PETG - for what do you use it?

Hi,

im new to PETG for printing. I know its foodsafe, should I print my own lunchbox now?

For what do you use it?

Best regards,
Julian

I use it anywhere where I need greater strength than I can get from ABS or PLA. Its much denser which is also useful for some things. I really like to use it for printer parts, and although its not as heat tolerant as ABS I am using it for an x-carriage in an enclosed printer which runs a chamber at around 60 deg C. No problems so far.

It is much stickier and more adherent to the nozzle than ABS/PLA and it strings more, you have to be careful of blobs on the print which might harden and then get hit by the nozzle. But the really good news is almost no shrinkage and it sticks to a wide range of build surfaces very well (I print at 80 deg C bed, and 220/210 hot end - but experiment with the brand you have). Generally I find the surface finish less good than abs/pla. But if I want to print a beautiful object I use PLA, for strength PETG, midway between (or needing to be high temperature capable) ABS.

Be aware PET and PETG are not the same thing and PET requires higher temperatures to print (I haven't tried it but would like to get hold of some of that recycled water bottle PET to try).

Food safe in that its non toxic yes, provided your nozzle/heatbreak is not made from unknown brass-like alloys and might contaminate the filament as its extruded, stainless steel heatbreaks/nozzles are available but I don't know how well they print. And whilst I find it more water tight than abs/pla as its more viscous when extruding so tends to fill gaps better, you can't be sure you are not leaving pores into which bacteria will ingress and grow. It is probably not dishwasher safe and will probably melt.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2016 12:13PM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

I use it for my Kossel delta corners and also made some nice tealight/vase stuff. The transparency of colored PETG is very nice for single wall objects.
Also printing nonstop in vase-mode gives best results: no strings, no blobs...

I use it for structural parts that don't get very hot. Some houshold stuff came out nicely, some new feet for a sofa and a towel holder do their jobs now for over a year.

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[www.bonkers.de]
[merlin-hotend.de]
[www.hackerspace-ffm.de]

Hey,

thank you very much for your answers! Actually im printing parts for my reprap, works well after this i want to try a vase!!
when im finished i show you some pics

Im printing with material from material4print, they have it since 2/3 weeks, so i dont have much experience with PETG!

If you want to test it, you can get a 6m piece for free (if you are living in germany)! You can contact me by PM, then i can give you the e-mail you have to contact

Thank you very much again!

At the moment im trying to find the right temperature for PETG, had some issues at last...

Dont want to open a new thread now, i have seen that many people are using HIPS instead of ABS sometimes...wait...HIPS?? I think its "just" support material??

What do you think about that? I dont have HIPS so i cant judge about this :-/

Better start a thread about HIPS or reactivate an old one.

What temps for PETG did you try? IIRC, I had good results with 218°C. The temp window was pretty small, regarding stringing/blobbing and transparency.
Try printing a single walled part and raise the temp notch by notch.