ABS filament source recommendations please

[mastory 44]

I'm getting set to print some parts in black ABS. I am wondering if there are any sources that stand out for material quality. Anyone?

Thanks

 

[zoev89 73]

This depends per country please state you location.

 

[solid-print-3d 30]

It also depends on what you need from the printed parts. The cheap Chinese stuff has to be printed hot, around 255, 260 becasue there aren't that many additives (if any) so the printed part tends to handle temperature better and seems to be a little tougher. The Cooler printing quality filaments that print around 235, 235 still hold up extremely well. The tradeoff between the two is print quality... which can often be overcome with the right settings and good tuning.

An example of the cheap Chinese stuff would be JET (by cheap I mean price)

An example of the quality stuff would be IC3D (USA)

Again, don't know your local or even what printer you're using...

 

[mastory 44]

Sorry, I left out the location. I'm in the US.

The parts I'm making are for a motorcycle, so heat resistance would be good. For me that's a key reason to use ABS over PLA. Of course I'd prefer that the prints look good as well. There are always trade offs aren't there. I guess I'll go for the quality first, and if the heat resistance isn't good enough, I'll reprint in another filament.

Thanks

 

[axsdenied 0]

You should also consider Colorfabb's XT filaments. They sit in between PLA and ABS in terms of temperature, toughness and printing difficulty.

 

[eldrick 65]

XT is nice stuff, but wildly expensive, and is only sold in .75kg spools, so there is a lot of end-of-spool wastage.

ZeniKinetic.com - has good prices, consistent size, and same ABS plastic source as all the other quality US-made filament, but their spec is 3.0 +/-.05, and that can cause friction in the Bowden tube and bad resulting prints.

My current supplier is Ultimachine. Good filament and selection.

 

[axsdenied 0]

Actually you can also buy 2.2kg spools of XT now. Cost is a different issue...

 

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

Put your printer onto 3DHubs, get a 5% discount instantly, print a Marvin and get a 10% discount on Colorfabb...

 

[eldrick 65]

Colorfabb, the US distributor, offers only .75kg spools, and this - it is not explained what "XL" is:

XL Spools 2.2 KG

* XL Spools are made to order, each item will have it's own lead-time.

 

[chrisr 18]

Or you could look at PLA HT?

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/8754-pla-ht/

 

[axsdenied 0]

Colorfabb, the US distributor, offers only .75kg spools, and this - it is not explained what "XL" is:

XL Spools 2.2 KG

* XL Spools are made to order, each item will have it's own lead-time.

 

XL = extra large

 

[eldrick 65]

XL = extra large

 

Assumption on your part?

 

[intservo 0]

You can buy esun petg on Amazon. PETG is very similar to Colorfabb XT. You can just use your settings of Colorfabb XT straight and it will print out well. Cost is close to ABS.

 

[giraffneck 0]

Try Matterhackers. they have a huge selection and reasonable prices.

 

[tinydancer 0]

Put your printer onto 3DHubs, get a 5% discount instantly, print a Marvin and get a 10% discount on Colorfabb...

 

That's great to know as I just started getting a 3dhubs page together last night.

 

[axsdenied 0]

 

axsdenied, on 30 Jan 2015 - 11:36 AM, said:

XL = extra large

Assumption on your part?

 

Not sure if you are joking or trolling.

Anyway, Colourfabb sells XT in two sizes:

 

1. 750g spools

2. XL 2500g spools

The meaning of XL is quite clear.

And if you still think that I am "assuming", have look on their website. The word "size" is clearly mentioned there.

 

[shurik 87]

What ABS source would you recommend in Europe?

Not Colorfabb XT, just plain ABS.

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

RepRapWorld

 

[shurik 87]

Thanks 3Dmaker4U! Will definitely check them.

Would you mind to elaborate a bit, perhaps? Did you use their ABS, what kind, etc. :-)

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

I used regular/cheapest filament they have for almost 2 years now. 1.75 mm. Neutral, gold, yellow, red, blue, green, silver, pink. There are some behavioral differences depending on color, but this is normal. Pretty consistent diameter, slightly lower: 1.70-1.72 mm. Simple and compact spool of 1 kg (I bought also some 2 kg spools). Works well at 250/110 Celsius (hotend/bed). Don't know where is produced, but I can guess is China.

What else?

 

[shurik 87]

Thanks! If you have used it and can recommend it, I'll give it a try. Cheers!

 

[superace 2]

HI all,

I live in Beijing so I only use Chinese made plastic. I have noticed a kind of funny fact: You don't always get the quality you pay for, specially with ABS. Or maybe more correct would be "Some ABS maybe works great but only in a limited number of printers". So cheap ABS can many times be much better than a much more expensive roll. I pay between 10 and 15 USD per kg on plastic rolls depending where I buy from. 1.75 or other diameters are more or less the same price.

So my advice is look on Alibaba or Taobao if you need a big amount of plastic. Alibaba is in English and Taobao can be navigated with our great friends at Google translate Shipping is the bad part, tends to be quite expensive to areas outside China.

Actually I would not be surprised at all if most filament is Chinese made and just labeled in various ways to maybe "hide" this.

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

I have mostly been printing ABS on my UM2 and have been using ABS from Ultimaker, Velleman and E3D.

As far as I can tell, they don't differ much.

The torque wrench came out quite nice in some really cheap ABS from E3D for example: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nozzle-torque-wrench

(not sure if this is the same ABS as E3D sell currently though)

Anyway, this is one reason why I like ABS, that it tends to be very predictable.

I can simply print any of my ABS brands/colors at the same settings and I get very similar results.

 

[solid-print-3d 30]

This might sound odd, but a client of mine had his Ultimaker go out so he brought his file and a roll of eSun Red ABS over for me to print his part with.

I was shocked at how well it turned out, primarily the layer adhesion and surface finish. Just to make sure I printed a .42mm walled ring @ 1" diameter x 3" tall. Generally, if you squeeze an ABS ring printed with such thin walls, you will hear cracking immediately and break it soon after (at least with IC3D, Ultibot, Jet, etc. etc. filaments) . The ring printed in eSun was the toughest yet.

I know you're saying "well colorfab this, matterhackers that" but come on, at $26 a roll and free shipping with amazon prime, I'll most likely be loading up on some of this stuff.