From engineers, plane- and car manufacturers to architects, artists and other product designers, they all use 3D printing to test if their designs come out the way they were intended. Because of the winde range of open-source and economical desktop 3D printers and economical 3D printing materials, schools, students, small offices, makers, entrepreneurs and professional designers can now set up a studio full of 3D printers to have their students or consumers (workshop participants) experiment on their own. In the following paragraphs I’m going to discuss the most important facts when selecting the filament for your 3d print. There is a huge amount of companies and webshops offering PLA and ABS filaments for 3D printing, however if you simply aren’t carefully enough, you will get some serious difficulties with bad filaments.
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Most desktop 3D printers make use of the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology, meaning, that they all work with plastic filaments with 3 mm or 1.75 mm diameter. The hot end of the 3D printer heats the filament which melts before being extruded from the nozzle. Most 3D printing plastics possess a melting point from 180 to 240 Celsius. After 3000 hrs of 3D printing on my Makerbot Rep2 and several types of RepRap 3D printers, my tip would be: if you want to start 3D printing, you've frustrations enough (mechanical and electrical issues), spend a few extra bucks to eliminate possible filament issues. I’ve tried several suppliers of 3D printing filaments this past year, from the cheapest ones to the superior quality spools as well. The moral of my story is: you get that which you pay for, buy materials from a trusted and verified supplier where you know who makes it, and watch out what you put in your 3D printer. 3D printing is already with enough contentration without nozzle blockages to cope with.
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Unfortunately, the nozzles from the usual desktop 3D printer setups aren’t self-cleaning, so you can have some dust or particles while feeding the filament to your extruder head. Accumulated dust/dirt on the filament, or even actual debris inside the filament, can partially or fully block the narrower output end of your nozzle. High quality filaments come vacuum-packed and sealed for your security, but I’d suggest to check on it before you decide to put anything into your 3D printer. I’ve found some really cheap stuff on ebay too, but the pain of clogged nozzles and wasted failed 3D prints it is not worth it.
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Some 3D printer extruder constructions might be sensitive to the diameter associated with the filament, it might be have problems if your roll of filament varies widely across. I’ve had some bad experiences with the Formfutura supplier, although I’ve ordered several spools from them. With the FlexPLA and the Laywood, I haven’t got any problem, but with their normal PLA spools I have found some irregular values after measuring the diameter. I mean, the cross section of the filament should be round with a diameter of 1.75 mm, but mine looked like an ellipse with 2.05 mm along the longer axis. Unfortunately, the new tube of the extruder of the Replicator 2 only has a 2 mm hole in it, so the filament just got stuck int he hot tube while feeding.
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I needed to take my 3D printer apart, remove the clogged filament and clean all of the parts before re-assembling. Sometimes, the diameter variation could be gradual; in this case, you might have great print jobs for a long time, and then unexpected as the filament gradually gets narrower, you possess an extrusion issue. Or, because the filament gets wider, you start to have an over-extrusion problem. I’ve already read some reports about knots ont he spools, int hat case, those plastic spools weren’t originally manufactured for 3D printing, maybe they're common plastic welding rods sold as 3D printing material. For those who have experienced knots or stuff like that, you’d better change to higher quality filament (like the filament that Gigamax3D sell) that is made especially for 3D printing. I’ve discovered that supplier a couple of months ago, and I’ve been really glad because they are from nice quality for an affordable price. I’ve tested them before buying, because they have a store in my country so I could measure the diamter of the sealed spools. They have allowed me to test every spool I wanted, and their filament passed the tests with my micrometer. It was the very first time I bought some HIPS spools, plus they worked fine as well.
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usa filament-supplied filaments have been tested to conform with all the common desktop 3D printers’ specifications and work best for most applications.I you already have some experiences with desktop 3D printers like RepRap machines, Makerbots, Leapfrog 3D printer or any other FDM 3D printer, you might have discovered as some filaments won’t work fine or can cause serious damage to the extruder head and machine. The quality of your 3D prints depends ont he quality of your 3D printing material as well. That’s why it is important to use high quality filaments for 3D printing. Gigamax provides an array of plastic filament colors. If you visit the Gigamax 3D print webshop you can see the full range of colors and special materials like glow-in-the-dark PLA or HIPS filaments in bright colors. All Gigamax 3D printing filaments come in a vacuum-packed foil bag with a d esiccant pack to keep the ABS, PLA and HIPS spools dry during storage.
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They also sell PVA material, which may be really useful if you have a dual extrusion 3D printer like Leapfrog Creatr or perhaps a multimaterial RepRap machine such as the Tricolor Mendel. 3D printing with FDM technologies are really popular because of the simpliness of the process. There is no finishing necessary when 3D printing with extruded PLA, ABS or HIPS filaments. Following the FDM extrusion process, the plastic solidifies right away. No chemical reactions, resins, etc. with no further post-processing and/or finishing needed. In case you use a 3D printer with multiple extruder heads with the water-soluble plastic PVA plastic as a support material, you have to dissolve the PVA in water after your print is finished. PVA is an amazing material, unfortunately it just can be used with at least 2 extruders and costs a little bit more than normal 3D printing plastics.
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Since I switched to Gigamax3D filaments I haven’t got any difficulties with filament diameter and clogged nozzles, unless I unloaded the HIPS filament and loaded some Laywood and Laybrick material. I think that some particles may have stayed in the brass nozzle and that’s why it acts like a barrier and the plastic cannot extrude. You realize, 3D printing could be sometimes really frustrating, particularly if you don’t be aware of reason for the actual problem. I’ve had several issues across the months, I’m going to post about typical issues with my Makerbot soon (problems with the Delrin plunger, broken cables, SD card reading errors and wrong plastic pulleys… c u next time;)
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