I already ordered 1kg hyper pla white from creality ($8). What else I can buy during black Friday? I’m not sure what I’ll be printing other than trinkets and household items. These are the ones I currently have in my cart. Please let me know your thoughts and advice.
White petg 1kg from creality $6
Anycubic: petg texture gray, pla+ black, Pla strawberry pink - $26
Please let me know if I should get something else instead.
A filament dryer.
This.
For PLA: SUNLU/Jayo(same company) for standard stuff Polymaker for special stuff
PCTG: Extrudr
ASA: Black Forest Filaments(if in Europe), Extrudr, Spectrum
Creality and Anycubic are fine. If you’re looking for a general low-cost manufacturer try “TINMORRY” if they’re available in your region, I’ve good experiences with those.
For really high quality take a look at extrudr.
Do yourself a favour though, don’t buy bulks of filament from those cheap AliExpress brands (like Tecbears, Geeetech and such). They’re cheap and really bad.
Eryone and Jayo are pretty good (and cheap) too. I didn’t have issues with Tecbears PLA I got from Amazon
Jayo is literally SUNLU,btw.
I am aware of that, but usually Jayo branded filament is cheaper ;)
I had issues with both SUNLU and Jayo. Jayo spools came tangled, smelly like hell (it was just PLA) and with “white” being a really dirty one (more light very bright grey), and SUNLU devices are total shit with their customer support not working at all. I’d never recommend those products.
Funny enough it was quite the opposite for me I had horrible experiences with eSun(and still have them when I open a role that is still orginally packed from my storage) and switched to Sunlu/Jayo and did not have to many issues (as in: Two. Once a order was massively delayed (not their, something went wrong at the parcel service), the other time a role was not correctly packed (in one of the triple packs) and they send another three role package.
Print wise they are by far the most printed filament for us and we got through upper double digits by now.
Avoid ABS. Stinky and weak.
And releases toxic gases
Yup, try PETG, it’s pretty versatile and resistant to most things (aside from very high temperatures).
Avoid PETG and use the even better PCTG.
I’ve used both. PCTG is much more expensive than PETG (which is one of the filaments you can get very cheap), and does not offer that much over it. Unless you need something with (very slightly) better impact and temperature resistance PETG is way to go. If you need much better impact/temperature resistance ASA/PA is the way to go. I’m using PETG+CF if I need more durability and temperature resistance than the plain one, but avoid CF for stuff I have to touch a lot.
Yes, choose ASA. Less stinky and UV resistant.
Stinky is an understatement - ABS is literally toxic (enough that a longer print can kill a small bird in the room) and while ASA is toxic as well, it is less so.
Nevertheless both require a good exhaust/filter solution.
Those are fine picks.
Grab some big ziplock bags and a pack of desiccant sachets to keep the filaments dry while in storage.
Addendum: If nozzles are cheap, you could pick some up. They are consumable parts.
And you could grab a tighter nozzle too, for better details in your prints. (Though the print time goes up dramatically!)
or just buy a proper nozzle with a tungsten or ruby tip.
How frequently would I need to replace a nozzle?
Not often, if you’re running non-fiber reinforced filaments. even standard brass nozzles can get 1000 hours on them before you start to get loss of print quality. And hardened nozzles have practically infinite life in normal plastic.
Better off getting multiple sizes though. A default 0.4mm nozzle is a nice middle ground. 0.2mm gains a ton of detail for small parts. 0.6 and 0.8mm nozzles can drasticall ly reduce print times for large parts and creates better overhang/bridge surfaces.
All true, but sometimes a clog turns into a Clog and it’s time to just drop in a replacement while you try and fix the clogged one.
Got it, thank you
Long time I haven’t ordered any creality filament but they were not great few years ago, hopefully they are better now. Filament is sensitive to humidity, store in a dry place especially open spools. If you pinch filament in half and it breaks, that means it is really humid and you will have some printing issues, if so you need to dry filament. Another advice unrelated to filament is to watch some videos to learn how to operate, maintain,… The more you watch, the better. Get in some discord forum for ender 3 or creality printers so you can get some help from people who owns same printer.
Printed Solid Jessie filament has become most of my stash, its mid-priced filament that prints like premium. I use PLA for most stuff and PETG if its going to get sun or if PLA would be too brittle. I also use some flexibles (TPU) but each printer is different in how it handles soft filaments, so its hard to recommend.
If you experiment with other types of filaments, be sure your plate can handle it. PETG will stick too well to some plate coatings. Prusa has a good matrix to help.
