PLA Color Differences - Performance & Settings

[TechGnome 0]

Good evening to everyone,

 

I'm fairly new to 3D printing. I've been learning about it for about a year and I've been printing on a nice Ultimaker 2 for a couple of months now. I'm brand new to the forum so I'd appreciate any help or any references to existing threads that may have already answered the following questions. (I've done a few searches but haven't had any luck yet).

 

I've been using Gizmo Dorks Silk Blue PLA with great results after getting a feel for the best temps and support settings. But I just switched to Gizmo Dorks Gray PLA and my first print came out with supports that were significantly harder to remove than all my previous prints. Almost to the point of breaking of pieces of the print in trying to remove the supports. I've read that different colors can have slightly different properties, but this seems like a serious change. 

 

 Is this kind of thing common when changing between colors? And if so, what would you recommend as far as changes to settings to compensate for it? I've attached the Project file for reference and my machine is currently set to 210 degrees C for PLA.

 

Thank you. 

 

 

01_stormtrooper-helmet_110sc_8.75Hr_86g.3mf

[SandervG 1,519]

Hello, welcome to the community! To give you a definite answer that is applicable to all filaments and vendors would be near impossible. It is true for different colors that manufacturers add different additives and pigments which generate the color, and sometimes this means that you need a slightly higher or lower temperature or that it melts slightly different. 

 

Usually the difference shouldn't be so disrupting that it warrants a different profile for each color, but it could be worth considering. And I've never printed with Gizmo before, so I am not sure how their filament prints. 

[geert_2 556]

I don't know your filament, but I have also seen this in other brands: especially high-filled colors - thus with lots of pigments, or special pigments - print differently from uncolored filament. For example I have seen this in white, yellow, light-green, black,...

 

[TechGnome 0]

Thanks so much for your input.

 

I've started running test prints that'll vary the temp and support settings. Hopefully I can chart out the best perimeters. It's still a nice filament, I may just need to stick to using this for support-less prints until I can figure it out.

 

Also, here are some pics of the finished Helmet from the file I attached before as well as the link to the original modeler.

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-stormtrooper-helmet-65368