# 3D Printing > 3D Printer Parts, Filament & Materials >  Best PLA - Colorfabb, Formfutura, 3DOM, Polymaker or ...?

## ralphzoontjens

Hi,

I have a very simple question.

After 2 years of experimentation and work, I chose to use Colorfabb filament because it brings the best results regarding layer bonding, stiffness, bed adhesion and finish.
The 3DOM Biome3D filament is great as well, and a bit more flexible which is nice though works less well for small details.
Formfutura filament outperforms most other filaments as well but I have been having print failures due to less layer adhesion. Faberdashery filaments are great for their colors but a bit too pricey.
Now I am wondering how Polymaker PLA compares to the other main brands, or if you have any other recommendations.

Thanks,
Ralph

----------


## 3dex ltd

As a filament supplier it is hard not to be biased. However, it seems that most people simply keep trying filaments until they find one that works well with their printer and then stick to that make. (Im pleased to report many people have decided to stick with our filament). I would recommend that you give the Polymaker filament you mention a try and see if you like it. Also there are so many different types of filament available each with their own slight variations and characteristics. I think its the beauty of the filament market - so much choice! I hope this helps.

----------


## iDig3Dprinting

As @3Dex ltd said, you will just have to try it. What you get out does depend too a large extent on how well dialled in your printer is to that filament. There is a lot of variation in diameter, for example despite what is claimed so this can greatly effect the results. Also not all filaments have the same properties, even amongst standard PLAs. The Biome 3D you speak of has a very nice finish to it so we like it a lot because of that and colorfabb are of course colorfabb and is really a go to for consistent high quality and easy printing. How polymaker will compare you will just have to see.

----------


## curious aardvark

I like polymaker filaments. 
I'm not entirely gone on their pla, but then that's probably because I haven't spent enough time dialling it in.
I do like the fact that it has a slightly roughened surface for extra grip in the extruder. I suspect this would let you print it a high temp and very fast speed. 
Got a reel of orange that i used to make some telescopic legs for a garden trough. 

But I'd have polyflex's babies if such a thing were possible. fantastic stuff and a joy to work with.
I've still got a sample of polywood that I haven't tried yet. 
That's a filament that's supposed to look like wood while having no wood content. 

My current favourite white filament is sun-lu. Clean crisp, fast prints at 215c and a really nice feel to the objects. Not as brittle as most white filament.   And at £12 kg delivered, what's not to like :-) 

My go to filament has been reprapper tech for the last 2 years. 
Doesn't seem to matter what colour you get, it's just great stuff and at the mid-point of the price scale.. 

Colorfabb wise I've only used their exotics. 
Light blue colorfabb xt coploymer is hands down the best filament I've ever used. 
The stupidly tiny gears I made recently just wouldn't have worked with anything else. It's tough, stiff, a joy to print with and amazingly strong, also certified for food contact. And slightly cheaper than I first thought. so soon as idig3dprinting digs it out of his warehouse, I'm buying a reel.
Got Lots of little widgets in mind where abs and pla just aren't strong enough or print detailed enough and polyflex is too flexible. 
Plus it'll print the smallest detail your machine can handle. 

Haven't tried their pla/pha yet, but am well impressed with the woodfill, so might get a few samples and have a play. 

I do have samples of biome3d, not got round to trying it yet.
The samples I've seen on idig3d's website do look particularly smooth and shiny. So probably worth a try :-)

As fas as layer adhesion and pla goes - never ever had an issue with it. 
You must be printing at too low a temp.

----------


## Ama-fessional Molder

For what it's worth, I have some "Cutequeen" PLA from Amazon, and it's definitely not quality stuff. If you need a good finish, stay away from it. With my own prints it is hit and miss, but that's a result of not fully understanding the process. With the default test print the result was much worse than the sample filament that came with the printer, and in fact it wasn't able to complete one of the 4 test files (a swan).

It could be just the white though, so I have a roll of black coming. I know that in injection molding, white colorant seems to often have an adverse affect on the plastic properties. I have never gotten a clear answer as to why, but we have gone through the testing process with a few different whites and all of them show a distinct variation that isn't present with other colors.

