this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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3DPrinting

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Cost effective filament for low volume printing? IE: getting smaller amounts of filament? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Majawat@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I don't print a ton, just an object here and there: like board game upgrades, etc.

As a result, buying 1kg spools, especially in many different colors, is both expensive up-front and takes up a lot of storage space.

For example:

  • In the board game Root there are up-to 9 factions with their own color scheme for the most part: upgrades.
  • I usually use eSun PLA+ at $25/kg
  • Not counting other pieces/colors, that's $225 in filament upfront. But only needing like ~500g total.
  • Sure, I'd have the rest of that filament for future projects, but now I've got to store all that for an indeterminant time that I have another project with that color.

Are there any manufacturers that sell affordable, low-volume amounts of filament? Maybe half kg or even 250g? I'm in the United States if that matters.

Closest I've found is Sunlu filament, but that's only sold in bundles (what happens when I run out of a color and need just another 250g?) and I have some concerns over the quality and business practices I've seen online.

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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My local public libraries offer use of their 3D printers for just the cost of filament and the prices are pretty reasonable for filament. You might be able to simply buy the small quantities of raw filament from them.

[–] Majawat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Oooh, that's a neat idea that I hadn't thought of. I'll definitely be reaching out to my library!