Word of warning - I've had some terrible experience on 2 occasions now with

Word of warning - I’ve had some terrible experience on 2 occasions now with JAG 3mm ABS filament on Amazon - I was twice tempted by the price and prime shipping availability, but won’t mess with it again. Jams extruder frequently, traced it to air bubbles within the filament.

Thanks. I think the community needs to get the word out on good and bad sources of filament.

agreed! The jet stuff from amazon is great

Hm… I got myself a spool of red 3mm JET PLA a couple of months back and honestly wasn’t that impressed. Not due to it clogging my nozzles or anything horrible like that, but I couldn’t get it to properly stick to the bed (cold, bluetape) at all. Might need to try again once I’ve modded my Ultimaker to have a heated bed.

Yeah, I should have mentioned I never print with PLA, so am not a good source of information on quality of those filaments

what kind of trouble do you have with abs @John_Ridley ? I love it, and require the strength it provides for most of the parts I make. I only resort to PLA when preparing objects for casting / molds…

I get bed adhesion with 130-135C bed temp, and a healthy does of abs glue (I try to mix the color abs I’m using so as to not leave a bad color residue on the bottom of the part.) I print fairly fast, but have my minimum layer time set high. I have been using an E3D nozzle for almost 6 or 7 months continuously, and have had much better luck and fewer failed prints then I ever did with a j-head. My printer is a Mendel 90. I’m in a very humid climate, but don’t take any particular care to keep my filament dry (except nylon and polycarbonate.)

A heads up, I’ve also had bad experience with 3mm Black Octave PLA filament on nozzle sizes smaller than 0.5mm - lots of tiny crap in their filament.

Interesting @John_Ridley - I’ve never had anything like those troubles, and have printed 8" diameter, 8" tall, 4mm thick wall funnell parts, completely filling my build area. I usually throw a box over the printer to keep it warm/dry, and the only thing I can think of that might cause your troubles is your nozzle diameter? Printing temp to? What printer do you use? If I forget to put a light abs slurry on I get mild warp, but nothing like your troubles.

As far as strength goes, I agree that PLA can seem pretty strong, and is definitely stiffer. But the temperature resistance and yield strength of ABS is undeniably higher.

@John_Ridley @Anthony_White
What are the ambient temperatures in your countries? What is your room temperature?

I really think small changes in ambient temp make a bigger difference than people might realise. When I moved 3 machines printing ABS about 1.5 metres upwards in my industrial units (see the post I made a while back about @David_Lamb1 making a shelf) I noticed a big positive shift in bed adhesion and print reliability.