Adventures in 3D printing – rigid.Ink
One of the most bewildering things about 3D printing is buying filament. As the 3D printer market has exploded over the last few years there has become an increasing range of places to buy your filament from. With the addition of eBay and Amazon finding the right supplier can be difficult.
Things I have learnt
- Cheap (unbranded) filament from eBay is generally a waste of time. Whilst this might be quite cheep it is not going to be of the best quality. Additionally, if you run out of a filament on a project it is going to be hard to get something that will match it.
- 10m samples are a great way to try out a range of different colours from a company. This is not the best value for money approach but is a good way to get started.
- Once you have found a company and a brand it is best to stick with it!
- Print a range of 2cm cubes at different temperatures to find out the best temperature for the first layer and subsequent layers. I generally print the first base layer 5 degrees hotter than the rest of the layers to get a good initial adhesion.
After 5 months I have settled on using rigid.Ink as my supplier of choice and would definitely recommend them.
- Very reasonably priced PLA
- Very quick delivery times (usually within two days)
- Excellent customer service – great humour!
- Good tips and advice for new people, temperature range printed on the packet with advice that their PLA generally prints at a lower temperature than some of the other brands available.
- They have a good range of articles to help you with printing with topics here including a customisable cheat sheet tailored to your skill level.