I’m printing a lot of PETG and ASA which are great in many ways but sometimes I’d love a bit extra stiffness. I’m looking for recommendations for a filament that is not PLA based that is reasonably low cost (say <$40/kg) and gives a bit of a stiffness boost. (And it doesn’t have to be a Bambu filament.)
I find that PETG-CF doesn’t cut it, the stiffness improvement is not worth it. California FIlaments PETG is actually stiffer than BL PETG-CF as far as I can tell. The Nylons with CF or GF come in at more than 2x the cost (and I’m not thrilled by the moisture issues). 3DXtech ASA+CF is nice and stiff but also >2x the price. I haven’t tried PC or PET (w/out CF 'cause price) but I fear that the ones that are easy to print aren’t that stiff either?
Nylon (without CF) is still quite a bit stiffer than PTEG. But I’m not sure if I’d say it was stiffer than ASA. ASA is definitely stiffer than PTEG. Yeah, moisture is a challenge with Nylon. I find I have to dry and print right away, and if I go more than a day or so between prints, dry again. Even in a AMS. But the prints I’ve made have proven to be remarkably robust (camera canopies for FPV racing drones, so they can take a lot of abuse in crashes with race gates. I want impact resistance, so brittle-stiff would be no good. PLA wouldn’t survive the first crash).
Yes, definitely different manufacturers have different ratings. There seems to be differences depending upon matt and gloss versions also. The PC I have used has had a good flexibility compared to the ABS and PLA I’ve used also strangely
I stumbled upon a clear PC filament not too long ago that I have had some really great results. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m paying $15 for PLA, I might just make this PC filament my go to for all precision parts that I create. It is priced at the point that many other PLAs are priced.
I purchased this solely as an experiment to test out clear PC against clear PETG. I was reticent to waste money on this experiment and was turned off by the 100c bed temperature. But once I got past my bias, it performed exceptionally. This performed much better in the areas of print quality and precision over various PETG that I’ve used. It wasn’t what I expected and certainly not under $35 which seemed to be the floor pricing where most PC filaments seem to be priced. I paid $25. It could be that the seller stumbled upon excess inventory hence the low price. I say that because when you click on their listing, this is the only technology product they sell, everything else was clothing. Yet another Amazon Chinese reseller just peddling ■■■■ that they have no idea what they are selling. But in this case, we win.
