How Far does 1 KG of 3D Filament go?

[Larry]

Ok, so I see you can buy 3D Printer Filament for about $40 or so. My question is, how far does 1 KG go? Can anyone put it into words for me? Will 1 KG Filament last only a few small prints, or will it last dozens? What are your experiences? Like for instance how many grams are used to print something like an iPhone case, or something like a plastic bottle? Just trying to get my mind wrapped around what the costs will be when my printer comes. I see a ton of negative comments from bloggers and tech sites about the costs of printing. Has me a little worried that I may be getting into a hobby I can not afford.

[MysteryAlabaster]

It depends on how you print things.

If you don't know, I work for a school with a Replicator 2 and a Replicator 2X, and you'd think that we burn through plastic like hell, right?

I don't think we've come close to finishing an entire roll of plastic yet, and we've been printing for a year and a half. That said, we do rotate rolls every now and then, and we print most things at a 5%-15% infill...


The closest we've come to finishing a roll is the orange plastic that we use for test prints and to print out work that students' make. That's like 85% gone now.


A roll of plastic should last you a few months...

[thejollygrimreaper]

it's highly dependant on what you are printing and with how high the infil percentage is , we normally go through around 10 kg per week, but thats slowing down a little

[JohnA136]

You can print out something like 365 full size chess pieces with a K of plastic.

[Lil3dprinting]

It's a lot. I bought every color the store had when I got my Afinia H printer and I've yet to finish a single roll of any given color. I printed out 10 sets (4 per set) of iPad corners (facebook.com/lil3dprinting for pic of part, several posts down) and it might have used half a roll and 1/2 filled a large ziplock freezer bag.

[Larry]

How about something like this below? Could it be 3D printed with a 1 KG roll?

[Lil3dprinting]

I don't think you would have a problem getting that out of one roll.

[JohnA136]

Nice lamp but it is hard to judge size without a reference? You would need an awfully big printer to make it I think. Our printers only go about 8" by 8" by 8" right now? I was tempted to build a giant printer out of 80-20 after seeing Jetguy's printer at Maker Faire but when I realized the costs, I came to my senses!

9899119546_f9f0bf9a71_n.jpg

[old man emu]

According to Pronterface, it takes 8.1 metres of 3mm filament to print Wades Geared NEMA 17 Extruder. If you weighed one metre of filament, you would get a valued for grams/metre.

grams/metre divided by 1000 should give you metres/Kg.

[metres/Kg * (0.003/2)^2 * pi] will give you cubic metres per Kg

Price of a roll divided by metres per Kg will give you a price per metre.

Pronterface will give you the number of metres of filament required. You have to do these calculations for each print job. You can reduce the amount of material required, and speed up the printing if you nest the components into the smallest print area possible.

Old Man Emu

[DrLuigi]

Well depends how big, how strong it has to be etc etc,

For me its aprox gone in about a month or so. (1kg)
depending what free time i've got and if i find something i wanna print of course. ;P

How about something like this below? Could it be 3D printed with a 1 KG roll?

Well the question for that one is more, Is it print able (With 1 extruder) with 2 it might be print able, when you use PVA as support material.
But i don't think it will be very pretty with a extrusion printer.