Bad Filament Experiences

[LoadMaster7]

My sister requested I print her a Flamingo Mail Box Flag. She lives in the land of Sun and Fun, Florida. Being a good brother, I agreed to make it for her. Knowing the environment of heat and sun, I picked ABS for this print. I went with Gizmo Dorks 1.75mm ABS Filament 1kg / 2.2lb for 3D Printers, Pink. This filament printed well and the finished Flamingo looked good. After a little over a year of being out side the flag has to be replaced. The print is turning to white powder and crumbling away. I won't be ordering Gizmo Dorks filament again.

Do you have any suggested brands that you know will hold up to the outdoor world more than a year?

 

[garrettwp]

You need ASA which is ABS with UV additives that will hold up better under the elements and sun.

 

[LoadMaster7]

You need ASA which is ABS with UV additives that will hold up better under the elements and sun.

Garret, thank you for your suggestion. Do you know of a filament source that carries pink ASA in the USA? I've looked, but haven't found one.

 

[garrettwp]

Garret, thank you for your suggestion. Do you know of a filament source that carries pink ASA in the USA? I've looked, but haven't found one.

You can check out Fabreeko, they have some options available. Also Sparta3d (Canadian) but ships to US and their sparkle abs / Asa is nice. Price comes out to 23 a spool with shipping (bought 6 two weeks ago). Wife likes the pink. I’ve only used ABS and not ASA, but it’s on my list. Maybe others can chime in on other options.

 

[Oberon]

As said this is not related to the brand, it's an ABS issue. I'm using Fillamentum ASA which I find very good and I think it's available through matterhacker but it's quite expensive... here in Europe it's half the price. I think Polymaker makes ASA as well and it's cheaper than Fillamentum on your side of the pond.

Alternatively you could print in ABS and coat it with a UV-resistant clear coat. If you can't find a cheap spray that's advertised as UV-resistant, try a basic acrylic clear coat as acrylic blocks most UVs (roughly anything under 375-400nm) and that's what you want.

 

[LoadMaster7]

I heard back from Gizmo Dorks a few days after I emailed them with photos and the issue. In their reply, they sometimes have UV additives in their ABS that block it from UV, but not always. They don't have any identification to the products that have it, so it is a guess, even if you reorder what you believe to be the same product.

Oberon, have you coated ABS parts before with UV spray coatings? Have you found this works? I might have to give this a try. I wonder if this would work on PLA prints as well?

 

[Oberon]

I have not specifically coated ABS FDM parts with such anti-UV sprays as part of my 3D printing hobby, but I have used hobby-grade products like these in a professional setting for their UV resistant qualities and it worked really well.

I suppose from a UV degradation standpoint it would work just as well on PLA, but the low temperature resistance of PLA makes it unsuitable for direct sunlight exposure anyway so I wouldn't go that route.

It Is a bit worrying that this filament manufacturer is not able to know which additives were added to which filament and at what time... Doesn't inspire confidence in their ability to deliver a consistent product.

 

[LoadMaster7]

I'll have to give the UV blocker product a try.

 

[DustinSpeed]

Yeah pink is hard to find in ASA I was looking for some last week.

 

[m00dawg]

I use Atomic for PLA, PETG, and ABS and have used Push Plastic for ABS (I bought a jumbo spool in red for V2.4 parts). Atomic has been _fantastic_ and Push I've been pleasantly surprised with, especially their color availability in larger spools.

One company to avoid, unfortunately, is 3DXTech. Their PLA and PETG is good but I had mxied experiences with their ASA. Grey was great, Blue was just awful. I never was able to get good results on multiple printers, including a V0 which is a fantastic ABS printing machine.

It was so bad I tried to get a return/replacement and that's where things went south (and why I do NOT recommend 3DXTech any more). Their support was apathetic at best. They even failed to post what I felt was an honest (but negative) review on their ASA and support given all the issues I had. I waited for weeks to post that review in hopes they'd eventually do the right thing (given I was a customer ordering jumbo spools from them, though customer size doesn't matter - good companies treat all their customers awesome not just the big ones).