Any comments on UltiMachine plastic?

Hello All

Even taking into account shipping, customs & Excise and the 'handling charge' levied by the shipper it is cheaper to import plastic from the US than buy it from UK and possibly even the rest of Europe. I am contemplating buying from UltiMachine and wonder if anyone can comment on the roundness of their plastic and the suitability for a 3.1mm barrel.

Cheers

I highly recommend Ultimachine's PLA. It's very round, smooth, uniform, and consistent. I haven't seen their ABS.

I have yet to try the PLA, but I have several samples of multiple colors and I agree. They are all very round and fit smoothly in a standard barrel. I even have two large spools and they look just as good as the samples. I haven't tried them because I'm in the beginning stages of getting my reprap running and I want to stick with a material that I'm more familiar with until other things are sorted out.

I don't know if they ship internationally, but I have always received supreme customer service from them. If there is any problem at all, I trust that they would work with you to make it right.

same experience here. they always send off cuts when i've ordered, which is a nice plus. i've got a nice selection of colors from them now from all the offcuts :-)

Hey Buback

I assume the offcuts are in addition to your order. Not making up your order?

on all my orders with them they have sent me samples with the order. and i have to agree with the others they all feel very good and uniform, i will most likely order my pla from them, they have been very good to me in the past i have nothing bad to say about them.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

I'm not sure what their policy is with the samples, but I think they send more samples if your order is within a certain dollar range. So, for example a $15 order might get one sample while a $60 order might get two. If you want to buy a a variety pack of short coils instead of full one pound rolls, you can always ask for a special arrangement. They typically respond to questions within three to five buisness days. Otherwise, the cutoffs are sent as a free bonus.

Their PLA is very high quality. It's as close to perfectly round as can be. I've printed half of a 5 lb roll of natural PLA and and very happy with it. They shipped very fast too. My last communication with them was answered within an hour.

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It's a shame. They have rave reviews but unfortunately I was quoted the domestic shipping rather than international.

Not comperative at all anymore... when considering VAT and handling charges. Shipping seems extortionate!!

Will probably go for RepRapSource.com

PLA is great! Printed three sets of mendel parts with it no problem. UV PLA is also very fun to print it. Some UV LED and looks really cool at night! Highly recommend Ultimachine PLA as well as RAMPS shield. Unlink Gen 6 electronics, The arduino Mega has extra pin out for later kits. Also if you blow a stepper all you have to do is pop and new on one, 10 second fix compared to soldering for a couple of hours........
Mark
White Gator labs

about those RAMPS electronics... also like that the shield is a single layer board so any other components could be relatively easily replaced without buying everything again, that's huge for me.

Redbeard,
That's correct. On the board itself only has 5 capacitors, headers, and a handful of resistors. When I blew two pololu all I had to do was pop the bad one off and the good one on. About a minute fix and I was printing again. I'm running with Linn Nema 17 steppers and have found they make the Pololu run hot. I would always suggest to put heat sinks on your Pololu and have a small fan blowing over them. The UltiMAchine Stepper seem to make the Pololu run cooler and Johnny did not have to have a fan on his and they are also a little smaller than my Linn steppers.

Mark

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AgeingHippy
Even taking into account shipping, customs & Excise and the 'handling charge' levied by the shipper it is cheaper to import plastic from the US than buy it from UK and possibly even the rest of Europe. I am contemplating buying from UltiMachine and wonder if anyone can comment on the roundness of their plastic and the suitability for a 3.1mm barrel.

Mendel-Parts.com also sells UltiMachine PLA!
Since they are in the Netherlands (EU) shipping is cheaper and there should be no customs charge.
But they are currently overworked so they aren't taking any new orders at the moment.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
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