plastic consumption

i was wondering today, just how much plastic dose the reprap community go through, i have also noticed is seems like most of the more popular vender's seem to be getting more and more orders, and i think thats a good thing i just hope they can all keep up with the demand.

my last order with http://ultimachine.com/ was my first one that did not ship the next day, but i must admit i did order it late Thursday night, but judging by my order numbers he is getting more orders each day, so i hope he is able to expand to keep things up. he has been great to deal with so far.

how much plastic feed stock do you go through, i just ordered my first 1lb roll of pla. i hope that will be enough to keep me going for a month or 2 i hope.

---

[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

by my estimate it take 1lb to print a full set of prusa mendel parts, including a couple extras and some restarts.

In 3 months I have used 20 lb of plastic. Printed 5 PRUSA and alot of extra parts for people and myself. The rolls go by fast. Darn you thingiverse....haha

wow, your reprap/repstrap must be going danm near 24/7.

have people had any luck with pla for parts or is it still too stiff/brittle, or should i just get comfortable then switch to ABS

---

[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

dissidence Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wow, your reprap/repstrap must be going danm near
> 24/7.
>
> have people had any luck with pla for parts or is
> it still too stiff/brittle, or should i just get
> comfortable then switch to ABS

I print PLA exclusively. It is an excellent material. It is quite stiff, but not too brittle. I am currently printing out Prusa parts for myself and my friend.

---

Help improve the RepRap wiki! Just click "Edit" in the top-right corner of the page and start typing. Anyone can edit the wiki!

PLA works great for the Prusa... I personally feel more comfortable having the extruder block in ABS because of past issues, and you MUST print the bushings in PLA. There are several people at the hackerspace who only print ABS and want to build a Prusa Mendel so I had to print the PLA bushings for them. So far I prefer it for most things, as long as they don;t need to resist any heat.

A lot of the strength is in the design more than the plastic. For example, I made the x blocks a little thicker to hold the nuts in the smooth bar traps better, some more supports between the M8 nut trap and the bushings trap etc. There is also infill and temp that effects the durability.

Also, I'm pretty sure my couplings printed in PLA grip hardeer than the ABS ones, so do the universal opto endstops...

I even run a PLA extruder. I just have a small fan blowing over the thermal barrier to prevent the extruder block from getting too warm. Works great.

---

Help improve the RepRap wiki! Just click "Edit" in the top-right corner of the page and start typing. Anyone can edit the wiki!