3D Printing Materials

3D Printing happens with so called "Filament". You can choose from any of the Filaments available at the CoMakingSpace once you are qualified to carry out filament changes on the different 3D Printers! Excess plastic is collected close to the printers and separated by material (mixes can't be recycled).

Besides the pages about plastics we have already written in this wiki, the Prusa 3D printing handbook is a great resource for looking up properties and possible difficulties.

Spool Weight

If you don't know whether a spool has enough material left for your print, weigh it on a sensitive scale and subtract the weight of the spool itself to learn the amount of filament left.

A spool from Innofil 3D weighs 250 g, a spool from UniCoFil weighs 220 g and a spool from "DAS FILAMENT" weights 218g.

But nowadays most spools are marked with a scale that indicates the amount of material left through the remaining diameter.

Experiences

Here we will sum up our overall opinions about the various suppliers we have tested. You can also read this german article if you want to get a general idea of the pros and cons of different materials. In most cases it is best to buy from a dedicated seller for 3D-printing materials and not from e.g. Amazon since the quality can vary vastly.

• Elegoo
  • very low price especially in bundles possible (e.g. PLA from ~10€/kg)
  • good quality or at least enough for most applications
  • offers: PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, ASA, PC, and some fiber variants
• Bambu Lab
  • very good quality
  • a bit more expensive
  • high compatibility with their machines (slicer profiles)
  • offer vast variety and all standard filaments
• Polymaker
  • also technical materials
• Sunlu
  • also technical materials
• 3D-Jake
  • biggest assortment
  • also technical materials

older sources:

• UniCoFil
  • great quality, local supplier!
  • relatively strong - usually positive, but keep this in mind when planning to tap holes with screws!
  • offers multicolor and lignin filaments

• DAS FILAMENT
  • made in Germany
  • nice quality and price but charges 6+ € for shipping on each order
  • also offers PETG (not tested yet)