PLA usage?

[Coen]

Hello,

I would like to know how much PLA you use for printing something? How much PLA do you use for 1 cm3?

Coen

[joealarson]

Depends on shells, infill, and complexity of the model. For the most part I just say I'm using 1 cm^3 of plastic and any savings is bonus.

Why do you ask.

[Coen]

Well I kinda need to know how much filament goes in a 1 cm^3 box. Like how much grams or length of the filament?

I need to know it for a calculation on how much a model will cost, and knowing this would really help me out

[curious aardvark]

not a problem - Just run a 1cm cube through any slicer with 100% infill and it'll tell you how much plastic you use :-)

Makerware says 1gm.

Simplify 3d says 1.1 gms.

One's probably rounded down and one's probably rounded up.

So pretty much a 1cm cube of pla weighs 1 gram.

The thing I find peculiar is why people want to know how much a certain cubic centimetre volume will cost when it's pretty much the one statistic most slicer programs don't give you.

Surely it makes much more sense to go by the weight of the finished product ?
After all we buy filament by weight not volume.

It's similiar to the uk motor industry still quoting fuel efficiency in miles per gallon, when we've been buying it in litres for over 30 years.
Plus us gallons are 30% smaller than uk gallons. It just doesn't make sense :_)

[Coen]

Well, I'm really new at 3D printing so I just wanted to know this, I thought it would become handy in the future

And, I agree, it really doesn't make sense indeed....

[Feign]

It's similiar to the uk motor industry still quoting fuel efficiency in miles per gallon, when we've been buying it in litres for over 30 years.
Plus us gallons are 30% smaller than uk gallons. It just doesn't make sense :_)

Off-topic aside, this is because the vast majority of car sales are in the US and we're extremely stubborn when it comes to units of measurement.

(in case you were wondering, it's roughly 2.35 Km/L for each MpG, coincidentally very close to the 2.2 kg per 1 lb)

And most hydrocarbons are around the same density as water, so around 1 gram per cubic cm is a pretty safe assumption.

[curious aardvark]

how about miles per litre ?

We don't do kilometres :-)