Shortage of filament?

I've been browsing around for my first batch of PLA filament and it seems like a lot of places are really short of stock. I see a lot of "currently unavailable" or "temporariliy out of stock". Even Amazon is virtually out of filamanet.

I'm looknig for decent quality PLA 1.75mm in the US and it's looking like it may be difficult to find.

Ultimachine is pretty well stocked and its good filament.

---

-Nick

N314 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ultimachine is pretty well stocked and its good
> filament.

Another vote for Ultimachine. I buy my 3mm PLA from them. They seem to restock pretty regular too.

+1 ultimachine

---

- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Anyone have experience with "Zen Toolworks" PLA from Amazon? It's available again.

The Amazon reviews are mixed, but with free shipping (Amazon prime) and $37/KG, significantly less expensive than Ultimachines. Is Zen Toolworks PLA adequate or is it garbage and really worth have the cost of Ultimachines?

I don't want to spend money on garbage filament, but I'm also on a budget and $37/KG sounds really good.

Contact them and request samples of their stock. It might not be a bullet proof validation, but if they won't send sample lengths (we're talking 6" or so), it's a pretty damning comment on their quality standards. Poysonally, I tink everyone should consider asking for samples with stuff like this, where quality is a hit and miss issue since there doesn't seem to be any required standard of quality or anyone policing it. It's not as if people are going to be able to print object using the samples, but they can be sliced (edit: cut open) and magnified and otherwise examined for consistency, roundness, bubble intrusion, material purity, melt temperature, etc.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2013 07:45PM by xiando.

I was just browsing a few websites, looking for parts for the next printer, and noticed the same thing. Must be a lot of new reprapper's spending their tax refund checks.

Xiando, I contacted them and they said they would send me a sample to check out. Thanks for the great idea. I have a few weeks still before I get my printer together so it's likely enough time to check out their sample and then place an order. I'll see what it looks like and I hope they don't hand pick their sample piece they send :-).

Cobra,

Good for you! And yeah, that's exactly what I meant by "It might not be a bullet proof validation". Admittedly, a conniver could send really nice filament as sample, and still ship crap for purchase, but if more of us would use due diligence when dealing with material vendors, they'd be far less able to do so or potentially face a class action suit and more serious legal woes regarding fraud.

I received the package with several feet of thier white 1.75mm PLA and it looks good to me. I used digital calipers to check the thickness along a good section of it and it seemed very consistent and right around 1.75mm (within a few hundredths). I tried looking for bubbles and other imperfections and found no issues. I don't have a microscope so I didn't look at a close cross section or anything. It did fit snugly into my new hot end so that seemed good.

I'll go ahead an order 1kg from them on Amazon and use it to setup my printer. Hopefully it works out well and I've just found a good value. (my build is going slowly, so it will be several weeks before I'm even at the testing phase).
Thanks for the advice,
Bret