Hi, all. So I’m pretty new to this hobby, and this might seem like a short-sighted question. But I was wondering, how important is the brand name when buying filament? I live in South Korea, which means AliExpress orders arrive here pretty quickly and are generally a viable option. The thing is that I see filament on Ali for half the price of the reputable brand name stuff I can get in Korea. Do any of you have any experience with the cheaper, no-name stuff? Is plastic just plastic, and the brand is just jacking up the price because they can? Or is there an important difference between the filament produced by the big brands and filament made in China that I can get for much cheaper? Any and all advice would be much appreciated.
Usually, plastic is plastic, but it really depends on what you’re printing.
If all you are printing is a block with no overhangs, few stop/starts, one color, etc. then it really doesn’t matter much.
Anytime the printer has to retract and start a new spot, that’s where stringing, blobs, and gaps can form.
You can do a test print with the cheaper plastic, like benchy, and then you can adjust your printer’s settings for the roll. There are also some smaller test prints if you want to test specific things, like a temperature tower, overhangs, etc.
Buy one, try it out, and see what happens. But don’t be surprised if you have to fiddle with some settings like speed or temperature to get good results.
If you only care about utility, clear plastic of any type is best. Colours, textures, silks, are all weaker and don’t print as well.
Advice from VoidStar labs
Okay, thanks. That seems like solid advice. I don’t mind tweaking and fiddling with settings at all, so that’s not an issue. I’ll check some of it out.