Supporting > Additive Machining

A decent PLA filament.

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A7er:
I recently bought two reels of light grey copymaster 3D premium filament from Technology Outlet. It outperforms my old filament by a mile, I could never seem to get a smooth sanded surface. It's still early days for the new filament, but it sands to a finish as good (nearly) as my resin prints.

bent:
A7er,

Thanks for the tip. I will probably need to purchase a new reel of filament soon, so it's useful to get recommendations from people who do a fair bit of this (versus the always-suspect Amazon "reviews").  Could you mention what brand your original filament was as well?

Do you do anything special when storing pla reels?  I've been reading and some suggest storing with dessicant, others say when changing reels to bake out the old reel and then store with dessicant.

The pla that came with my printer (MakerGear) seems to work pretty well...but then I have nothing to compare it to.  I've done a couple of figure models for friends and family, and they seem to print ok surface-finish wise (I don't bother sanding them, just hit them with a coat of flat spray paint).  I'm still trying to figure out how to make some "artistic" figures print okay (i.e. trying with/without supports, and recently discovered the ability to cut and stack parts to avoid having to use supports, etc.).  But some of the art prints available on free sites (thingiverse) are so full of unrepairable holes that they would never print for me.  At least, until I find out what all the bells and whistles in my software do (or don't do).  And still trying to figure out FreeCad well enough to make my own utilitarian (ie. stuff that works) stl files...though I had good success with my first efforts using Cad I know (Inventor).

My gosh this rabbit hole is deep...

-Ben T.

crueby:
I've been using the Prusa PLA filament, no problems with it, very consistent. I store it in a Tupperware type box, had read reports it could absorb moisture. Other reports say its not an issue, including reports from the manufacturers saying it will take years to absorb even 1 percent moisture.

A7er:
Ben.
My old filament was RoHS, 's their logo has a feather in front of the R. It's a good filament, but it took a great deal of work to get a smooth-ish surface. Even after sanding, filling, more sanding and then spraying, the layer lines were visable. I hope to be casting with the new filament soon. The new filament sands very well. I then use small scrapers to refine the surface followed by sanding with various grades finishing with 1000 grit wet or dry.

I have never stored my filament and admit I didn't know you should. I just leave the filament on my Ender3 all the time, open to the air. The second roll of filament is still in its air tight bag. Perhaps I should remove my filament and store it properly?

I used FreeCAD to design some very complex parts, slowly. I then discovered Designspark Mechanical. I now only use FreeCAD for small unimportant parts. Don't get me wrong, FreeCAD is amazing with features I would love to see in Desingspark. It's just a bit........?

Crueby.
It would be interesting to try Prusa filament and resin. Isn't it a bit of a chore having to remove the filament after each print, and then refit it?

BillTodd:
Re: wet filament.

Certainly plastics do absorb water, nylon is notorious bith in bukk and as filament.   
 PLA seems pretty immune to the worst of it.  Tom Sanladerer (YouTube) tested pla by soaking in water for days without problems. Grant at 3dmusketeers based in superhumid Florida, says he's never had s problem with pla , whereas other filaments all required dryboxes .

Boxing the filament has the advantage of keeping the filament clean and dust free , so it's not a bad idea.

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