Since there has not been a huge amount of BYOF at the space, this has not come up. Here are my short term views that I will put in writing on the WIKI. The use of filament is all based on a good faith effort to do the right thing.
label your spool.
Name
Date
(tape will hold up for a week)
It is your responsibility to remove your spool when your job is done.
If someone uses your spool while on the machine.
a) You can use an equivalent amount of base (pla/abs/petg) filament in exchange.
No long term storage. (1 Week)
No stuffing things behind other spool, ect.
(pay for a locker)
(this goes for everyone, including leads )
Any thing left in the spool rack without a name and date is free to use for the members.
Keep track of how much you bring and leave.
If it does get used I have no problem with you swapping out for other filament at the space with equal or lower quality then you brought in.
(Don’t bring in your crappy filament because it does not work.)
no exotic filament on the machines without prior written authorization email to/from fablab at makeict.org. This would include things like carbon fiber reinforced filament. My main concern is eroding brass nozzles.
If you have any specific concerns please contact me tom.bloom at makeict.org or post your thoughts here.
I would say the standard is Hatchbox. It seems work fine. We are always looking for better filament supplier.
The spirit of what I was thinking is that if you were having trouble running a filament on your personal machine, or at the space, and you want to offload it and use other non problem filament.
I will expand the definition on the posted copy of the rules.
I don’t know if it is better because I haven’t done any comparisons, but
I’ve been using ZYLtech filament at home on my CR-10 and I’ve been happy
enough with it that I haven’t went looking for something different. A
typical 1kg roll of 1.75mm PLA is $13. Which appears to be a good deal
cheaper than Hatchbox (at least from their website).
So I guess my question is, have you tried ZYLtech and is Hatchbox a lot
better?
I have not personally tried ZYLtech filament. I have continued the use of Hatchbox from the previous leads/policy. It has seemed the quality/consistency has not been an issue (color choices have been an issue), so I have not shifted from that. Any info I have is anecdotal since we (members -> leads) do not track issues well or there are zero issue, and hatchbox is perfect. That leads to the ability to identify filament issues. I know Zac has ordered a few rolls of filament from other brands to test out.
It is a difficult chose a different cheaper filament. What is the clogging/failure rate. Is a 10% (pulled out of the air) increased failure rate worth $7-9 (40% savings) savings per roll. It could be.
I am looking to find/develop a filament and issue tracking/notification system that might help identify of who and what. As soon as the laser is running.
Who is the area lead since your resignation? Who has done actual testing with some measurable results??
This is a public forum and I think just naming one-brand without naming several others is an endorsement by our organization. Not unlike saying I only use bling brand toothpaste because it’s delicious.
I admit I have not done much trial and error myself, hatchbox has been around and has worked, but if some members have other brands to test with, it’d be great to start a wiki list. Sounds like we might try ZYLtech, maybe Steve could lend us a spool that we could run a print on and return?