Best ALL AROUND filament

[Farr0wn3d]

Ive been printing with PLA almost exclusively, with the exception of a bit of ninjaflex. I want to print a new filament drive and I'm looking for a filament to make it out of that will stand up to the elevated temps that a filament drive sees, as well as something that is strong. If I'm going to buy a spool of it, it would be great if I could get something that was great for lots of things, and not just this one application. I've considered PETG, but is there any other filament that I should be considering?

[jsc]

There is no one best filament. But PETG + PLA covers most bases.

PLA: low melt temperature, can be brittle. But easy printing, bridges well, strong and stiff.
ABS: high shrink, so warps, pulls off the bed, delaminates. Other than that, easy to print with.
PETG: high melt temperature, strong, not brittle, no warping issues. But harder to dial in, doesn't bridge very well, and must be printed slower.

[Farr0wn3d]

Do you know the temp that PETG starts to soften? I know PLA starts to soften as something like 60C which would make anything that might get left outside or in a car on a hot day deform easily.

[Tim]

PETg does have warping issues, just not nearly as bad as ABS. But if you print something large enough, it will definitely try to rip itself off the bed.

I have printed all of my filament drives out of PET+ and PETg (I had opaque white PET+ from a while back, before the opaque PETg filaments were available; it's similar to PETg but less user-friendly). Apart from experimenting with interesting filaments like wood-fill and flexible, PETg is my workhorse filament.

[jsc]

The Internet seems to think ~88C, although reports vary.

[Tim]

I know PLA starts to soften as something like 60C which would make anything that might get left outside or in a car on a hot day deform easily.

I put a large dent in one of my prints by putting my coffee mug next to it.

Resistance to UV breakdown is also a consideration, for anything you expect to expose to sunlight, but I haven't seen any data on that for any filaments.

If you really want temperature resistance, go with polycarbonate. But PETg will work great for the filament drives.

[jimc]

yup petg or abs for printer drive parts. i print petg almost exclusively but actually still use abs for my filament drives.

for anyone interested, the shrink rate for esun petg is 0.4%. if you want to keep your prints within spec of the original model then scale up by that amount. that is far less than abs which depending on brand can be anywhere from 0.8-1.5%. no idea what pla is but i have far less warping with petg than pla. i can print almost the full bed size with only maybe a very slight lift in the corners.

[Farr0wn3d]

Great input, thanks fellas!

I'm thinking I will probably have to hold off on printing with PolyCarbonate until I upgrade to another hot end that can take that kind of heat. I'm still working with the stock v3b at the moment