That said, it is dirt cheap and works fine for certain things. Paid $13.99 for a kg of it. I'll be using that for all my misc. printing that isn't critical. I will have to order a spool of something good in the near future.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Thanks,
I will try the Polymaker, polyflex and polywood filaments. Polywood looks like a good replacement of Woodfill which has repeatedly ruined my nozzles.
I am planning to order the Colorfabb Copolymer as well.
Biome3D has given me the smoothest results so far, and prints most consistently. It has a lower viscosity when printing so layer bonding is better and overhangs print smoother, though small details like text tend to become a bit mushed.
I just ordered some Sun-Lu filament from Gearbest, together with a $60 laser engraver by the way. I will post some results as soon as I have them.
I sometimes have layer adhesion issues due to several factors, either the print bed not being 100% calibrated, the flow rate too high or low so the previous layer is too thick or thin causing inconsistencies in subsequent layers - then what can happen is that the filament only partially  'grips' the previous layer creating a very weak spot in the print, or the extruder not pushing the filament properly.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Does anyone have experience with any of these filaments?

Excelvan 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...d_bhz_bw_c_x_1
Seems to fall in the category dirt-cheap and poor quality.

Hatchbox
https://www.amazon.com/HATCHBOX-3D-P...ct_top?ie=UTF8
Seems promising given the good reviews.

JET
https://www.amazon.com/JET-3mm-PLA-F...dp/B00N5STJXS/
Seems promising for its price.

3D Prima
https://www.amazon.co.uk/3D-Prima/b/...e-bin=3D+Prima
Seems OK

----------


## curious aardvark

Nope, not tried any of those  - but be careful when ordering sun-lu on amazon. 

I bought a roll of red from 'other suppliers'. was less than £10 delivered. 
But it is NOT sun-lu. Not in the sun-lu box, not on a sun-lu reel and doesn't have the sun-lu sticker. 
Haven't tried it yet, so no idea if it's any good or not. But it's definitely not what it claimed to be. 

The sun-lu white is great stuff. Very slightly translucent, so doesn't seem to suffer from the brittleness of most white pla. Think they've dialled back on the colourant slightly. 
But it's lovely stuff to print with. run it at 215-220 

And ama - yes colourant makes a tremendous difference. 
For example Green filaflex and ninjaflex, works really well in my creator. ANY other colour of either filament just won't even load, let a lone print. 

@ralph, the woodfill and laser engraver is a good combination. You have to engrave at a slower speed (higher number). For example I engrave leather at 40 on the slider. But woodfill I've been engraving at 100. Take s a lot longer, but gives really great results.

I've had no issues with woodfill - but I do have the Fine version. Very very small wood particles.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Good idea on engraving woodfill - is the fine version a new upgraded version of the filament? I can only find one woodfill on the Colorfabb website.
How about engraving regular PLA, does it give good detail?

----------


## curious aardvark

haven't tried normal pla yet. Just doing a woodfill coaster insert, I'll try some white pla after :-) 
Running this one at 80 - looking pretty good. I'll stick a pic up when it's done. 

** Update
it won't touch white pla. Not  a mark on it.  

No idea if it's a new woodfill or not - you'd have to ask idig3dprinting, I won it in his competition :-)
I just know he said it's the 'fine' version: https://www.idig3dprinting.co.uk/sho...fine-filament/

----------


## iDig3Dprinting

> No idea if it's a new woodfill or not - you'd have to ask idig3dprinting, I won it in his competition :-)
> I just know he said it's the 'fine' version: https://www.idig3dprinting.co.uk/sho...fine-filament/


There is only fine woodfill, we don't know why they made this distinction. The only other wood impregnated filaments colorfabb do are BambooFill and CorkFill.

(@CuriousAardvark - your XT is on the way by the way.)

----------


## curious aardvark

yep, seen the email :-) 
Cheers

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Does anyone have experience with EUMakers filament?
http://www.eumakers.com

They have a nice range of colors and good pricing.

----------


## uncle_bob

> Does anyone have experience with EUMakers filament?
> http://www.eumakers.com
> 
> They have a nice range of colors and good pricing.


