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Has anyone tried ordering printer filament from sites like Alibaba.com? I see it is very cheap
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/11...ufacturer.html
As low as $8 per roll. Has anyone given this a try? Is the quality the same as the stuff you buy in the US?
I'm a bit weary of the price, but I really don't want to be the one to say 'It's from China, It's really cheap, There's something wrong here'...
Without putting in all my personal info, I can't account for shipping costs. Some companies charge extra for shipping so the actual cost of the product seems lower.
If you can find out what the cost would be after adding in shipping, that might help you decide.
i posted something about the chinese stuff in another thread. this appears to be a different manufacturer than any that i have used so i hate to group all chinese filament as being bad. that would be unfair. $8-$16 however imo is what filament should really cost. $40-$50 for a spool of abs is absurd. the US stuff from village plastics is super stuff and considering you can get that shipped for $37 from www.onlinefilament.com i guess the big deciding factor is what is the shipping costs from the china manufacturer on alibaba. in the end with shipping if it cost $30 per roll you might as well pay the extra few bucks and get the good stuff. if the china stuff is only a couple bucks to ship then i would love to try it out.
I've ordered other things from Alibaba, and for the most part it has all been cheap stuff. I would guess that the filament would fall into the same category, but I don't want to say it's cheap since I've never used it.
you generally get what you pay for where filament is concerned, it's also very dependant on your printer, extruder and hotend, i wouldn't even bother trying to run this stuff on an up! or a stock standard mk7 extruder, but it should go fine 1.75mm and somthing with a jhead or one of my hotends (aluhotend) on it, the concern used to be diameter consistancy with chinese filament, however these days the bigger concern is more about foreign dirt inside the plastic itself especially as we are now looking at 0.3mm 0.2mm and 0.1mm nozzles as becomming a standard thing in the very near future
It would have to be extremely cheap for me to want to risk it. I use a lot of PLA from Vik and have never had a problem with it, plus I want to support kiwi business as much as I can. That said I buy a lot of motors, bearings, rods and extrusion from China because it is a lot cheaper so maybe filament might be worth a test. Maybe someone could be a guinea pig and try out a few reels of those available.
If it's really that cheap, I might be able to convince a few of my techie buddies who work in the lab with me to all buy some rolls together.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wired1
If I do, I'll let you guys know how it goes.
That would be awesome. I'm sure many of us would love to know how good it really is, but none of us want to spend the money LOL.Quote:
Originally Posted by MysteryAlabaster
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronnytedeski
I'll look into it later today... I'm kinda bushed from ComicCon last night and my feet hurt, but once I eat I'll be good to go.
If it really is only $8-$16 then I'm going to buy like two rolls myself.
cool, let us know what you find out.
Avoid it. Same with a lot of eBay filament.
cheap, bubbly and some are of such poor quality it does not bond to itself.
i learnt the hard way.
was doing some commission prints and it kept splitting.
had to throw out 5 rolls of pla.
Put it this way. If you don't want an item that you print to be cheap quality, don't use cheap filament. I've tried some of the cheap stuff, and I can tell you, you get what you pay for.
Andy
I normaly buy my Fillement from Reprapworld.com,
These also normaly use chinese fillement (There is no brand so i aint sure if it will be the same as yours)
But it seems to workt perfectly here,
Of course you don't know what trash they combined it with to get a lower price,
But i dont care as long as it prints as it should ^^
Mystery, did you ever go ahead and buy the roles. I'm anxiously awaiting to see what you think of this chinese filament :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MysteryAlabaster
I'm wondering the same thing. I'm so tempted to try it out but would like to know if anyone here has actually got it. Mystery, any update?
I was watching a video of a guy shredding different plastics. You can only imagine what junk is in the spools from anywhere. Who knows if they even cleaned the plastics before recycling. This is why its important to not use any of these printed products along side with food. The food grade stuff should be ok.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmbzks1RXBM
uhhh a 10 min video just to see that. he could have condensed that to about 30 sec
I buy regularly from China, the quality is hit and miss, here's how the past year went for me:
1. Bone White ABS - doesnt matter what supplier, this is good stuff. Prints like a dream.
2. Black ABS, doesnt matter who - this is rubbish, have tried 8 brands, its all the same. They use crap to make the black colour, you can even see it if you cut the filament, you see tonnes
of colours and foreign crap.
3. Colours, ie Yellows/Reds/Blues ABS, are good but melt at a low point, the dyes make the prints go goopy if its too hot.
The only downside to buying it is the shipping costs to be honest.
