Welcome! Log In Create A New Profile

Advanced

RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?

Posted by Idolcrasher 
Forum List Message List New Topic
Idolcrasher
RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 23, 2012 06:24AM
Good Day All,

Does anyone know if "RepRaper" the Chinese plastic filament seller is still in business? I can't seem to find a working link to the site anymore.

I bought 5 KG of PLA from them for a crazy cheap price.

The only real problem with the filament is that it is a real pain to get the first layer to stick. Anyone have any recomendations for me? I can get Faberdashery filament to stick to my hot glass plate easily; but this stuff is killing me!

When I can get the stuff to stick, the prints come out great.

I might be crazy enough to buy more if the site still exists.

-Idol
Reply Quote
nophead
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 23, 2012 06:49AM
You could try kapton or PET tape on the glass. I use that for ABS but it does work for PLA also.

Also I have the PLA a bit hotter for the first layer and the glass a lot hotter (90C dropping to 45C).

Repraper is still going, they announced conductive ABS yesterday.

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]
Reply Quote
DeuxVis
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 23, 2012 08:02AM
For PLA on cold bed, the stickiest tape I've tried so far is the scotch blue painter tape (reference 2080 or 2090 I believe).
What I've also tried was kapton, it was just a bit better than bare glass. Kapton is probably better with heated bed and/or abs ?


As for the site, [www.repraper.com] is working for me currently.

Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.
Reply Quote
richrap
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 23, 2012 08:44AM
'conductive' ABS link

Their website is not getting past the firewall for me, but is showing up ok on my phone, they must have some content or something that's not working for some people.

[richrap.blogspot.com]
Reply Quote
james glanville
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 26, 2012 09:48AM
To get their plastic to stick I use a first layer ratio of 0.1, compared to 100mm/s perimeters and 200mm/s for infill. This usually works. I find the black much harder to print though, it needs 240C first layer, 200C afterwards, when normally I'd use 200C the whole time. Black needs 0.04 ratio for first layers, which is really boring sad smiley Cheap though.
Reply Quote
Idolcrasher
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 26, 2012 10:33AM
I put blue painters tape on tope of my glass plate and am getting excellent adhesion now! I suffered through this for weeks!

Putting the blue painters tape on top of the glass has solved all of my problems with this Chinese filament. Victory!
Reply Quote
Idolcrasher
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
May 26, 2012 11:22AM
Cheap printing may finally be at hand, now that this cheap filament is working for me.

Now that I can actually print with this stuff, I can take advantage of the higher "glassing" temp this plastic appears to have. It hardens very quickly once it is out of the extruder, this helps make nice sharp prints.
Reply Quote
metzench
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
June 03, 2012 12:48PM
We are selling redistributing this filaments too from Germany. Shipping worldwide.

---
Christian Metzen

1.75mm / 3mm ABS & PLA Filament
[fabber-parts.de]
Reply Quote
rhysjones
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
June 03, 2012 05:26PM
I've got some of their conductive ABS coming this week. I'll let you all know how it is.
Reply Quote
Idolcrasher
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
June 04, 2012 12:37AM
Very cool. Conductive ABS sounds pretty crazy! Let us know what you come up with smiling smiley
Reply Quote
jonasl
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
June 04, 2012 06:34AM
Conductive ABS, saw that as well. Perhaps we will be able to print our own heated bed now. ;-)
Reply Quote
Steed
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 08, 2012 09:09PM
Their web site is up and down for me. It works one minute and not the next. It is like their server is going to sleep.
Reply Quote
Steed
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 08, 2012 09:13PM
I ordered 5 spools of PLA - it arrived fine and assuming it works it still cheaper even after shipping.
Reply Quote
Idolcrasher
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 08, 2012 10:57PM
Their filament works fine. Use blue tape if you dare hope to get it to stick to the plate though.

I use blue tape and then after the print, i take the glass off of the bed, slip a razor sharp chisel under the print and hammer the object off.

Intense maybe, but getting perfect prints smiling smiley
Reply Quote
orcinus
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 07:07AM
Yaknow, i could never understand the Kapton fad.
Might just be my particular choice of filaments, bed, printing parameters etc., but PLA sticks slightly worse to Kapton for me than it does to heated borosilicate glass.

And it deteriorates quickly. Three or four prints and i can throw it away, because stuff doesn't stick anymore.

That, combined with the pain that is application of Kapton to a bed (even using the soapy water trick) was enough to make me ditch it.
Haven't tried the blue or white tape yet, though.
Reply Quote
redreprap
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 07:44AM
hmmmm cheap PLA, i wonder what is the chemical composition exactly ... any1 know?

anyway i like to find a reliable PLA source, good PLA for printing consistent filaments ... any recommendations?
Reply Quote
akhlut
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 08:01AM
I've been running with the same layer of kapton for about two months now, nicks and all, and it works fine. hit it with a little acetone now and then and prints stick fine.

Guess everyone gets different results. I've printed on blue tape (fine) glass and mirrors with little issue. ABS juice works great as well. But lately just kapton with little issue. Just works for me.

Yeah, I've had the itch to order some PLA from these guys...problem is I don't print PLA all that often.

- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]
Reply Quote
redreprap
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 08:17AM
when i get mine done, i am going to try and print 10-20 random cubes and check consistencies .... if any1 runs somekind of lab, it will be good to find out the chemical composition of what we are all getting.
Reply Quote
Idolcrasher
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 09:14AM
Seriously check these guys out. Their prices can't be beaten and the stuff works.

I can't afford to see my filament sorce go out of business winking smiley
Reply Quote
orcinus
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 11:50AM
Re: Kapton (sorry for going off-topic)... it occurred to me that perhaps different brands apply different coatings to their polyimide film.
I mean, i doubt it's ever pure polyimide, especially on surface. Or maybe the surface gets a different mechanical treatment (to prevent / increase adhesion of the glue from other layers of tape, for example).
Reply Quote
Polygonhell
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 11:57AM
My experience with their filament, I have 4 rolls of it, is that at least the 1.75 filament varies enough in diameter to be a problem.
It's not bad I can print with it, as was mentioned above it does not like to stick to heated glass without blue tape.
It also seems to require a somewhat higher extrusion temperature than the 4043D I have here.

Summary it's not horrible, but going forwards I'd probably spend the extra and buy from Ultimachine.
Reply Quote
Rural
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 09, 2012 07:45PM
I just can't get over the name "RepRaper". To be honest, I'd probably blush if our postlady handed me a package with "RepRaper" proudly emblazoned on the top of it. My wife would probably raise an eye-brow at it too. Hopefully, they use "RepRap-Walmart" instead.

But their prices sure are interesting. As low as $15/kg. My sons sure are interested in the glow-in-the-dark stuff. I'll have to buy at least a spool of that...after I have a working printer.
Reply Quote
redreprap
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 10, 2012 12:18PM
so just to be clear, id like to know which supplier is not selling a made in china filament? cos id like to know and try some myself.
Reply Quote
IanJohnson
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 10, 2012 01:03PM
Is there only one Chinese factory? I know there is PLA from Esun, are they providing all the ABS too? I know there are several sellers showing the same spool type as Repraper. Is it safe to assume they are from the same source? Does anyone know what that is? It seems it would be more useful to review filament from a manufacturer rather than a seller, if many are selling the same filament. It would be different if the filament was specially made for a seller according to their specs, but how many do that, vs simply retailing some wholesale filament?
Reply Quote
redreprap
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 10, 2012 01:07PM
true ...

since there is a poll going on in another thread, we could prolly ask user to post good resolution photos of what they bought so that it can be a good resource info on the supply chain (and hopefully help user ascertain consistencies of the materials)
Reply Quote
bwevans
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 10, 2012 10:53PM
This is what I think of repraper...



I have no way of knowing but it seemed like a little ball of dirt inside the filament. This is grey 1.75mm PLA and every meter or so there is one of these inside the filament. More info here. Couldnt see these in the black PLA but that destroyed a MakerGear hotend after a few hours of printing and found the same blobs in some white that I really liked but decided it wasnt worth it anymore. Their dark translucent blue was iffy as well although right now their orange/tangerine PLA is printing away and running reasonably fine. [Yes, for those keeping score I have 6 spools of their stuff!] YMMV? I just dont see the point of saving a few bucks for Chinese filament.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2012 10:54PM by bwevans.
Reply Quote
james glanville
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 11, 2012 01:23PM
I've been using it for a good while now, and I have to say I'm still pretty happy. I've used about 3kg of the 5kg I bought, and have totally solved first layer problems by moving to a glass + pva bed. The only downside is it's hard to clean the black out of the hotend when changing colours - it mostly purges, but then you get the odd black fleck for the next half metre or so of the next colour. Doesn't really bother me too much though. This is their 3mm PLA, i've tried blue, pink, red, black, white, green, glow in the dark white and blue.
Reply Quote
epareja
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 12, 2012 12:13AM
I've had very good results with yellow and orange ABS but the white 3.0 mm ABS has been a little problematic when printing. It has a lower melting temperature but if extruded at that temperature (200 C) the layers don't bond very well.

I will buy again but not the white color.
Reply Quote
Simba
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 12, 2012 01:08AM
A someone clever on IRC reprap once told me, "garbage in = garbage out" or you are paying for it in some other way, like countless man hours.
Reply Quote
Sublime
Re: RepRaper "RepRap Walmart" Chinese Filament Closed?
October 12, 2012 02:29AM
The truth is this filament is perfect for the price. It cost $15-25kg compared to $50-70kg (delivered) so even if you waste 50% of the material you are still saving a ton of money. I have purchased 70kg from them for myself and local RepRappers and out of the 70kg only about 5kg ever had issues. Which still works out to a savings of $2000-3000 and means you would have to spend hundreds of hours with issues to make it not worth it. As for the print quality it has printed as well or better than much more expensive filament (check out my Tantillus page, all the translucent red is their PLA). In the end I still tell people to start with "high end" filament so they can recognize problems when they turn up in the cheaper stuff.

FFF Settings Calculator Gcode post processors Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org Mini Printable Lathe How NOT to install a Pololu driver
Reply Quote
Page 1 of 2    Pages: 12Next
Newer Topic Older Topic
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login