US material supplier

[the_schire 3]

Hey, all, I am in the market for some new filament as the roll that came with my umo is just about dead. I bought a kilo from maker geeks, tempted by the low prices and the promotion video they uploaded describing their quality and what not. This was a very poor decision, the filament clogs all the time and is too narrow to feed properly 95% of the time.

I am looking for a good supplier of filament in the US that sells material at less than $45 a kilo. I heard good things about printbl.com, but they don't have much stock. I have also heard good things about ultimachine, but the price is a tad high for my liking.

Thanks!

[SandervG 1,521]

@gr5, you probably know exactly what suppliers are great in the US.

I would say Colorfabb is always a great choice.

[chrisw 70]

I like these guys:

http://intservo.com/

[LePaul 321]

http://printedsolid.com/collections/colorfabb

[SandervG 1,521]

http://printedsolid.com/collections/colorfabb

 

ah yeah I know that guy, good supplier!

[LePaul 321]

He threw in a bag of Gummy Bears on my last order. Our fate is sealed

[the_schire 3]

Sweet, I pm'd gr5 and he said colorfabb from printedsolid was the way to go. Really looking forward to my bag of Gummy Bears XD

[LePaul 321]

I don't think you'll be disappointed. Be sure to read the ColorFabb site and check the Tips and Tricks tab on the bottom. I'm finding that I start the print at 220 and then back it down to 210. I know some people go way down to 190s...but for the speed (40 mm/s) I find 208-210, on my machine, works very well.

[the_schire 3]

I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Be sure to read the ColorFabb site and check the Tips and Tricks tab on the bottom.  I'm finding that I start the print at 220 and then back it down to 210.  I know some people go way down to 190s...but for the speed (40 mm/s) I find 208-210, on my machine, works very well.

 

What layer height do you print at? I've been liking my 0.1 mm, but I'm just curious

[LePaul 321]

0.1 is what i have been using. I know I can go lower (0.06) but that result doesn't seem significantly better...it just makes the print take longer.

[renthal 8]

I also use colorfab from printed solid for PLA prints and have had no issues with quality as it simply prints beautiful. I avoided ABS for my first year of printing because of stories about adhesion issues and being new to 3d printing I didn't want to add extra issues. Now that I understand my machine inside and out I have started printing with IC3D ABS and it prints just as good as my colorfab PLA/pha. I use the Olsenblock with the .6mm tip, 235c, .2 layers, 45mm/s, bed 105c, 12 lines of brim, fans 15% for overhangs past 30 degrees, and for bed adhesion I use got to be ultra glued invisible gel and have not had any prints curl or pop off mid print. I apply a thin coat of gel on the build plate when it's cold then start my print. Once cooled a slight judo chop to the side pops the print off with no issues.

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=341807&catid=183456&aid=339081&aparam=341807&kpid=341807&CAWELAID=120142990000154146

I also must add how much I love how my UM2 bed holds it's level print after print. I rarely ever need to re-level my print bed. I mostly watch the first layer and make adjustments as it prints if needed. When I do level the bed I skip the paper and go by eye with great results but that just comes with time. Over all it's been a great first year with my machine.

[the_schire 3]

My roll of white Colorfabb pla came today, and I'm having some issues. I tried printing at 220, 60 and 50, and .1, but that leads to clogs and it just ends badly. Suggestions?

[the_schire 3]

Small update, the first model I tried printing was quite ambitious (a Greek style statue) but I printed a small guitar pick at 220 60 and .1 just fine. Although, I was watching and it did seem to extrude a little bit too much plastic as the nozzle would occasionally drag through previously extruded material. I'm redefining the filament diameter as the 2.82mm that it actually is opposed to 2.85, maybe that will fix that problem. Anyway, back to testing.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Guest

[ultiarjan 1,223]

220/60/50 at 0.1 is a bit hot, try going down on the temp to +/- 205.

For higher quality go down to 205/60/35 at 0.1

And about the clogs, do a few atomic pulls to clean things up.

When printing real small stuff print two at the same time, to give the piece more time for cooling.

[LePaul 321]

As @ultiarjan points out, slower is better. All my Black Colorfabb printing at 0.1 has started at 215 for a good starting flow, then ticked down to 205. I'm using 35 mm/sec and while it does take longer, the results are well worth it.

I printed an iPhone tripod adapter last night, using the same material but 0.2 layers. I upped the speed to 45 mm/sec and 215C and got a great result.

I have one more small piece to print in ColorFabb black...then load the ColorFabb white PLA/PHA

[the_schire 3]

Alright, thank you. I haven't noticed any boxes in cura that would turn the temperature down a bit. Do you just manually decrease the temperature via the ulticontroller? That solution might be a little in convenient for my purposes as I usually like to start a print in the morning then let it run all day whilst I'm off on my daily activities. I usually don't have time to sit around for anything past the first few layers, but I'm assuming that's all it would take?

[LePaul 321]

I do adjust it in the Ulticontroller.

In Cura I set it for 215 and then, once I have it loaded in the printer and the print has started, I go into the settings and go into the nozzle  temp and bring it down to 205.   Like I said, I like to let the first layer go and then bring it down.  Every printer is a little different so if you are leery of going back so far, try 210...see how it looks....if good, a few ticks more.

(Kind of funny to see Cat and Dog pictures in a thread. Rowr! Hiss! Woof Woof!)

Edited October 6, 2015 by Guest

[the_schire 3]

Yeah I'd be a little worried about backing the temperature down all the way to 205 as my feeder tends to have a little bit of trouble griping filament, however I (in my 3D printing noob-hood) always tried to print at 100 mm/s and didn't really realize how important speed is XD. 60 seems to work pretty well for the little bit of ultimaker grey I have left, but I'll try around 40 if I can find some time this week.

[LePaul 321]

@the_schire   I just started printing the ColorFabb White PHA/PLA   It melts quick at 220, which is what i used to get it flowing after removing the ColorFabb Black (I let the print head cool to 100C and then yanked the old filament out)

I noticed how quickly it flows/oozes and changed the temp way down to 205...I may go lower after I see how the next few layers look.

EDIT: Wow this stuff goes on nice once you nail down the temp....temp is now 202 and going to let this 4 hour print run over night with the time lapse camera running

Edited October 7, 2015 by Guest

[the_schire 3]

Not too shabby[/media]

This was a 9 ish hour print at 60mm/s. Asside from her chin getting a little messed up (removed in clean up) she turned out really good. Also, idk why but my Galaxy S6 likes to rotate photos when I download them off of my Google photo back up, so sorry for that.

[LePaul 321]

What temp did you wind up going with?

I'm intrigued how one color flows more freely at a certain temp than another. But since nothing in 3D printing is plug and play, each material does require some tweaks.

Here's the first of many white pieces I need to print.

I really need an Ultimaker 2 Extended to print the barrel piece, which is taller than my UMO. (No, don't want to chop it down into two pieces!)

Finished product will be this...

[mendells 55]

We buy ColorFabb value packs direct from ColorFabb (if you sign up for 3DHubs.com you get a discount code that you can use). Even with shipping the exchange rate is such that each roll ends up costing around $35.

We have both PLA and XT in all sorts of colors but we don't buy white anymore. For whatever reason we have never had very good prints using white. The layers don't seem to extrude consistently and we get very visible layer lines. Other than that we are very happy with both the PLA and XT filaments.

PLA/PHA Settings:

Print Temp: 220-225C

Bed Temp: 60C

Fan Speed: 100%

Flow Rate: 100%

XT Settings:

Print Temp: 240-245C

Bed Temp: 70C

Fan Speed: 50%

Flow Rate: 106%

[LePaul 321]

 

@mendells , how fast are you printing? As @gr5 suggests, for better detail, lower temp and slower speed seems to work consistently for me. I printed at 0.1 mm layers and layer lines don't look awful to me

[mendells 55]

I usually print at 50-60mm/s at .1mm. It prints great with every other color but when I switch to white I have layer issues. I've tried printing slower, lower temps, longer/shorter layer times with the same effect. All the other colors print great at the same settings so I just try to avoid white now.

[LePaul 321]

I usually print at 50-60mm/s at .1mm. It prints great with every other color but when I switch to white I have layer issues. I've tried printing slower, lower temps, longer/shorter layer times with the same effect. All the other colors print great at the same settings so I just try to avoid white now.

 

I got good results (don't you think?)...so....so far, so good