I bought a few rolls of pla when i purchased my printer but as most of us know theres not much to choose from cause the stock is low and most of the colors i want are out of stock.
I love the bambu filament and rf tags make using the ams a great experience.
But in the mean time what filament brand works as well until they restock?
Sorry for question but im very new to 3d printing and when i look online everyone says theyre brand is the best. just wanted to know from peoples real life experience
Let me turn that question around on you. What’s the best car?
Best filament is a variety of factors based upon but not limited to the following broad list:
Availability
Price
Ease of use
Application - This is a big one. Do you want to make pretty things or strong parts or something in between? There’s a filament for each.
Spool construction - Believe it or not, this is a big factor if you own an AMS. Bambu Spools are of course the best but there are plenty of adapters one can print to make cheaper carboard spools work.
Your opinion
This last bullet is the last and final determination of “Best”. The “Best Advice” you an head is don’t accept what you heard or read, go find out by yourself. You’ll find out that your criteria is going to vary by your individual use-case and will be guided by your desire to be analytical or just want to point and click on a easy buy choice.
If you’re just looking for an easy solution, just buy Bambu and be done with it. But just know that you’re likely overpaying. If you want to save a few Shekels on your purchases, which can add up to many extra free spools over the year, then get more picky and test each filament during the manual tuning process and make notes of what worked for you, what you liked and did not like. The filament calibration process is something you’ll want to master anyway if you want to dial-in perfect prints. So why not write down the results and note what brands performed for you?
My personal experience
I can share with you my evolving criteria for my purchases. I say evolving because I see deal-finding as a second hobby much like a competitive sport. For my P1P, there were no enclosures and Bambu was out of stock of Black PLA(sound familiar) so I was forced against my preference to go Amazon and buy off-brand. What I found is a vendor that had great filament for 50% of the cost of Bambu. But I also found that I hated their spool as I had to modify the hub to make it work. Not by much, just unscrew the bearing that came with the filament, but annoying nevertheless.
Since then, I am on a quest for that $10 spool that is both reliable source and quality. So far, I haven’t hit it. But I am getting closer with a list of sub $14 vendors who make a product that I tested to be far superior to Bambu. Combine that with free 1-2 day Amazon Prime shipping and Amazon’s liberal return policy, and I have been able to compile a growing list of filament makers with varying degrees of quality and price.
BTW: About 1 out of every 4 or 5 spools of PLA I return to Amazon when I try a new maker who fails the simple four calibration tests. But for me, the return mailbox is less than 2 miles from my house so it’s ultra convenient to send it back if I don’t find it acceptable.
I fully agree with Olias! There is no such thing as “the best filament”
Personaly i am a long time Polymaker user, their Polyterra is a nice affordable, and easy obtainable filament. For more technical stuff i use Polymax tough pla, if temperature is no issue. The rest are speciality’s i buy per project.
You have my attention with your detailed description of filament testing. I would be interested in your Amazon findings. So far I have tried several and had to return all of them. So I decided to just stick with BLstore offerings, but as you mentioned they are out of stock, especially the Black PLA. Would you mind sharing your list of Amazon filaments you have tried and work well. I just tried Sunlu and had a total breakdown failure of a simply print using a MakerWorld file. So I am now sending that one back as I speak. I am a brand new owner of my first 3D Printer BLP1S. So always looking for extra help and edu!!!
TIA
I’m definitely willing to share whatever knowledge I might have, that’s the main goal of this community after all. I’ve gained a lot from these and other forums, YouTube, and my own research recently. However, it’s important to note that nobody’s knowledge on this topic is exhaustive because it’s always changing. If there is one thing I’ve learned in 40 years in tech, “what you knew yesterday doesn’t matter”.
It’s kind of hard to encapsulate the methods I use in a manner that might fit each person or each use-case but I might start by outlining the methods of measurement I use when judging filaments and recording my findings for my own use. One day I hope to have this in a presentable format I can include in a spreadsheet.
Here is my out-of-box measurement method.
