Pet+ as a good alternative to ABS

[Geoff]

yes you can print it on anything. its about the easiest printing filament there is. prints as easy as pla, has temp resistance closer to abs and its more durable and flexible than abs. to be honest i have no idea why the 3d printing community, with a lack of heated build chambers, has adopted abs. with pet it really doesnt make much sense. there are a few brands out there. www.madesolid.com has the nicest stuff imo. the extrusion is perfect and prints so easy. colorfabb has another good one but only avail in clear. taulman tglase is good but they seem to have extrusion consistency issues that have yet to get resolved plus it prints just a hair more difficult than the others but still fairly easily. its a bit on the expensive side but i have figured in all the failed abs prints i have here and wasted filament and printer time and energy for those fails and it comes out to be close to a wash. once i got my settings dialed in for it i have yet to have a failure due to the plastic. the stuff is really bad ass.

That PET looks promising, I'd love to see some actual prints with it.

The prints they show on their website all appear to be photoshopped, so it's tough to get a real visual on the filament.

[jimc]

here are some i did. there is another vase on their website that imo is nicer than mine. similar type though done in clear. if you go on there you'll see it.

IMG_2406.jpgIMG_2694.jpgIMG_2570.jpg

[RobH2]

Nice looking prints. Was the webbed looking thing printed without supports?

[jimc]

yes rob. i popped it off the bed exactly as you see it. was printed with no supports. that was what i originally printed with it to tune my retraction settings. figured that would be a good one lol. those were all done at .15 layer height and a .35 nozzle. with any clear filament, they get clearer the higher the height and the larger dia nozzle you use. the banana is done in their black filament then i did a light cast iron faux finish on it.

[RobH2]

You've given me a good challenge now. I would not have thought that could be printed without some support. Most all of what I print is pretty practical and rectilinear. Sadly, the most interesting things I've printed were a few torture tests in the beginning and once those printed well, I just printed what I needed to and stopped pushing the envelope as much as I should have. It's interesting how we get stuck doing the same old thing sometimes and forget to do some "blue sky" experimenting. I need to do more of that kind of stuff I guess. I get so busy that I don't really start problem solving until I get something to print that doesn't work well on the first pass. It's then that I find I begin to start tweaking, but not until something has gone wrong. If nothing goes wrong then I don't do much tweaking. It's a vicious circle.

I did do some bridge torture tests and got some nice 40mm bridges but I need to try to print something like that sphere or vase (whatever it is). That will be a good test as I tune the Pet+ I'll be receiving on Monday. Thanks for the setting hints.

[Geoff]

yes rob. i popped it off the bed exactly as you see it. was printed with no supports. that was what i originally printed with it to tune my retraction settings. figured that would be a good one lol. those were all done at .15 layer height and a .35 nozzle. with any clear filament, they get clearer the higher the height and the larger dia nozzle you use. the banana is done in their black filament then i did a light cast iron faux finish on it.

Do you find the clear plastic prints more 'clear' if you print faster? I am trying to get mine to look like all the pictures I saw of it advertised, but can't seem to get it as transparent as they did.

[jimc]

Geoff i havent noticed a difference in clarity and speed but as i said in the other post you can increase layer height. The higher the clearer. Also if you have a larger nozzle avail that will give you clearer prints as well. I know some guys that print clear stuff with a .5 nozzle at .3-.45 layer heights and the print dont look nearly as white as mine. The more squished your lines are the more cloudy. Temps will affect this as clarity as well. You want the lowest you can while still getting good layer adhesion. All this will apply to pet and any clear type filament

[RobH2]

Jim, where did you find that vase? You sort of implied Makesolid but I don't see it there or on Thingiverse. I'd like to print it for two reasons, 1. to compare it to your print and 2. because it looks cool and I'll give it to my wife who thinks I spend too much time with this 3d printer thing.

FYI, my Pet+ just came in and I'm printing a torture test as I write.

[jimc]

rob here you go


http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:104694

[RobH2]

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. It's the other one that I was interested in. This is the one I could not believe you printed without support.

http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...3&d=1396659346