You're ready Sean?
3D Printing is an amazing, fun hobby, in fact it's what powers Matthew's day job but
What about the materials? I know we talk about PLA
We talk about ABS, PBA and nylons and stuff
We don't really, I haven't gotten into it much
and so it's great as Matt knows a lot about the materials
And he's gonna tell us all about them right here on 3D Printing Nerd
Welcome back. This is Matt from Printed Solid
Hey Matt
Hey Joel
I have a list of materials here
And what's really great is
Because of your knowledge within the material space we're gonna get of this list
Three good reasons why someone might choose to use this material and then
Using your knowledge and your experience
you're gonna tell us one reason why we would not want to use the material
Let's start with one of the most common materials, PLA
I mean, I print with that. Everybody does.
What are three good reasons why someone might wanna choose PLA to print with?
There's tons of reasons why you'd want to use PLA
But PLA is very widely available
It's easy to print
It's got lots of good color choices
You can put cool things in it, the fills, the modifications, things like that
But PLA isn't gonna have structural integrity over time right?
I think that would be a good reason why someone wouldn't want to print with that
That's probably the biggest problem yeah
PLA is great right out of the box but over time it will experience a phenomenon called "creep"
If a part is loaded over time it will continue changing shape and it will not be useful long term
Okay, one that's shown right here, right?
Yeah, this is a good example of that, so you have
A square shape here but then this has been clamped for a year
And it's still okay but it's not square anymore
And, eventually, it's gonna get to the point where it cracks
Okay, that's good to know. So, PLA isn't necessarily the best thing for that sort of application
If you want something pretty, something maybe filled with metals or glitter
That's a decent material to try
Yeah. Even something that you need to use functionally but is not subject to continuous load
Ok, next material though ABS
I know this is one of the tried and true. One of the firsts.
So what are three reasons why people print with ABS?
People look at ABS, historically, as a structural option
ABS has a good blend of strength and flexibility
if you bend an ABS part it's going to give a lot before it breaks
The other really popular use of ABS is easy post processing
Sanding, vapor polishing
Solvent welding. Things like that
That is a really great use of ABS
But, also, there are some drawbacks
What's one of the reasons why someone wouldn't want to choose to print with ABS?
In ABS we can go on the negatives forever
I'm gonna list the number one negative, in my opinion, for ABS
That's the styrene fumes
Okay
In that it's potentially harmful
There's lots of other negatives you could list but I think that's the absolute top of the list
as far as why you might not wanna use that one
So, it requires more heat than PLA, requires a heated bed
There is some lifting. It requires better bed adhesion
But, because of the VOCs it puts off
I think that's the biggest problem with ABS
A lot of the other stuff you can work around
you can mitigate
and you can mitigate the VOCs too
but a lot of people don't
and I think that's a problem
What about PETG?
We were talking earlier and
PETG is becoming a more popular material
What are three reasons why people are choosing PETG to print with?
PETG blends the best of ABS and PLA
The challenges to your environment are not as much as they are with ABS
You don't want it to be in a freezing cold room but you don't need it in 80 deg C chamber either
It's also available in a lot of colors now
because PETG is more popular than ABS now
PLA and PETG are the two main materials
that people buy
because of that
Prices go down
There's a lot of color choices
I would also say with PETG that
you can modify a lot
we mentioned that with PLA
right
PETG doesn't just mean one thing
it means a lot of different things
You can have PETG that's good at
barely above a warm day temperature
and then you can get PETG that's good above 120
and they're all just called different things
Oh, but it's just that base PET with the glycol
Yeah. Different modifiers
Different, you know, "sciency" things that have been done
but it's all basically the same stuff
Okay. It seems really positive
Is there a reason why someone wouldn't want to print with PETG?
Yeah, I'd say the worst thing about PETG
is it can be kind of "boogery"
Boogery?
That's a technical term
This is why
--are you saying like "stringy"?
No. Boogery
Boogery! Okay
That's why E3D came up with those silicon socks
a few years back that went right over the nozzle
That was to prevent that PETG from sticking on the nozzle
That's why a number of manufacturers have come up with plated nozzles and things like that
So the brass nozzle, the PETG is sticky and will stick to
Yes
the brass?
Ah ok
And you can also