Transcript:
Hey, everyone today. I wanted to make a little bit of a unique video by going over some of my personal favorite versions of different material options. I have to preface by saying that I have definitely not tried anywhere near all of the manufacturer options available and I’d love to hear from the community down below on their personal favorites of each. This is definitely not a paid promotion and I’m just giving my honest opinions off of my own personal experiences. No company asked me to make this or anything like that. Just figured I would gather some of the information I’ve learned into one video. I’m sure I’ll update this in the future, So this list definitely isn’t finalized. PLA PLA is a unique one on this list because it really is similar across an immense amount of different manufacturers at the end of the day. If you found a manufacturer that you like at a price, you’re okay with paying. Then you should stick to it. I’m not going to tell you about some secret. Amazing pla. You haven’t heard of. There are dozens upon dozens of manufacturers that are out there all with a great product that said I will link down below for the video where I asked Fellow 3d printing youtubers their personal favorite PLA manufacturer. Currently, my favorite is Polylite PLA by Polymaker just because it has consistently given me good results and they do have a bit better Heat resistance for reduced nozzle clogs than the average manufacturer. I’ve dealt closely with polymaker over the past year or so, and they seem to really know their stuff. You’ll see them come up a couple of times on this list. That said it is a bit pricier than other options well. At least it was, it’s become a bit difficult for me to find PLA reliably at a good price lately. Hatchbox is one of the most popular in the industry, and I’ve used it for years to great results. I was using overture PLA for a while because it was a really inexpensive option, but it seems they now raise their prices a bit. The same is true with Amazon Basics PLA with it now costing the same as Polylite. It isn’t that easy to find a good option under 20 dollars per kilogram anymore. Make sure to link to what you buy down below, and if you know any good deals, petg petg or petg is different from PLA in the sense that it does seem to vary quite a lot. Depending on the manufacturer. I’ve used a few in the past with very different results. Esun’s pet G, which I used in a video a couple years ago, had a very low bend to break ratio while it printed cleanly and looked pretty. It really didn’t have much to differentiate it from PLA. It shattered only after bending it slightly poly maker makes a good pet G option with their polylite PG, But my personal favorite, as of today is still the fibrology pet G, which I reviewed from Wolf Works 3d I have a review video on this, which I will link to down below for you to see for yourself. But it seems the quality and strength on this are great on top of that. I actually still use the clear version of this to do cold. Pulls on my machine. Petche is known to have very stringy and hairy prints and even that seems to be slightly reduced with this petchee once again. I’m sure there are other great options out there, but my personal favorite, as of now is the one made by fibrology. Be sure to read the comments for other suggestions. ABS, when it comes to abs, I’m actually going to have to leave it to the community to give their favorites. I’ve made it to the point where I almost never use abs anymore. That said I used to use hatchbox abs, all of the time at my previous job, and it definitely worked great for ABS. It warped plenty, but that’s going to be pretty much. A constant with abs Polymaker makes an abs for 25 a spool, which I’m sure continues their good quality, though. I’ve never personally used it. I don’t want to recommend anything. I haven’t personally used, let me know. If any of you still consistently use abs. And if you found a preferred manufacturer for it flexible filaments, this is beyond a vague category. So I’ll just give you a couple of different options to my favorites. Flexibles range from extremely soft to only semi-flexible, but one constant seems to be that the stiffer the filament the easier it is to print, while ninjaflex by Ninjatek has been around for a long time and can print some really soft prints. It definitely isn’t my favorite. I will link to a couple flexible review videos that I made down below, But essentially, my overall favorite is still cheetah by ninjatek cheetah seems to be a good balance between the softness and ease to print. It isn’t the softest option out there, but you can print it just fine on a Bowden printer that can’t be said about a lot of other options. If you have a good direct geared extruder setup, you can actually print cheetah at PLA speeds or even higher when using something like the Himara extruder, you won’t be limited on speed at all. Quality is really good as a flexible option. If that option is too soft, then an even easier to print material would be sane. Smart tpu. I actually had bad experiences with sane smart materials years ago, But when I tried their tpu, I was pleasantly surprised, especially for the price at 28 dollars for a 0.8 kilogram spool. It’s hard to beat. This definitely is stiffer than cheetah, but it prints even easier. I had zero issues running this material on a basic Bowden setup with respectable speeds, no warping, clean print, definitely the easiest of any flexible I’ve personally used and when it comes to really soft, I’ve only tried a few options and they each had their own printing difficulties. 3DX Flex was too difficult for the average machine. Ninjaflex isn’t much better. Fibrology 30d is really soft and a bit easier to print than the former 2. So I might suggest that as of right now, Nylon nylon materials are another vague category since there’s a wide variety of options in stiffness bend to break ratio and many other factors that said, just about every nylon is going to have difficulty with warping. That is definitely true with my former favorite nylon, which is nylon 910 by Tom. In 3d while I haven’t mentioned Tallman. Yet in this video, it’s more than worthwhile to check out their filament options. Their nylon 910 is a very strong material with a really good bend before breaking, though it can be difficult to print larger items without some form of warping. And that’s where my absolute favorite comes into play and that’s polymide. Copa by Polymaker. I actually tested this out before, and it might have actually been a previous version. So if this is an improved version, it’s going to be even better, but that previous version I tested has definitely exceeded my expectations. Don’t get me wrong! The quality in these prints aren’t the greatest, especially since you have to have your print cooling fan off. But the strength is unbeaten in my testing. I will link to a video review down below where I this was the only material that I tested that I was unable to break. Even better is that polymaker incorporated their warp free technology, which means this is extremely warp resistant. You still have to be careful since warping can happen. But the chances are reduced drastically from any other nylon I’ve personally used. It also boasts a heat resistance of up to 180 degrees Celsius, which is another major benefit. I have to reiterate that. No one asked me to make. This video or is paying in any way. Polymaker has just impressed me quite a lot with this polymide option and well, there are a ton of other, random, unique filament options that exist. Carbon fiber blends almost always print in great quality, but it’s difficult to find one with a strong layer adhesion. Nylon X by matterhackers was fun to test, but I did have some layer adhesion difficulties. We used to use 3DX tech all the time at my former job for unique carbon fiber blends, and they honestly are the best I personally tested, but it’s been a few years, so I’m not quite sure of their current lineup products, but I do remember being thoroughly impressed with their carbon fiber ABS option. I hope this helped a couple of you out. There and I also hope you don’t take this as any negative on any other particular manufacturer. Just because I haven’t tested it out. Doesn’t mean it’s not a great option. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you all soon with further reviews, tutorials and fun prints. Are you new to 3d printing or would like to get some more information? The brand new 2020 edition of my book 3d printing failures is now available on Amazon. This 2020 edition has had every chapter rewritten and updated and there are even six brand new chapters. One of these chapters is a detailed explanation of material science and 3d printing by Nicholas Tocoteu, a polymaker, which I think makes this book worth it on its own check out now linked in the description down below.