I've been away from 3D printing for a while and now want to do some upgrades for my DIY 3D printer. I'm going to replace the fixed buildtak surface with a spring steel magnet system as the surface has tears, holes and it's very bumpy. That's part of the reason I've been away from 3D printing for a while.

It's based on 3.00/2.85mm diameter filament. I still use my DIY printed cold end bowden fishbone extruder and I'm looking to replace it with something a little bit more beefy and accurate.

I've found this but it's out of stock:
[nl.aliexpress.com]
[www.3djake.com]

Though the bondtech is a little pricey. I'm looking to spend like 20-70 euros max.

Is 3.00mm diameter stuff dead? Is 1.75 the way to go now? That would be a shame for my 3mm hot end E3D v6 I believe to be replaced. And still a decent amount of 3.00 filament that I still have in stock.

Any advise is appreciated!

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

... not dead, but dying -- you can still buy 3mm, but as most are buying 1.75mm-printers and the "DIY"-ers vanishes mostly for age, you'll get what the mass want

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2025 01:39PM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

This is still much debated...


I say yes 3mm is dead. (And yes I still have machines that are 3mm, but haven't used them in some time.)

But many older machines are still out there and use 3mm and its still available but is way less abundant than 1.75

Also TPU is easier to print in 3mm,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2025 10:23AM by Dust.

That's too bad, then I'll see if I can machine something myself, maybe using some hobbed gears that are still available. I'm not well equipped for metal working though.

Thanks for the input!

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

I don't know if this is at all applicable to you, but these days there seems to be a lot of interest in printing as fast as possible. It's easier to quickly melt 1.75mm filament than 3.00mm filament. I think this is just another factor in the demise of 3mm filament.

My printer can do 200mm/s moves but my extruder can't keep up. I think 100mm/s is maximum. My axes have too much mass and it's based on those v groove wheels so that also limits rigidity. If I had to design a new one I'd use linear rails and lighter x and y axes. Cartesian seems to be popular among fast printers. Mine is CoreXY.

Smaller cross section of filament certainly helps to melt it uniformly, though the cold end extruder must be both powerful and fast enough to keep up. And bowden tubes add a lot of springiness so I don't know how they keep up with retractions, or is that no concern since they're so fast?

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--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

Hi,

If you want a 3mm compatible extruder, that doesn't need a planetary stepper motor; i can advice the E3D Titan. Ideally the full metal version.
You will only find it in 1.75mm but all you need to do is make the guiding whole in the extruder a bit larger by drilling it.

And yes, 3mm filament has been dead for years.

... in the early years of RepRap we were thinking about 2mm or 3mm filament diameter, what's better or more effective ... and the "industry standard" was even 4mm!! - I had some years to ask companies, fabricating 4mm-filaments for plastic welding machines, if they could make some 3mm too

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

@Govahnator
Thanks, the E3D seems to be what I'm looking for!

@Govahnator
Yeah, it's funny how things turn out, seems kinda random that 1.75 was chosen by the market.

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

If you want to continue with your 3mm stock, no worries, look for a robust compatible extruder in your price range.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2025 08:39AM by jodefoy.

1.75mm filament needs a lot les power to be pushed, so it allowed small direct drive extruders.

I guess that was the main reason.

I still exclusively use 3mm filament. But it is definitely getting more scarce in comparison to 1.75mm. As mentioned, I'm fairly certain the reason 1.75mm became more popular is that cheaper direct-drive extruders can be used. It's interesting because back when I got started building my RepStrap, 3mm was all you could get.

... it's something like "evolution" - involved areas for optimization were mainly reproducible diameter accuracy and the internal extruder-, heater- and nozzle-parameters and geometries.

I, for my part, use even thinner "filaments" with "laser-direct-melting" sort of FDM ... my first experiments with platinum wire (should be around 2006) gave something like 12micron wide tracks with 10micron thick wire, what could be even fine tuned between 5 to 40 microns width (3 to 20 height) by changing moving vs. extruding speeds.

As this was then under NDA and only for a special solution, I didn't discuss it in detail with the forum ... but later mentioned sometimes, without great feedback.

If enough people would be interested (today enough people without too much fears for lasers) I could disclosure more details, but not willing to "feed" the copycats even more

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Viktor,

That sounds really awesome! Unfortunately I don't have enough free time to be able to experiment with stuff like that.

... yeah, it's a different approach to the "common" FDM methodes ... but some similar are around since many years too - especially like comercially used DLM (=Direct Laser Melting) or arc-welding of wires

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]