hey guys and gals, my 3d printer will arive tomorrow, and i need to order some filament, any suge...

[G+_Heath Reeder]

hey guys and gals, my 3d printer will arive tomorrow, and i need to order some filament, any sugestions? i would prefer to order from amazon but its not a must. and what is the modeling program that Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ suggested?

[G+_David Peach]

tinkercad.com - Tinkercad | Create 3D digital designs with online CAD TinkerCAD for modeling. Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ recommends Hatchbox for filament. I've tried several brands, Hatchbox included, and have not seen a noticable difference from one brand to another. I have only tried PLA.

 

From what I've read, there used to be huge quality differences between brands. Various sources say that isn't as much of an issue now. I also wonder if ABS (the old standard for printing everything) is much more noticable in quality differences.

 

I am currently running a print with $17/roll filament. I also have a roll that only cost me $12. Not a bit of problems from either one. I also have my $25 Hatchbox roll that prints fine too. I say experiment with brands until you find something that is easily accessible where you are and within your price range that works well for your printer.

[G+_David Peach]

I'm surprised that this has not created a flurry of controversy telling me why one filament brand is absolutely superior to all others.

 

It might be helpful if someone let's us know if they have recently tried a brand that was absolute garbage.

 

My only bad experience was with a roll that did not adhere well between layers. I sent it back but then found out that my motherboard was dying and the flaw affected the hotend temperature. So I'm now convinced that the problem was my printer and not the filament. The other roll I have from that same brand is one of my favorite filaments.

[G+_Scott Wilkinson]

Surprised there aren't a lot of replies. I primarily use Microcenter's Inland filament. Color may vary a bit between lots, but print quality has been consistently good. I have used a lot of their PLA, fair amount of PETG, and dabbled with ABS. I have also used a couple spools of Hatchbox with equally positive results. For $15 a kg, the Inland filament is a pretty good deal also. A limited selection is usually available on Amazon.

 

I struggled with the PETG on the Monoprice Maker Select v2, but it prints like a dream on the Prusa MK3.

[G+_Hyrum Smith]

PETG on the Prusa MK2S just works. The only problems I had were related to defects in the PETG filament. I bought 4 Kg of PETG from Maker Geeks. The Crystal Series was pretty good - only had a couple of defects in each spool (diameter briefly jumped above 2 mm or a blob). One spool of their ReSeries (recycled) PETG and it had all kinds of quality issues - mostly significant diameter variations. One spool of Glow in the Dark PETG - did not glow that well and have not used it all to find any defects. Then I bought 1 Kg of Maker Geeks Raptor Series PLA (high strength & temp) and it jammed my hot end three times before I threw it in the trash. I never did get a successful print from that spool. The diameter was supposed to be 1.75 mm. I measured it in many, many places and it varied from 1.60 mm to 2.05 mm! I skipped 10 meters, or more, between the three print attempts, and finally gave up with the third straight jam. They have a return policy, customer pays to ship the defective product back to them and they will only give you a credit for the item purchased. Buyer beware of Maker Geeks! Their quality control is terrible but their prices are cheap. This may be a case of getting what you pay for.

 

Printed through 2 Kg of Hatchbox PLA with no problem and the roll of Prusa PLA was as good as the printer is (awesome!). Shipping filament from Pague is a killer tho. So I am looking for a new brand of PETG to try so maybe I need to give eSun and Inland a try. Thanks for sharing the experiences. My apologies for my rant (I feel better) - I hope it helps someone avoid the problems I have had lately.

[G+_Scott Wilkinson]

Not the first time I have heard that story about Maker Geeks, unfortunately. But have also heard glowing reports. So probably an issue of consistency.

 

A month in with the Mk3, and I had no idea PETG was capable of the things the Mk3 produces with it!