This PLA Plus is tough, but not any stronger than other options. Am i missing any reason for sticking with modified PLA instead of jumping to PETG and copolyesters in general?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lYbeA4GmQY
PLA can be mercilessly blasted with airflow for maximum detail. PETG is a lot harder to get really crisp, clean results. But mechanically speaking, copolyesters are pretty much outright superior.
Any chance some US suppliers will receive some love?
PLA is easier to print, does not string as much, wider acceptable range before it does weird things, and doesn’t drop charred blackened bits into your nice expensive white prints forcing 2 reprints out of 10 objects due to 1 mm size surface discolorations!!! ARGGHHH!!! It seems to not creep up burn then drop down a nozzle without a silicon boot as much. Just all around easier to deal with. The thing is some things are worth the hassle of making in a stronger material.
A stronger material is usually always harder to manufacture in some way. Stronger glue, more care in prep and handling, stronger metal, slower feed on a mill or lathe. Stronger is just usually harder to do, because it’s stronger… I will not surprised if that holds true to filament.
It all depends on the end use. Printing in T-Glase right now, would rather it be stronger and/or easier and lower temp, but I have a requirement of food grade FDA approved material for this short run of 10 finished 3 part container type products.
Very grateful for the reviews TS. The info on strength of T-Glase was sort of surprising to me, but it’s still good for surface quality and detail and color saturation or clarity. Personal products and art, not frame corners and brackets. I do wish I had included ‘not dishwasher safe’ text on the product base and will do that in the future thanks to your demo.
We are adding menus for filament in our web UI and it forced me to dig into what I would recommend to newbies, research more on what is popular and why, look at prices and what sells. I’m a geek so I dig exotics but my day to say is just PLA. I think the flood of new types of filament has confused many and adoption will take time to prove the winners. This video series is awesome and I’m learning! But it’s starting to leave me wondering: can we form any conclusions yet? I am getting close. I design for the 90% and if asked “what plastics do you need?” I would currently answer - PLA is probably all you will need. But Flexible/semi-flexible, PET and nylon are welcomed departures on rare occasions. I feel that covers the vest majority of user’s day to day, even the occasional special need. Picking your go-to brand or supplier is the big deal.
So keep up the good work! It’s informative and has got me interested in some obscure offerings. 3D printing serves so many small notches, I’m glad all these options are out there. I’ll tell my customers: PLA… and go check out Tom’s videos if you want to explore the rest!
Brook
Since I do functional prints mostly especially rapid prototyping I don’t care about stringing and discoloration. I have abandoned PLA for PETG. It prints much easier due to less shrinkage. I can extrude it at 30 cubic millimeters per second on steep overhangs without the need for several extra part cooling fans. I can post process it with a drill or mill. Also it doesn’t smell like curry while printing.
Like others said, primary advantage to PLA is ease of use. Maybe cost and availability, too.
In my experience with a few kinds of PET (including t-glase), required temps sometimes require an all-metal hotend, first-layer adhesion is terrible on unheated blue tape, it doesn’t print fast, and its gooeyness makes it build up on the brass nozzle or string much more than PLA. Modified PLAs don’t seem to have those headaches and you get some of the heat resistance and strength of PET.
In my prints, parts have come out more flexible with PET, too, so strength is coming at the expense of rigidity.
@Brook_Drumm my thing is that I do a good bit of automotive, so I need the UV protection ASA (modified ABS) filament provides. I’d love to find a less problematic compound that has the thermal and UV stability without the shrinkage and adhesion issues. Any ideas?
@Brook_Drumm You are going to have a hard time working out what “most” people use their printers for, and hence which filaments are worth considering as baseline.
No doubt PLA is going to be around for a long time, because it is the all-round easiest material to print. When finishing and polishing, however, ABS is probably the finest. These are two very “opposite” materials, in terms of performance, but I need them both for my day-to-day work.
For sheer strength, I use PETG which has to be kept bone-dry to prevent stringing. So I bought a food dryer which I use for my other filaments as well. PETG will not finish as well as ABS, but with a bit of elbow grease can be polished up really nicely. It can also produce a sharp edge that cuts flesh really well, which was an unintended discovery.
Then there is nylon. This simply cannot be pigeonholed, because it is such a weird material that is so useful in so many areas. I use a lot of that as well.
I would bet on those four materials, because I buy the cheapest stuff I can find on ebay (most of my prints go into the bin after testing) and found that these four materials cover all my printing requirements, and the the bottom-of-the-market suppliers have largely given up on exotics - clearly the demand is not there or they cannot fulfil it, so they seem to concur.
I do agree with these sentiments. I have sales numbers to draw from so my view is clear for my current customers… pla is 99% of sales. Abs dropped off and all exotics have priced themselves out of competition. I still see use for both but I’m not normal. Perhaps neither are the rest of the community here with a higher level of knowledge and niche needs
@Brook_Drumm Ahhh, don’t spoil a good argument with some actual facts.
However, that’s a pretty interesting fact, that 99% of your sales are PLA. I would suggest that your customers are largely after a simple® experience. This is not a reflection of the quality of your machines - you have an enviable reputation - but the market you are aiming at.
From the Ultimaker forums and others that I visit, it would seem that you are in fact correct in that the market is clearly divided into two segments: rational humans and the rest. The former just want something to come out of the printer with a reasonable chance of success, the latter want to see how far they can go without setting anything on fire too often. You would appear to cater to the former, which is a great strategy, since you are unlikely to lose customers to unintended consequences. And there are probably more of them as well.
I personally fall into “the rest” category! I have wax, precious metal clay, Kevlar, and other never-released experimental filament!
Since my main offering is targeted at newbies, yes, pla is the staple. But with future machines, I intend to work with (secret) companies to make wildly strong, high temperature filament to print larger models than we see regularly in this forum. I think giving up a bit of resolution for higher strength is where the bleeding edge will be this year.
I love the crazy stuff but it doesn’t sell. Perhaps when I reach the crazy-people market with a printer that excels in fast and large prints, the exotics will sell
Brook
@Brook_Drumm Don’t make us all jealous. Kevlar. Seriously, man, you make me weep.
On the resolution front, I am doing more and more 0.8mm and 1mm prints at layer heights varying between 0.2mm and 0.5mm with a 40 watt cartridge. For big parts this is a game changer. I would love to see what you will do with designing a big, rigid printer, with dual head for soluble supports. I would even be prepared to use ABS as a support material, and use acetone to remove anything that cannot be removed mechanically, just not prepared to entertain PVA.
A plus is on the horizon… enclosed, dropping z 
and eventually a pro w multiple material into one extruder
My eyes are suitably peeled.
@Brook_Drumm Any work with a 6 axis?