Weigh it and write the weight on the spool along with the date I pierced the vacuum bag.
I take a photo of the spool to record how well it was wound onto the spool. A bumpy wind is a first indication of shoddy manufacturing and immediately puts the maker in the doubtful collumn.
I inspect the spool carefully for defects in both manufacture and design. Makers who take care in producing a quality spool and wind it flat usually have tight quality control.
If it’s PC or PETG I will perform a simple Benchy to look for extrusion problems and if there are any, only then do I dry it out of the box. Then I weigh it again and record the weight difference on the spool. Remember 1g=1cc=1ml of water. So it’s really easy to determine moisture percentage by weight and by volume.
First layer test. This is a simple 50mm x 50mm x 1mm single layer of filament test that takes 3 minutes. I examine the transparency and smoothness of that layer, this will also tell me how it will likely perform as a smooth surface. If it fails this simple test and its a PLA filament, I’ll likely send it back at that point if I can’t calibrate it well. PETG and PC get a little more leeway on the first layer test.
I perform a PA test using tower and/or pattern test depending on how well it performed on the first layer test
My last test is a max flow rate test. This too will tell me a lot about the flow quality of the filament and also what I should expect during future prints.
I might perform a temp tower test if I see too much stringing during my other tests or too much curling at the edge. Usually that test doesn’t yield anything surprising but when it does, it often is a delta of 15-20c from what the MFG had on the side of the box.
My last measurement is a fitment calibration test. Orca has one baked in that uses a 6mm hex wrench as an index. However, the shaft of a drill bit and a 30 second CAD drawing will give more refined results. I then adjust the filament profile X-Y for fitment.
It’s real important to note that I have different filaments for different applications. As an example, when I am making parts where fitment is key, I tend to prefer PC. In those cases, appearance and stringiness take a back seat. When I am printing for prototyping before I switch to PC, I want a fast PLA that’s cheap. For ornamental or visually appealing pieces, I use filaments that may be a couple of dollars more per spool than I usually spend.
BTW: This is what a first layer test looked like for a recent filament I purchased. In this case I was also looking for the impact of filament retraction settings on the single layer. You’ll note the middle piece is quite wrinkled indicating a flow problem with my settings. If I can’t calibrate that out of a PLA filament, I send it back to Amazon.
thank you for the great response. alot of information. Being new to 3d printing im trying to absorb as much info as possible. Being an auto tech for almost 40 years , im used to absorbing great quantities of info pretty quickly. cars chanage tech almost every month. you gotta keep up or you’ll get left behind.
3d printing for now is a hobby that i want to expand into learning some cad too.
I need to keep the brain busy or i go crazy !!! LOL
If you are looking to get into CAD, I might suggest Onshape.com as a starter. It is free and runs inside a browser in the cloud. You simply need a decent but not fast Internet connection. Any skills you learn in Onshape are applicable to other CAD software like Fusion360 or FreeCad but since it runs in the cloud, it doesn’t matter what kind of hardware you have on your desktop. It even runs on iOS and Android if your preference is tablets or phone.
Slant3D on youtube is working towards being able to produce a high quality filament for $10 that they also use in their print farm. You’ll find info about it on their youtube channel and site. It’s still under development so they aren’t quite there yet.
Since you are a beginner, and Olias has done a thorough job of going through the ins and outs of filaments, I’m going to go with the easiest to use that give good results w/o additional tweaking. For excellent results, you may have to tweak them a little.
eSun- they provide all the settings needed in Bambu Studio to create a custom profile. They also have jsons you can import for some of their filaments.
VoxelPLA- use Bambu Tough filament setting
Voxelab (made by Flashforge) I had results on par with BL basic using the Bambu Tough settings with their black color. Just got a couple of other colors, but haven’t tried them yet.
I’m surprised just how much filament appears to be sent back to Amazon, I assume that the hermetically sealed bag has been opened? So Amazon can’t just resell it. So who takes the financial hit, and what do they do with it?
