The Best 3D Printing Filament (for me)

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I have had my Creality Ender 3 Basic 3d Printer for about 9 months now. When I bought it, I thought I might make some greebles and sundry things for tabletop gaming. I bought a single roll of some Solutech Black Filament recommended by a friend. Since that first roll, I have gone through 14 more rolls, using close to 4,500 feet of filament. In that time, it was drummed into me that you get what you pay for in filament, and that the cheap filaments cause issues. At this point I have gone through the following brands:

As I have been generally happy with the prints being produced, the only issues that I am attributing to the filaments are:

  1. Nozzle Clogs
  2. Post Print Layer Adhesion Issues

Things like stringing and general print failures are being ignored as the stringing usually occurs when nozzle temperatures are off. As well I ignore general print failures like support fails and print object getting loose from the print table, as these stem from poor supports layout and glue failures, not filament failures. 

I am using a stock Ender 3 with a 4mm nozzle.

Overall I have had 9 clogs in the 15 rolls I have used. The clogs seem to be separated by a roughly equal amount of time 3-4 weeks. I have replaced the nozzle a few times from the Luter Nozzle Replacement Kit.

I have had a single Post Print Layer Adhesion Failure, which was due to a partially clogged nozzle that cause under extrusion of filament.

All this being said, I can be confident in saying I have not yet had a bad filament. The failures generally are the intrinsic delicate nature of 3D printing. More than a few issues have arisen from badly made models, wrong temperatures for filament {my errors}.

Additional Notes {2022-03-06} - I have added a Slice Engineering - Copperhead Heat Break type C-E that has made my Capricorn PTFE tubing last twice as long.

Additional Notes {2022-04-15} - The heat block in hot-end failed and caused a huge blog of PLA to accumulate on the hot end. While removing the components I damaged the heat break. So I am back to the old ways, using a steel machine PTFE tube holder.