3D printing guide for n00bs
-
@Polygeekery Looking at filament for my son's new printer. I see something called PLA+. Is that a real thing that's better than PLA, or is that just marketing BS? I thought I also remember seeing a post where you recommended brands, but too many posts in the two threads to find it. (I saw post #2 in this thread you recommended Amazon Basics as good to get started when you get the printer, but I think there was a post where you said something along the lines of Brand X is ok, but Brand Y is better for reason Z.)
-
@HardwareGeek said in 3D printing guide for n00bs:
Looking at filament for my son's new printer. I see something called PLA+. Is that a real thing that's better than PLA, or is that just marketing BS?
Yes to both counts.
PLA+ could be anything, or nothing. In general, you will usually get slightly more temperature resistance and slightly less brittleness, but I've never noticed much of a difference. It is usually sold as "Prints like ABS but as durable as ABS" or something. It never is. Just treat it like PLA when specing a material to print with.
The only characteristic that some PLA+ materials may likely have is more UV resistance. PLA is a strong but brittle material that degrades quickly in heavy UV exposure. I'd never use it for exterior prints. But I've seen PLA+ being sold as having UV resistance which seems plausible.
I'm expecting PVB and ASA or their next evolutionary successors to replace PLA and PLA+ for lots of print applications. PLA is very easy to print but has a lot of drawbacks when you step outside of printing nick-nacks and the like.
-
@HardwareGeek There are several YouTube channels which dedicate themselves to testing the various filaments.
Like this slightly older one, for example:
And here's one for PLA versus PLA+
-
@HardwareGeek I haven't seen much difference from the PLA+ I bought (cheapest PLA on Amazon.ca at the time) vs any other PLA, but I haven't done any serious testing with it. I do use a higher temp when printing it than for regular PLA
-
I thought that this is an interesting approach to 3D printing:
