Makerbot brand PLA

[cschneer 0]

Our school has recently replaced our Makerbot gen 5 printers and we have a lot of the PLA remaining that we purchased with the printer.

 

We also just purchased second hand Ultimaker 2 units and I would like to use this PLA with the Ultimaker but so far i have been unsuccessful. It seems like the diameter of the PLA is way smaller than Ultimaker specific PLA. Has anyone gotten this to work well? What exactly was done?

 

Thank you

[gr5 1,350]

There are (fortunately) only 2 standard filament sizes.  1.75mm and 2.85mm (often called 3mm).  UM uses the larger size.  Makerbot gen 5 used the smaller size.

 

I sell a conversion kit here for UM2: https://thegr5store.com/store/index.php/um2-175/1-75mm-conversion-kit-without-bowden.html

 

But I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.  How many spools are we talking?  How much money is it worth to you?

 

The good news is that you can set the filament diameter on the UM2 itself and cura doesn't need to know your filament diameter.

 

PLA lasts for years (basically - I could explain in more detail about this subject for 10 minutes but I've printed 6 year old PLA with no serious issues).  So maybe you should hang on to this filament for your next printer?  Or donate it as prizes to students who have a 1.75mm printer (quite common size).  Or donate it to another department in your school system as 1.75mm is more common than 3mm.

 

[geert_2 392]

Where did the old printers go? Were they sold, given away, or are they sitting somewhere in the basement, collecting dust? If given away and they still worked, I would suggest you just donate the filament too. If they are sitting in the basement, you could revive them in a separate room, and let students mess around with them for their hobby projects, and let the students take care of them, thus out of the official curriculum.