If you would like a specific color please let me know. FYI, I can’t find any of the translucent/transparent colors with hatchbox. I am going to evaluate some other brands.
I did dropped of 1 spool of silver and 1 spool of blue. I ordered purple, but amazon sent an off brand with no label, so it is going back.
There is some pink that is waiting to ship.
Tom Bloom
Fab Lab Lead
I’ve been printing some models with the white filament and saw that it’s getting pretty low. I’d like to see a fresh spool of that sometime if it’s not already on the list.
Amazon says it will be here Sat.
One important thing to note to everyone is that we are running deficit on filament. Unlike the laser scraps which are dirt cheap. Filament costs a fair amount of money.
Just to keep everyone informed we track filament usage and donation rates. Since Jan when I took over we have used about 12 spools of filament, but $ for 5 to 6 rolls has made it back in to the jar. That is about 45%.
The budget for the fablab is finite. If you would like nicer cooler colors we need to get close to 100%. There are other measures that can be taken. Raise the price for filament. Implement a login system to track prints by people. Then we can implement a prepay system. That takes work and I only have so much time. I would rather spend my time working on getting new printers and maintain what we have in stead of accounting.
Please every do you part and chip in for what you use.
Thank you
Tom Bloom
Fab lab area lead
This includes paying for your failed prints, right?
Yes, you as a consumer should cover failed prints, and support material. Someone will have to pay for it, why should the membership as a whole subsidize our individual failed experiments.
If we have a login system, it will be metered at the extruder, and it won’t care if it was good or bad. That is the direction we are going.
We have a very low rate compared to other spaces and libraries. Three to four times less we are not trying to make money here just cover the cost. $0.04 per gram is slightly over the cost of filament depending on the type and shipping, so we should be covering our cost even without some failed prints.
I don’t think failed prints is the whole problem here. If someone is continuing to have lots of failed prints I would like to know. Then they need help to figure out what they are trying to do that is failing.
Tom
Hey @tom.bloom was checking to see if we had more PLA on order? I went to print a part tonight and we seemed to pretty much be out of PLA. I’m not afraid of ABS on the ultimaker, but I wasn’t sure how the Anet A8 handled it.
Specifically, I was looking for some Black PLA.
Idk if he is back in town. I know we we’re both gone around the same time and I am out of town after being back for a day.
I just looked and there are three spools, each nearly empty, of black PLA. So, someone counting spools would think we have lots of filament, but someone wanting to print anything that needs more than 40 g of filament would consider us out of black.
I weighed and tagged the three spools, assuming the spool with label is 227.5 g. The three partial spools have 18.3, 27.8, and 40.4 g of filament which is not all useable, but depending on which printer you may be able to use almost all on the Anet, but the Rostock has a pretty long tube between the extruder and the nozzle.
Mike B
We have a general filament replacement issue. The filament come in and goes out, but there seems to be a payment gap. This may just be a communication issue between David and myself and things are not recorded correctly. By my accounting we are not covering our costs on filament.
That being said I will order a few more spools today, so it should be there Thursday. If not I have a spool of unopened black pla at home I can bring down to the space Friday afternoon when I am back in town.
Tom
I do apologies for letting the filament supply drop while I was out of town. We had two full spools and one working printer. My priority was fixing our existing 3d printer and securing additional 3d printers.
It is my understanding that there are one or more individuals that are unhappy about my attempts to make the filament supply self sufficient. If you have issues please come talk to me. Either by email, in person or over the phone.
My personal opinion is that the general membership should not be subsidizing (your/my) 3d prints. Just like the general membership should not be subsidizing clay for your projects. If we were not losing $ on filament then that money could be put towards another printer.
If feel you are willing to perform the administrative and maintenance work and can do a better job please step forward and talk to the board. I can always go back to working on my personal projects.
Tom
