No affiliation or anything. I’m simply stoked!
Elegoo Rapid PETG. I like PETG, but with my printer (Ender 5 Plus, slightly tuned; DD, All metal hotend, dual gear extruder, accelerometer…) regular PETG is sloooow. I’m already up to 180 mm/s it prints beautifully. As with all PETG it likes to be thoroughly dry. Once dry it prints like a PLA+. Beautiful definition.
I paid about 15€ per roll, but buying a 4 pack, it comes to about 12,50€ per roll, so about the same as PLA.
I’m just not buying regular PLA, or PETG anymore. The new generation of materials just leave the older ones in the dust. I had a few rolls of standard PETG that I had slowly been using up, but I sold the last 2, I couldn’t bear the waiting times.
I’m going to try a bunch of the new modified materials, like ABS plus and HT, ASA plus, and especially Polymaker’s HT-PLA-GF, a glass fiber high temp PLA that can be annealed in boiling water without deformation to withstand temps like 150º. Nuts! They are basically sold out until August, but once back in stock I’m buying the stuff.
Interesting times to be in the hobby.
YouWe probably leach more microplastics (I’m guessing, no hard data) by using non-stick kitchenware, including oven trays, air fryers, etc… Also much of our packaging is a source of microplastics. Then there are the microplastics we drag into the environment from our car mats, from out fleece jackets, and soooo many of our activities. I’m with you in the desire to reduce microplastics, but let’s be real, if that is such a primary concern to you, you may have the wrong hobby. I’m working on a prototype of a cheap and cheerful enclosure filter, that I will post in one of the model sites,(about 5-6 € including filament, and about 2-3 € for a hepa + carbon filter), but in the end the filter medium will end up in a landfill. There is no practical solution for recycling or removal of microplastics yet, except elimination of as much plastic production as possible.Your argumentation doesn’t make much sense; indeed your last sentence even reinforces my argument that, hopefully, the process is as clean as possible. Also don’t you think you’re a little bit quick in assessing my priorities based on a single comment? 😉
I think 3D printing, as many things, is a net positive if used responsibly. It’s so easy to repair or upycle stuff with it. I’m also really interested in that pure PHA filament (which is actually compostable, unlike PLA), haven’t gotten around to trying it. Of course also using PETG; got two huge bins for PLA and PETG to collect and send it to Recyclingfabrik (getting cheaper rPLA & rPETG in their shop in return). It’s awesome how easy it is with 3D printing to have a full recyling circle. I think awareness for both environmental impact as well as basic safety concerns are really falling short in the community though. The amount of people sanding their prints without any particle extraction system, printing ABS and stuff without air filtration or even work with resin without proper respirator is concerning. And so many people just clean their sanded pieces under water, unaware of the consequences (it’s impossible for huge filtration plants to fully filter them out). On the other side it isn’t too hard for any 3D printing hobbyist to run their dirtwater through something like a coffee filter.
So yeah, I like 3D printing and the environment and am optimistic we can have a cake and eat it too. 🥧
Pouring water with plastic sanding dust may essentually be a “feel-good” gesture. Coffee filters are not fine enough to catch microplastics. Think about it, it lets pass enough coffee particles trough that you have some sediment in your cup.
Also, where is that filter being discarded? Into a “microplastic recycling facility” ?