I started 3d printing back when you had to build it all from scratch, and it seemed ABS was the only filament to be found. PLA came along soon enough and made things sooo much easier. Then came some more exotic ones like TPU or Nylon I think, but I never tried them out because they seemed pretty niche.

But now I’m getting back into it after some time and am seeing PETG popping up more and it seems to have become one of the mainstream materials now.

Are there any other key materials I should become aware of these days? Has PETG started to replace ABS as a superior “high-temp” filament? Does anyone have experience with these?

  • @eramsethEnglish
    7•1 year ago

    PETG is great but ABS is still more durable I think in most cases and probably more rigid.

    But PETG does not give off toxic fumes. I believe I remember there being even less fumes than PLA.

    PETG is trickier to print than PLA though, but easier (and safer) than nylon. TPU and TPE are flexible and don’t really compare apples to apples with the others.

    • DomiEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      PETG is my favorite filament after PLA. It is much easier to print than ABS, not toxic and has one of the best UV resistances.

      I use it primarily for things I leave outside or in the car. No issues with warping even when the inside of my car can reach 60 °C.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 year ago

        My only problem with petg is it is super susceptible to humidity. And once you get some moisture in there, it gets really sticky and stringy.

        I don’t think I’ve ever had a filament jam as often as petg. I do enjoy printing in it though as you almost never have to worry about warping.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 year ago

        Petg is my go to for general use unless I need heat tolerance, I have an enclosure and have abs pretty dialed in so I flip between them. Only petg part I’ve had fail was the x idler piece after printing enclosed abs for a few weeks straight. Only really complaint I have is it likes to stick hard to the nozzle but that’s solved by a sock, and it likes to be dry but that’s something to do with abs as well.

        I used petg to print a holder for my pour-over coffee maker (v60 with the carafe, it broke but wanted to use the perfectly good piece that fit in the carafe), yeah it doesn’t touch boiling water directly but it holds up just fine and I’ve been using it for the past 2 months.

    • LlamaLlama
      2•1 year ago

      I’ve printed primarily in PETG for a few years now and just started printing voron parts in ASA. ASA is way more rigid than PETG, but PETG will yeild more than ASA before breaking.