Which filament for NZ ??

Hi all, new to the scene me but got insterested as a father daughter school project and I remeber when Vik got started from his CLUG postings way back.

Anyways trying to get my head around all the bits I need and most of it makes sense but...
Question:
Which is the customary filament size in NZ ? I ask as I have only seen 1.75mm stocks for sale on TM but the only off the shelf hot ends I have seen so far are all 3mm...

Don't even get me started on extruders - which do 1.75 ? which do 3 ? which do both ? and whats the best choice for a Prusa i3 ?

So many choices......

cheers,
P

The only standardisation that has gone on is that there are two standard sizes.
As you noted 1.75mm and 3mm.
Vik sells both sizes from his website www.diamondage.co.nz
3mm tends to be cheaper per kg because there is less time and effort to make it than 1.75mm filament.

The lower cost means 3mm has a big following among the RepRap community but the printer designs like Up and makerbot use 1.75mm as standard.

I suspect that 1.75 mm filament is better for precision parts but I haven't seen any in depth study to back that up.
Cheers,
Mike Paauwe

---

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[www.makershop.co.nz]
Makershop - Reprap parts, adding new stock almost daily.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Even if you later find out that you have decided on the wrong size filament for you, it isn't the end of the world. Once you have a 3D printer, you can print the parts for the other size extruder and change over.
I have a Huxley, so I'm stuck with using 1.75mm.
I'm now building a Mendel, but still staying with 1.75, because I eventually want to make it the tri-colour Mendel. I'll still have the option of making a 3mm extruder to print at lower cost in single colours.
Personally I'm hoping now that filament extruders are becoming available, that the cost of filament will become much lower. So it may not matter which size you go for.