Now selling PLA and ABS filament at toybuilderlabs.com

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi everyone,

As many of you already know, we've been selling ABS and PLA filament for some time through our online store at Tindie.   

Now, I am pleased to announce our very own online store: http://toybuilderlabs.com 

We have plenty of PLA and ABS filament in stock, with a good selection of colors.  The filament is available in 1.75 and 3.00 mm nominal diameter, and is spooled on wide-core plastic spools.

Thanks,

Joseph Chiu

toybuilderlabs.com

[delsydsoftware]

Very nice!
Bookmarked for payday  :)

[Gernreich]

Can you go over what distinguishes your plastic, PLA in my instance that makes a better choice than sainsmart, jet, octave, zen, rainbot, MBI and possibly others?  I just started out with my rep2 and really have no clear idea of which to buy from.  And opinions are varied as to which is the one to use.

-Gernreich

[Joseph Chiu]

Well, the key thing is to buy filament that has been manufactured explicitly for 3D printing.  In the past, there was a lot of plastic filament that were originally made for plastic welding applications, where the quality of the plastic and the dimensional control was not as critical as it is for 3D printing.

ABS and PLA filament are all basically made by the same process -- the source material should be virgin plastic pellets, but lower-grade products may use some or a lot of recycled plastic ('regrinds').  There should be screens in the extruder to catch impurities so that you don't get foreign particles into your extruder and possibly jamming your nozzle.  The plastic should be consistent in diameter over the entire reel - or at least not swing quickly between different thickness.   The filament should ideally be perfectly round, although in reality, some amount of ovalness is likely to occur.  The filament should be one continuous string -- there has been reports of some brands where one string of filament ended, and was attached to the next with a piece of tape, or tied together with a knot!  (Those spools were most likely made for plastic welding applications.)   There also were reports of some filament with a big bulge of plastic -- possibly from where two strings were fused together.

Different grades of plastic have different strengths, "meltiness", shrink, adhesion, smell, UV resistance, etc.  They also have different melting temperatures and different behavior as they are melted.  This is due to the different additives to the PLA or ABS that give the plastic its color and performance.   I don't have my plastic analyzed to that level of detail.

While I can't absolutely attest 100% that every roll that I have in my inventory is flawless, my factory has assured me that the filament they produce comes from virgin plastic, made with a controlled master batch, extruded with a screen, extruded continuously for each spool, and laser-micrometered to control the size.   So far, the people I have sent the filament to have said it's good.  And before I bought my lot, I talked to two printer makers that have both said that the factory I selected makes pretty good stuff.

Joseph

(BTW, sorry for the cross-post to the multiple lists -- I should have realized that I was doing that, but didn't -- I removed the groups on the visible to/cc lines in this reply, so hopefully, that'll cut the cross-posting now.)

[Gernreich]

I've hit a plastic bulge twice now with the filament I have bought from another seller.  I was not watching closely so I don't know if it were cause or effect. Cause most likely.

-Gernreich

[Joseph Chiu]

If the bulge was before the drive gear, it is definitely the fault of the filament that you usee.  If the bulge was instead near the tip of the filament that you pulled out of the extruder,  it's much more likely that it was the result of the extruder heating issues.

On Apr 17, 2013 9:30 AM, "Gernreich" <gern...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've hit a plastic bulge twice now with the filament I have bought from another seller.  I was not watching closely so I don't know if it were cause or effect. Cause most likely.

-Gernreich

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[Joseph Chiu]

I am sorry to say that I am not currently set up to take international orders.

On Apr 17, 2013 1:56 PM, "Arik Czerniak" <ar...@supersonicads.com> wrote:

do u ship international?

[Gernreich]

It was before the drive gear, bad plastic from other company!

