2.85mm ABS supplier in the United States?

[somewhereinla 2]

Hi,

Anyone knows where I can find ABS filament suitable for the Ultimaker2 (2.85mm) in the United States?

cheers.

 

[eldrick 65]

It's commonly known as 3mm filament, and you can buy it from any 3D supplier.

 

[dgsharp 0]

I disagree with the "any 3D supplier" comment. I got 3 spools of PLA and 1 spool of ABS from Makershed. They sold me my UM2 so I figured it'd be good. Two of the spools of PLA and the spool of ABS measure over 3mm, which you will commonly find listed as the absolute max recommended filament diameter. The ABS prints great regardless (it's a much softer material than PLA). The two oversized spools of PLA are very difficult to print, I have to print them at 20mm/s to keep from jamming up my machine with any consistency. Extremely frustrating to wake up after an all-night print at 25mm/s and the entire build plate is covered in severely, comically under-extruded fluff. It gets worse the closer to the center of the spool I get.

I got 2 spools of PLA from ProtoParadigm, and they are great (around 2.8mm or so), and they list their tolerances (unlike Makershed). UltiMachine also lists their tolerances so I expect theirs is pretty good as well, and will be trying them soon. I've heard many good things about Printbl but the fact that the blog and Twitter were last updated a year ago and many of their items are listed as out of stock makes me wonder how reliable that will be in the future.

 

[eldrick 65]

If any filament is over 2.87mm, return it.

 

[somewhereinla 2]

Has anyone tried Makerbot ABS filaments?

 

[gr5 2,172]

If any filament is over 2.87mm, return it.

 

Up to 2.95 on a few rare spots is probably fine. Some manufactures aim for nominal of 2.9mm and those should be fine also but of course a nominal of 3.0mm is not worth it on the UM2. Better to use it as a brick.

printbl.com makes fantastic filament. But beware that their spools have a hole too small for the UM so you will have to make your own spool holder (took me 10 minutes with my sloppy wood working skills) and also they have unspooled filament - which prints very well in the UM2 by the way as it is almost straight so doesn't get stuck in the bowden or print head due to curvature. For unspooled I bought a cheap lazy susan from rubbermaid and just put it on the floor.

EDIT: OOPS SORRY - FORGET PRINTBL - THEY ARE PLA ONLY

 

[eldrick 65]

This works well for the spool-holder: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/30mm-spoolholder-ultimaker2

 

[joergen 2]

Has anyone tried Makerbot ABS filaments?

 

Makerbot doesn't sell 3mm filament anymore, only 1.75mm ABS

for a more comprehensive list, have a look at http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Buyers'_Guide#Filament

 

[selmo 0]

I recommend IC3D's filament. Good quality, good support, not too expensive. Made in USA, sold on Amazon (prime!). Holds color well, prints a little cooler than most ABS (220-230'C), very little smell, etc.

 

[eldrick 65]

While I like the DiamondAge PLA, which is monochiral and very hard, I've recently had serious problems due to dirt on the filament in the sealed bags in which I received me coils of white from the US distributor (printbl.com). I've had a series of clogs on my UM2 that are definitely caused by the black specks visible on the white filament inside the sealed bags. (It's not from the extruder - I'm using Robert's, printed in white.)

Further, their US distributor, printbl.com, is offal (sic). They sell PLA only, and typically, currently have only five colors in stock of the 19 listed. They offer white and ivory only in coils, although DiamondAge manufactures several sizes of spool (and also offers ABS). To top it off, the printbl.com web site hasn't changed a word in almost two years, and the site has been off the air frequently. It is difficult to tell whether they are actually still in business.

Bottom line is that unless and until DiamondAge finds a new U.S. distributor, I cannot recommend the DiamondAge filament, unless you want to pay double to cover International shipping direct from New Zealand.

As a supplier of both ABS and PLA, I can enthusiastically recommend Protoparadigm.com. Good service, good prices, and I've never had an issue with their filament. I've also had good experience with ABS from Ultimaker.com - haven't tried thjeir PLA yet.

printbl is off my list.