Update months later. Have used several colors of the Voxelab PLA. All of them print just fine using the Bambu Lab Tough filament preset. Since this is a lower price version of Flashforge filaments, the BL Tough setting works with the FlashForge Filaments very well too. Did some vases for my daughter in law in their Burnt titanium and they came out great.
As mentioned VoxelPLA works great.
Have bought and used some of eSun’s multicolor silk Mystic, and their settings were excellent. No winding issues with the multicolor PLA.
First off, I am not looking for the best price. For me the key is consistency, availability and selection. I also will print a temp tower and run flow rate and dynamics to come up with a custom profile for the filament.
Important factors:
How fast can i get it? I don’t always plan well and like being able to get filament in a couple of days.
Color and finish consistency. I want to be able to change rolls in the middle of a print and have the color and finish match. I don’t want to see where the roll was changed and I want to use rolls from different batches.
Selection. I want a good selection of colors and materials (PLA, PETG …)
So after using a few different brands including Bambu, AnyCubic, Inland, Overture, Hatchbox on a variety of prints I rankled my top choices.
Hatchbox. Excellent filament, never had any problems and you can get it quick from Amazon. If you want to wait a day or 2 longer buy directly from Hatchbox and take advantage of discount code and free shipping to get a better deal than Amazon.
Bambu. The price give or take is pretty much comparable to Hatchbox. My biggest issue is delivery time. Can usually get it in 3 or 4 business days however far to often it will take a full calendar week.
Inland. Great price and their PLA+ has impressed me. There is a MicroCenter close by so in a pinch I can run to the store and get what i need assuming they have it in stock which far to often is not the case. Watch for sales and you can’t be the PLA+ refills for $16.99 as long as you don’t mind printing a spool (Inland refill spool stl easy to find) or winding them onto a spool.
That said everyone has thoughts on the matter. Good luck on your quest for the perfect filament (it doesn’y exist)
@Olias, OK, I accept your methods, as authoritative. At a minimum you have done a lot of testing; certainly more than I have. So until I do more than you have done, and develop my own empirical data, I would like to use some of your research in the decision making process… Can you share some of your findings?
I’d be all too happy to help but could you narrow down what you most likely want to know. I fully realize my posts are very long, however my intent wasn’t to overwhelm the discussion but more the point of providing transparency so that other’s could pick apart my work and add to the body of experience.
If you’re looking for a specific recommendation, I’d say if I had to narrow down the PLA everyday filament that has won the last few rounds at Amazon based on price and quality, at the moment, so long as nobody goes lower than them that I also tested, 3DHoJor has won the last several purchases from my Amazon account at an average price per spool of between $12-$13. Now prior to that, there were 20 other manufacturers I tried including Bambu. Prices appear to have increased since the Tariffs though. Note that my purchases of PC, PETG and specialty filaments like Glitter PLA, TPU, ASA and PLA-CF all vary since those are usually special projects or one specific need.
What’s more the point is the service level. They offer next day or even same day delivery. No need to stockpile.
This is not an exhaustive list by any means as I have also purchased filament directly from Bambu, Amolen and even Elegoo direct. Amolen most recently I got a spool of their magnetic filament for a special project. However, this should illustrate the power of being able to calibrate on your own and what it does for one’s wallet. On one hand, there is security in purchasing Bambu. But as we’ve seen, when it comes to the podium of winners, they don’t even medal when it comes to this contest.
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So the question is: What is the best [PLA, PETG, and TPU]?
I guess my criterion would be:
Readily available on Amazon (prime with 2 days or less shipping).
Works (maybe as a refill on BL spools) in my AMS without much effort.
*My AMS keeps surprisingly dry. My hygrometers seem to stay around 10-
15%.
Easily configured in Bambu Studio.
Prints well on stock P1S (stock textured plate, stock hot end, stock everything). I am probably going to order the head and gears for the fiber filaments soon, but for right now, I am on the as purchased P1S.
Price is almost irrelevant to me.
I guess what I am looking for, in order of importance: easy/fast to get, lowest rate of failure, easy to use without much effort, and finally quality of prints (aesthetics and performance/durability of print).
