Because I feel duped buying this garbage. It was more expensive than the standard brand which I’ve been having decent success with on stock settings for my Ender 5 S1 (120/mms speed, 205 degrees etc). But prints that I would breeze through in the other materials this can’t do in this at all. Heres a picture of what happens when I try to print a 5 cm model with base settings in this crap that I could easily do in 3cm on the standard cheaper PLA:
I’ve tried a ton of stuff to make this M3D crap print. I’ve had VERY mild improvements by reducing the speed to less than half base speed, and cranking the temp up to 230 degrees but even those “acceptable” prints are crap with holes, stringing, disconnected supports and “uncooked” looking threads which was probably a fluke anyway because I can’t reliably reproduce them.
All in all … Huge regrets. I can’t imagine a reason to buy this stuff over any of their competitors, there’s nothing you can do in this stuff that other cheaper brands can’t do better.
My name is aman and I’m the owner of matter3d. I’m very sorry you have had this experience. My personal phone number is 2503639401. Please give me a call and I will help you make this right.
We’ve had great success with Matter3D in our store. My best guess is its some sort of setting issue. Matter3D products print at much higher temperatures but they perform well when dialed in. I always recommend doing a temperature tower before printing a new or difficult material: Temp Tower PLA,ABS,PETG by stoempie - Thingiverse
@Aman_Bains who replied to you, eats, sleeps and breathes 3d filament. With a PHD in this stuff, he’s extremely knowledgeable and has the best knowledge of the material and chemical compositions.
Sorry for my vitriol, I’m very frustrated with this filament (obviously). I’ve had a couple more “successful” prints on slightly larger models now (6-7cm). Here is one:
As you can see, the heat required to produce a functional print also causes problems with the print itself. Also, the only way I’m able to remove supports from models made with this material is to bake the final product in the oven at 180 F (near melting point) which also causes the model itself to deform easily if you aren’t extremely careful while removing the supports.
Right now I’m testing it on a very large model (as much to just use up the rest of this stuff as to test how it performs on larger models). Any way you slice it, with the requirement of higher temps (and the problems that causes), the difficulty removing supports and just the crappy quality of the resulting prints I will not be buying any more of this stuff ever again.
Thanks Aman for the offer, I keep meaning to take you up on it but timing hasn’t lined up and reception in my office is poor at best. I was thinking though, it’s probably best for you to give whatever advice you intended for me here instead of in private, just in the likely case that anyone in the future is having problems too and comes here looking for advice.
Also, thanks everyone else who chimed in. I didn’t try drying it out, but this is fresh out of the vacuum sealed bag it came in. Another thing I noticed about this brand that struck me was that it didn’t come with a desiccation bag like the cheaper brand… And the cardboard spool that it came on really seems barely sufficient to support the KG of filament wrapped around it. Honestly, I really have nothing good to say about this stuff and found the cheaper filament better in literally every way (even down to ease of use in getting a good print…)
I really can’t dehort this brand of filament enough, to be honest…
Im here to help. I understand your frustration. When we buy things there is a reasonable expectation for it to work. Since this is not working for you I understand where you are coming from.
From your pictures it looks like you are getting inconsistent extrusion. The performance line of products are high temperature, high strength materials that do not print like ‘cheap’ PLA filament. Just like any polymer out there there are 1000s if not 10,000s of different grades of PLA. We use the 3D850 resin from Natureworks. The high strength/temperature capabilities of this PLA resin are due to its higher level of crystallinity and this product needs to be dialed in.
Once dialed in it works like a charm. This is why I wanted to chat with you on the phone to understand what you have tried. It is difficult to write everything out here. There is a solution here and if you are willing to work with me I can 100% solve it for you.
Thank you for posting up on the forum. I would like to chime in here.
On our forum, we will always speak and post the forum with respect. I understand you may be frustrated with the experience you are having and I and most people here on the forum will assist and try to help you get success out of it.
I will do absolutely everything that I can to help you resolve the issue. up to and including using your Gcode and printing on the same filament in-store to help resolve the issue. I will work with you to solve the problem this is not the venue to vent frustration and post something that can be solved.
Coming into the forum as you have I feel is not appropriate. I will not accept anyone using unprofessional language or slang comments on this forum. I will ban you outright.
Now that being said we can move past it and try to address the issue at hand. Aman from Matter3D has offered to give you assistance on this matter as have I.
If you are willing I would gladly print your STL file here on a printer in my store using your filament and gcode file and see if I can figure out what’s going on with it. If it’s a defective roll, Aman will take care of it. If it’s a printer problem I will help you resolve it. This is a community built around helping each other find solutions and not a place to vent and express frustration. This is a family-friendly forum and there are users on here for a fact I know as young as 12. I will not let this get out of hand.
I agree I could have had more tact. I might not always have positive things to say (toxic positivity is the enemy of truth) but I will endevour to find more constructive ways to express that. No need to resort to extreme measures such as banning, especially on a first offence where I’m not doubling down anyway. The users here have lead with great level headed examples we should all strive to follow.
I think printing with the same Gcode could rule out a printer issue which is absolutely possible as this printer needed service to work at all anyway right out of the box which no doubt contributes to my frustrations. I can attach the exact gcode here when my big print is complete.
@Chris that may be another contributing factor. I was given the impression when I bought it that it was a suitable alternative to the standard PLA for the colours I wanted that were out of stock in the standard PLA (the reason I was recommended it in the first place). It was not made clear to me that this was not a comparable material which explains my mismatched expectations. Experiences like mine could be better avoided with more in-depth knowledge of the products in stock by some of the floor staff perhaps.
