What ABS brand filament do you like? I’ve tried matterhackers brand and am now giving polymaker a try. Im still tuning my printer, so while I had inconsistencies with my MH prints.. I can’t tell you if that’s the fault of the filament or the machine.
Uhmmm…. eSun was my go to but they don’t make ABS any more. InLand is OK. Derf 2 was printed in Flashforge ABS and it came out well. Really I just buy what ever color I need..
I buy bulk 5 kg spools from a company in Texas called Zyltech. If you get them when they're on sale, especially when they are having a free shipping sale, they are by far the cheapest way to buy filament that I've found. Price is good, I'm not a filament brand puris I just buy what works.
It’s the stock tip on the Taz…. They say more material at the tip increases reliability. Why would it make a difference? The $$ of filament is the same… although a little harder to find. They do make a 1.75mm, but if I were to upgrade… I’d be getting the dual extruder or the wider 1.2mm head. I haven’t explored swapping just the tip yet.
Like I said, to each their own, but the filament diameter makes no difference whatsoever in the printer's reliability or it's ability to push more plastic. I can max out the volumetric throughput on a super volcano nozzle using 1.75 filament. And since filament is sold by weight not by meters of filament, it makes no real sense. The overwhelming majority of printers run 1.75. not sure why Taz decided to run 2.85, but it isn't any improvement vs 1.75. 2.85 filament is an ancient holdover from before filament existed. And the old school pioneers were using 3 mm ABS welding rods fed into prehistoric hotends.
Lulzbot has standardized on 2.85mm filament, and that's the brand that Justin and I both have. Their standard hotends are able to feed 1.75mm filament, though, and they do just fine with it. You just have to change the filament diameter in the slicer settings, so it knows how much plastic you're actually putting into the extruder from a given movement. I personally use Gizmo Dorks ABS. I prefer their grey, but they've recently run into supply issues so I could only order white. I buy it in 5KG rolls, and I have a neat filament holder with ball bearings to ensure it rolls with little resistance, even with a new roll.
@Kotori87 - I’ve been staring at the 1.2mm tool head since it’s on sale. Is it worth it or is it a waste? IE is it possible to swap out the tip (or something). Thoughts? i also see a “volcano” head which is much more expensive, but it says it’ll do 1.75mm filament at 1.2mm width. But the cost difference is so much that I can’t justify it…
Now I haven't run a printer in some years but I used to run PushPlastic, especially their pure uncolored ABS. Always ran great and felt stronger than the dyed stuff but I have no proof of that being credible. Their holiday sales usually drop the price down to a reasonable amount. So yeah, just another suggestion to further complicate your decision. Lol
Lulzbot has their own proprietary brand of interchangeable print heads that are easy to swap out. The tradeoff is that they are much more expensive than other print heads. I don't think the Volcano print head you mentioned is interchangeable with Lulzbot's print heads. At least, not without a fair bit of extra work. Also keep in mind that different nozzle sizes are good for different tasks. A 1.2mm nozzle is great for printing strong hulls quickly, but I wouldn't use it to print a cannon. If you think that a 1.2mm nozzle is right for your intended use-case, then go for it.
Hatchbox is my current go to for top quality prints. For regular items, Amazon Basics in grey or black usually does the job decently. I used to run eSun but my last two spools from them were brittle utter garbage and would shatter as it unspooled.
