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3D Filament Brands Suggestions

741 35 January 17, 2021 at 04:32 PM Creality3D Printers
So I recently got into 3d printing and got one during blk Friday. Ender 3 v2 and I immediately got a spool of geetech PLA filament. And been very happy with it. The strength has been great even with low infill and prints have been coming out great.

But cant help wonder from more experience users if there are other brands I may want to consider getting that may could either improve quality (strength or looks) even more or allow me to increase the speed of printing (currently 60mm/s, haven't really tried going faster).
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> bubble2 1,215 Posts
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dukeblue219
01-19-2021 at 06:37 AM.
01-19-2021 at 06:37 AM.
Like you I'm pretty new, and have an Ender 3 v2. Per the recommendations I received, I've been using Inland (Microcenter's brand), which is allegedly rebadged eSun PLA. I bought 3 spools of their regular PLA at $16.99/ea and then 3 spools of the PLA+ at $18.99 each, and have been very happy. They'll even ship it for free (maybe $25 minimum?) if you don't have a store nearby.

For the regular PLA I was running 80 mm/sec, 215C, and 50C bed temp with no issues, with a glue stick for adhesion on the glass (which mostly worked). When I switched to the PLA+, which seems much less brittle btw, I had some adhesion issues. Ended up at 80 mm/sec, 220C, and 60C, with blue painters tape on the glass bed. The painter's tape works amazingly well and is much cleaner than the gluestick.

As for speed, I've done some prints at 100mm/sec on the regular PLA and it wasn't really an issue, but I can't vouch for the quality either since I haven't done a lot of controlled experiments. Just printing things to play with it seemed fine, though.

Have not bothered with dry storage of the PLA yet since it's winter, nor have I enclosed the printer. It's in a relatively cool, but dry, basement. With the painter's tape I have zero warping issues on the bottom layers so I'm not in a rush to build a box.
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Last edited by dukeblue219 January 19, 2021 at 06:39 AM.
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Zaiaku
01-19-2021 at 04:59 PM.
01-19-2021 at 04:59 PM.
Quote from dukeblue219 :
Like you I'm pretty new, and have an Ender 3 v2. Per the recommendations I received, I've been using Inland (Microcenter's brand), which is allegedly rebadged eSun PLA. I bought 3 spools of their regular PLA at $16.99/ea and then 3 spools of the PLA+ at $18.99 each, and have been very happy. They'll even ship it for free (maybe $25 minimum?) if you don't have a store nearby.
Thx for the feedbacc. Before you replied Ive been trying 85mm/s speeds and been very happy with it. After gooing to that speed there hasn`t been much reason to go faster since not saving much time. Will definitely take a look into microcenter since they only about 20min drive from me.

I have no used gluesticcs or tape for adhesion help..... atleast not yet. Been considering trying abs for decorative prints because of the finish you can apply to it but have been more forces on printing useful items then decorative at the moment.

I have read much about prints being brittle but have not experienced this to my knowledge. So unsure really how to recognize it. My brints have been very sturdy and why this is not a great idea I honestly test my prints by dropping them to the ground at about waste level.
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dukeblue219
01-20-2021 at 06:21 AM.
01-20-2021 at 06:21 AM.
Quote from Zaiaku :
I have read much about prints being brittle but have not experienced this to my knowledge. So unsure really how to recognize it. My brints have been very sturdy and why this is not a great idea I honestly test my prints by dropping them to the ground at about waste level.
Brittleness depends on how sturdy the object is, of course. I'm thinking of something like a rocket nosecone printed with only 5% infill -- dropped off a table it will crack with PLA. Printed in "vase mode" it will almost certainly split apart.

With the PLA+, in my very limited experience, if I print something relatively flat (let's say, a 100mm x 100mm x 3mm square) and try to bend it, it will bend pretty far before starting to tear/crack/break. With the Inland PLA, the same object would give only slightly before snapping hard. It just doesn't seem to have as much "give" before it breaks.
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Joined Jul 2004
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Zaiaku
01-20-2021 at 05:24 PM.
01-20-2021 at 05:24 PM.
Quote from dukeblue219 :
With the PLA+, in my very limited experience, if I print something relatively flat (let's say, a 100mm x 100mm x 3mm square) and try to bend it, it will bend pretty far before starting to tear/crack/break. With the Inland PLA, the same object would give only slightly before snapping hard. It just doesn't seem to have as much "give" before it breaks.
Most of my items have not been very tall. Mostly flat from my view point. But also have done prints of multiple pieces. The only print I've done that strength mattered as much was notebook stands for 15 inch notebooks. Im interested in the pla+ vs abs. The look of a abs print after acetone looks perfect for decorative prints. The pla options definitely go give the same eye appeal from what I've seen.
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