Is 3mm filament dead?

I am sure this question has been asked 1000 times but I noticed on Amazon this week how difficult it is to find 3mm filament options in many of the brands/types/colors I was looking at. I remember 6 to 8 months ago I had multiple (but not a tone) color options for buying Hatchbox PLA 3mm but now all they only seem to sell is black and white on Amazon.

I found this frustrating, but I know 1.75 seems to work for the most part with PLA in my experience and I can work around it but lately I have been printing on 1.75 inland PETG (because my Micro Center only sells PETG in 1.75) and found it is really sticky and tends to gum up the default TAZ 6 extruder because it has the room in a 3mm hotend to kink up.

I also looked for 3mm PETG on Amazon and found eSUN is the only brand I could find that sells 3mm PETG. I am sure they make amazing filament and most people surly have no issues with them but I have been burned twice now on usable filament from them so they are not an option for me.

I guess what I am asking is anyone else noticed the slowly shrinking options for 3mm filament and is Lulzbot going to continue to only sell 3mm hotends going forward? I heard they are going to come out with a E3D Titan Aero toolhead like the one they sell at IT-Works but not sure if they are going to offer it in a 1.75 option. If anyone knows Lulzbot’s current stance on 1.75 options going forward I would be interested to know.

Don’t know Lulzbot’s outlook on supporting 1.75, but its definitely more popular. Probably easier to deal with on the 12V machines and a bit more precise. But probably more wear on stepper motors feeding the filament, and not to mention the 12V heat beds take forever to preheat.

With that said, 3mm most likely isn’t dead. I use eSUN ABS fairly exclusively… actually black and white for that matter. :slight_smile: Its consistent and the right price. I buy bulk from Intservo who seems to be a US distributor for eSun. Using the same filament type / manufacturer cuts down on tweaking software variables.

You probably should contact support to get their official stance on 1.75mm. Regardless, this is a DIY hobby, and swapping out for a 1.75 hotend isn’t that difficult… well I guess its not that difficult on the more open sourced machines TAZ 5 and below (for the Mini and TAZ 6, you’d have to figure out how to hook up the continuity leads). You’d get the best of both worlds 24V power and more variety in filament.

No, not even close. There are a few specialty filaments that manufacturers haven’t released in 3mm due to shortsighted practices, but there are numerous technical and structural reasons to go with 3mm over 1.75mm, especially for a large format printer.

Thanks for the response and sorry if I came off as complaining at Lulzbot, that was not my intent. Just wanting to know if there is going to be official supported option for 1.75 in the future. Just looking at the E3D Titan Aero offered by itworks and it looks very interesting and versatile in supporting just about every material currently available and it comes in a 1.75 option.

I am sure I just had bad luck with the two roles of eSUN I got but when they are the only bad rolls i have ever had and they came from the same manufacturer I find it hard to give them a third shot. May need to try them again, maybe their PETG is better than the ABS I have gotten from them in the past. Just a bit defeating when finding the exact filament I am looking for or just want to stick with a specific brand and find they do not offer a 3mm version of that filament.

You can find the 1.75mm body here http://devel.lulzbot.com/TAZ/accessories/fangtooth_guppy/
If you want a 1.75mm idler you can grab it from my thing here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1355106 or use that extruder instead. You will also need an “ao edition 1.75mm hexagon hotend assembly” and a 1.75mm size 0.5mm nozzle https://www.amazon.com/Hexagon-All-Metal-Hot-1-75mm/dp/B00W8FL68A for example

Glad you asked! Colorado made, premium 3mm PETG https://itworks3d.com/product/inova-2008-petg/
It is on amazon, but isn’t very visible because we haven’t set it up on Prime yet.
We also carry their High Impact ABS https://itworks3d.com/product/high-impact-abs-chroma-strand-labs/
More colors, and Amazon prime coming soon!

Of course, you probably don’t need it now :wink:

Thanks i-t-w.com just put in the order for the E3D Titan Aero toolhead so can’t wait to see it in action. I plan to keep the original toolhead and just have the option to switch between both 3 and 1.75mm.

I do like the look of the PETG you posted, I had a hard time finding a PETG that was not opaque look to it and Inova-2008 had a nice solid color look to it. May end up getting some even with a new tool head :wink:

Hi shawnbot,

If you want clear PET, I’ve had good results with Taulman t-glase (available from the LulzBot store in 3mm). Here’s a print from my 'Mini:


Taulman has some tips on making it even clearer:

@erasmus42 thanks for the picture of the t-glass. I was actually looking for a solid color PETG but after seeing that I would also want to play with going full clear lol. That is an amazing print.