Tag Archives: shrinkage factor

Have you printed in HDPE?

Posted on by

I just noticed MakerBot discontinued their 5 pound rolls for HDPE.  This page is essentially taken down.  However, when it was last up it contained the following product description:

Update: Discontinued. It’s not fun to print with this stuff.

This is HDPE plastic aka High Density Polyethylene aka Milk Jug plastic. This is a nice, smooth, high quality plastic. It comes as a filament in 5lb coils with a diameter of 3mm.

This plastic is cheaper than ABS, but has a higher shrinkage factor which makes printing large objects more difficult. It does have a much lower coefficient of friction so you can print things that are very smooth.

I’ve never printed with this stuff.  Have you?  A higher shrinkage factor than ABS sounds pretty awful.  Then again, I mostly print fairly small parts, so then again I might not care.  And, for the last listed price of $30 for a 5 pound roll… it’s a dirt cheap printing option.

PLA on the way!

Posted on by

I just saw MakerBot’s blog post saying they finally got in a batch of MakerBot approved PLA.  This is supposed to be nigh magical stuff.  It prints at a cooler temperature than ABS, it has a low shrinkage factor meaning it won’t warp much if at all, it will stick to blue masking/drafter’s tape not requiring the use of an acrylic build platform, and it’s very clear.

While I was at it, I also ordered an extra brass nozzle, brass barrel, PTFE insulator, ceramic tape, nichrome wire, thermistor, and I asked for some MakerBot stickers to adorn my laptop.  :)