i'm tom and today i'm going to give you aquick introduction to the common 3d printer filaments.so what you might already know is that the filament is a 3d printer's feedstock whichit uses to build the things it makes. all filaments have in common that they are thermoplastics,which means that the filament softens and eventually melts when it is heated. as opposedto metals, which have a distinct melting temperature
3d printing how to get started, at which they go from solid to liquid, thermoplasticsgradually soften and melt when they are heated up. which, for 3d printing, means that youcan control the viscosity of the plastic by picking a temperature at which the plasticis neither too liquid nor too tough. iit also means that we can't print metals with ourfilament-based printers.
and while you could theoretically print almostany thermoplastic, there are two that are really popular: one is pla and the other isabs. so pla is the most popular filament at themoment. it's a polymer that is made from corn starch and at the same time is biodegradable,which means that it can be composted under the right circumstances. it's so popular because,once you get your printer dialed in, it will give you repeatable results no matter whatyou're trying to print. it also smells nice when printing - it's kind of a mix betweencotton candy and popcorn. at the same time, it is fairly tolerant aboutwhat machine you print it on - pla does not need a heated bed for sticking and easilyprints onto unheated blue painter's tape.
if you have a heated bed, you can also printit onto plain glass, glue-stick- or hairspray-covered glass or kapton tape. it's a fairly stiffplastic and printed parts generally turn out fairly strong.however, there are a couple of challenges when printing pla: one of them is that platends to absorb water from the air, so you'll need to keep your filament spools in sealedcontainers when you're not using them or bake them in the oven every now and then. the otheris that pla often doesn't cool and harden fast enough when printing it. there's an easysolution for that, though, and that is having a small fan blowing over the printed partwhile it is being printed. many printers come with a fan pre-installed, so that's alreadyaccounted for. the last downside to using
pla is that it really isn't temperature-stableand will soften and deform at about 50â°c. now, i know that sounds like a lot, but justleaving a part in your car on a warm day can be enough to have it warping. the other plastic, which is a bit more onthe "traditional" side, is abs. usually, when someone mentions abs for the first time, they'llsay that abs is what lego are made of. and that's true, but abs is simply a very commonplastic and is used in anything from coffee makers to flat screen tvs. when it comes to3d printing, abs is often used when the part needs to be tough or temperature-resistant.abs has a bit of a wax-like feeling to it, and ãnstead of snapping like pla, it bendsand deforms. it's also not as stiff as pla
and much more temperature-resistant: it onlysoftens at about 100â°c, which is why parts for a 3d printer are usually printed withabs and not with pla. now, abs can be a bit more challenging toprint for one reason, and that is that abs contracts quite a bit as it cools. becauseof this, larger prints can warp and become unstuck from the bed or the individual layersof the print can peel apart and weaken the final part. it's also practically impossibleto print abs without using a heated bed, but then again, most printers come with one asa standard option. when you have one, you can print abs onto kapton or pet tape or ontoa layer of hairspray or glue stick. so which plastic you choose to print willdepend entirely on what you're using the 3d
printer for: i'm personally mostly printingin abs because i use the parts in all sorts of contraptions where i need parts that won'tdeform when they get a bit warm. if you're going to print light-duty parts or complexartistic pieces or simply enjoy that feeling that your printer will be able to handle almostevery part you print, then pla is probably the better choice for you. now, the world of 3d printer filaments isn'tjust pla and abs, there's now a whole bunch of new and special-purpose plastics, liketaulman's all-purpose nylon filaments, super-tough polycarbonate, wood-like laywood or even rubber-likefilaments like ninjaflex. for getting started, you should stick to pla or abs and once you'reconfident with one of those you can move on
to the newer materials. also, buy your filamentfrom suppliers that have a good reputation
and don't order no-name filament from ebayif you don't exactly know what you're getting into. especially pla has huge quality differencesbetween the cheap and the good stuff. so that's it for now, as always, thanks forwatching - if you'd like to see more of these kind of videos, consider subscribing to mychannel.
