Opaque PLA?

Bambu Filament and Accesories
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I recently got a P2S and after finishing my roll of Polymaker polyterra (now polychroma matte) I switched to BBL PLA basic. It behaves well and the color isn’t bad, but it’s less opaque that the Polymaker, and the result is that you see details less (they don’t catch light so much) and also backlight shines through depending on thickness of the part.

So my question is: are any of the other BBL PLAs more opaque? What about the close competitors? I have some rolls of both Sunlu and Elegoo I bought because BBL was out of stock. Any point to open these or will it be the same?

I could buy Polymaker but its twice as expensive..

Picture: the foot is in BBL PLA basic while the leg is in Polymaker PLA.

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I don’t think there is any opaque bbl filament, but you could try increasing the wall loops for solving the problem

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Thank you for the reply. For many uses the lesser amount of pigment isn’t an issue, but sometimes you want a solid color. Layer numbers will help against light shining through, but not entering from the front and reducing the shadows..

I’ll have a look at the other brands I have stocked up, sadly there is a fair chance it will be the same.

I’ll report back here with whatever results. Ideally I should make a sample print of each filament in order to compare..

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The folks into Hueforge prints have transmission distance (TD) charts for lots of filament brands and colors.

These guys have an online reference. What you want are low TD values if you want the most opaque parts. The transparents have high TD values.

https://filamentcolors.xyz/library/?f=&mfr=bambu-lab&ft=pla

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Excellent resource, thank you!

edit: There doesn’t seem to be much options available in Europe at less than Polymaker price sadly..

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Was looking through and not all filaments have TD values. Hopefully the ones needed are there though.

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Sadly no, but it allowed to narrow down at few producers at Polymaker price at least. Thank you for the link!

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The Hueforge software apparently has a lot of TD values built into it but just web searching the right key words may get you other values. That’s how I found that one link.

It would be nice if all manufacturers provided TD values for filaments but I couldn’t find any on Bambu’s pages but maybe I missed it.

I did see reference for a 3d print to make a fixture to measure TD values but that’s no help when you don’t already have a filament to measure. Sorry but I didn’t grab the link but a search on MakerWorld for transmission distance gets a number of ways to measure it for filaments you do have.

After looking into Hueforge it looks like a fun technique all on its own. There are people who use it to make 3D models but with Hueforge stone images, shingles, etc. from a short distance they look like they are made of all sorts of materials.

Have fun!

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So, after trying a few white PLAs: BBL basic was about the same “cotton” (slightly cream) white as the Polychroma matte, but less opaque.

As I wanted a more opaque white I tried a couple of other white PLAs:

Elegoo PLA turned out to have a similar opacity to the BBL basic, the color was quite whiter however. Not yet bluish but quite cold.

Sunlu PLA+ 2.0 was very opaque and solid bright white. So much so that it made any print imperfection stand out. Also so white it pretty much didn’t shine and looked like a matte material. So a bit difficult to get to look good, but mainly because the material was so opaque. Nice and hard to the touch but could turn brittle. Might sand well, have to try.

I almost feel I didn’t have to buy a bunch of Polyterra on discount because of the old branding.

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I was disappointed with the white Bambu pla its the worst color its translucent, it has bad texture but its priced premium. For white pla I love eSUN pla its more affordable and really white and opaque, I don’t know if it is available where you reside

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Thank you for the tip, it’s exactly what interests me to know, and surely some others as well. Es un is generally available due to Ali and such places, so that’s handy. Thanks!