Filament from China? Anyone try it?

[Kingoddball]

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.

[AndrewK]

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

[DrLuigi]

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 ^^

[EveryDayIDream]

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.

Mystery, did you ever go ahead and buy the roles. I'm anxiously awaiting to see what you think of this chinese filament

[Lindros_bigE]

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?

[crowbar]

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

[jimc]

uhhh a 10 min video just to see that. he could have condensed that to about 30 sec

[Geoff]

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.

[Vanguard]

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.

[jzatopa]

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.