-Gernreich

[Michael Carnright]

#10 :-D

-Gernreich

[delsydsoftware]

Hmmm, i'll have to try to order from home later tonight. I think our network at work is blocking something on the page. I can add stuff to the cart, but when I try to checkout, it hangs and gives me a blank page in Firefox. When I try in IE, I get a corporate firewll warning that says:

Technical Information:
URL: "http://toybuilderlabs.com/pla-175/red-pla-filament-175mm-1kgroll"
Your username: "<guest>"
Category: "unavailable;Weapons"

[xenogear.alpha]

Looks like you have a nice selection of colors in PLA.  The next time I need a spool I'll try some from your store.  Bookmarked.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 7:43:35 PM UTC-7, Joseph Chiu wrote:

[Darrell jan]

Picked up glow-in-the-dark PLA and white ABS today!

[Joseph Chiu]

Thanks to everyone that have purchased from our store so far.  I would love hear and see pictures of the prints that you guys make with the filament!

I have posted a Replicator 2 spool holder that was done with the Customizer! to fit our spool.  I hope to have other spool holder designs up in the next few days.

Thanks again!

Joseph Chiu

toybuilderlabs.com

[Gernreich]

Is the spool holder on thingiverse?  I don't see it on your website.

-Gernreich

[Joseph Chiu]

I should have posted the link to the thing!  Sorry about that!  

The spool holder for the Replicator 2 is at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76274

Thanks.

Joseph

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Gernreich <gern...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is the spool holder on thingiverse?  I don't see it on your website.

-Gernreich

--

[Joseph Chiu]

I now have the Replicator (Original) spool holder up on Thingiverse as well.  

I've started to catalog them in a central location: http://toybuilderlabs.com/spool-holders/

[Joseph Chiu]

That should be red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, blue, powder blue, pink, black, cool grey, white, glow-in-dark, silver, natural -- in that order.

I now have gold PLA as well.

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:17 PM, Scott Jones <scottrj...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for sending the samples.... just want to check the colors.

Red, Orange, Yellow, ?, Green, Blue, Powder Blue, ?, Black, ?, white, ?, natural

[Michael Carnright]

I think one color strand is out of place.  Starting with and counting black I count five strands to the end. But the list has six colors counting black.  I think the strand directly after yellow in the picture should be moved to somewhere after black :-)

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[Joseph Chiu]

Oh yeah,  it is missing either the glow in the dark or the silver... 

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "3D Printer Tips, Tricks and Reviews" group.

[ddurant34]

Any plans to include materials like IMPLA or wood/nylon/etc?

[Darrell jan]

Heh, I just asked him that same question yesterday. Except I forgot about soft PLA. Short answer was no in the near term, but I should let Joseph answer the details himself.

[Darrell jan]

Joseph,

Thanks, by the way, for the useful advice the yesterday. It turned out my vertical rods were indeed a bit loose. Maybe they came that way, or maybe they got that way from months of pulling things off the bed. 

I will have to get around to posting pictures of the glow in the dark (GITD) PLA. It seems to require a lower temperature. I usually print PLA at about 190C, but with the GITD PLA I was getting a "foamy" effect that I've heard others talk about. I got noticeable improvement at 175C. Also tried 170C which started fine but then air printed. Maybe 173C, or maybe I'll need to adjust the temp during the print.

Regards,

Darrell

On Saturday, April 20, 2013 7:50:05 AM UTC-7, Icepick wrote:

I just ordered 3 rolls. White, Blue, and Silver. I If possible, It would be great if you could include in the shipment, a small cutting sample, like the one posted in this thread. Sometimes, it is hard to get a true idea on what a color looks like on a comp screen. As I have recently had some bad luck with a white purchased from a different vendor (It looked like a string of pearls on the entire roll), I am looking forward to trying out your filament. 

-IcePick

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 10:43:35 PM UTC-4, Joseph Chiu wrote:

[Joseph Chiu]

I have not done a whole lot with the GITD, but you're right - that filament was one of the meltier ones.  I even have a print that looks like ABS with a long acetone vapor treatment! I generally use a strong cooling fan when printing with PLA to get the best results.  Clearly, there is more than one way to get the desirable result.

[Darrell jan]

Hmm, what happened to ddurant's question? I don't even see a "this message has been deleted" message. You can still see it in my trail below.

[Darrell jan]

OK, now I see. It depends if I'm looking at the Makerbot Users group or the 3D Printer Tips group. I didn't know that you could simultaneously post in more than one group.

[Darrell jan]

Using GITD filament from Joseph. The left most ring was printed at 190C. Very bubbly.The middle ring at 175C, much better, but a ways to go. And Yoda at 172C. Looks about as good as I get with any PLA, with 0.05 mm layers. My phone camera doesn't capture much detail in the dark, but it's there.

[Joseph Chiu]

I don't know where the final good print went right now, but this was one of my first attempts on my GITD filament when I had it running to hot...  It was stringy and oozy. Perhaps the lesson here is to not be afraid of going cooler.  In general I like running hotter because the layers tend to fuse better, and I can run faster speeds. ..

[Joseph Chiu]

Oops, clicked send before attaching the picture below.

[Gernreich]

Order #10 arrived, thanks!

-Gernreich

[Joseph Chiu]

I had a nice chat this morning with Dan this morning, including the question of GITD plastic.   Some ideas that came up is the possibility that the material that actually makes the filament GITD may itself have a much lower melting point, or that to reduce damaging its glow properties, the plastic blend is designed for a lower temperature.  One side effect of this is that perhaps there may be different cooling between the PLA and the GITD "pigment" that is causing aggregates to form as the filament is being manufactured.  Dan and I both have seen GITD plastic have a noticeably rough texture to them.

[Darrell jan]

Sometime I forget that you can look up almost anything on the internet these days. 

It seems that older GITD products were colored with zinc sulfide plus a copper dopant. More recently, strontium aluminate is used, and said to be far superior, though more expensive.  Either chemical is inorganic, unlike plastics, so it should have a much higher melting point. (Strontium aluminate loses its phospescent properties if subjected to over 1090C! Don't think my heater is that strong.) But, the problem may be putting enough powder into the plastic to get good luminosity, yet not so much that it overly degrades the plastic properties.

http://www.chromacolors.com/news.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_sulfide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strontium_aluminate

[delsydsoftware]

I just received my filament today. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I will say that I like the way the spools are wound already. So many other filament companies use small spools and overwind them, so you spend the first 4-5 prints trying to keep the filament from popping off of the spool and tangling. There seems to be a really good amount of space between the edge of the reels and the filament. I look forward to printing with this filament later this week. :)

[Eighty]

Got my order last night, and printed up a sample this morning.  I just grabbed a test file (sliced on MW at 200 um).  Printed very well, even with the default 230C!

 The filament varied from 1.74 to 1.76 in all the spots I measured.  Much less variation than the usual spools from elsewhere.

 

One thing I did notice, though, is that the spool hole is slightly small.  I could cram my MBI spool holder into it, but the spool wouldn't turn freely.  So I just used a different spool holder.

[delsydsoftware]

I printed a couple things with the blue PLA I ordered, and it prints really well at 200C.

[Darrell jan]

Joseph,

Is "natural" ABS also transparent?

Darrell

[Joseph Chiu]

Hey Darrell,
The natural ABS is not transparent. It is a slightly milky off white - it is kind of like ivory.
Joseph

[Darrell jan]

OK. Can you get transparent ABS? 

Natural PLA is pretty clear, at least the stuff I have is. But I need something more heat-resistant.

Darrell

[Joseph Chiu]

I will be getting new filament, including translucent ABS, but it will not be 5he glass-like transparent like PLA.

[Darrell jan]

Well, I wouldn't call my PLA glass-like. I guess you don't have the ABS in stock yet? I happen to be in town this week.

[TheMakerGuy]

I hope to try your stuff this weekend. I was going to try last week as I thought my current Ultimaker spool went bad but it was actually a clog in my nozzle which got worse and so I am down right now. I did receive new parts and will get it going. It never occured to me that particles could get into the bowden tube and travel up and into the hot end. I will need to blow all that crap out of the tube before I try yout filament.

On Friday, April 19, 2013 6:35:48 PM UTC-4, Joseph Chiu wrote:

Thanks to everyone that have purchased from our store so far.  I would love hear and see pictures of the prints that you guys make with the filament!

I have posted a Replicator 2 spool holder that was done with the Customizer! to fit our spool.  I hope to have other spool holder designs up in the next few days.

Thanks again!

Joseph Chiu

toybuilderlabs.com

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Darrell jan <darrel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Picked up glow-in-the-dark PLA and white ABS today!

On Friday, April 19, 2013 2:15:26 PM UTC-7, xenogear.alpha wrote:

Looks like you have a nice selection of colors in PLA.  The next time I need a spool I'll try some from your store.  Bookmarked.

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your purchase!   I wish I could wave a magic wand to make your Rep 2x to arrive just as quickly! :)

The spoolholders for the Replicator and Replicator2 are listed Thingiverse.  You can find them through my website: http://toybuilderlabs.com/spool-holders/  - I don't have a 2x to measure the size of the spool holder cutout - but I expect one of them to work.  They are basically the same, but with different width tongues, because the original Replicator has a narrower slot that the holder went into.

Thanks!

Joseph

http://toybuilderlabs.com

On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Brad Warren <ryl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Joseph, do you know of an .stl for a spool holder that fits these?

[Joseph Chiu]

Scott, I apologize - I had relied on the customizer to size the holder.   I have withdrawn the design files from Thingiverse, and am now pointing everyone (Replicator, 2, and 2X) to the same design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77261

I will send you a private message about reimbursing you for the wasted print.

Joseph

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Scott Jones <scottrj...@gmail.com> wrote:

I tried to print the spool holder and I canceled it at 78% when I realized it was way to big to fit the slot on the back of the Rep2.

The hole on the back of the Rep2 is 37 mm wide the tab on the MB spool is 33 mm wide.  At 78% I cancelled at 42 mm.

After looking at what I downloaded...and I guess my fault for not checking your model is 45 mm wide.

This is the one I downloaded....http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76274 did I do the wrong one?

[TobyCWood]

I'd betcha it'd be just as shiny at 200C...

On Friday, April 26, 2013 7:54:17 PM UTC-7, Scott Jones wrote:

I know it's kinda basic and is also a sample file...but here is the Stretchy Bracelet in your black PLA.

Printing at 240 made it shiny..... my niece really likes it.

[iamloremipsum3d]

 ordered yellow green on Friday, it came Monday!   Seems to print really well so far.  Printing at default settings.  The only issue I had was printing the holder, the tab is too thick for the Replicator 2, but I just carved it down with a knife.  I look forward to ordereing more, especially if the shipping will remain so affordable.


-Brian

[Mark Cohen]

I have used the white 3mm PLA. This worked fine in my Ultimaker.

On May 1, 2013, at 11:01 AM, iamloremipsum3d <iamlore...@gmail.com> wrote:

 ordered yellow green on Friday, it came Monday!   Seems to print really well so far.  Printing at default settings.  The only issue I had was printing the holder, the tab is too thick for the Replicator 2, but I just carved it down with a knife.  I look forward to ordereing more, especially if the shipping will remain so affordable.


-Brian

--

[Joseph Chiu]

Thanks MacGyver!  I appreciate the shout-out on your thing page! 

On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 9:39 AM, MacGyver <bdwel...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just received the 3 rolls I purchased from him too.  So far the prints have been wonderful.

http://www.thingiverse.com/make:37545

[mathisyourfriend]

Just ordered a kg of green PLA for $41 with shipping.  I look forward to printing green dinosaurs now.  Any chance of a discount code for your fellow group members?

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi Mathisyourfriend,

In the future, we plan to announce special sales to the group from time to time.  Right now, though, almost every filament is on sale. The only extra discount we have to offer right now is the extra 10% off natural PLA and natural ABS (use code NATURAL10) which is available until Sunday morning.

I'm exploring ways to save money on shipping so that customers would pay less for shipping, or we could lower the prices more.  (We actually take a hit on shipping.)    I know that there are less expensive rolls of filament out there, but I believe our quality is the best for the price.

Thanks!

Joseph

[mathisyourfriend]

I'm rooting for you guys.  Your price is good and I'll pay the extra over the cheap filament for the reliability people seem to experiencing with your stuff.  I look forward to trying it.

Joe

[66tbird]

Any chance of getting Tan 1.75mm ABS?  MBI has no plans to restock.

[mathisyourfriend]

I'm going to try the green 1.75 PLA.  200 C 1st layer and 195 C thereafter seem about right?  On a M2.

[mathisyourfriend]

Printed all day (~11 hours worth when this print ends).  No problems at all.  Measurements were all within 1.74-1.76mm.  I'll be ordering more soon.

[Joseph Chiu]

I printed the entire Advent Calendar set by Peter Leppik back around Christmas, and brown and tan would have been nice to have on at least two presents, plus the base pieces for the tree... So, I totally understand the desire to have those colors.  
Sadly, we don't have tan or brown available at this time.  It is one of those not-quite-popular colors that I would like to carry eventually, but I don't have an ETA when we could do that.

On May 9, 2013 6:32 PM, "66tbird" <joh...@q.com> wrote:

Any chance of getting Tan 1.75mm ABS?  MBI has no plans to restock.

[Joseph Chiu]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys! It is very much appreciated!

[Jetguy]

I feel bad, I still need to print a project with the blue that I got. The problem is, it's such a nice filament, I don't want to waste it on some standard object.

I also have some GITD too that is in the same status. It's so expensive, I hate to use it.

Then the absolute worst one of all PVA. I don't dare crack open the sealed bag for fear of the entire roll going bad in the humidity.

[Matthew Stonebraker]

Finally got around to using some of your lovely natural ABS. Absolutely no trouble with it and very excellent dimensional tolerance. As a result of my good experience, I'm going to order some PLA. I wish you had some translucent colors, but that's okay.

[Matthew Stonebraker]

Oh, and as an additional note, I was able to use this lovely filament on my brand new custom made Ultimate Thing-O-Matic, courtesy of Jetguy. Out of the box and printing beautiful parts like the one shown without a single headache or failed print. Toybuilderlabs filament+this printer are gonna do big things together.

[mathisyourfriend]

Please tell us more about the ultimate ToM.  Are there files I can download?

[Jetguy]

Here is a copy http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:37126

 

I'm moving the original files to a new home away from thingiverse. I'm not telling anyone to not use them or post them, it's just a decision that I had multiple versions and it was way too confusing for folks. Rather than deal with that mess, I pulled them down and will post a much more refined version.

[mathisyourfriend]

thanks

[mathisyourfriend]

I'm using the powder blue 1.75 PLA.  It seems to print better at a temp closer to what I use for clear (185 C) rather than what I use for black (195).  Has anyone else had this experience?  Is how dark the PLA is the determining factor in temperature?  

btw, I continue to like your PLA

[mathisyourfriend]

New home away from thingiverse?  There's been some new clearing houses (for lack of a better term) for .stl files springing up.  Is one of these your new home?  

A truly independent/reliable site is needed and might bring back some of the longtime users who've left us to fend for ourselves.

On Monday, May 20, 2013 1:56:35 PM UTC-4, Jetguy wrote:

[Matthew Stonebraker]

I just got some of the powder blue PLA in 3mm on Friday. I'll be trying it out this week, I'll let you know what I find.

-Matthew

[mathisyourfriend]

I like the blue so much I just ordered more.  I made the owl test print in it.  I lowered the temp and increased the fan as it went up.  187 C with the fan about 1/3 of the way on the slider (Creator) seems good so far (M2).  

Is there some sort of correlation between darkness and print temp?

[Dan Newman]

On 26 May 2013 , at 7:58 PM, mathisyourfriend wrote:

> I like the blue so much I just ordered more. I made the owl test print in it. I lowered the temp and increased the fan as it went up. 187 C with the fan about 1/3 of the way on the slider (Creator) seems good so far (M2).
> Is there some sort of correlation between darkness and print temp?

With PLA, you can get different degrees of crystallization with
different temps. I'm used to some of the translucent PLAs being
a slightly lighter, more sparkly color at higher temps for instance.
Is that the effect you're seeing?

Dan

[Joseph Chiu]

I think that, as a general rule, the more dark and opaque a filament is, the higher temperature it needs. I do recall the light blue need ingredient a little bit less heating, but it has been a while since I printed with that filament.   That said, I don't have a detailed table of optimal temperatures for each and every filament type.

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[Joseph Chiu]

Gah, sorry, smartphone typing gooforama... anyway, what I was trying to say was that when I last did some prints with the powder blue, it definitely needed a lower temperature than some of the others I tested at the time. I have some notes from thise tests, but they were not rigorously logged. I would like to build up a detailed table of optimal temperatures for each filament, but I don't have that yet.

[mathisyourfriend]

I thought about some sort of spreadsheet for temps vs color but we all live in very different climates, etc.  These tips do give others a good place to start and then tinker from there.  

The difference I saw as the temp was lowered was less drooping strings on the bottom tips of the "feathers".  

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 3dprintertipstricksreviews+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[Darrell jan]

Besides having different optimal temperatures, some filaments can be hotter and still do "OK", others won't do nearly as well. In my my limited experience, glow in the dark is the most finicky, but you can still get very good results.

[JohnD]

Mathis - light blue PLA is notoriously finicky in my book - but yes, I find that different pigment and even pigment density seem to effect the temperature for PLA - but vendors seem to make even a bigger difference - Diamond Age, for example I can extrude at silly low temperatures.

[Mark Cohen]

I just ordered another roll of white. The first roll worked out great.

Thanks!

On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 10:43 PM, Joseph Chiu <joe...@joechiu.com> wrote:

Hi everyone,

As many of you already know, we've been selling ABS and PLA filament for some time through our online store at Tindie.   

Now, I am pleased to announce our very own online store: http://toybuilderlabs.com 

We have plenty of PLA and ABS filament in stock, with a good selection of colors.  The filament is available in 1.75 and 3.00 mm nominal diameter, and is spooled on wide-core plastic spools.

Thanks,

Joseph Chiu

toybuilderlabs.com

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[Joseph Chiu]

Awesome!  Thanks Mark!   Do you have any of those prints published?

Joseph

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 3dprintertipstricks...@googlegroups.com.

[Mark Cohen]

Here you go.

[Joseph Chiu]

Cool.  Just out of curiosity, how many machines have you built/touched by now?   I am in awe.

[Kurt Wendt]

I too am in AWE – but, the AWE Started in Sept. 2011 when I brought my Dysfunctional Bot to his BOT-CAVE in Brooklyn – and got to see his Farm of Bots – which were ALL Functional – unlike my own! At the time – I think he had 5 MakerBots up & running!

 

---

[Mark Cohen]

Around 50
I currently have 2
1 works
I will replace the rostock soon

[Kurt Wendt]

Re:UR Rostock – U didn’t cannibalize any parts from it yet – did you??? Just curious…

 

-K-

 

---

From: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com [mailto:3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Cohen
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 12:08 PM
To: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [3dprintertipstricksreviews] Now selling PLA and ABS filament at toybuilderlabs.com

 

Around 50

[Mark Cohen]

I am starting today
The rostock will be deceased

[mathisyourfriend]

I had a problem with some powder blue PLA (it's beautiful) I bought from toybuilders. It had a problem in the spool about 75% of the way through the kg that ruined a print.  The spool was fine until then. I emailed Joseph and got immediate and excellent help.  He offered to replace the spool as soon as I reported a problem.  I sent him a pic (not a big kink, I think the failure was a fluke), cut out a couple of feet and continued with the spool and there's been no problems since.

I write this to praise the customer service I am becoming accustomed to after dealing with some others.

Sort of the reason MakerGuy started this group afaik.  

