metal fillaments

[violetprincess]

Anyone have any experience printing with any metal filled filaments, like copperfil or brassfil? Is there any noticeable advantage to having the metal other than how it looks, compared with a traditional PLA for example? In what scenario is a metal filled filament advantageous to a 100% plastic?

[ssayer]

Honestly, just looks.

[Davo]

Yeah, just looks.

[CaptainObvious]

Well, besides looks they are more dense than regular PLA, so if for whatever reason you need heft that can be handy.

[Barret]

The most difference is the looks,The temp should be higher when print with melt fill filament.

[3dex ltd]

Yeah it is mainly just the look of the final print that will be difference. Like mentioned above, the weight can also be a noticeable difference but only with larger prints.

With the wood filaments there can be the advantage of the feel and smell of wood. But these are not something you get with metal filaments either.

[iDig3Dprinting]

Anyone have any experience printing with any metal filled filaments, like copperfil or brassfil? Is there any noticeable advantage to having the metal other than how it looks, compared with a traditional PLA for example? In what scenario is a metal filled filament advantageous to a 100% plastic?

It is primarily the effect. They look very good when sanded and polished up so for statues, for example, they can produce a very good effect. The other notable difference, as people have mentioned, is weight; they are a lot heavier than conventional plastic filaments. One thing to note is that copperfill / BrassFill has a low breaking resistance so you would not want to use them in a print where strength was required, in this instance a hollow form with weight added after the print may be better.

ColorFabb metal filaments also print very well but you could use there standard PLA mix for this.

We would recommend giving them ago though as they are very easy to print with and, given the right model, can have a stunning effect. Here is a horse that we printed in CopperFill.

[curious aardvark]

personally I would try and get hold of the reprappertech filaments.

Instead of just adding fairly large metal aprticles to the filament like colorfabb - which you then have to sand, and buff and polish and it's areal pita.

Reprapper tech have used much much finer metal powder and used it as a colourant. So you get filament that looks metallic without any post processing.

That said the unsanded colorfabb filament is pretty cool as uit looks and feels like a roughish ceramic.

I actually prefer the unsanded brionzefill to the sanded bronzefill. Particular for models of statues.

[Jerome]

My personal favorite is rsutable magnetic iron filament. It prints wonderfully at about 210c and a bed temp of 75c with little or no globs or blemishes. Highly recommend it for outdoor models which will have a natural look when rusted. And it's great alternative when you're tired of everything looking like plastic!