very similar experience to that described above by DeuxVis, Prints best around 184 C, at 200C is too liquid and prone to generate errors in flat solid areas . I've printed perimeters down to 0.155 mm layer height (0.5 mm nozzle), but small parts become quite brittle and break easily when printed with such layer heights. Update 20120212: After more extensive testing: this stuff is really brittle and delaminates way too easily. Useless. I'll try to get a refund, but I wouldn't bet on it. Will post a pic.

--Lanthan 14:30, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

june/july 2012

I ordered a spool of 1kg orange 1,75mm PLA. Seems good so far, I hope the quality of his supplier is improving for all the filaments :) --Emmanuel 09:04, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

I transferred the coil from the supplied spool to another I have, and I don't know why, but the part of the spool that was near the inner of the spool have exploded in multiple points. Like if it didn't like to be spooled to a bigger radius : / 21/07/12

Reprapworld respooled 175.jpgEprapworld respooled 175 2.jpgReprapworld respooled 175 3.jpgReprapworld respooled 175 4.jpg

Beside that it still print good, next time I will leave it on it's original spool.

PLA from RepRap-walmart (repraper)

Date: 25, June 2012

Ordered 50kg of assorted ABS and PLA with local user group in may.

The yellow, orange and green require a higher temperature.

Some of the 1.75 is a little inconsistent.

Overall still very happy and have since purchased some glow in the dark PLA.

Sublime


Date: 25, April 2012

Quantity ordered:

1kg Black, 3mm 1kg Green, 3mm

Filament average measurement: 2.95

Ordered shape: round Received shape: round

Pros:

  • Extrudes at expected temperatures 185c - 210c
  • Wide color selection
  • High availability of stock
  • Clean extrusion, have not found air pockets or contaminates
  • Much more flexible than 4043D PLA (thought it may have been ABS)

Cons: None yet!

Bottom line:

I'm happy with this plastic and will buy again.

Sublime


Date Ordered - April 20 Received one week later (been using it for a month) Tried: 3mm green, 1.75 -black, orange, fuscia

I also tried repraper, found filament to be more inconsistent than promised. Black 1.75 was 1.4mm-2.6mm with blobs that would jam the feed tube luckily before the barrel. Also got some 3mm that had a strange coating on it and was very hard to stick on first layer. Friend of mine tried it, and it gummed up his hobbed bolt within 2 prints. We had good luck with the Orange 1.75 until it got to 1.60mm and rolled off the idler. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7227/7289246384_fa61db76b6_b.jpg for an example of how bad it is. Simon's only reply was "You got the bad one, 10% off next order?"

I can NOT recommend this filament, cheap is not good, good is not cheap. The pictures on their site are NOT accurate of what they send.

DO NOT USE THIS FILAMENT VENDOR

Max Inux


Date Ordered - March Received in about a week. Ordered: 1.75mm White and Natural PLA

I emailed them regarding what resin they use in their PLA and they claim that they use Natureworks material. The white PLA's colour is nice, a clean platinum white. Average diameter which I measured is 1.68mm. Sticks very well on hot glass and kapton.

Personally, I'm very happy with this filament, especially for the price.

OoiTY (fixed naming declarations, ooity loves it, max inux says to avoid - AVOID)

All reprap-walmart products, now available in Europe too: http://fabber-parts.de/shop

There is also a US reseller, but I wont link them (they are using other peoples photos w/o credit)