Hi

Unless the stuff is utter junk, the only real answer to "will it work for me" is to get a sample spool and play with it on your printer doing your prints. I know that's a *really* boring answer. It's not one that I happen to like, I'd much rather order a range of spools than wait and try a sample. It still is the best way to do it. Once you decide on a place, stick with it for a while. It is *much* easier to get good prints with filament from the same source than a range of spools of (now) unknown age, unknown source, "best guess material", and unknown quality. Note to self: Label the stupid spools when they come in !!!

Bob

----------


## iDig3Dprinting

> Does anyone have experience with EUMakers filament?
> http://www.eumakers.com
> 
> They have a nice range of colors and good pricing.


We have tried Eumaker filaments, they seem to work fine. Like most PLA if you get your printer dialled in to that particular make then you should not have any problems. We have toyed with the idea of selling them but, for PLA we use colorfabb, for obvious reasons.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Faberdashery has nice filaments as well and they can produce custom Pantone colors though it comes at an extra cost.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Well I ordered some Sunlu filaments at about $25 each with free shipping from Gearbest.
The color changing orange is a fun material. Before printing it's a bright orange, after printing it becomes a milky, salmony orange that turns to a light bright yellow when heated above 33C.
The black PLA has a too high diameter (2.97-3.15mm) so is unusable, even with oil it doesn't make its way through the Bowden tube.
Then I ordered green noctilucent PLA 3mm, but I  received 1.75 flex PLA in green instead.
I am trying out the laser engraver this afternoon.

----------


## curious aardvark

> We have tried Eumaker filaments, they seem to work fine. Like most PLA if you get your printer dialled in to that particular make then you should not have any problems. We have toyed with the idea of selling them but, for PLA we use colorfabb, for obvious reasons.


well it wouldn't hurt to have a budget option as well :-)

----------


## iDig3Dprinting

> well it wouldn't hurt to have a budget option as well :-)


We are looking into this. We are trying to find a budget PLA which is of sufficient quality that we would be happy to sell it. We think we may have found one so it is a matter of logistics now.

----------


## curious aardvark

well if you want it tested - drop me a 5m sample over and I'll give it a try :-)

----------


## Bassna

I've tried so many different filaments at this point. I basically just stick with Hatchbox on Amazon now, it's great quality (Wouldn't notice a difference between any of the other top names mentioned here) and it's $22 with free 2 day shipping (with Prime). And like you said, the reviews speak for itself. Basically all I purchase anymore.

----------


## curious aardvark

hey dude ! 
good to see you, hows tricks ? 
Presumably the baby's keeping you occupied :-)

----------


## Bassna

> hey dude ! 
> good to see you, hows tricks ? 
> Presumably the baby's keeping you occupied :-)


Haha he sure is. Just about 6 months old already. Time flies! How have you been?

----------


## BSCdan

If you're interested in learning more about the filament from my company, please let me know. I don't like to hijack or self-promote on this board. I will say this much - On a recent PLA comparison testing from 3D Matter with us, ColorFabb, Makerbot, Village Plastics, Esun and RepRapper, we handily won across every area they tested. Impact Resistance was so lopsided, it was actually kind of laughable.

----------


## Bassna

> If you're interested in learning more about the filament from my company, please let me know. I don't like to hijack of self-promote on this board. I will say this much - On a recent PLA comparison testing from 3D Matter with us, ColorFabb, Makerbot, Village Plastics, Esun and RepRapper, we handily won across every area they tested. Impact Resistance was so lopsided, it was actually kind of laughable.


What's your filament brand? Hatchbox is out of red Pla currently so I'm looking for another brand to try out. Through Amazon it's about $22 with free 2 day shipping, just curious if your price is similar as well.

----------


## BSCdan

Sent you a PM Bassna.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Once Hatchbox is available at European suppliers I will try it out as well.
EUmakers filament is great value for money and their colors are wonderful. The filament flows well, sticks well to the bed and works great for small details. The only thing is that the filament diameter is not consistent across rolls, for example the metallic filaments don't fit my Bowden tube. So for now I am sticking with Colorfabb.

----------


## BSCdan

I so wish I could sell to Europe.

----------


## uncle_bob

> I so wish I could sell to Europe.


