Filament: UM, ColorFabb, Faberdashery, Other?

[chrisr 18]

I'd like to order some more 2.85mm PLA filament. I'd prefer to stick with UM's silver (or white - now that I have that printing ok) but I'm hesitating ordering directly from the shop (sorry shop - I don't trust your service) so I'm wondering which other filament manufacturers forum members have had good experiences with and would whole heartedly recommend :smile: Faberdashery and ColorFabb are two which seem to get a lot of mentions (+ve and -ve) quite often here...

Are there any other manufacturers folk have tried with good results?

 

[DidierKlein 729]

I mainly use Colorfabb and am very happy with it, prints nicely, nice finish and a lot of choice in materials and colours.

Tried Faberdashery, great filament too, prints like a charm with a nice finish, only down point does not come on spools (but it's not a real problem).

You can trust the Ultimaker Shop only thing that can happen is that they don't have the color in stock.

Except that i can't really help with my experience on other filaments as i didn't try other brands

 

[jonnybischof 60]

In my experience, UM's filament is rather low quality (or standard quality). Not comparable to quality filaments like Diamond Age or Faberdashery.

Of course there is also a noticeable difference in prices...

 

[Daid 306]

UM's material quality depends a bit on the color. White isn't that good (printing wise, diameter wise they are all great). UltimateBlue and Magenta are also a bit lower in printing quality. Rest is generally good.

I prefer the Silver, Red, Yellow and Pearl colors from Ultimaker myself, as those seem to print really nice.

ColorFabb, their material is good. But can be more tricky to print, as it has a lower temperature "band" in which it prints good. You'll have to find out the proper printing temperature per color for your machine. Which can be a bit tricky.

And, Faberdashery is always high quality. So if you want super quality stuff. That's the place to go. Their white is perfect compared to any other white I tried. But unsure if they ship it on spools these days. It used to be unspooled which is really tricky for large prints.

To avoid: Any cheap stuff from ebay. 123ink

 

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

And, Faberdashery is always high quality. So if you want super quality stuff. That's the place to go. Their white is perfect compared to any other white I tried. But unsure if they ship it on spools these days. It used to be unspooled which is really tricky for large prints.

 

Then you never tried Diamond Age White, did you? I made fabulous prints with that one. And it's really, really white... just a pity that they are on the other side of the planet... To my personal experience Diamond Age PLA is even slightly better than Faberdashery in two attributes: Inter-layer adhesion (phenomenous even at low temperatures) and quality of the overhangs. However this is a comparison on the level excellent to perfect.

The best thing for unspooled filament is a WIDE filament holder with a inner diameter a bit smaller than the inner diameter of the roll. With wide I mean the space the roll can be distributed on the holder. Like this the filament end comes also easily out of the roll when it's not at the end of the roll (i.e. twisted...).

 

[donmilne 2]

The problem with any question of this sort that is that everyone will recommend the supplier or product they're familiar with. Few will have direct experience of many different suppliers and many different regions.

For what it's worth, I was very happy with the service and manufacturing quality from ColorFabb (e.g. a minor problem with my order was quickly corrected). As to it's printing performance, I'm still experimenting to find settings that work best with the ColorFabb formula.

UM white works great for me, right off! I keep going back to it for critical prints. However, like the OP, I'm less than impressed by UM customer service.

 

[chrisr 18]

Just took the plunge and ordered a roll of white (and a few other colours) each from Faberdashery and ColorFabb. Thanks for the advice all. I think one of the items I'll shortly be printing is a wide filament holder from Dim3nsioneers suggestion.

@Daid: Interesting about the lower temperature band of ColorFabb - that's good to know :-)

@DonMilne: Strange as I had the opposite experience with UM's white. The silver printed beautifully on the default settings, not so the White. I had a real struggle with the first few meters of it, I just couldn't get it printing nicely despite trying various temperature settings and speeds. I was on the verge of giving up with it and then curiously, after the first few meters had gone through the printer, it seemed to "settle down" and now prints quite well (210C/65C/40mm) alhough the silver still produces better results for me.

Looking forward to trying out ColorFabb and Faberdasherys filaments. All fun! :-)

 

[skint 62]

Chris, you wont be disappointed with Faberdashery, it really is great stuff. Quality is superb. They are planning on supplying them on reels soon too, so no more dropping tangly spools on the floor

Edit; My spelling SUX

 

[pm_dude 27]

I dont know if it depend on the batch but with Colorfabb I have really a hard time to print at cold temp. It makes the bridging quite hard to make and it really depend on the color like Daid said. I can print at 60mm/s using 225C on one color and on another one cant seems to find the good temp even for 25mm/s.

I find the XT, Bronzefill and Woodfill to work better for some reason.

Faberdashery is really great! If only the customs did add fees every single time I order from Europe... :(

Proto pasta Carbon fiber is kind of nice material (very brittle) but I'm starting to wonder if its not a little too abrasive for the nozzle. After printing for a day with it and cleaning the nozzle before switching to other PLA it feels like asphalte pieces stuck in there, very coarse and rough.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

@pm_dude: the carbon fiber from proto pasta is very abrasive, i heard several complaints about it damaging the nozzle

 

[pm_dude 27]

Merci Didier. I'll have to look into that in more details.