PLA from 3D Vario – filament test

3D Vario is a new manufacturer of filaments for low-budged FDM 3D printers. The company debuted “in public” on 3D Printing Days in Kielce (at least, I haven’t heard about it before). Besides PLA and ABS, it offers also 3D printers and 3D pens. I would like to introduce you PLA. I will judge if it is worth using. Read the results of the tests.

You have galore of colours of the filament. Currently the producer offers 11: black, blue, dark green, gold, red, orange, pink, silver, transparent, white, yellow fluo. The material is sold on 0.85 kg-spools, for 12.50 €(reduced from 15.00 €), so it means, that it costs 15 € per kilogram.

I gained a silver spool of a diameter of 1.75 mm to carry out my test (this is the only one available version). A control measurement amounted between 1.69-1.77 with a tendency of  1.71 mm.

All of the tests were carried out on a 3D printer 3D Gence One with COROPad on the working bed, which has remained from my recent test. The files were prepared using Simplify 3D.

No panic on the Titanic

Traditionally, 3DBenchy went over the top first. Standard settings: filling – 15%, layer of 0,2 mm and three full contours, the temperature of working bed 50ºC, and nozzle – 200ºC (the producer recommends temperatures of 190-210ºC, so I chose the middle temperature). The process followed without problems and surprises. The effect was quite O.K., but not perfect. I found rests of filament close to the roof and a lot of “gossamer”.  The silver material looks really great.

Hit this man

The next model was a figurine of Hitmana, a popular game hero. I generated supports for this tests. The figurine looks better than on photos, but I couldn’t have printed out silences for the gun. They came off very quickly. When I was removing the supports, my hero lost a part of his tie. The spots on the back of his head are an effect of inaccurate printing of a bare code, which is a symbol of Hitman. It wasn’t “captured”on the model of this scale and  by using a nozzle of 0,5 mm. Instead of the fact, that I used PLA, I removed the supports with ease, what you can watch in the video above.

It is not V8

I wanted to print something to put together and propel. I chose a model of four-cylinder motor. The process followed without surprises. In the end, there was a lot of “gossamer”. When I was removing it from the working bed, it turned out that jointing of layers wasn’t good enough and several first layers left on the working bed (probably, the temperature should have been higher). I wished I haven’t chosen this model,  when I began to put its parts together. I had a lot to polish. It is not a fault of the filament (I tried to print out this model with another 3D printer using another filament), but of the model or shrinkage of the material. It wasn’t just normal rubbing of the elements, but a serious cutting off, so I tend to believe, that the unsatisfactory quality depended on poor matching of elements to each other. You can watch it below.

What is a key to success?

The last model I chose was a very popular wrench. I wondered if the suggested temperature of 200ºC was proper, but eventually I decided to try once again. Unfortunately, the wrench crashed along the layers. It turned out, that the temperature was to low. Than I decided for 210ºC and my choice was correct. This model had a wanted resistance. I guess, that 215ºC could have been optimal, what is quite high temperature like for PLA.  A strange, additional layer, which appeared on an inscription placed on the model, which is en effect of the combination with this slicer. I checked it with another slicer, an no layer appeared.

Summary

The filament is quite satisfactory. You have to remember about applying a little bit higher temperature, than suggested. Besides, there was a lot of “gossamer”, which was hard to remove. The material is not characterized by something unique and special, but it doesn’t have any serious disadvantages. all thingks considered, it is a standard material in standard price. It doesn’t mean nothing bad.