3D Printing Filament: Recommendations for a Newbie

mostlegendary on 16/11/2023 - 09:41

Hey all,

We've just ordered a Creality S1 3D printer for my girlfriend's 10YO daughter birthday, and I'm looking for recommendations for filament so that she'll be able to do some initial prints and come up with some trinkets / Christmas presents etc.

It looks like there are a plethora of options when it comes to selecting filament.

Do you have any suggestions as to the type & attributes of filament that would be good for her to start with? For now I'm thinking that we should get some PLA in a few simple colours until she gets through enough trial and error to start making good stuff; then to branch out into other fancier filaments.

Most importantly, can you recommend any great deals or suppliers of said filament?

Thank you!

General Discussion

Comments

  • pierreode on 16/11/2023 - 09:51
    +2

    PLA/PLA+ is going to be the easiest option. It's really forgiving with temp ranges etc.
    Wondershop.nz have the cheapest local prices but there are deals via various local suppliers for bulk(10kg) deals.
    Check out some local suppliers like bits4bots, kiwifil, marvle3d, as they also have samples of some fun colours(dual colour, silk(shin) etc.)

    Using Cura(slicer software to convert 3d model to be printable instructions) should be enough to get you going.

    The big difference between PLA and PLA+ is that PLA+ in my experience is less brittle than PLA. Some PLA I have found to be quite brittle. eSun PLA+ prints like butter for me on default settings. White/Black always looks good as it masks many imperfections so can lead you to a sense of false confidence as well because of the way lighting works, you don't see many of the imperfections because of the lack of shadows/highlights on the print.

    A good first print to do is called a benchy. It's a little boat that is actually a way to pick out any issues in the printer/slicing profile. But for a 10yr old, it will be a fun little print to watch(and they will watch the entire thing print) and they end up with a fun little toy at the end of it.

    These are a quick highlight reel. Happy to expand/dive deeper on my experience in the hobby of 3d printing if needed.

  • mostlegendary on 16/11/2023 - 11:36

    Amazing - thanks so much. So should focus on PLA+ instead of PLA then? I was looking at the silk filaments and wondering if they would be better than a standard one.

    • pierreode on 16/11/2023 - 13:53
      +1

      Silk can be a little tricky sometimes. I'd start with PLA+ for the little one. Grab some silk samples to give them a try. If you have issues, you aren't wasting $40+. Just ~$8. Watching these people print amazing dragons etc comes with alot of fine tuning. I recommend getting to know your printer first before doing things like that.

      Oh! Something that the little one might like to do, is with the sample filament(white) that comes with the printer, is to get a bunch of sharpie colours and colour in the filament and watch it print multiple colours!

  • mostlegendary on 04/12/2023 - 14:23

    Thanks for the pointers - Birthday present was unwrapped yesterday and after a few misprints and figuring out the z-axis offset it has been going strong!

    Ended up with 6 rolls of PLA+ from Wondershop that worked a treat. :)

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