The Chinese "cheap" filament has a reputation of having lots of foreign matter in it, if someone can afford the price of a hot end nozzle, then they could try it, but I seriously doubt if you can actually print with it. There is a reason it is CHEAP, it is scraps of who knows what. The Chinese have a habit of telling you what they think you want to hear, just to get you to buy something.
Alibaba has been a great supplier on everything I have bought through them, no doubt their are some Chinese suppliers that sell good products. However CHEAP is exactly that. Alibaba sellers rely on their feedback, the feedback system there seems much better than the feedback system on eBay. I would be much more likely to buy through Alibaba than I would eBay, even though I sell on eBay.
I would suspect that this filament is not the type it is said to be, as in, not ABS, or not PLA, and is floor sweepings, and recycled junk, otherwise they could not sell it so cheap. Even the Chinese have minimum materials costs. I suspect they take what ever plastic scrap they can put together, sort it some what (sorting recycle is not great), and sell it as what ever they choose.
There are U.S. suppliers of industrial recycled material that can be counted on. The material is pre-consumer, it is bought from manufacturers, and is of known origin, therefore you know what it actually is. It is stored clean, it is guaranteed clean, it is guaranteed type, the moisture content is known, it is completely documented. It is not available in filament, only as a regrind. I would suggest clubs, and suppliers buy from one of these U.S. suppliers and make low cost filament.
Unfortunately, any money you save with low quality filament is quickly lost with time and effort into getting a decent print with it. There are some over seas suppliers that provide an ok product. Quality, however, can be hit or miss even from the same supplier. I can understand the interest at $8-16 but I would recommend sticking with a quality filament and spend more of your time printing.
I've heard stories where some people have purchased the "cheap" stuff and had no problems at all. But then I have also heard stories where they have used the "cheap" stuff and their end results were basically garbage. I guess it depends on several things.
- Where you purchase it from
- What you are printing
- What printer you are using
If the filament supplier has used quality feedstock, then the product you get will be as good as any supplier from any where in the world. As with ANY group of people, there are bad ones, not so bad ones, and even a VERY few good ones. The Chinese are no different in that respect. Since it is an emerging market/supply chain, then there is a period of shady deals. How long that goes on, no one can guess. Some places in the world should be long past this many decades, or even centuries ago, are still having mostly shady operations. Hopefully the overall quality of Chinese goods will improve.
The Chinese cultrure is extremely DIFFERENT than that of western countries, they do not understand us, we do not understand them. This will change.
There was a time when Japanese products were considered to be VERY low quality, now they make some of the finest cars, audio, video, etc., you can find on the planet. On the other hand Russia has had a great opportunity, vast natural resources, and a very large labor force, yet they cannot produce a decent automobile.
It seems that the darker the color of the filament, the more crap they have put in as filler, black has, at times, been impossible to extrude, on the other hand, yellows, and whites very seldom have problems. It is difficult to hide a piece of recycled brown/black crap in a white filament. If you are going to buy cheap filament from a unknown source, you are taking your chances to begin with, the darker the color, the bigger the chance.
You figure out if it is worth the time it takes to clean a clogged nozzle, or the price of a new hot end. It's your money, you can burn it any way you want to.
I have lived in China for almost a decade and am very much involved with the Chinese 3D printer community. Any sentence that begins with "in China..." is a problem. China is huge and far more diverse than Westerners realize. It's like lumping Brazil and New Hampshire together because they are both in the Americas. Chinese are fiercely provincial and are only barely unified by a common tongue- which is used only when they cannot use their local dialect. There is a vast range in culture, industrial development and business practices depending on where you are and the background of the people you are dealing with.
In 3D printing there are crappy cupcake clones:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20844024334
...and top end all metal machines like like the Zbot and the QUBEe
http://52printer.com/proinfo.asp?bid=14&id=273
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=35873125758
But people have "cheap Chinese knockoff 3D printer" stuck in their mind because that's all anyone imports. Likewise there is filament here that is better than any I have used in the West- Faberdashery etc. The problem is that it is just as good- or a bit better, but costs only 10-15% less after shipping so is not a viable export product. People won't pay top dollar for "Chinese junk" even if it's actually better.
I have a dual flashforge 3d, from china, and it's excellent, 6 months+ down the track still loving it. The filament is hit and miss, the bright colours are great, black is hard to get a good quality from china, all the ones so far ive ordered from various suppliers are rubbish filament - but thats just the black, no other colour ive had problems with. Even the cheap stuff, the white I buy for $20/1kg 1.75mm abs and its just great.
to be honest all the chinese filament i have tried has been crap except one. reprapper....i have had good luck with that other than when they decided to use some new type of plastic stretch wrap to wrap the spools in. the wrap had a god awful chemical smell to it and was degrading the abs. other than that one time their stuff is a great printing filament...so far. all i print in is black abs geoff and can say that theirs is great. if you dont mind ordering from the US though village plastics/filaco and www.onlinefilament.com which is mfg by toner plastics had super high grade stuff. both blacks are excellent.
I respect your thoughts, as with anybody or any country, it comes down to the INDIVIDUAL, not the country. Your Comment of comparing Brazil and New Hampshire is off base, not even the same continent, let alone the same COUNTRY.
Yes China is a VERY large place, HUGE, and it has, at the moment 20% of the worlds populations, soon to be surpassed by India. Referring to things as "in China" may not be completely accurate, but that is how westerners view things. As stated, we do not understand their culture, and they do not understand ours, I have dealt with the "Chinese" on many occasions. However those were only individuals, perhaps only the individual did not understand our culture, or myself theirs, but it would seem to be a safe overall bet.
As I also said, I'm sure there are good filament suppliers "in China", buying from ANY unknown source is risky.
"In USA" plastics suppliers will state what percentage of recycled plastic there is in any feedstock, whether it is post consumer recycle, or industrial recycle. All of this matters for the price of the feedstock, the reputation of the seller, and if they will ever have repeat business. ANY supplier, ANY where in the WORLD, that does not care about having repeat customers is going to have shady practices.
So how does this add up overall, pretty easy, you don't know the supplier, you are taking your chances.
I asked for 2 big China suppliers for samples to start selling filament in USA and Canada... but the quality and service are very bad. First supplier sample, 4/5 spools are totally broken into pieces, only 1 spool survive the delivery. They also reject to compensate for my lost. So disappointed. Second supplier sample, 3/5 spools are broken but they did enhancement already by adding few screws to hold it in one piece. To me, it counts as broken. I can't sell a broken spool to any of my customers. There's not the way to treat my customers. After I told them, they shipped me 5 new spool holders for compensation. Overall, I don't have much good experience dealing with China supplier. Even though their price is extremely cheap, I can tell you that the quality is even cheaper. Later, I turn to Taiwan supplier and here I am as a filament supplier.
Daniel Poon
BotFeeder Canada
Let me ask this. Is there any good filament that is worth buying from China?
I buy PLA from this place, they just started International orders: http://www.honplasfilament.com
Very good quality (black is no problem). Works in my Up Plus 2 and Leapfrog Creatr without issues. I have not tested their ABS yet though.
Hello, we are a chinese 3d filament supplier, our chinese website: www.3ddplus.com.cn ,a register gold paid member in alibaba.
and our english website: www.3ddplas.com
we have 3 years produce experience, we supply high quality compare to other chinese, we have a chinese trande mark "3DDPLUS", and we get a reward from chinese goverment department, chinese qualify and trust brand ,photo as https://www.flickr.com/photos/esunpl...s/15256480227/
produce filament diameter laser data showing :3.0mm, 1.75mm
we sale some cheap samples in aliexpress,for bulk order please contact us
this is Tommy, my facebook is here if you like contact from there
I agree with you. US and European providers are statistically less prone to one-offs and more looking for repeat customers. Also I'd say they are usually closer to this community and aware of our issues/requirements.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanguard
The customer and service mentality "westerners" are looking for is not something widely spread in China (and I worked there 3 years), it is usually brought in by intermediaries from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
I live in Korea right now and Korean plastic is really expensive (and US imported is way too expensive)... so I have been using cheap China plastic for the past year (really cheap here). The plastic has all been great for me. Honestly haven't found one yet that doesn't work for me and every time I order it is obvious it is coming from a new supplier. I am sure there are bad ones out there, but I haven't found one yet... Some of the China suppliers have their info on the spools and you can find their stuff and but their stuff from them directly (once you find one you like).
so don't belive cheap product, you get what you pay for.
I buy many things in quantity from China, mostly electrical. It is only worth it if you buy in quantity that starts about about $300 USD per order. Some things are only available from China at all, because they are so much more expensive (10 to 100 times the price) in the U.S. that they might as well not exist. So my guess is that China orders should be for resellers only.
A note about "cheap"... China is on a different economy. $1 to you might seem like $10 to them. They might be charging top "dollar" for the filament.
My instinct is that almost all of the filament in the US and Europe is actually from China, although of course it is quality checked along the way, and sorted into grades. It just seems exactly like the kind of labor intensive stuff that can't be done for a decent price outside of China.
Black filament: Why not just add carbon black? It's the proven and cheap way to make black anything, just like titanium dioxide is the way to make anything white. I don't see why you'd need to add "junk" to make the black.