Filament and rising costs

Maybe its just me, but I dont understand why filament is getting so expensive. The last time i was purchasing filament the price was $45 for 5lbs of 3MM natural PLA. Now it seems i cant get it cheaper than $86 for 5lbs. Why is it that the cost of filament has gone up so dramatically?

I miss the good old days when our filament was cheaper than the filament of professional machines.

[supply3dpla.com] sells 2.5kg PLA in various colours for 51$+shipping. It's not the highest quality perhaps, but it's good value for money.
[diamondage.co.nz] sells 500m~4kg for $160NZD+shipping, and for larger batches you get really good prices. It's very high quality, and a joy to print with.

There are also often good deals to be found on ebay.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

I usually buy from Ultimachine and I missed a chance to get Black 3mm PLA on a spool last week for $66. Checked today and it's $101, more than 50% increase! Yikes!

Sure makes those failed prints hurt more than they already do.

A few important things to note: Material used to come in coils (no spool cost, no labor cost for putting it on a spool)

Also, the demand for quality filament has been increasing since the filament quality now makes a noticeable difference in print quality (because our machines are better)

Not to mention the prices of just about every corn/oil derived product are increasing.

I think the supply of filament is also much lower than the demand right now. Seems it's hard for vendors to keep it on the shelves. There appears to be only one manufacturer in the US which will supply quality filament on small spools. Until ambitious manufacturers realize there is a real growing market for filament, I expect the costs to increase even more.

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www.Fablicator.com

Techzone still has natural ABS 5lb for $55. Say what you will about their other producs/issues, I've purchased their filament and it prints fine. Seems to melt at a slightly lower temp than the makerbot filament.

Also check out the kickstarter

[www.kickstarter.com]

though it's not looking too good to get funded.

Could be a case of idealists finally realizing what overhead costs actually are and pricing more realistically. Seems most RepRap retailers go through that cycle. Plus very few printers are doing the volume that Nophead and the like do, so the market for filament is likely pretty small right now. Might improve quite a bit as more printers come on line and the market fleshes out a bit.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 01:18PM by bryanandaimee.

i supported that kick starter i was hoping to see more people hop on board, but i do think that was a bit much for a starter, would have been great to see another manufacturer to help take off the pressure

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

Yeah. Supply and demand... and enterprising. I think there's another word for that. I just bought from Ultimachine (a week ago) and was disappointed to have to buy 5lbs not spooled. No biggy though. I figured I'd spool a little at a time until they had spools again, buy a second spool and keep my coil for emergencies. So I look today and see this 50% increase business. Hmm...

Then to find it at the same "old" pricing elsewhere... WOW! That's too bad. I was drinking the UM Kool-aid until today. I just spent over $300 to secure decent pricing (and likely drive it up for others... sorry).

If that kickstarter thing was still looking good, I'd dump some into that too

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2012 08:10PM by Skypuppet.

try thefutureis3d.com they have spooled and unspooled for $15 a lbs. pla and abs, 1.75mm and 3mm.

Skypuppet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Then to find it at the same "old" pricing
> elsewhere... WOW! That's too bad. I was drinking
> the UM Kool-aid until today. I just spent over
> $300 to secure decent pricing (and likely drive it
> up for others... sorry).


Interesting. I'm sure people would love to know where!

Pointedstick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Skypuppet Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Then to find it at the same "old" pricing
> > elsewhere... WOW! That's too bad. I was
> drinking
> > the UM Kool-aid until today. I just spent over
> > $300 to secure decent pricing (and likely drive
> it
> > up for others... sorry).
>
>
> Interesting. I'm sure people would love to know
> where!

Seriously?
Techzone, 3d printerstuff (not cheap but no jump in price either) and apparently the guy before you says "thefutureis3d".
Did you think I was lying?

Time to cut the greedy middle men out and buy direct from the extrusion companies.

For the people in the US try [www.villageplastics.com]

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

Just got my 12lbs from the www.thefutureis3d.com and I"m happy. Paid $65 per lb. 2.5lb spools on plastic core spools with paper sides. Works well if mounted horizontally.

ProtoParadigm has 1kg [2.2lb] of ABS starting around $40.

My last order from New Image Plastic was still around $80 for a 10 lb reel. If you buy in 5 lb qty, then it doesn't come in a reel.

brnrd Wrote:
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> My last order from New Image Plastic was still
> around $80 for a 10 lb reel. If you buy in 5 lb
> qty, then it doesn't come in a reel.

That only $8/lb which is a good price. Ultimachine has raised their price to $20/lb when buying 5lb coils.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

I suggest anyone reconsider purchasing anything from techzone. I've a lengthy and short explanation if you search for these thread titles:

"ebay seller ID reprapsmurf is techzonecommunications.com"
"techzonecommunications.com as a seller "

I'm out quite a bit of money from dealing with them and would not recommend them for any reprap related purchases.

I have seen you make that point before in 2 other threads. Please try to keep yo ur comments thread related.

Your starting to come off being rather petty. And it dose not make other people trust you or want to deal with you.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

good point, I'll be careful. However this thread brought up techzone as a vendor, not me.

Yes I mentioned Techzone and in the same sentence acknowledged the problems they have. I think everyone likely already knows about their issues. The thing is you don't need good build support or parts replacement for a filament buy, and quality is determined by the manufacturer, not by techzone. Most of their problems would only affect buyers of reprap kits and such. The only issue you bring up in the aforementioned threads that might be relevant to the discussion here is shipping, and I imagine that filament would likely ship in a pretty reasonable time (it did for me) since it's a single item order. If not, then you get your filament a little latter than expected and might have to deal with poor communications in the meanwhile. I imagine there are some that would deal with that to get reasonably priced plastic.

A lot of those dedicated plastics vendors seem to skip the PLA. Sounds like it might be a good idea to pick up some ABS and figure out it's nuances sooner versus later. Or, if the difference in domestic PLA sources really starts going nuts in pricing, it'll be a smaller financial jump to justify for changing to international vendors. I've been eyeing Faberdashery colors for a long while, but after weak US dollar exchange and international post it was hard to justify taking a taste. But, either way, in a world of scarcity, eventually stocking up will always push into the "budget for this" bucket instead of "petty cash".

Pity it's so hard to shop around, since you can't take calipers to it until it arrives on your doorstep. Someone around here always says that if it's poorly toleranced it's not worth printing with even if it's free.

Where do people in the UK buy their filament?

I am rapidly working my way through my first 100m of Faberdashery stuff (which seems fine) but would like to save a bit of money on the next lot. I dont think that Faberdashery's prices are too bad given the lovely range of colours (shame they aren't all in stock though), but the shipping is a killer (working out at nearly another 50% on top unless you buy a huge amount).
If the guy from Faberdashery reads this, any chance of getting the shipping costs down within the UK? 3 x 100m at under 3kgs should ship for less than £10 pretty easily (City Link Standard). Even a one off by UPS can be done for under £12 so I dont see why it is over £25.

Has anyone tried makemendel.com (based in India) a couple of kgs from there works out at around £65 (with another kg being £24 with extra shipping) which is substantially less (though they have very few choices of colour right now)?

Anyone any feedback on filament print [filamentprint.com] ? Prices are good, colour range seems good, shipping is very reasonable, 30m lengths seem good for getting started with a range of colours but not ending up with lots of waste ends...

George

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2012 07:39PM by gsport.