Hello, 3D Printing Friends! Today on the BV3D Channel, we're gonna take a look at
Sunlu PLA Plus filament. Stick around and we'll get into it, right after this!
I'm Bryan, and you... are watching BV3D!
Hi everyone, welcome back! So today we're
taking a look at Sunlu PLA Plus filament. This is the blue gray color.
I got this filament on Amazon, using a 20% off discount code that Sunlu had on
Twitter. The price of this filament at the time of purchase was US $18.99
for a 1 kilogram spool. After the discount code it was $15.19.
Now sometimes, pricing on Amazon changes day-to-day; on
this particular product I've seen the price ranging from $17.99 to about
$19.99, and that puts it in the lower mid-range for PLA filament prices. I want
to mention from the start of this that I don't think Sunlu's recent shenanigans
on Twitter are in their best interests. they've been desperately trying to get
people to try this filament and post reviews on Amazon, but the way they're
going about it is kind of sketchy. See, one of the ways companies get products
reviewed is to provide the product at no cost to a reviewer. Now, I don't see that
as a bad thing. You may argue that because a reviewer got something free,
they might want to protect that relationship by only saying nice things
about the product. Personally, I think most reviewers put integrity above
freebies, because frankly, a reviewer's duty is to their audience. If you're not
honest with your audience, pretty soon you won't have one.
But what Sunlu proposed to myself and others on Twitter is that we buy the
filament, provide a review on Amazon, and then Sunlu would reimburse us the cost
of the purchase via PayPal. And that sounded sketchy. Would Sunlu reimburse
you if you left a mediocre review? What about a bad review? The reviewer would be
completely at Sunlu's mercy for reimbursement. Now, it sort of sounds like
Sunlu is trying to buy favorable Amazon reviews, and that's probably against
Amazon's Terms of Service. Sunlu was likely doing this so the Amazon reviews
are from a "Verified Purchaser." The concept of Verified Purchaser indicates
that the reviewer is a person who has received
and used the product being sold, rather than from someone who hasn't.
But if Sunlu wants Amazon reviews from verified Amazon purchasers, they could
offer a reviewer a 99% off coupon code. The reviewer gets the
filament for almost free, and any review on Amazon is from a verified purchaser.
And not only that, but the reviewer is free to leave an honest review without
worrying that a negative review would cause Sunlu to back out of their
deal. Anyway, I'm hoping Sunlu gets their act together. For my part in all
this, as I mentioned earlier, I used a 20% off coupon that Sunlu made available
on Twitter. But I'm not looking for reimbursement from Sunlu. I don't want
to be a party to some sketchy deal. But enough about Sunlu's shenanigans.
We're here to talk about Sunlu's filament! If you've seen my other filament reviews
you'll know that I want to find out how the filament performs in certain key
areas. So I use a testing method that I think provides a fair assessment of a
filament's performance. The first thing I print is a temperature tower, with a
temperature range appropriate for the filament. This allows me to see how the
filament performs across a range of temperatures. I then choose the
temperature that gave the best looking result, and print a suite of models to
further test it. A bridging test file shows how well the filament bridges
unsupported gaps. A stringing/retraction test shows the filament's
resistance to stringing when using my standard retraction settings.
Daniel Norée's 3D Benchy tests a whole pile of things, including overhangs, small
bridges, and surface finish on curves. And it's both the fun and common model to
print. I also print a CaliCat calibration model, to get an idea of the
surface finish on boxy models, and also because it's a cat, and also also because
my wife says I've printed WAAAY too many Benchies. I know I say that every time, but
it's true. And I print the Aria dragon, designed
by Louise Driggers, because dragons are cool. All her dragons were meant to be
calibration objects, and Aria is a good dragon to print. She tests a nice variety
of things: stringing, overhangs, fine pointy bits, and reproduction of details.
And you can see the surface finish on a more organic model. So that's the test
suite. Let's talk about how the filament is packaged, and then we'll get into how
it performs! The filament comes enclosed in a cardboard box with a label
indicating the type, diameter, weight, and color. On the back of
the box, the diameter tolerance is shown in large type: ± 0.02 mm,
and there is a table listing the temperature ranges for all of Sunlu's
filament products. Inside the box, the filament is vacuum sealed with a
desiccant pack in a non-resealable bag. I prefer resealable bags, but only about
half the filament I buy includes them. The filament is on a plastic spool, and
the spool carries a label with much of the same information as the label on the
box. It omits the weight, but includes the printing temperature range, which is nice
to have on the spool itself. One of the things that attracted me to this
filament was the precise winding of the filament on the spool. I think the only
other spool I've ever owned that was wound this way was the gray filament
from Prusa, which came with my MK3 kit a year or so ago. Now, Sunlu was
marketing this as a tangle-free filament, and with a precision wind like this,
it's hard to imagine any sort of overlap or tangle. I'm curious to see whether
this winding stays like this down through the rest of the spool.
