What kind of filament does everyone use? Can I get nice looking prints with the eBay $15 rolls? If not what is a good mid range filament?
I primarily use Hatchbox, reliable diameter and print quality. The ABS isn;'t pure ABS because vapor smoothing doesn’t work with it, just makes it really shiny! Trying eSun right now and so far its looking good also…
I use http://hh3dplastics.com. $20.99 per 1Kg spool, 6.5in or 8in diameter spools. Free shipping in the US. They are a quick ship and I have never been disappointed in their product.
Thanks @Jeff_Gould and @Keith_Applegarth
Currently using ESUN Silver PLA with great success off of their reseller on Amazon, so free shipping with Prime. Hated the white PLA from the same order though, horrible layer adhesion and lots of stringing.
Uh, I’m probably the lone dissenting vote against eSun ABS because that caused a nasty clog for me. It worked well before that though.
However I have rolls of IC3D that have worked beautifully for me… But expensive. Jet filament hasn’t clogged on me yet either.
Using locally produced filament costing about 10$ per kg. Getting pretty good quality prints with it. Now finishing second 1 kg spool of natural colour PLA. http://www.sopytka.ru
I +1 @Nathan_Walkner for the @makerergeeks! It’s good and he has a variety of choices along with other exotics if you need.
I have used radioshack PLA that I got a kilo for like 6 bucks. Bet no one can find cheaper filament then that.
Awesome, thanks for the info everyone.
http://atomicfilament.com is ~0.02 accuracy on every measurement i’ve ever done. great stuff
@Mike_C I had never heard of these guys…and they accept BitCoin!!! NIce!
All of the PLAs print at the same temps and use very good resin which is a big plus.
The ABS is engineering grade stuff, requires high heat and bed temps, but the parts are insanely strong if you have a machine that can handle it.
@Mike_C how bad does their ABS warp…Hatchbox warps very little, compared to say Sainsmart…
Hatchbox doesn’t warp a lot because it contains stuff to make it flow easier & stick more. It also is high in the butadiene ratio. This comes with the cost of having much weaker parts. You can really tell this stuff isn’t pure ABS if you try and dip it in acetone and it’ll survive.
Atomic is a high end ABS, but will have much more warp than hatchbox. The end result is MUCH stronger parts. It is a mixed bag cause not everyone is using a bed that can get hot enough to do the job.
@Mike_C
What bed temp are you talking about 110? You sound like you have a materials background…
@Jeff_Gould no materials background, just a software engineer that nerds out with printing for fun.
110-120c for sure – it’ll probably be ok to go a bit lower if you’re printing on PEI or something as a print surface.
I mostly print PLA/PETG these days and avoid ABS unless i know the part i’m making will require very high heat tolerance. I’ve ran atomic stuff in 95c water and it holds up.
@Mike_C
I’m an IT Nerd myself…with aspirations in 3D Printing… Where did you find out the material stats for Hatchbox and others? are there MSDS for the filaments?
I’ve printed basically all the major brands (hatchbox/sainsmart/protoparadigm/colorfabb/etc) and become somewhat familiar with the material properties.
As far as the composition of them goes, I know a guy in los angeles that runs a filament line and he’s answered a ton of questions as to how filaments range in properties so much.
With PLA you’re just dealing with differences in how well the resin was dried/whether it was dye or pigment / impact modifier / etc. ABS is an entirely different beast in the sense that it is actually a mixture of multiple materials, and the ratio in which it is comprised has a massive effect on warp and strength.
Unfortunately, low warp ABS is weak, high strength ABS warps… can’t have both 
Thanks for the suggestions ordered the mystery 2 rolls from @MakerGeeks for 33 bucks. Should be here Monday 