Dollars Per Gram - Are You Being Gouged?

I have evaluated the cost per gram of 1.75mm plastic filament from two of my favorite filament vendors (including shipping to California)

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faberdashery

$0.293 per Gram

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Rep Rap Er

$0.03 per Gram

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I can tell you from first hand experience that Faberdashey sells excellent quality plastic filament. The stuff is extruded to a tight tolerance, it has great color choices, it even smells good

But aside from buying some nifty color choices as needed... I probably won't be buying too much Faberdashery filament.

For me, the price is just too much. I print A LOT.

Any RepRap hobbyist can tell you, that a RepRap is not near 100% relaible. A big failed print with faberdahsery filament will cost you DOLLARS.

RepRaper Filament is extruded to "satisfactory" tolerances and has a limited but OK color selection. I have found that Blue Painters tape is a MUST if you want to achieve proper first layer adhesion.

But even with that in mind, I can print nearly an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE more parts for the same amount of money using RepRaper Filament.

You are not even forced to "bulk" buy the RepRaper filament. Including shipping to the USA, a Kilogram of RepRaper filament will cost you $30.

300 grams of Faberdashery filament will cost over $36 before shipping is added.

If you wonder if you can get good quality parts from RepRaper filament, check out these EcksBot and Rostock Part Sets I just printed!

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In closing, I hope I do not come across too negative about Faberdashery. I think they are a great company, and they sell a very fine product. Right now, they are simply out of my budget

edited: I botched the numbers the first time through; using 100 grams instead of 300 grams for the Faberdashery filament. Things should be correct now. Let me know if I botched anything else

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2012 07:52PM by Idolcrasher.

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FabberForge - Printing Happiness

[www.fabberforge.com]

I agree. I've found that the quality of repraper 3mm pla is actually not too bad at all. faberdashery stuff is perfect, and much more tolerant of temperatures and bed surface, but I feel I've got my machine dialed in perfectly for repraper plastic now. I never found painters tape worked that well with it though, I now use glass + pva and haven't had first layer problems for a few hundred prints now.

You sure your math is right?

100M of 3mm from faberdashery is ~800g which is 31UKP or about $50 before shipping that's about $0.062 /gram
Now their 1.75 is much more expensive at $37 for ~300g or about $0.123/gram

Now I think the 1.75mm prices are hideous, but it's partly a function of them selling by length and not weight like everyone else.

Yes more expensive, but not by the order of magnitude you quote.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2012 07:07PM by Polygonhell.

I am glad you asked if my math was right. I did fudge a 100 grams where I should have put 300g.

This makes Faberdashery filament $0.293 per gram for me. I will change the numbers in the first post.

Still nearly an order of magnitude

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2012 07:43PM by Idolcrasher.

james glanville Wrote:
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> I agree. I've found that the quality of repraper
> 3mm pla is actually not too bad at all.
> faberdashery stuff is perfect, and much more
> tolerant of temperatures and bed surface, but I
> feel I've got my machine dialed in perfectly for
> repraper plastic now. I never found painters tape
> worked that well with it though, I now use glass +
> pva and haven't had first layer problems for a few
> hundred prints now.

I agree, the Faberdashery filament is pretty much perfect.

I too have finely dialed my Slic3r settings for RepRaper filament and am quite pleased with the results

I pay NZ$33 for 100m of PLA here in NZ + shipping of around another NZ$8 and no international shipping as it comes from Auckland to me in the South Island

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__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

Just got a new order of RepRaper filament in.

It is on a different spool now. It is printing beautifully