[Lab] Plastic for makerbots

[Paul (Maker Engineering)]

Makergear is in the USA, as are all the other 3DP suppliers I've been able
to find.

I order mine from Ultimachine (I use PLA) and pay a fair bit of shipping to
get it here.

One of the problems with PLA is that there is only one manufacturer in all
of north america that I know of producing it, which is NatureWorks. In
addition there is another in the Netherlands. So if you order straight from
them in very large quantities it gets fairly cheap.

ABS is easier to source because there are manufacturers all over the place.

NatureWorks doesn't normally sell it in 3mm filament either, but they do
sell it in granules (as most suppliers sell). But most manufacturers will
sell filament as well for an additional cost (basically because they have to
take the granules and extrude them into filament for you). This is why
granules are cheaper, and why so many are working on building granule
extruders to be able to extrude our own filament.

Many suppliers and distributers also have the ability to extrude 3mm
filament because it can be used in plastic welding. But is normally cut into
short lengths, so with a special request you can likely get spools of
continuous 3mm filament in Ontario (specifically in the GTA) quite easily...
I believe several of the hacklab.to guys were mentioning they had a supplier
in the toronto area that was able to provide them with very large quantities
of 3mm abs filament for a reasonable price.

Hope that helps!

- Paul

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:

> I ordered a small amount to get started at:
> http://www.makergear.com/
>
> Not sure where they are from their web site.
>
>
>
>
> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 20:11:32 +0000
> From: emteeoh at gmail.com
> Subject: [Lab] Plastic for makerbots
> To: lab at artengine.ca
> Message-ID:
>
>  <872190262-1296763893-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-2144851823- at bda256.bisx.prod.on.blackberry
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Hi!
> I've got a quick question: I'm wondering if you can tell me where you're
> buying plastic for your makerbot? I'm assuming there has got to be a better
> way to get it than importing it from new york, but none of the plastics
> suppliers I can find in toronto seem to sell 3mm filament.
>
> Thanks!
> Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
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