A Trove Of 3D Printer Filament Test Data

We’re not sure what a typical weekend at [Walter]’s house is like, but we can probably safely assume that any activity taking place is at minimum accompanied by the hum of a 3D printer somewhere in the background.

Those of us who 3D print have had our experiences with bad rolls of filament. Anything from filament that warps when it shouldn’t to actual wood splinters mixed in somewhere in the manufacturing process clogging up our nozzles. There are lots of workarounds, but the best one is to not buy bad filament in the first place. To this end [Walter] has spent many hours cataloging the results of the different filaments that have made it through his shop.

We really enjoyed his comparison of twleve different yellow filaments printed side by side with the same settings on the same printer. You can really see the difference high dimensional tolerance, the right colorant mix, and good virgin plastic stock makes to the quality of the final print. Also, how transparent different brands of transparent actually are as well as the weight of spools from different brands (So you can weigh your spool to see how much is left).

The part we really liked was his list every filament he’s experienced in: PLA, ABS, PETG, Flexible, Nylon, Metal, Wood, and Other. This was a massive effort, and while his review is naturally subjective, it’s still nice to have someone else’s experience to rely on when figuring out where to spend your next thirty dollars.

9 thoughts on “A Trove Of 3D Printer Filament Test Data

  1. i would love to get in contact with walter, i make my own filament, using a filastruder kit. I dont have a 3d printer, so anybody who can test my filament will be welcome. i also have access to mahagoni wood, to mix wood dust into the filament and maybe make mahagoni filament. i guess i will send walter a mail tomorrow….

    1. “i make my own filament, using a filastruder kit. I dont have a 3d printer…”
      Do you sell it or something? With no way to confirm that it works?

      Will say that mahagoni filament sounds awesome if the grain of the ‘real deal’ can be replicated.

  2. NuNus – good filament, high transparency ~25€/kg
    eSun – cheap filament, low transparency, high rate of defects, ~15€/kg
    BQ – really good filament, bright colors, mid transparency, reliable, ~20€/kg
    EUmaker- really good filament, wide range of colors, 30€/kg

    1. I found the EUmaker to be very good(based on the sample), but the price is a lot more than 30. It is 30 + VAT + shipping. Or maybe I am not getting it from the right place?
      On the other hand, NuNus comes from amazon with free shipping. I found white to be very good, red, orange and black good, silver and transparent quite bad.

  3. [Gerrit Coetzee]
    “The part we really liked was his list every filament he’s experienced in: PLA, ABS, PETG, Flexible, Nylon, Metal, Wood, and Other.”
    PETG and Flexible currently are half-broken links.

    Great website! More information than I can handle at the moment. :D

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