The spool is not marked with Recycling symbol, so you can't just toss it in the recycle bin
when you use the last of the filament. But you can't keep them around to load
filament samples onto. Interestingly, the recommended temperature range for this
filament varies depending on where you look. The Amazon listing says to print
between 210˚ C and 240˚ C in one place, and 190˚ C and 230˚C
in another. The table on the back of the box says to print between
205˚ C and 230˚ C, and the spool itself says to print between
190˚ C and 230˚ C. I would tend to trust the label on the spool the most but of
course the temperature tower will show which temperature will work the best on
my printer. Well, now that we know how the filament is packaged, let's find out how
it performs! Here's the temperature tower I printed. Overall, it printed really
well across the entire temperature range from 235˚ C down to 195˚ C.
overhang performance was mostly okay, but there's some slight curling evident on
them. Its ability to bridge gaps on this test
was good across all temperatures. Based on the results from the temperature
tower, I decided to print the rest of the test suite at 220˚ C.
All the models were printed on a Prusa MK3 printer, and sliced with
PrusaSlicer. Apart from the temperature tower, all the models were
printed with a 220˚ C nozzle on a 60˚ C bed. I sliced these using PrusaSlicer's "0.2mm Quality"
setting. This uses a 0.2 millimeter layer
height, 15% infill, and a speed of 45 millimeters per second. And it slices
using two perimeters, four top layers, and five bottom layers. Let's take a look at
the results. Here is the bridging test. The Sunlu PLA Plus performance is very
good on all the bridges. The longest bridge spans nearly 52mm, and
there was a slight bit of sagging, but all the layers are still touching, so its
ability to bridge gaps without supports is good. I did notice wispy stringing
between nearly all of the columns on this bridge test, but the strings are
very very fine. Now, here's the retraction/stringing test. The columns
are straight, but there is significant stringing on this model. Next is Daniel
Norée's 3DBenchy. The Sunlu PLA Plus produced a pretty good Benchy. The
overhang angles on the bow printed without issue. The fine details in the
wheelhouse turned out well. The doorway arches had a little trouble at the top,
but the overall surface finish is nice. There is a slight bit of stringing, but
it's really quite minimal and the smokestack printed with no issues. On to
the CaliCat. This turned out pretty well. On this model, the filament likes to
curl on overhangs, which shows up most noticeably on the
left side of the tail. This curling also shows up on the 45-degree overhangs in
the corners of the neck of the cat. Apart from that, the surface finish is smooth,
and I saw only two small strings on this model. between the tail and the body.
Now it's time for the Aria dragon, by Louise Driggers. The base looks pretty good, and
the detail on the toes looks good. The legs look a little rough though, and
there's some stringing there. The back of the dragon looks smooth, but the backs of
the wings look a bit rough. This roughness is due to the curling on the
overhangs, which was also observed on the CaliCat.
The neck and head came out really good. The stringing between the wings is apparent,
but it's not as pronounced as on the stringing test. The consistency is that of cobwebs, and would
be easily removed by pinching and pulling, or the brief application of a
heat gun. So, here are the test suite results, printing the models at
220˚ C on a 60˚ C bed. The bridging performance was very good, with
minimal sagging. The stringing performance was rather stringy on the
test print. The Benchy performance was very good. The CaliCat performance was
good, and the Aria performance was good. Overall, I feel this is an adequate
filament for the price. its performance is good. However, with its stringing
issues and its tendency the curl on overhangs, this is a filament you're
gonna have to play with to find the sweet spot for your printer settings.
For functional prints, this filament is good, but if you're printing detailed models,
you're going to be spending a lot of time fine-tuning your retraction and
temperature settings, clearing up cobwebs and dealing with rough edges on
overhangs, or doing a lot of post-processing on the prints. In the
process of making this video, I tried adjusting temperatures and retraction to
get the curling and stringing under control.
My usual retraction settings on this printer is the default of 0.8mm.
I printed the stringing test model several times, gradually increasing
the retraction. I more than doubled the retraction, and I didn't see any
improvement with stringing. Likewise, I printed CaliCats at every temperature on
the temperature tower, and couldn't get rid of the curling on the tail's overhangs.
Now, this filament has a lot going for it.
I spot checked its diameter, and it was always within the stated ±0.02mm tolerance.
That's Impressive! And I like this filament's
blue-gray color. And I appreciate the care taken when winding the filament.
And that winding carries on down through the spool, which also impresses me. If you're
willing to put in the time, you may find it gives you good results. If you want a
filament you can just load and go with your usual settings, you may be
disappointed. It's definitely not unusable. For some
models, it prints really well. Others, not so much. It could be a challenge to get
it dialed in. But quite frankly, there are so many other filaments available that
just print without having to fiddle with settings that I would have a hard time
recommending this. So if I had to give this filament a "star rating," I would
give it three out of five. And thus ends the testing and review of
Sunlu's Blue-Grey PLA Plus filament. And now we're at the end of the video! If you
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Well now that all this is done, I'm gonna go print something cool.
You do the same, and I'll see you next time!