Shrinkage

#1
So when I first put together my gMax I was getting reasonably flat prints with little warpage or curling on the corners. My first roll of PLA was a $45 roll of a "premium" USA made plastic that I had ordered online (for the life of me, I can't remember where now...). Since that first roll, I have been printing with $20 cheap PLA I have been picking up locally at MicroCenter and have been getting increasingly worse and worse prints. I'm experiencing extreme warping, prints that are shrinking beyond usable dimensions (one part I recently tried to print for my cousins CNC came out almost 4% smaller than the model it was printed from!)- all kids of oddities. It's almost ABS levels of shrinkage.

I kept thinking that my problems were running it to hot or to cold, not kicking in the fan at appropriate times, running with or without a box fan pointed at it, not getting good adherence to the bed, etc. And I have exhausted almost all efforts at tweaking for better prints. But this morning it occurred to me that it could just be the quality of the PLA causing the problems. I'm going to try to order a roll of Colorfabb or other "premium" PLA this weekend, but I wanted to see if anyone else had been experiencing this level of difference caused by shrinkage, and if so, if anyone has been able to directly pin-point it to the "quality" of the PLA?

- other chris
 
#2
Yupp, I'm getting warping with MicroCenter filament as well. I've always thought it was due to the cold glass causing detachment though, starting at the corners of the print.

MicroCenter filament is similar in consistency to eSun filament though - and eSun supplies major sellers like Toy Builder Labs - so, thanks to denial, I'd like to believe that the warping is something I can fix. See other thread regarding upgrades for more heated glass bed talk.

My print "error" has always been fairly consistent.
 
#3
I have a buddy will-calling a roll of "Pro" PLA from MatterHackers this afternoon so I'll post back if I see any difference in that. I hate to pay more for premium PLA if I get the same results as the cheap stuff, but then again, If I have to toss multiple prints done in the cheap stuff before getting an acceptable part, it ends up costing more than the premium anyways because your burning through a lot more material.

I'll keep this posted with my findings and maybe be able to do a side-by side with micro center vs the MatterHackers "Pro."

- other chris