Looking for help choosing filament

Hi all,

I’m an experienced 3D artist but brand new to 3D printing and am looking to buy a Taz6 in the next week or two.

I am looking for some advice on filaments. I plan to make various cosplay items, helmets, props, etc… and need something that is durable like ABS but that doesn’t have the toxicity that ABS has due to me having a small child in my home and I dont want us breathing the fumes.

The material needs to be SANDABLE. I just found out that PLA is not sandable so now I am on the hunt for sandable materials that are strong and are not alot of hassle to print.

The filament color does not matter as I will be sanding, priming, and painting the items.

Some that I was researching do far were:

N-gen (i heard this one is not sandable though)
n-vent
T-glase PET (this one I am interested in)
and Colorfabb XT (a little expensive though)

I’d like something that isnt too expensive as I have seen some are $50+ rather than the average $30 price.


I know the Taz 6 can use a lot of materials so I am hoping you guys could give me an idea for something so that I can order a spool of it when I get the printer. Thanks all.

Personally, for cosplay items, I’d probably recommend nGen. You can sand it and drill it easily. It’s light weight, tough, and easy to print. XT and n-vent are very similar to each other and are a little more costly to print. The only advantage of the those is a little more strength, but they are a little harder to print. T-Glase and PETG are super strong and great for transparent items, but make heavier prints.

We have a lot of cosplay enthusiasts that use nothing but PLA for their parts. Matterhackers did a great write up on different techniques for finishing PLA: https://www.matterhackers.com/news/how-to-smooth-and-finish-your-pla-prints

Wow… You guys both pretty much said the opposite from what I read elsewhere about pla and ngen but that could be good news. I heard both were difficult to sand… Actually I read PLA is impossible to sand. Maybe that was bad information cause Ilooked at the matterhackers site and it talks alot about sanding.

Do you guys think I just had bad info or does it matter the brand of PLA? Like maybe some brands are harder to sand? I don’t think that’s it though.

Maybe the better question is which filaments can you NOT sand. That way I know not to mess with those as I like to do finishing work. :slight_smile:

Many of these plastics should not be power sanded but do pretty well with hand sanding. Wet sanding may also be useful for some. I prefer a file over sanding, though, at least until you get to 320 grit level. A sharp, medium to fine file cuts quickly and doesn’t melt anything.

Hello CottonFX,

I have the same problem. Babies change everything. Any filament will have fumes - detectable or otherwise.
For my Taz 5’s ventilated (to the outside) enclosure I used a cheap Ikea-hack and Home Depot pieces.

Here is what you will need:

  • Ivar wooden rack from Ikea (great for organizing everything else for your 3D printer).
  • two wooden Ikea boards usually found across the Ivar, which is 24.75 and 31.5 inches in size
  • very small desk fan (the one with formed-wire screen) sold near the Ikea counter.

From Home Depot:

  • metal L-shaped shelf supports
  • acrylic sheets and packing tape
  • two, thin nearly-foot long cabinet hinge from Home Depot
  • dryer vent duct and plastic end joints/coupling pair (Everbuilt)
  • long velcro strips

Instructions:

Assemble the Ikea IVAR.
Choose the height for your Taz. and use one of the 24.75 x 31.5 inch wooden boards as its platform, support it with the L-shaped metal pieces.
Position the other large board at least 32 to 35 inches above the first board. Cut a hole to fit the Dryer vent plastic joints - and the small desk fan (you may need to trim the edges of the fan to make it fit).
Use both large wooden boards as the attachment point for the back and front of your acrylic sheets (you’ll need a power tool to cut this).
The acrylic sheets for the sides will be inside the IVAR rack, not outside, so that it will be easier to affix.

Use the packing tape to seal all the sides of the acrylic to itself or the IVAR.

Caution: extreme movement in the Y direction (which does not usually occur with normal prints) is not supported in this configuration.

Tip: you can use the IVAR post as the attachment point for the hinges of your acrylic door. The two large boards should extend to the back, but the front of the printer’s shelf must be flat with the IVAR post.

Tip: use the velcro around the acrylic door to ensure that fumes do not escape during printing. Turn on the fan for a while before you open the acrylic door. Use the fan continously if your filament is not prone to warping.

Whenever I print, I switch from the dryer to the 3D printer’s vent duct. I am very, very careful to return the vent duct to the dryer at the end of every print - just in case someone uses the dryer. Stay safe!

You can use a Y-connector, but unless it has a backflow mechanism, I can’t recommend it.

Good luck!

Rex

It is important to exactly know about the application you are working on. The choice of filament totally depends upon the application. Suppose you want to have a project in which you require different colors, then you may go for color changing filament.

Every filament has its own properties & specifications. So, based on these parameters, you should choose the filaments.

Source:
https://www.innofil3d.com/3d-filaments-industrial-applications/

I’d love to see some pictures of your setup!