Hi

You *can* sell to Europe. There is a bit of a shipping cost. You also have to do some paperwork.

Bob

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Has anyone tried Filamet? It's 88.5% metal and developed by powder metallugists - looks much better than the colorfabb metals.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?tag=3dpc06-20

----------


## BSCdan

But we'd have to raise prices or charge the customer for shipping, custom charges, etc.

----------


## curious aardvark

you're prices are pretty high in the states. By the time you'd added vat and p&p you'd be totally priced out of the market. 

So yes you can sell to europe - but it's doubtful anybody would be buying.

----------


## BSCdan

I don't think our prices are high, especially considering there are many more expensive filaments that are of far inferior quality . We're not selling standard filament. We're selling a biodegradable ABS filament. We're selling a PLA with PHA additive. We spool our filaments in a manner that avoids tangles, knots, crossovers, loopbacks. We don't use plastic spooling, but a biodegradable recycled cardboard. If none of those things are important to you, yes, we're going to be more expensive than your standard filament. But to say we're expensive when we're less expensive than the most popular selling filament in the world, which we score higher than across the board, is kind of an odd statement.

We sell to Colleges, Universities, Fab Labs and Makerspaces who want a better quality filament. Can we compete with Hatchbox? Price wise, of course not. I'd love to buy a BMW, but I certainly wouldn't expect to get one for the price of a Kia.

----------


## curious aardvark

> when we're less expensive than the most popular selling filament in the  world, which we score higher than across the board, is kind of an odd  statement.


who is that then ? 

And value for money is not the same thing as being inexpensive :-)

Price comparison to what I buy. 
your pure pla  is £26.50 for 750gms.
The reprapper tech pla I buy is £18 for 1 kg - I'd stack it against any pla in the world in every category and I've tried more than a few.
The cheap pla I buy from amazon has been as low as £10 for 1kg - while not as good as the reprapper, it's useable for big stuff with out any issues. 

Your pla/pha is $39.99 = £30.28 (the pound really sucks at the moment)
That's actually cheaper than I can easily buy colorfabb pla/pha - so thats good :-) 
Cheapest I've been able to find is £32 - all my prices do include p&p

However I can get pet-g for around £22-28 per kg, depending on brand. 
And I can get ingeo based pla for £22.50 for 750gms. 

Abs I just don't want in any form. 

So okay, some of your stuff is NOT EXPENSIVE :-) 

But P&p and tax would still kill you outside the states.

----------


## BSCdan

From what I understand it's Makerbot. That's what I've been told, but I don't know accurate or up to date that is.

ColorFabb is a good filament. In a recent testing comparison of 6 different lines of filament, they scored #2. As you said, it's expensive (more so in the US) and it's difficult for people in the US to get. But again, as you said, shipping would just be too expensive outside of the US. And longer. In the US, we
are able to ship anywhere and get it to the customer within 2 days. That's a big reason people like us.

I've never used RepRapper in either form, but on the testing, they scored very low across the board. Their ABS score the lowest in each category - Ease of Use, Visual Quality, Geometric Accuracy and Impact Resistance. They actually scored slightly better on PLA. They scored #3 right behind ColorFabb in Impact Resistance on both the X/Y and Z axis. However, they both scored far below PLAyPHAb in that category.

----------


## uncle_bob

> But we'd have to raise prices or charge the customer for shipping, custom charges, etc.


Hi

The customer pays customs (if it applies) when the package is delivered. In most cases there is no customs duty assessed. There is paperwork, but not a lot of it. Shipping is what it is. That is no different than shipping things the other way. I buy quite a bit of stuff from "over the ocean". It is not all that hard.

Bob

----------


## curious aardvark

> In most cases there is no customs duty assessed.


Depends entirely on the value stated on the packaging and whether it's labelled as commercial package or a present. And in the uk the 'paperwork' costs the recipient £10. Yep they charge you £10 for the privilege oif chraging you 20% of the value stated on the package. They also ignore currency. So the bastards will charge you 20% of whatever the number listed is in pounds. 
ie: some idiot (my mate as it happens) after being told to make sure the label says: present, value $5 - which would have been duty free.
Instead puts: commercial, value $40. 
So I pay 20% of £40 plus £10 for the privilege. another £18 on top of the original cost. 
I was not happy.