That would be an easy mistake to make though, considering the product itself is labeled as “Performance PLA”:
Hi @MadMax
My offer still stands. Please give me a call I will help you sort this out. After we are done I can write up a little report on what we talked about and what we had to do to resolve that issue on this forum.
That way if there are other issues with others they can use this as a reference. I genuinely just want to make sure things work for you.
Thanks Aman. I do plan to take you up on it some time in the next week or so, I just don’t know exactly when yet. I appreciate it, and I’ll be happy to have the lessons learned shared on this forum for others as well. Cheers!
I agree, A first offence is not grounds for an extreme response, that’s why I worded it the way I did.
We are all more than willing to help get you figured out. I was actually the one who sold you the product in-store and I will take it as a learning experience myself to ensure customers are informed that it’s not an equivalent material and that some tuning will be required.
I am always willing to improve the experience.
When you get the file done and can get access to your Gcode file feel free to send it to me directly. Send it to contact@3dprintingcanada.com and note the link to this forum in the email and it will get to me. You can flag me when you send it and I will go look for it as well.
You are saying your records show he purchased purple PETG but the box is labeled as Performance PLA which are completely different things. Is it a records error or packaging error?
I totally second what Aman said. The premium brand of filaments are not the same as cheap, and take the time to dial in or even tune the printer in. (ps if your steps appear wrong its less likely your steps then something else on your filament path) I haven’t worked with matter3d but have used Sakata3d which also requires higher temps and can be hit & miss.
In addition to the advice given in this thread, Not all brands play nice together try purging & even cleaning your hot end. And don’t forget to check your extruder gear(s) and or wheels not to mention the nozzle for ware. Last time I had similar issues on my Ender 5 (microswiss direct drive ) was a sign it was time to clean and replace several warn out parts. Just because a cheap brand appears to flow doesn’t mean your path is clear. And a premium PLA may show the printer’s issues more.
@Aman_Bains quick question about matter3d, how much stronger is the matter3d PLA? I tried several different brands of “strong” PLA and even annealing to create a pinion gear for a 1/10 scale RC car. But never really last very long before the motor “drills” it out. Would love to find one that last longer then a few days or week(s) with superglue. Eventually I had adapt it to use metal one.
The Performance PLA is as strong as PETg without the printing issues. Its not as impact resistant but its got a high modulus and tensile strength. Looking at the data its about 33 - 50% stronger than general PLAs. The range is due to annealing. If you anneal it will be stronger.
It also has a temperature resistance of up to 85°C. Whereas, general PLAs are in the 55 - 60 °C range.
Hi ,
I am completely new to the world of 3D printing. I have not printed anything as of yet, as I am still getting things set up. I have 2 printers, a used Creality CR10V2 and a new Voxelab Aquila X2. I had hoped to have then set up, but with moving stuff around, the staff there told me to wait. Hopefully in the next week I will have one if not both set up. This was/is a great lesson for me to learn from. I am hoping when you get his gcode and print it, you will post a photo of it. Also, if possible I would not mind if you could share the gcode. I have spoken with Aman_Bains he has been very helpful and supportive.
If you have any questions feel free to start up a thread with anything, I am trying to keep separate issues on separate threads just for organizational sake.
Generally speaking, I will suggest most of the time with new filaments to run through Michaels Temp tower tuning, It tends to display the sweet spot pretty quickly.
I texted Aman early Sunday (before he last posted here) but haven’t heard back from him. I didn’t want to wait any longer to keep printing (especially just to mess around with a sub-optimal material anyway) so I switched back to good-old regular PLA. I can’t really describe my relief when the colour of the extrusion turned from purple to yellow but it was something like this:
Here is a shot of the 1st half of the big print I did in the M3D stuff:
This half printed decently and required very few supports which helped in no small part I think. The 2nd half required more intensive supports necessitating I oven bake the result again which caused the rear spoiler to deform significantly as I removed them due to the support’s extreme adhesion to the part. I ended up having to re-glue 2 pieces back on the back half because removing the supports damaged the model, even at this size. I didn’t end up taking a picture of the back or final product as it was a gift and has now already been given due to timing.
@gsugar Thats great info, but those are all red herrings in my case. the printer is only 3 weeks old and I’ve since switched back to regular PLA and already have successful prints in that. The end in this case (what qualifies as a successful print) just doesn’t justify the means (endless headaches “dialing” it in). I can just plug and play the regular stuff and get great results, so why bother?
The fact that this stuff is “about 33 - 50% stronger than general PLAs” or it’s increased temperature resistance was never a selling point to me, and is no doubt impacting the difficulty in removing supports. If I wanted sturdier functional prints, I’d choose ABS… At the end of the day, the store billing this stuff as a substitute to standard PLA was a mistake on their part. If I’m looking for PLA I’m not looking for these additional qualities outside of niche scenarios and these additional properties are only causing me problems.
@brun5150 start with the basic brand PLA, if I had started with the M3D brand I might have given up on 3D printing all together. You will get better prints easier with the basic stuff and it will preserve your enthusiasm to continue.
I’ve sent Jason the gcode but I’ve included the gcode here for you all too. Feel free to test at home but remember: I have this set for the M3D stuff so things like temperature are dialed way way up (230). I would not have the settings like so for regular material.
