Makergeeks filament, ugh, the struggles

SO I purchased some of their filament a month or so ago. Couple rolls of their maker series. Printed like a charm. Used it to print the OpenRC F1 car. No issues. Bought from “standard” inventory.

Ordered up some new material this past week, thought I’d give the ol’ grab bag a shot. All the site really says is that the color is not selectable, but the material and series are. So, I ordered a couple spools of the PLA maker series (same as before)

I struggled for DAYS to print a large object with the first spool. My adventure is in this thread: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/pla-and-heat-creep-in-aerostruder/5962/1

Well, it turned out to be non of the issues described, but in fact, FAT filament. I (finally) measured the diameter, and the after multiple samples and averaging, I determined the the diameter was 2.95-3.0.

That “may” have worked in the original Taz 5 extruder, but it certainly does not work in the Aero, and stripped out multiple times.

So I contacted support, and they were very responsive. Admitted that sometime shit happens, and will replace it. Great, but since they seemed to indicate it was a fluke with THAT spool, I opened the second spool ordered. Different color, so clearly different run.

Well this time, measure first… 3.0 - 3.09 !!!

Needless to say, I wrote them back. I’ll let you know how it shakes out.

EDIT:

Well, that didn’t take long. Here is there response…

“Hey Peter, it’s very odd to see even one spool be out of spec like that, much less two. We recently did machine maintenance on our lines and had to spend quite a bit of time getting the 2.85mm back in acceptable variance. I’m going to talk with production and have them watch it for the next few weeks to make sure we aren’t experiencing a relapse with that issue. I also sent an expedite notice to shipping and they will have those replacement spools out first thing Monday morning.”

HA! good luck!

That is all I will say.

Update #2:

They sent replacement spools, NEXT DAY!. What great service!

However…

BOTH SPOOLS ARE OUT OF SPEC!! (2.94 - 3.00) :open_mouth:

Contacted and told them either send refund, or have someone test the next round of spools they send. They said they would test and resend.

Will update.

Final update:

Well, in the end, they sent two replacement orders (2 spools each). Non of them came close to 2.85 dia. At best, I got 2.95. So, that MIGHT work, but seems too thick. For small prints, it may not build back pressure, or get bound up, but for large prints, I wouldn’t trust it.

Makergeeks was very responsive and apologetic, but in the end, at least from their “grab bag” material, I can’t recommend them. I will be moving on.

Too bad, I did have good experience with previous orders. Fast and dead-on measurements.

Yeah, stay away from MakerGeeks, their stuff is garbage. I have a bunch I’m burning through on BS prints just to be rid of it. It took me considerably longer to learn my lesson, unfortunately. Poor tolerances, poor formulations, look at their suggested print temps, all super high compared to industry standards, and the stuff dusts like MAD.

I’ve been using their Maker Series PETG from the grab bag almost exclusively for the past two years. My diameter is almost consistently 2.8 and it prints really well, here’s one of my recent prints holding up to Texas Summer heat:

Yeah, ya know, I had 3 spools of the maker series PLA prior to this order, and I printed the F1 OpenRC project with them. It was flawless. Then this fiasco. I just can’t afford, nor have the patients for such varied quality.

What really did for me was when, on the THIRD replacement shipment, I told them to measure the material to ensure the quality, and I guarantee they just grabbed another couple spools and threw them in the box. One spool had NO LABEL, non have desiccant.

For nearly the same price, I can go with at least 3 other vendors. So that’s what I’m doing.

I suppose I will be able to do smaller prints that have low retraction needs with the stuff i am stuck with. I really can’t bring myself to throw it in the trash without a fight. :wink:

I have seen and used worse filaments, but they were pretty regularly on out of spec for me two+ years running. PLUS material makeup consistency(glass transition temp) varied too much to stay with them. :frowning: