What are you preferred materials? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2025, 12:40:55 pm
content: Apart of ubiquitous PLA, what are your preferred filament materials for printing small mechanical parts, tools or gadgets?

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 03, 2025, 10:33:17 pm
content: When printing in-house for small jobs or prototyping, I almost always use ABS. I haven't used PLA in some years.When outsourcing (which I now do as much as possible) then MJF Nylon PA12.

author: aeberbach
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2025, 05:09:24 am
content: I did sneer at PLA for a couple of years, almost exclusively printed PETG. Then I picked up a roll of PLA one day because it was really cheap and I didn't want to spend so much prototyping and discarding. And then I noticed how great it looked. Compared to the PETG it is very matte, almost no stringing and fantastic detail. The prints seem as strong but of course PLA tends to snap where PETG will bend, so it is not for everything. Now I still have most of the PETG I had at that time but the only one I load is the clear, if I want to do something like light pipes for a panel.I have TPU, it is very handy for making grommets in irregular shaped hole for passing wires through a panel.CF-PETG didn't seem markedly better than plain PETG for any purpose.I have one roll of Nylon which (despite religious anti-humidifying) has never printed well. If I ever really need it I will have to research what is actually a good brand and buy that.I also have some ASA, printed some insulators for a friend's farm electric fence and it has held up very well outside in the UV.

author: dferyance
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2025, 04:21:26 pm
content: If PLA works for the part, go with PLA. It is popular for a reason.That said, I don't often use PLA. I have a very small printer, so I have to break my model into individual parts sometimes where getting fasteners in or snaps won't work to join it back. So I do a lot of ABS acetone slurry welds. PLA just doesn't solvent weld very well (at least with safe / common solvents). I've done it, but it isn't great. I just recently built a Voron 2.4 350 that massively increases my available space and I haven't had to solvent weld yet, but this is pretty new for me.ABS vapor smoothing is also fantastic. So I pretty much use ABS (and recently ASA more often) just because of how it reacts with acetone.Otherwise, I love nylon printing. I used to use Taulman Nylon 910 which doesn't exist anymore. It is a copolymer which printed well with increased stiffness at the expense of being more brittle than nylon usually is. Beyond nylon toughness, I like that I can fabric dye it easily. So just buy natural nylon and you can dye it any color (other than white as dye always darkens). No need to buy multiple filament colors anymore! Nylon can also be annealed which makes it semicrystalline which changes its physical properties. Nylon is incredibly versatile this way.

author: mikerj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2025, 09:45:47 pm
content: Quote from: aeberbach on May 05, 2025, 05:09:24 amPLA is actually stronger than PETG in terms of tensile strength. The biggest snag I find with PLA is the low glass transition temperature, just leaving a part on a window sill can cause severe deformation on a sunny day. I still use it for undemanding jobs and for test prints though, it prints beautifully and if you use matte PLA you can barely see the layer lines.PETG and TPU are my go to filaments for functional prints, TPU I especially like using as the layer strength is very high giving Isotropic properties. I have used ASA a few times but it's right at (probably a little beyond) the limit of what my printer can do. I'm very interested in trying PCTG as it seems like a nice step up from PETG while being relatively easy to to print, but it is quite pricey at the moment.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2025, 11:25:10 pm
content: I have some black polystyrene (HIPS) that prints very well and leaves a nice matte finish, looking like a roughly machined plastic part. Survives 100degC. Not sure how it compares with ABS, I have not printed much of that, and it definitely needs ventilation.TPU is magic. Ridiculously strong, survives 100degC, cheap, not smelly. I've reprinted some models in it simply so they're stronger.

author: mikerj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2025, 09:13:42 am
content: I've recently become aware of HIPS filament (high impact polystyrene), very lost cost with high impact strength and reasonable temperature resistance. Does anyone here use this for functional parts?