Rereading that I must say that the "praise the customer service..." line includes MakerGear and Simplify3D as well.  

After ~2 years of dealing with...well there's 1000's of posts so I won't go on about it, the smallest issue I've had with these products (and I have had some sort of problem with all three company's products) have been addressed quickly and without excuses.

(A former salesman)

[Mark Cohen]

I just threw  out about 20% of a roll of Ultimaker White PLA. It constantly jammed my extruder at that point. I wonder if I should contact them as I still have it in the trash.

[Kurt Wendt]

Yeah – Go for it MakerGuy – give their Cust. Serv. A run for their money!!!

 

J

 

---

From: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com [mailto:3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Cohen

Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 3:54 PM
To: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com

[Kurt Wendt]

Hey there Mr. Math,

 

Very Nice e-mail indeed!!! Good to see you crediting some of the folks here w/nice compliments. And - FYI - this group was largely started - since the MOG was getting CENSORED - and MakerGuy thought that was BULLSHIT - and made a New Group where NOTHING would get Censored!

 

:-)

-K-

 

 

---

--

[mathisyourfriend]

I remember. The atmosphere in that other group got to a lot of us (me included).  I left it but I still look sometimes (schadenfreude).   

I just like to hear the truth. Doesn't mean you (or me) are right, but honest opinions backed up by logic are appreciated. 

(Ex: (paraphrased): "I bought my "x" because the manufacturer is down the street so if/when there's problems I can walk there" might be an honest opinion but the logic is so flawed that I have to wonder.)

Yes, that's from a specific post from MOG (I forget who).  I don't mean to start more...but that's what I mean.  (No I won't get into that discussion again).

I almost feel like my praise for these products is overblown (they've already gotten plenty of my $).  This is what I expect (and what was expected of me when I was doing sales way back when).  I know that this isn't even an "adolescent", forget "mature" technology/market but we should all expect this type of service.

On Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:57:32 PM UTC-4, Kurt Wendt wrote:

Hey there Mr. Math,

 

Very Nice e-mail indeed!!! Good to see you crediting some of the folks here w/nice compliments. And - FYI - this group was largely started - since the MOG was getting CENSORED - and MakerGuy thought that was BULLSHIT - and made a New Group where NOTHING would get Censored!

 

:-)

-K-

 

 

From: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com [mailto:3dprintertipstricksrevie...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mathisyourfriend
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 3:49 PM
To: 3dprintertips...@googlegroups.com
Cc: make...@googlegroups.com; makerbo...@googlegroups.com; joe...@joechiu.com
Subject: [3dprintertipstricksreviews] Re: Now selling PLA and ABS filament at toybuilderlabs.com

 

I had a problem with some powder blue PLA (it's beautiful) I bought from toybuilders. It had a problem in the spool about 75% of the way through the kg that ruined a print.  The spool was fine until then. I emailed Joseph and got immediate and excellent help.  He offered to replace the spool as soon as I reported a problem.  I sent him a pic (not a big kink, I think the failure was a fluke), cut out a couple of feet and continued with the spool and there's been no problems since.

 

I write this to praise the customer service I am becoming accustomed to after dealing with some others.

Sort of the reason MakerGuy started this group afaik.  

 

Rereading that I must say that the "praise the customer service..." line includes MakerGear and Simplify3D as well.  

After ~2 years of dealing with...well there's 1000's of posts so I won't go on about it, the smallest issue I've had with these products (and I have had some sort of problem with all three company's products) have been addressed quickly and without excuses.

 

 

 

 

(A former salesman)

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 10:43:35 PM UTC-4, Joseph Chiu wrote:

Hi everyone,

 

As many of you already know, we've been selling ABS and PLA filament for some time through our online store at Tindie.   

 

Now, I am pleased to announce our very own online store: http://toybuilderlabs.com 

 

We have plenty of PLA and ABS filament in stock, with a good selection of colors.  The filament is available in 1.75 and 3.00 mm nominal diameter, and is spooled on wide-core plastic spools.

