Best place to purchase Filament

I am trying to find the best place to purchase 1.75mm PLA filament. Currently i purchase filament from eshop2018.com with mixed success. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2015 09:30PM by bnoggle.

Define "best".

Do you mean cheapest? I suspect that AliExpress is probably best from this point of view.

Best selection of colours? AliExpress I guess, because it covers so many online retailers, so somewhere on it you'll probably find every colour available..

Best quality by some definition of "quality"? Less crud in the mix? Driest? Least toxic pigments? Most uniform thickness? Most uniform colour? Colour that matches their ads? Fastest shipping? Friendliest staff? AliExpress probably comes last on most of these.

I get my filament from Amazon and Matterhackers.com. I have tried some from eBay, but had nothing but problems with it. Stick with well known names and you should be good. My favorites are Hatchbox, eSun and Matterhackers.

I get my filament from [shop.3dfilaprint.com] if your in the uk its free postage !

I get mine from makergeeks.com.

Good prices, free shipping, US company, and they make the filament in-house (I'm sure the material comes from china, like everything else, but they have their own extruders).

I've got a bin full of different spools from them, everything from black ABS, to glow-in-the-dark PLA, and I haven't had any problems yet.

My first spool came from SeeMeCNC which I picked up at a show. Overall I think it was a good product. Since then I have gone with eSUN from Amazon and Hobbyking, still learning about it though.

I have heard MicroCenter (?) is supposed to be a great source for eSUN, Hatchbox, and Trend (?).

I too have been using 3dFilaprint but the last couple of orders have been a pain.

Ordered two spools of Natural 3mm PLA but received one natural , one yellow.

Was dealt with promptly by customer support.. but

Replacement spool immediately jammed my extruder. Cleared it all out, tried again, 5 minutes into print jams again. Got the vernier out and it measures 3.12 to 3.33mm!!

Checked the original spool and it was fine ; 2.98 to 3.02mm

Then checked the yellow spool (which I paid for to hang on to).. even worse. Ugh.

So two major jams later I'm trying somewhere else (rigid.ink on amazon.co.uk)

Rob J,

Hi Rob (pocketmoon), how did you get on with your rigid.ink?

Cheers,
Ed
(from rigid.ink)

---

www.rigid.ink - Uber high quality filaments, order from just 10 meters (or order a FREE sample, with free UK shipping)

I discovered now eSun PLA. I get the best printing results with it. However the colors are not as living as other manufacturers. Alternatively there is NuNus with nearly the same good print results but more living colors. Regarding ABS both filaments are comparable related to the printing results and warping, but the NuNus could have problems with layer sticknes so it is needed to printed with higher temperatures. The eSun filaments have not a good colorspace. The red for example looks more like the red of roofing tiles. The blue one is acceptable but a little bit darker. It is hard to explain.

I think I will buy eSun for PLA and NuNus for ABS in the future. eSun is also available as 3DPrima and I think that Kiboplast from Germany is the same as NuNus even though the spools are a little bit different but the colors and the printing results matches NuNus.

---

Slicer: Simplify3D 4.0; sometimes CraftWare 1.14 or Cura 2.7
Delta with Duet-WiFi, FW: 1.20.1RC2; mini-sensor board by dc42 for auto-leveling
Ormerod common modifications: Mini-sensor board by dc42, aluminum X-arm, 0.4 mm nozzle E3D like, 2nd fan, Z stepper nut M5 x 15, Herringbone gears, Z-axis bearing at top, spring loaded extruder with pneumatic fitting, Y belt axis tensioner
Ormerod 2: FW: 1.19-dc42 on Duet-WiFi. own build, modifications: GT2-belts, silicone heat-bed, different motors and so on. Printed parts: bed support, (PSU holder) and Y-feet.
Ormerod 1: FW: 1.15c-dc42 on 1k Duet-Board. Modifications: Aluminium bed-support, (nearly) all parts reprinted in PLA/ ABS, and so on.

I find Colorfabb PLA/PHA filaments of very good quality, for ease of printing, negligible brittleness and delamination (in particular compared to ESUN PLA), and intense colors. They are available in several shops in many EU countries.
ESUN is of course cheaper.

I have been buying at fox smart (usa buying):

Foxsmart filament

$18/kg filament that is laser calibrated for consistent diameter. Shipping in US is a flat fee of $3 no matter how many rolls you order. Colors are great, printing is great, no smelly dies in PLA. My friend who has just about every brand of filament was surprised at how well this stuff worked considering how cheap it is.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2015 12:16PM by patrickrio.

I used Plastech from Feedtheprinter and will get more from them.

At work we use SainSmart ABS almost exclusively with consistently good results. We have had pretty good luck also with eSun and SainSmart PLA.
At home, I've had pretty good luck with the Dremel branded PLA (though it was a gift, I don't know if it was a good value).
At both I've got a small pile of samples that I've gotten from GlobalFSD. I love exotic materials, but can never think of a use for a whole kilo of it, the sample sizes are just right for little one-off projects.

£18 NusNus: 3mm PLA and ABS
Mixed results. I My first 6kg were NusNus, so some of this may have been noob mistakes. The PLA was fine. The Black ABS was ok with the odd jam here and there but bonded nicely and did not delaminate. But... the glow in the dark green ABS barely glowed in the dark - I had to shine a high power torch on it at point blank range, then take it in a dark room to even detect a glow. There was also an odd, rough powdery finish to the filament. It suffered from delamination in a big way from the onset, then suddenly seemed particularly prone to delaminating, snapping, jamming the hot end and stripping in the extruder, and a lot of popping a crackling (moisture). I tried it with 3 different (new) hot ends and 4 hobbed bolts, then gave up on the roll.

£21 3DPrima: Grey ABS 3mm I have only used 1 roll so far, printed beautifully but had to run at 247degC to avoid delaminating. The filament looks very high quality with an even, smooth glossy finish.

£19 We do 3D printing shop Sheffield UK: Grey ABS 1.75mm. My first roll of 1.75 seems to be going ok, running a bit cooler at 243degC. Filament looks smooth and even and glossy but not as glossy as 3DPrima.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2015 06:09PM by dykm2.