3d Printing Filaments Pros vs Cons

To help beginners or those looking to try new filaments, post information about filaments you have used and would recommend.


Brand: Riorand 1.75 PLA
Weight: 1kg (2.2LB)

Printer: Printrbot Simple Metal
Best Print Temp: 195-200 C
Heat Bed Temp: N/A
Pros:

  • Tolerance
  • Resolution
  • Price. Under $30 in U.S off of Amazon.

Cons:

  • Few cases of tangled rolls.

Brand: iRulu 1.75 ABS
Weight: 1kg (2.2LB)

Printer: Printrbot Metal Plus
Best Print Temp: 220C
Heat Bed Temp: 95 C
Pros:

  • Tolerance of 0.02 mm
  • Resolution
  • Easy to smooth down with sandpaper when needed.
  • Price. Under $30 in U.S off of Amazon.

Cons:

  • Smell when Printing
  • Protection from drafts required to prevent warping.
1 Like

Brand: MadeSolid 3mm PET+
Weight 1 pound (0.45kg)

Printer: Ultimaker 2
Best Print Temp: 250-260 C
Heat Bed Temp: N/A
Pros:

  • Strength of printed object
  • Adheres well to print bed
  • PET is very recyclable!

Cons:

  • The high required temperature causes a heater error at times on the Ultimaker, having to restart print

Brand: formfutura EasyWood
Weight: 1.1 pound (0.5kg)

Printer: Ultimaker 2
Best Print Temp: 220 C
Heat Bed Temp: N/A
Pros:

  • Result of print is very nice and matte
  • Smells like wood chips when it prints
  • No issues with print despite wood infusion (no clogging)

Cons:

  • Shipping to Americas expensive (shipping costs more than a roll of filament itself)
1 Like

Brand: NinjaFlex 1.75 TPE
Weight: 0.5kg (1.1LB)

Printer: Printrbot Metal Plus
Best Print Temp: 245 C
Heat Bed Temp: 55 C

Pros:

  • Flexible
  • Elasticity
  • Works on blue tape.

Cons:

  • With Printrbots, filament can buckle in feeder. Need mod to prevent filament from slipping under toothed gear.
  • Normal recommended print settings don’t work with printrbots. Need to print at higher temps with lower print speeds (around 6 mm/s)

Does anyone have settings for Ninjaflex for other printers?

Any other brand of PLA that can work with a MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen.? I have tried Faberdashery filaments, which come in awesome colors but had variable results (random extruded errors) despite being the same diameter, and melt at the same temperature as do the Makerbot filaments…

Current filament brands for PLA I am loving of late are Meltink3d and Excelvan. Both come in a variety of colors and I have not had any extrusion issues with them compared to most brands I have used in the past. Both brands are under $30 off of Amazon.

I would recommend purchasing dyna-purge to clean out your extruder: http://www.3dfuel.com/dyna-purge/. This stuff has worked great for me for clearing out old materials especially when going between brands or different types of filaments. Cold pulls don’t do much depending on the printer and since I have one printer with Teflon tubes I don’t like to retract filament to switch colors as the old filament can get stuck in the tubes and cause clogs.