So if the shipper is prepared to put the right things on the shipping lable - it would just be p&p. 
The limit for commerciasl packages before duty is charged is £10 (or 10 dollars, sheckels, euros etc) The limit for gifts is £30. 

Inland revunue and customs are just total bastards.

To give you an indication of postage costs. For me to send a tracked package to the states, the last one I sent weighed 50 grams and cost £8 about $12. 
Untracked is cheaper, about half the price.

When you consider I can order something from china that weighs 100gms and pay £1.60 INCLUDING post and packing. 
It's no wonder the chinese are so good at selling goods overseas, china post has to be heavily subsidised by the chinese government - something all governments should do in my opinion.

----------


## uncle_bob

Hi

On another forum, we just went through a whole bunch of information on what various countries charge as customs. There is a wide variation, even within Europe. None of that side of it accrues to the seller. It all comes out of the buyer's pocket. It is a reason why a buyer might go shopping in one country vs the other. It is not a reason why a seller can not sell to a given part of the world. If you wonder why shipping from one place is so cheap, the answer in some cases is that the government pays for the shipping on certain exports ....

Bob

----------


## curious aardvark

Yep - go china post !

----------


## uncle_bob

> Yep - go china post !


Hi

At one time shipping from the US to Europe was a lot less. Then the EU complained and the "rates were normalized". I have no idea how China Post gets around that sort of thing.  Part of it is the direct government payment of shipping, but that is not the whole story. 

Bob

----------


## Talon 3D

I have some of the red, glow in the dark ABS from Excelvan and it turned out great.  Nice finish very bright glow and no issues. Surprised me at how nice cheap filament turned out. 




> Does anyone have experience with any of these filaments?
> 
> Excelvan 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...d_bhz_bw_c_x_1
> Seems to fall in the category dirt-cheap and poor quality.
> 
> Hatchbox
> https://www.amazon.com/HATCHBOX-3D-P...ct_top?ie=UTF8
> Seems promising given the good reviews.
> ...

----------


## ralphzoontjens

I can obtain several rolls for a bargain price from this supplier: http://www.3dfilamenten.nl
The reviews seem good, the PLA having good flow qualities.
Can anyone confirm that this is a good filament?

----------


## uncle_bob

Hi

Just about any basic PLA filament you get these days (other than the eBay stuff or no name stuff on Amazon) is fairly good. There are good filaments on both Amazon and eBay, you just have to be a bit careful therel. 

Bob

----------


## printbus

> ...I have no idea how China Post gets around that sort of thing.  Part of it is the direct government payment of shipping, but that is not the whole story...


I saw an interesting video about this a few months ago. I had no idea that there's an extension of the United Nations that influences the costs of shipping between countries, with "developing" countries being favored over established countries.  Up until now, China has been designated by this Universal Postal Union as a "developing" country. The UPU meets every four years, and just wrapped up a session. It sounds like there could be some changes becoming effective in 2018 - http://news.upu.int/no_cache/nd/memb...l-dues-system/

----------


## robfunk

We've trialled a few different brands and love FormFutura, works perfectly on the Ultimaker printers.  Best place to purchase is store.redstack.com.au

----------


## ralphzoontjens

My favorite so far is Colorfabb, Formfutura takes silver and 3DOM bronze because their filaments are great but a bit runny.
My shipment of 3dfilamenten.nl will come in soon and after printing samples of each color I will post a review.

----------


## BSCdan

My companies ABS was tested up against Formfutura (and 4 others) by 3D Matter and we beat them in each category: Ease of Printing, Visual Quality, Geometric Accuracy, Impact Resistance. Wish they had tested FF PLA as well.

----------


## ralphzoontjens

Hey 3D Printlife, your filaments may be superior but most people go for affordability so it will be better to besides having a premium filament also have a 'housebrand' filament. There is definitely still room to differentiate regarding visual and mechanical properties.

I am testing all the filaments from 3dfilamenten.nl and so far so good, it prints very nicely with good flow and visual quality - only it's more brittle and clogs up the nozzle a bit when staying heated for too long - but that's normal. This is great quality filament!

