3DMakerWorld filament = too fat for UM2

[eldrick 64]

I just rec'd a spool of white PLA from 3Dmakerworld.com, a US supplier. While the PLA is extruded from 4043D PLA, and is the same Ivory color as I have been getting from ultimachine.com and protoparadigm.com, it is so thick that it won't run freely through my UM2 Bowden tube. The friction it creates leads to serious under-extrusion.

 

This stuff measures 2.98mm, and while I suspect that they are trying to meet a 3mm spec, it won't work with any Bowden-tube feeder that is expecting 2.75-2.90mm filament.

 

I've asked for a refund - we'll see what happens with that.

 

Meanwhile, definitely Not recommended.

 

 

[eldrick 64]

And here's the reply I got from 3DMakerWorld:

"Sorry to know the difficulty you were experiencing.

 

The specification of our 3mm filament is 2.9mm +/- 0.1mm, which is listed on our product page and matches many suppliers' spec.

Since this is not a quality issue, we cannot provide a refund. You should check back with UM2 to see the diameter tolerance which the printer can handle."

 

[InertialPrint 3]

This is rather late but I sort of ran into the same problem with 3mm filament. I was having lots of issues and never realized that it was the inside diameter of the stock bowden tube on my UM2. I have some high temperature o-ring lubricant that I put on the inside of the tube which helped, but my biggest problem is changing filament since once the filament hits the heated end it deforms and almost always makes it impossible to retract back through the tube. I've resorted to manually pulling it through (thank god I installed roberts feeder).