What do you look for in 3D filament?

Name one thing that you value the most in 3D filament. And why?

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BotFeeder - Professional Manufactured 3D Filament

Right now price. When I get to the point of more consistant printing of large objects, meaning I can actually get them to print, probably how strong the colors are and then price.

I only have used part of two rolls of ABS right now and both were from different suppliers. I did this on purpose in case I had an issure with printing so I would be able to try another manufacturers filament to zero in on whether or not it was the machine or the filamant.

I'm guessing after I gain more experience, this is my first printer, I'll have more 'wants' from my filament but right my want is 'Can I afford it'.

Same here.

I look for price primarily. The cheaper the better. I buy the microcenter toner plastics when its on sale, or the microcenter brand stuff. either 16bux a kilo, or 15 bux a kilo for the microcenter stuff.

I have gone through about 4KG of filament, and about 200hours of printer time. I even saved the last chunks of filament so I can stick them together and roll it into another roll.

From personal experience, and 3 different brands, I have to say that each roll has had its own issues and solutions to achieve a good quality print. I had cheap e-bay filament before that printed perfectly, and toner plastics stuff that needed coaxing. One thing I learned is that printing in sub .4mm nozzles increases difficulty of printing and causes huge headaches.

I print only in ABS. I accidentally picked up a roll of black pla that I may try at some point but it has never been fitted to my printer. At some point I will start printing with nylon as well. Weed eater trimmer line that is.

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Quality. I can pay a few bucks more per roll if it means not spending an extra hour cleaning a nozzle and re-calibrating, or prints that are trashed from separation of layers or bad adhesion. I keep ordering the same brand in white for most structural prints and leave the colored stuff for artsy knick knacks. Either more quality filament brands need to come out, or an extruder that can handle all the garbage you can throw at it.

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"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

In order of importance to me:

Quality
Colors available
Consistent availability (not being out of stock when I need it most)
Then last price

Awesome, thank you everyone for the contributions

Enjoy 3D Printing!

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BotFeeder - Professional Manufactured 3D Filament

Repeatability.

Given some time, every body can do cheap, and quality, sometimes even both.
But having the filament always melt at the same temperarure, always having the same diameter, colour, and so on, from one production batch to the other over the years : that is what will win me as a customer.

Edit : forgot about the why : because I don't want to have to test the filament again each time I buy a new roll. Calibrating for an unknown filament is a boring and time consuming task.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2014 08:47AM by DeuxVis.

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.