What is filament?

Filament is the material that a 3D printer uses to print what you have downloaded or designed. You can think of it as the "ink" of a 3D printer. Filament is often delivered in the form of long thin strands of plastic. These strands are wound onto a spool.

Thickness

Filament comes in 2 standard sizes, 1.75mm and 2.85mm, with the most commonly used size for consumer 3D printers being 1.75mm.

Materials

Filaments come in an enormous variety of plastic materials, think PLA, PET, ABS, ASA, PA, TPU, etc. The differences between all materials come down to how strong they are, how easy they are to print, and whether they work on your printer. But for most consumers, PLA, PET or ABS are the most commonly used.

Most common type

Really the most logical choice as a beginner is to start with PLA, it is cheap, user-friendly to print and available in virtually all colors. The downside is that it is not very strong.

PETG

PETG is stronger than PLA and more resistant to heat and moisture, but harder to print. If you want something stronger, PETG is your choice.

ABS

ABS is strong and heat-resistant, but the most difficult compared to PLA and PETG to print. It shrinks during cooling, meaning your printer often needs extra settings and an enclosed housing.

Filament Storage

How do you actually store filament? Filament absorbs moisture, which can lead to poor print quality. Ideally you store your filament dry! There are various solutions for this, such as filament dryers.

Brand / Quality

With cheap filament we have noticed that we get varying quality, prints tend to fail more often, which certainly does not help someone who is just getting started. This is the reason that at easy3dprint we choose for Formfutura, this filament works really well.