What filament to use?

[mike1268]

I've got pla and finding it a little soft. Also tried abs and finding its little brittle. What are you guys tonight your parts in?

[midlife306]

I use PLA all the time & it can be as tough as old boots.
A lot depends on how you position it for printing.
E.g. A small say 3mm square rod, if you print it vertically it won't have much strength, but print it on its side & it will have loads of strength.
Sorry I'm not trying to teach you how to suck eggs, often I'll print something, not be happy with how it's come out or how the support has stuck, so I'll reprint it in in a different orientation.
You should see my scrap bin!
Cheers
Wayne


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[971wright]

[quote="midlife306"]I use PLA all the time & it can be as tough as old boots.
A lot depends on how you position it for printing.
E.g. A small say 3mm square rod, if you print it vertically it won't have much strength, but print it on its side & it will have loads of strength.
Sorry I'm not trying to teach you how to suck eggs, often I'll print something, not be happy with how it's come out or how the support has stuck, so I'll reprint it in in a different orientation.
You should see my scrap bin!
Cheers
Wayne


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote
Good point must be like the grain in wood length ways strong and flexible across the grain snaps .Something to think about what you want the part to do which way does it need its strength .

regards pete

[wibblywobbly]

Seems quite strong in all of the tests. The reference to degrading in sunlight is only in extreme circumstances. I have made fence panel clips, and boundary markers, that have been out there for 12 months with no ill effects. Infill is the key, 20% is weak, 40% is as good as solid, overlap between infill and walls makes a difference, as does wall thickness. I can hammer solid pla and it hardly dents?

phpBB [video]

[Will01Capri]

Interesting reading

[Will01Capri]

Hi Guys, how many metres of PLA do you get to a 0.5 or 1kg reel?
I am trying to look at some calculations to see if i can cost out how much it costs to print a model etc
It would be good so i can budget per vehicle i decide to take on

Getting the research in before it arrives!!!

[wibblywobbly]

Within Cura you can enter the cost of the filament, then when you slice a model it tells you how much it costs to print it. In general, a half kilo will be way more than enough to print whatever you have in mind.

Things that affect the amount of filament used are the amount of infill, the support material, and wall thickness etc. For this reason you will soon learn how to design parts that use less filament, how to position them on the print bed to reduce support material, and how strong they need to be, thus allowing you to reduce infill material.

It's a learning curve, but one that will become apparent when you start printing anything. The less material you are using the faster the print is completed.

[Will01Capri]

Cool, thanks