Purchase of ABS Filament

[VRRT]

Hi,

Just pre-ordered the Replicator.

I had a couple of question regarding the ABS Filament.

A) What size Filament does the Replicator use?

B) Do I have to buy it from Makerbot? I am based in India and it would
be a huge headache if I have to keep on odering the ABS from them.

C) If I can purchase the same from the market, what is the exact
technical specification of the ABS Filament that needs to be
purchased.

TIA

Anuj

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

It uses 1.75mm Filament. I believe Robosavvy in Europe carries MBI filament. Otherwise you should be close to a ton of RepRap suppliers in Europe. Fabberdashery comes to mind but I cannot think of the others. I believe Prusa had a locator widget on a website somewhere.

This ABS tends to general melt at 225C so I guess you could use that range when sourcing from "the market."

-- 
Luis E. Rodriguez
Sent with Sparrow

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MakerBot Operators" group.

To post to this group, send email to make...@googlegroups.com.

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to makerbot+u...@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot?hl=en.

[James McCracken]

The ABS we print with has been adulterated with waxes and binders for smooth extrusion and a controlled temperature.

That said, I have had success with going to my local welding shop and getting "ABS welding rod" for my makerbot.

[MTO]

You also want to be careful! If you go and read the history of this
forum, you'll see lots of comments about the quality of the plastics
you can buy. EG: check out the 3dprinterstuff.com thread. MBI sells a
high quality product, and that prevents certain headaches, but your
distance from them creates new ones. Switching suppliers to someone in
europe may not, on the balance, be an improvement. Personally, I think
you should call or email MBI and ask if they have other customers in
India. Assuming they do, you can probably manage group orders so that
shipping costs less...

On Jan 17, 7:40 am, James McCracken <merlin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The ABS we print with has been adulterated with waxes and binders for
> smooth extrusion and a controlled temperature.
>
> That said, I have had success with going to my local welding shop and
> getting "ABS welding rod" for my makerbot.
>

> On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 9:40 PM, Luis E. Rodriguez <lrodriguezm...@gmail.com

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > wrote:
> >  It uses 1.75mm Filament. I believe Robosavvy in Europe carries MBI
> > filament. Otherwise you should be close to a ton of RepRap suppliers in
> > Europe. Fabberdashery comes to mind but I cannot think of the others. I
> > believe Prusa had a locator widget on a website somewhere.
>
> > This ABS tends to general melt at 225C so I guess you could use that range
> > when sourcing from "the market."
>
> > --
> > Luis E. Rodriguez

> > Sent with Sparrow <http://www.sparrowmailapp.com>

[MacGyver]

I just got a couple of rolls from ultimachine and they guarantee the
filament to be with +/- .5 every print I've done so far with it has
gone well. Much better than the stuff I got from 3dprinterstuff.com.

[Eric Palmer]

MacGyver

+-0.5 mm seems like a lot of variance. 

Eric

http://www.thingiverse.com/DaddyOh
Join the 3DPrinter Revolution
http://makerbot.com

[Dan Newman]

On 18 Jan 2012 , at 5:17 PM, Eric Palmer wrote:

> MacGyver
>
> +-0.5 mm seems like a lot of variance.

While only an assumption, I read the unitless "+/- .5" as a percentage.
That certainly hits a better ballpark for what I would expect (e.g.,
0.05 x 1.75mm - 0.09 mm).

Dan

[Dan Newman]

>> MacGyver
>>
>> +-0.5 mm seems like a lot of variance.
>
> While only an assumption, I read the unitless "+/- .5" as a percentage.
> That certainly hits a better ballpark for what I would expect (e.g.,
> 0.05 x 1.75mm - 0.09 mm).

My bad: 0.005 x 1.75 =~ 0.009 mm.

Dan

[Eric Palmer]

Wow now that is awesome. 

Eric

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MakerBot Operators" group.
To post to this group, send email to make...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to makerbot+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot?hl=en.

[Dan Newman]

On 18 Jan 2012 , at 5:44 PM, Eric Palmer wrote:

> Wow now that is awesome.

If that's sarcasm, then I agree with you. Typical tolerances
on this stuff (1.75 mm ABS) is around +/- 0.05 mm. Hard too
image ultimaker selling at a comparable price to protoparadigm
and mbi filament with 5 times tighter tolerances.

Dan

[MacGyver]

Cheese and Rice! I put the decimal in the wrong place.

Filament measures 1.75mm +/- 0.05mm

http://ultimachine.com/content/abs-175mm-black-1kg-spool

[Have Blue]

Anuj -

Makerbot's filament is Chi Mei PA-747 resin, so as long as you stick with that when looking for a supplier, you should be fine.  Note that it's best to test with 'natural' filament first, as colored filaments can have waxes and surfactants added as part of the masterbatch that could potentially affect printing.

- Michael
haveblue.org