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Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker


aaron

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Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

I am a big fan of Ultimaker. However, I have found that the included PLA is sub-par. I was having issues with quality while using the included spool. When I began using my new filament, all of my quality issues were fixed (overhangs and stringing). Has anyone else found this to be true?

 

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    How was the uality at the first prints with the grey filament? Immediately bad? Or has it started after a few days/weeks?

    How have you stored your filament the time you´r not printing?

    I recognized at my silver and black ultimaker filament, that both worked great in the beginning and started being difficult to print after a few days/weeks on the reel. Therefore now I store it in sealed plastic boxes with silica gel pads and it seems that it helps...

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    pla left in the fresh air gets fat with moisture, then chokes up in the extruder,, powden tube and extruder.

    so keep your pla sealed up in airtight bags and try and use a reel within 1 year of purcase...

    Ian :-)

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    This is unequivocally the case. Ultimaker recently upped the quality of their ships-with-the-machine-silver PLA (it's now sparklier, and prints a little better...) but it still prints much worse than Printbl colored PLA. (To be fair, I haven't tried the Printbl Silver - it may just be that all silver PLA prints like garbage!)

    I think they are doing themselves a major disservice, because so many of my initial concerns about the possible part quality of the machine had nearly nothing to do with my assembly or the machine's capability - they were almost entirely related to quality of the PLA. We've essentially realized that if something we are printing is worth the time on our machine to print, it isn't worth the risk, hassle, and quality hit that comes from using the stock silver PLA.

    In other news... anyone in the NYC area interested in purchasing 3 mostly complete rolls of silver PLA? ;)

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    anyone in the NYC area interested in purchasing 3 mostly complete rolls of silver PLA?

     

    lol! I'll give you $2 per roll! Cash!

    I'll be at MakerFaire along with many ultimaker employees and other people such as illuminarti on Sept 21,22. Will you be going nick? I'll message you off this forum.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I will have to try storing it in a sealed box.

     

    How have you stored your filament the time you´r not printing?

     

    I stored it in open air but I had at the time only owned the machine for a week or two. While observing consistent quality, I switched to my new PLA and that alone fixed many cosmetic issues. Considering this, I don't think it is a storage issue... yet. However, I do agree with Nick, gray PLA may just be an avoidable filament in general.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    Just signed up. Psyched to see everyone! Maybe I'll bring some of this silver PLA with for a handout. Honestly, though, it's probably going to be too much of a schlep.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    Odd, we did do a shitload of testing with the silver PLA. It always printed great at the UM office. (We have a scary amount of empty spools already) We do see that you need some different temperatures for each material to get the best printing quality. But this temperature also seem to depend on environment conditions like ambient temperature and humidity levels (we had quite a few issues when our ambient temperature in our testing room went over 35C this summer)

    The Makerfair NY will be awesome. I know the UM team will be carrying a lot of stuff with them. I won't be there (sadly), but Coen from UM-R&D will be there for all your die-hard in depth technical questions, next to the normal sales&support people.

    I was also very pleased to hear who from the community are joining us there! But I think all will become clearer in the next few weeks.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I definitely had issues with my stock Ultimaker Blue last October. Moisture absorbence seemed to be the worst issue. I got another blue roll from Ultimachine and did a comparison between the two. Placed in the same location, both rolls absorbed moisture but the one from Ultimachine expanded by ~0.1mm, while the one from Ultimaker ~0.2mm (enough to go above 3.1mm, getting stuck in the teflon tube). Texture-wise, the Ultimachine roll felt more waxy, while the Ultimaker roll felt more plastic-ky.

    I think it would be good if Ultimaker packed not just one colour, but different colours. It could be just a short 3-5m sample from all the colours they hold. That way, if one colour fails, consumers can try other colours to check if different colours would work better.

    I'll be headed to the MakerFaire as well. Would love to get a sample of the lousy silver.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    When is this taking place? What brands will all be represented there?

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    It almost sounds like someone needs to design a means/way/device to seal the filament while attached to the ultimaker

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I agree. That would be a nice innovation. I wonder when we will see something of the sort.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    Note, I store my PLA in an open grocery bag next to the radiator. Never had issues with it :-) I think the radiator heat keeps the moister out.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    Yeah, this seems like a lot of work for something that isn't really an issue - Maybe if you're leaving your filament out for many (6+?) months at a time?

    All summer we've left our filament exposed in a humid, sweaty, NYC office and frequently have the doors and windows open while it is raining. There has been no discernible change in print quality with various filaments... even nylon. I think the only material I would consider drying would be PC, if I ever decide to print in it and need something clearish.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    This is unequivocally the case. Ultimaker recently upped the quality of their ships-with-the-machine-silver PLA (it's now sparklier, and prints a little better...) but it still prints much worse than Printbl colored PLA. (To be fair, I haven't tried the Printbl Silver - it may just be that all silver PLA prints like garbage!)

     

    How recently is that ? 3 months ago they were using ingeo 4043D, if now it's different then it's not 4043D anymore.

    Yes silver (and gold) filaments sucks, grey or cream would be much better for a first timer.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I honestly think the gray is more of a marketing thing that a practicality thing. The upgraded gray color inspires the "Ultimaker feeling" in a way if that makes any sense at all.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I just switched from the Ultimaker silver metallic filament to a different PLA filament. I found the quality of the prints significantly better with the new filament. Especially the thickness of the printed lines seems to have less variation.

    As the orignial filament is named 'metallic' I think there are metallic particles included in the PLA. This means it is an emulsion which shows a different flow behavior than the pure stuff.

    The quality of silver metallic prints is therefore not an issue of poor filament quality but caused by the mixture of the material.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    i just found some old odds bits of pla hanging around my print room, tried to put them into the bowden tube.. no chance baby!!!

    Ian :-)

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    I always have my filament lying around in my room, some in bags, some just out in the open.

    Never experienced any noticeable problems with the filament, and they usually lie around for a couple of months..

    We chose the Silver color because it has a nice look when the print is done and we all found it to work quite consistant.

    Therefore i am surprised to hear that quite a few people have been experiencing difficulties with this specific color.

    Those who have had trouble, did they switch to another color Ultimaker PLA and found improvement, or to a different supplier?

    For some reason, i always find white to be a difficult color to print..

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    And in regard to Maker Faire NY, Tommes, Marrit and myself will be going to represent the Ultimaker team at the booths (both 3D print village and MakerShed).

    Martijn and Erik will also go, but they will also walk around on the Faire (but probably also be at the booth every now and then..)

    We will also be accompanied by Luis, GR5 and iIluminarti.

    Looking forward meeting everyone! :)

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    Too bad I live in Montana... I would love to attend the Maker Faire. A bit far away and a bit untimely for me.

     

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    Posted · Quality of included PLA with Ultimaker

    As for PLA, I have tried just some average Ebay filament and have been getting much better results with consistency and stringing. The colors are translucent blue, translucent red, and brown if that matters to anyone. Would you say color (not type {metallic vs not metallic}) has different noticeable molecular properties in PLA?

     

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