3D printer filament

[RWD3M]

Yes Thomas Hoof (3D printz) is in Telford.
Good filament but not the cheapest..

In fact I put Thomas onto 3D gloop and the US stuff he now imports.
I don't buy much from him as I have too much from here https://www.3dqf.co.uk/factory-shop
I purchased during covid.
Then we were not needed as they banned our face masks.

They have invested a lot in new production gear.

You would be well advised to jump on West Midlands 3D printing group on Facebook.
If you PM me your face book I will invite you.
John Pearson who runs it is very clever and there are a few others who are good for advice.

I've just had a quick look at these guys and have a quick question if I may. What is the advantage, if any, of PLA+ over regular PLA?

 

[ukracer]

I've just had a quick look at these guys and have a quick question if I may. What is the advantage, if any, of PLA+ over regular PLA?

Personally I don't know as I have never tried it. I have used ABS plus and that was why better than pure ABS.
The guy I know who used ABS plus ,until we ran out totally , has switched to using PLA plus and he rates it.

 

[RWD3M]

Personally I don't know as I have never tried it. I have used ABS plus and that was why better than pure ABS.
The guy I know who used ABS plus ,until we ran out totally , has switched to using PLA plus and he rates it.

Thanks for that, I may give it a go as it doesn't seem that much more expensive that regular PLA and the range of colours is a little better.

 

[m_c]

When I was using PLA, I preferred PLA+.
It's generally has a bit higher melting point, and is a bit stronger.

However like most filaments, the actual makeup and qualities do vary between manufacturers.

 

[PhillipM]

PLA+ is generally softer, more pliable and not as stiff/strong as PLA, prints a little higher temp, and can be annealed to give a much higher Tg/heat deflection temperature. Tbfh I always find it prints better than PLA for me too.

 

[Can'tWeld]

Honestly with PLA I just tend to use whatever is available and fits my colour/price range on Amazon. I've used BASICFIL, esun and a few others. No bad experiences to speak of with any of it. Only bad filament I've ever had was a roll of PETG that just never worked right on my printer but that could well be user error or a settings issue. The best advice I can give to someone just starting off in 3d printing is LEVEL YOUR BED EVERYTIME! Also if you start getting weird print quality issues out of the blue, the heater block is probably clogged. Get spare nozzles and maybe a spare hot end or two. I've not long since fitted a direct drive upgrade to mine as I wanted to print more TPU.

 

[armalites]

Prusa filament is very good, every roll is traceable and has a QR code so you can look up it's details.

 

[ukracer]

Honestly with PLA I just tend to use whatever is available and fits my colour/price range on Amazon. I've used BASICFIL, esun and a few others. No bad experiences to speak of with any of it. Only bad filament I've ever had was a roll of PETG that just never worked right on my printer but that could well be user error or a settings issue. The best advice I can give to someone just starting off in 3d printing is LEVEL YOUR BED EVERYTIME! Also if you start getting weird print quality issues out of the blue, the heater block is probably clogged. Get spare nozzles and maybe a spare hot end or two. I've not long since fitted a direct drive upgrade to mine as I wanted to print more TPU.

How much did it cost and what printer did you fit direct drive.
What it like for PLA etc?

 

[Can'tWeld]

How much did it cost and what printer did you fit direct drive.
What it like for PLA etc?

Ender 3 and I think it was 50 quid or so for the DD upgrade. Creality branded part.

It's just a stock hotend with a very short tube and the extruder mounted to the plate above it as far as I can tell.

Honestly no difference as far as printing other filaments goes. I know retraction etc is supposed to be tuned as obviously less is needed for a DD setup as there's less "slop" in the filament path, but honestly I haven't changed any settings at all, still using the standard cura profile for the machine.

No difference in print speed either, obviously if you're printing a lot faster than standard you will want to dial it back as there's a lot more mass moving around on the X carriage.

Prints TPU flawlessly now.

 

[indy4x]

I've just had a quick look at these guys and have a quick question if I may. What is the advantage, if any, of PLA+ over regular PLA?

No idea but work have bought me 5 rolls of PLA+ to print them some parts, still using up my PLA so not started a new roll yet

 

[Olderisbetter]

Ok my Ender 5 pro is built and running, pretty happy with a test print