3D Printers with proprietary filaments?

[Steve W]

I was reading abut the XYZ Printing DaVinci models, when I saw a huge red flag: the writer said that one of these machines would "brick itself" if supplied with a third-party filament spool. Then I saw someone advertising filament spools with an RFID chip for compatibility with a particular (different) machine.

My question is, how common is it for printer manufacturers to build in an RFID system to force you to use their expensive filament by disabling the machine if you try to run competitors' filament? I absolutely will not - ever - purchase a machine that includes this limitation. A major justification (for me) for buying a machine is in the ability to make useful things from materials I could recycle - milk jugs, soda bottles etc.. - and being chained to one company's filament totally eliminates this.

So.. I ask all of you who have purchased printers - does yours accept any (chemically compatible) filament, or does your machine lock up if you use another brand, or unbranded filament?

[richardphat]

My co-worker have an XYZ the 1.0 something, there's a way to crack that machine making work running on open-source filaments as well as slicer.

Make sure which version you are looking for.

[Sebastian Finke]

Mine uses any filament but its not an XYZ.

[LambdaFF]

There is so much choice now : just avoid machines with such limitations. Unless you aim top pro machines that hardly makes sense, and even then I'm not that sure.

[Sebastian Finke]

There is so much choice now : just avoid machines with such limitations. Unless you aim top pro machines that hardly makes sense, and even then I'm not that sure.

+1

Absolutely agree!

[Steve W]

There is so much choice now : just avoid machines with such limitations. Unless you aim top pro machines that hardly makes sense, and even then I'm not that sure.

That's the reason for this post - to avoid the machines that are programed to reject non-OEM filament. The manufacturers don't readily disclose this info, so I'm hoping that people will share what they know about which makes/models do/don't accept 3rd-party filament.

[Davo]

At Hyrel, we readily disclose that you can use any 1.75mm filament you want, provided it prints at 250C or less. Or 350C or less with a different head.

Or any wax, clay, paste or emulsifiable that prints at room temperature, or up to 100 or 150C, with different heads.

Or any photoinitiated polymer that crosslinks at a wavelength of between 365 and 450nm, at room temperature or heated up to 100C, with different heads.

In fact, we don't sell filament or other print media. Just the printers.

[Wolfie]

So.. I ask all of you who have purchased printers - does yours accept any (chemically compatible) filament, or does your machine lock up if you use another brand, or unbranded filament?

You have two choices:
1. Support the DRM style monopoly of that specific brand of printer. Buy their printer and continue buying their filament.
2. Vote with your wallet by buying another brand printer and then telling XYZ that you did and why.

Companies like this continue to prey on the myopic or under-informed buyers flooding the market. They have one goal and one goal only. Sell you their printer then rape you for the supplies for it. Same for inkjet printers such as HP and and Epson who chip their ink cartridges. Cheap printer, expensive ink. Same with XYZ. Make your own choice. Many here would like you to choose #2 above but its your money to vote with.

MOST printers are NOT like the XYZ. There are some that are, but the vast majority are not.

Mine, a LulzBot Taz5 may not be in your budget range, but I can attest it will take ANY filament brand you can shove in it. In fact I have printed exactly ONE print using Lulz' brand filament and that was the first test print with the sample it shipped with The rest of my prints have been from filament from MakerGeeks, MatterHackers, ColorFabb, GlobalFSD, etc.

[Fusion3 3D Printers]

Fusion3 completely agrees; we encourage open filament and got out of selling filament ourselves to distance ourselves from this practice. We've vetted a number of suppliers that make great quality filament and sell at competitive prices. More info here: http://www.fusion3design.com/3d_printer_filament/

[curious aardvark]

You have two choices:
1. Support the DRM style monopoly of that specific brand of printer. Buy their printer and continue buying their filament.
2. Vote with your wallet by buying another brand printer and then telling XYZ that you did and why.

Actually you generally have 3 choices.

3) go on youtube and watch a video on how to convert your drm machine to opensource filament. Pretty much all the desktop systems have been 'jailbroken' as it were.
In some cases you can actually print a little doohickey that reroutes the filament from a standard spool through the propriatary cartridge - I think I saw that on a davinci printer of some description. In others you might have to hack the cartridge itself. But there are a lot of ingenious people out there who spend a lot of time on this sort of thing.