Best Filament Suppliers

I was interested to hear what people felt were the best suppliers of filament, both ABS and PLA. I have never had the chance to work with a 3D printer before but I have read some suppliers can have low quality materials. Amazon reviews on most filement products seems to back that up as well.

One big thing I was reading about (but can't seem to find now) is that ABS filament from some suppliers does not have an odor. That odor can sometimes be a side effect of poor quality filament. If ABS does give off as strong of a smell as some describe, I would have to move the machine to my garage every time I want to print with ABS. I would much rather pay more up front and be able to leave the machine in one place.

Thanks in advance for any input you may have.

 

As far as I know all ABS filament puts off a nasty odor.
I'm glad to see that Robo 3-D will be selling filaments at a competitive price. I've searched all over it seems like a lot of the US suppliers are kind of pricey. If you look in the filament section of the forum I posted a link to where you can get nylon 618 here in the US for a very good price. It is pretty expensive if you do not live in the US though.
When printing with nylon you do gotta have a special surface on your printer bed for the nylon to stick well.

 

http://reprap.org/wiki/Printing_Material_Suppliers
Has a crazy list of providers, with the option to arrange by cost, in case you need an additional source to check.

 

I would rather support our local 3D printer company and buy from them to help their upstart company and pay a little extra.

 

I bought eight spools of filament from http://www.repraper.com at very good prices. The shipping is what kills ya', so you need to buy enough to make it worth it. On the plus side, they shipped air so I had the spools in like 4 days after I hit the buy button. There have been mixed reviews of them as a supplier, but the filament (so far) looks good with no odd air bubbles and consistent sizing. Won't know how it PRINTS until I get my printer... but I'm happy with it so far. I just wanted a good supply on hand in various colors, as once my printer arrives it's going to be doing a LOT of printing for the first month of its life as it works through the backlog of parts I need printed.

 

what did it end up costing you for shipping?

 

The total was ~$200. I bought a mix of ABS and PLA in various colors, so it worked out to $25/spool delivered. I think shipping alone was about $80... but at $25/spool DELIVERED (each spool is 1kg) you're saving quite a bit when you start ordering more than 1 or 2 kg!

 

That's still good, most places are around $40 a kg before shipping, so it's pretty much half the price.

 

Yupyup! You can sometimes find it for $28-32/kg in the US, but then shipping is how they make it up. {shrug} You have to do ENORMOUS volumes in the US to be able to compete with China for pricing... heck, probably almost all of the filament is coming from there anyway, so by finding a good China supplier that doesn't kill ya' on shipping (I've had some shippers in China seriously gouge on shipping pricing) then it's very affordable.

Of course, I still have to see how it PRINTS!!! A bargain on filament isn't worth squat if it prints for ****!

 

http://www.3ders.org/pricecompare/

heres a good list..

 

my ABS prints small tiny bubbles. I can hear them pop when nozzle lays layers.
Does that mean what, bad filament or high temp ?
I print at 220. 210 would make smoother results but layers wont stick.
My ABS also would warp the model. I print on 3m blue scotch painters tape and i print 6mm from the model RAFT for better support.
Regular white/yellowish 3m scotch painters tape would make RAFT stick better to the tape but much harder to remove from the bed and i dont want to buy another bed so i stick with blue tape. Raft tents to peal off from edges because somehow ABS is pulling it together.

Do i have printing settings issues or the material behaves not as it should ?

 

Back on thread topic... I have been very satisfied with the PLA filament I've ordered from Plastic2print.com - they ship fast - always either same business day or the day after (if I order late in the day) so I always get my filament within 1-2 days (I'm close by them - they're in Amsterdam). The filament quality is very nice - beautiful colours, incredibly consistent and spot on size-wise (1.74-1.76 no matter where I measure it), lots of selection, and they're by far the cheapest price-wise I've found. Shipping is a little pricey but not too bad if you get a few spools at once. I've not tried anything of theirs but the 1.75 mm PLA but I'd strongly recommend trying them if you're in the EU and looking for a good supplier.

 

Through 3d2print, I got my bundle of filaments ship within a week. I did not have a problem with the fees because I ordered the saver pack package. It's ABS Saver Pack- Super Rainbow 12 spools.​

 

I used to buy on E bay but got tired of the terrible quality. I have been buying from cheap3dfilaments.com and wholesalefilaments.com they both offer free shipping and both have great quality for both PLA and ABS with free shipping. I use the cheap3dfilaments for single spools and full cases. Wholesalefilaments offers single,3 pack, half case and full case so when i have a big print job i usually order from them.

 

Been printing primarily with PLA and now experimenting with Nylon (Taulman Bridge). In a couple weeks I will be exploring the exotics like wood-fill, CF-fill, Bronze-fill, etc.
Here are the suppliers I've used so far:

a. Printed Solid - Wide selection, great people to deal with.

b. Robo 3D - Ordered one trial roll of blue from them today, so we'll see the response time - hope I don't have to wait weeks for it!

c. RioRand - from Amazon - excellent price point, works great.

d. Sain Smart - from Amazon - excellent price point, works great.

e. RoBo 3D - of course works great

f. HobbyPartz.com - Wide range of colors, excellent price point ,works great.

g. MatterHackers - Taulman Bridge, still trying to achieve the right settings for my setup.

 

I've had good luck with the bumat amazon material as well.

 

I dont know i usually order from either wholesalefilament.com and cheap3dfilaments.com used to buy from e bay and amazon but got burned too many times