 

Thanks,

Joseph Chiu

 

toybuilderlabs.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Matthew Stonebraker]

I hate to say it, but I am also having trouble with the powder blue PLA. (Sorry Joseph! You might need to look into it?)

I'm only 25% into my spool, but I was running a 100% six-sided vase at .1mm layer heights and 20mm/s and I had this happen: http://imgur.com/a/6EBFZ
This must have been about 2.5 hours into the print. I'm running an overhead spool mount, so I've eliminated my snags and tangles. I've measured along a few meters of filament and I haven't found any strange bulges or kinks, but I don't know how else to explain this. I had another smaller print of one of those flower knobs in the pics that did a very similar thing; at the time I had no idea what caused the problem, and didn't document it.

I've had other successes with the powder blue PLA: http://imgur.com/a/Dg4p6

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi guys,

Wow.  Okay, I have already alerted the factory on Mathisyourfriend's, and I have updated them with Matthew's message. 

We want our customers to be happy and very satisfied with the quality of our product, so if there are problems, we definitely want to know about it.    

This is the first that we've heard customers having problems with our filament - both on the same plastic (powder blue PLA) - though at different diameters.    

With such a small sample data set, it's hard to know if it's a complete statistical fluke, or if there is an actual correlation.  The factory will be looking into this, too.

Matthew, I will follow up privately.

Thanks,

Joseph

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[Matthew Stonebraker]

After further discussion and analysis with Joseph (who is great to work with!), I think it might not be the powder blue PLA causing my problems. Due to the nature of my print failure and the fact that I have had similar failures with the natural ABS, it seems less likely to be a filament issue than I first believed. I hope between mathisyourfriend and I we haven't scared anyone off the PLA, as it is quite lovely. : )

[mathisyourfriend]

Yes Joseph is great to work with.  I want to make sure it's clear I believe it was a fluke since I had 2 successful prints over 9 hours each that I started when I went to bed.  I only saw the last ~20 minutes of each print so the spool clearly was able to handle long unattended usage.  I also have used the spool since then with no problem.  

I liked the color so much I ordered another spool before this problem happened.  I'll be printing with the rest of the old spool and the new one this weekend.  I'll report my results.

[Michael Carnright]

I've been using the red filament and love it.  The difference in quality of the exact same print with your filament and another brand I have the last dregs of is starting

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[mathisyourfriend]

Just finished a 4hr 45min print with that same spool of powder blue.  No problems.

[Joseph Chiu]

Thanks for the update Mathisyourfriend! 

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[Robo]

Joseph,

I ordered a single spool of black PLA recently and it arrived extremely fast.  I'm currently printing a spool holder for it.  It measures 1.75mm with a variance of no more than .02mm either way.  I'll post again when I've printed with it but this seems to be very promising stuff.

[Darrell jan]

That black PLA is indeed good stuff.

[Ethan Maretich]

Thanks Joseph, just bought a couple ABS spools on the site!

[Joseph Chiu]

Hi everyone!

Thanks to all of you that have visited us at toybuilderlabs.com (or on Tindie before that!) -- my wife (Taj) and I are working hard to make it easier for everyone to shop for our high-quality filament.  To that end, we have taken our first steps to getting our products on Amazon.com -- you can see our Amazon seller page here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/main?ie=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=&seller=A3H3SNGPNOI3BR

We would appreciate any positive feedback that you can provide for the filament that you have purchased from us!

Thanks!

Joseph and Taj Chiu - ToyBuilder Labs

[Michael Carnright]

Prime?

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[Joseph Chiu]

Not yet -- We're working on it! 

[Michael Carnright]

Cool

[Matthew Stonebraker]

It's a shame you can't post pictures in Amazon reviews, I'd love to show off this beauty to help people decide.

[Joseph Chiu]

Ah, but you can!  That would be very much appreciated!

Under the picture of the product, there is a "share your own related images" link.  You can upload pictures through that!

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Matthew Stonebraker <stoneb...@gmail.com> wrote:

It's a shame you can't post pictures in Amazon reviews, I'd love to show off this beauty to help people decide.

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