The 5 Filament Types You Need to Know (And What They're Good For)

OH HEY THERE! Thank you SO MUCH for watching the video. I'd love to hear your feedback. Feel free to comment below to let me know any ways I could IMPROVE my videos for YOU!

Would be great if you could discuss the more engineering grade polymers like Nylon, PC, PP, etc…

You glossed over pretty much the best parts of PETG: 1. It has near-perfect layer adhesion when part cooling isn't used 2. Nothing sticks to it! It's perfect for moulds 3. It can be used to create watertight parts

Advantages PETG: - Good sliding properties and thus useful for guides. - Chemical resistance - It's a little bit easier to get something watertight than with PLA

Just my notes based on my experience so far: Basic PLA may not be that fantastic, but some of the advanced blends such as Inland PLA+ can be phenomena in pretty much every way, including having absolutely insane temperature resistance when annealed. I have printed functional oil caps that live in an engine bay under tension with this material. TPU isn't really as hard to print as many people think, even with a bowden tube. It mostly takes turning down speeds a little bit and adding a ton of retraction. I have had very successful clean prints on a basic Ender 3 Pro with no extruder or hot end mods, and I have had no failures yet, even printing at about 2/3 normal speed. PETG definitely doesn't deserve to be put on a pedestal, but unless you need the smoothing ability of ABS, it's still probably a better option in general, and basically just depending on temperature and UV needs it makes sense to use over PLA. ASA is the new hotness over ABS and I think it will only grow more popular. I have yet to print with it, but I will likely skip ABS and go straight for it. Prices have come down recently and I have seen rolls for $21 on Amazon in recent weeks. Solid video!

Did you know: The tricks that work for ABS also work for ASA! You can put a few ASA cuts into some acetone and let it dissolve. Now you have a super tough bed adhesion "smear". When done, you print on a layer of ASA. I don't really measure, I just dissolve filament cuts, until I have a sticky paste that I can apply with a brush.

There's something worth noting about Stefan's analysis for PETG. His point of failure was the moment the material began to deform. While PLA did survive a higher strength, its far more brittle. In general brittle materials are "stronger" before their ultimate breaking point, even for metals and steels, but brittle materials are avoided because of their inability to survive consistent loads. Over time any material begins to form micro-cracks within in structure and those will introduce massive stress raisers. This is especially common for cyclic loads (like gears and shafts). Brittle materials will fail much faster in the long run because their cracks will propagate a faster, while ductile materials will be able to take a lot more and handle the continuous load for longer. This is especially true for 3D printed parts since they are notorious for lack of uniformity and have tons of pores and stress cracks. In general if you're producing something which will take a sustained load, you're better off with something ductile vs brittle. Using a shelf as an example, over time it a PETG shelf might begin to sag and slightly deform before giving out if its overloaded, vs a PLA or brittle shelf which will just fall apart very quickly. Also one thing I don't remember being tested for PETG was its behaviour after a few weeks. Hygroscopic materials tend to become stiffer over time, nylon filemant for instance will generally take two weeks before it settles into its final strength. It would be worth seeing how PETG behaves as well over time once it's absorbed mosture to saturation as it will affect its mechanical properties.

PETG is great for outdoor items, like brackets to hold a small solar panel on the gutters, or custom wire clips for Christmas lights. According to my spreadsheet, I've only paid over $12 for a roll one time: $12.23 for a light grey that matches the siding of my house. I have never seen ASA at a price I'm willing to pay.

I got my start with PETG (got into PLA second) and my first Prusa Mini+. I loved the transparent options and, as someone who lives in the southern United States, heat and UV resistance is a MUST for just about anything you'd wanna print and take outside for more than 30 seconds. haha Anyone who wants to truly enjoy PETG absolutely needs a PEI textured build plate, as that's about the only surface that offers that beautiful pop-off-when-cool ease of use.

I'm glad you pointed out that PETG doesn't do well in high-speed printers, I recently upgraded from an Ender-3 to a Creality K1 and PETG was the only material it was having problems with. It prints ABS like a boss, though.

I literally have zero of these issues with PETG that you’ve stated, and I print 30-40 kilos of it a month in 4 printers including 2 X1C’s.

As a newbie to 3D printing I found this to be a fantastic materials tutorial to get me up to speed. Can't thank you enough. Like comments from others, I'd love see another video reviewing other materials like nylon etc.

Very informative video! I always get big eyes when I tell people that my printer frames are printed out of PLA because it's the most rigid polymer! I really like it that more and more people talking about material properties to fight the myths that are out there. Good Job!

PLA has another great advantage: It burns out with very little residue at temperatures of around 500°C. Lost PLA-casting uses this very property. Great stuff!

Perfect timing. Thank you. I just received my first fdm printer, a neptune 3 pro, your videos have been great.

I just bought my 3D printer this past weekend - this video has been super helpful in really understanding when and how I should use these different print types. Thanks!

m5c. I'm printing mostly ASA since years. Yes bed adheasion is the big problem. Not impossible with open printers but quite challenging. Big rafts help. Much easier since I use closed voron 2.4... The trick is the bed temperature and there also a equally temp distribution.. And I always start at least with 100C. I always have the first layer to the max thickness the noozle can do. Nobody cares if your first layer is 0.5 or 0.2.... Good video. Thx

Thank you! And yes, please make another video covering more printable materials.

Yes please make a part 2 covering the other filament options. I’d say even do a part 3 covering exotic filaments as well!

Thank you, I stubbled upon your channel well looking into filaments and I’m glad I did. Just ordered my first 3D printer and your video was a wealth of knowledge. You gained a subscriber tonight for sure. Looking forward to more great informative content in the near future. Thank you from 🇨🇦🤙🏼