----------


## uncle_bob

Hi

Ok, well let's toss up some numbers, just to get it down to math:

I get filament from MakerGeeks. It's $15 a KG delivered in 4 spool batches. It can be PLA, PETG, or ABS for that price. It all prints great on all of my printers. No clogs. No breaks. No weird behavior at all. No reason to pay any more. The stuff works fine. It's their "first run" product, not the recycled material. 

Is anybody selling great filament for less (delivered price) ? 

Bob

----------


## BSCdan

> Hey 3D Printlife, your filaments may be superior but most people go for affordability so it will be better to besides having a premium filament also have a 'housebrand' filament. There is definitely still room to differentiate regarding visual and mechanical properties.
> 
> I am testing all the filaments from 3dfilamenten.nl and so far so good, it prints very nicely with good flow and visual quality - only it's more brittle and clogs up the nozzle a bit when staying heated for too long - but that's normal. This is great quality filament!


I agree. My company isn't really a B2C type of business. We're more B2B. Our customers are Universities who are looking for quality instead of the cheapest option out there. I think our price is very good for what we offer, but for someone looking for a $15 filament, you're not going to find it with us.

----------


## wirlybird

I liked Makergeeks until recently I got a bunch of ABS and the rolls are soaked.  They steam and pop when extruded.  I fail to understand how it can get so moisture soaked in such a short time.
I am hesitant to get anything from them again.





> Hi
> 
> Ok, well let's toss up some numbers, just to get it down to math:
> 
> I get filament from MakerGeeks. It's $15 a KG delivered in 4 spool batches. It can be PLA, PETG, or ABS for that price. It all prints great on all of my printers. No clogs. No breaks. No weird behavior at all. No reason to pay any more. The stuff works fine. It's their "first run" product, not the recycled material. 
> 
> Is anybody selling great filament for less (delivered price) ? 
> 
> Bob

----------


## ralphzoontjens

There is a guy selling a stock of 500 1kg rolls of 3mm PLA and ABS from 3dfilamenten.nl in the Netherlands, at less than $7 a roll.
I bought 24 rolls.

Here is my comparison to Colorfabb and 3DOM filaments:

Colorfabb
Layer-layer adhesion:  4/5
Flow:                         5/5 
Smoothness of print:   4/5
Accuracy:                   5/5
Color quality:              5/5
Flexibility:                   4/5

3DOM
Layer-layer adhesion:  5/5
Flow:                         5/5 
Smoothness of print:   5/5
Accuracy:                   3/5
Color quality:              5/5
Flexibility:                   5/5

3Dfilamenten
Layer-layer adhesion:  4/5
Flow:                         4/5 
Smoothness of print:   4/5
Accuracy:                   5/5
Color quality:              5/5
Flexibility:                   2/5

----------


## uncle_bob

> I liked Makergeeks until recently I got a bunch of ABS and the rolls are soaked.  They steam and pop when extruded.  I fail to understand how it can get so moisture soaked in such a short time.
> I am hesitant to get anything from them again.


Hi

Over the years, I have gotten strange batches of filament from a variety of people. I also store filament in less than ideal conditions. A cheap vacuum pump and a vacuum rated pot have cleared up the majority of the issues. 

It does *not* help much with the rolls of 3 mm filament I still have sitting around in the "brave new world" of 1.75 mm extruders .... Eventually I'll have to rebuild a 3 mm machine to use the stuff up. My guess is that the vacuum pump will be working overtime on those rolls. Some are going on 4 years old and even the pump may not resurrect them. 

Truth in lending: Most of what I have used from them has been PETG, I've run a half dozen spools of ABS and about the same in PLA. There's been maybe 4X that many rolls of PETG in various flavors. 

Bob

----------


## wirlybird

I have tried Makergeeks and it worked pretty good.  Did have some issues with "wet" ABS though.  Had a tough time getting them to respond to help requests.  Haven't completely given up on them.

I have also been using Hatchbox PLA and ABS and it seems to be going good.  Their wood was pretty straight forward.

Trying out eSun PETG and so far it has been fairly easy to get going.

Also an ASA from Ridged ink I think it is.  Pretty easy to get going also.

----------

