Spool holders

We have a lot of spools in our print lab. We print a lot on 30+ printers and need our filaments handy at a moments notice. That’s why we use the Filament Duck spool holder a lot! These ones were printed with nGen.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862680 

Recently we printed these for our big PLA Economy spools and now we have made a remix of Bold’s original design. We made all these prints with nGen on the Lulzbot Mini in (and for!) our own print lab.

This version of the filament duck fits our regular spool size.

Now you can place your spools anywhere independently of the spool holder on your printer, easily swap them or even store them on this holder so it’s ready to go whenever you need it.

It’s also really usefull when printing with more than one material or color, allowing easy access to each individual spool.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, handy gadgets for the print lab being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016 together with Lulzbot), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide, as well as Lulzbot themselves.

Keep an eye out towards our sales section, which has nGen filaments on sale on a weekly basis.

Low Poly R2D2

This is the droid you’re looking for!

We see a rapid rise of dual extrusion prints: two colors or even two materials in one single print. BCN 3D, makers of the Sigma (one of the highest rated printers on 3D Hubs) and our distributor in Spain and Portugal, was kind enough to send us a new set of 0.6mm full metal hot-ends and take them for a test drive. We chose Agustin Flowalistik‘s low poly design for R2D2 and printed with nGen White and Light Blue.

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/low-poly-r2d2-and-c3po-dual-extrusion-version

After installing & calibrating these we saw great results with nGen on the Sigma. We printed at a 0.2mm layer height at 40mm/s. The bed temperature used was 85C and we kept the hot-end temp at a steady 230C.

Agustin shares a lot of high quality models and is also very good at designing dual extrusion parts. We’re fans of his work! Check out his page and Twitter feed for his latest designs and low poly work!

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

Tape dispenser

If you ship as much as we do you run through a lot of tape. Strangely enough, we seem to misplace our tape dispenser a lot as well. And why not print one or two as a spare? Here’s nGen coming to the rescue!

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:648772

Printed with nGen Yellow on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED, we made this on a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, a tape dispenser being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop

Shipping

At colorFabb we always aim for the highest standards and getting the best for our customers. This starts with our products, continues with our customer service and extends to our choice of partners as well. All aspects of getting the filaments into your hands, from the pellet to the packaging, from the testing to the shipping are important. About shipping, we want to announce some changes we are implementing as from today. We will be working with DHL as our dedicated partner for shipping as from now.

We receive a lot of questions about shipping. First and formost we strive for the best quality to make sure the filaments you ordered will be delivered to you as soon and as good as possible. In the past two years we have worked with two partners, both DHL and UPS, to ship all our filaments worldwide. In the past six months we have found that working with one partner would increase efficiency and drastically lower costs. These cost savings can immediately be passed on to you.

We have chosen DHL as our new worldwide partner due to our mutual experience over the past years. We have found in DHL a partner with a commitment to bring the best possible service to our customers. DHL operates worldwide and has a variety of services, which are specified below. We have been able to get the best possible pricing for you, our customers. Not all options are available for all countries.

The services available are:

DHL ECONOMY SELECT (EXPRESS)

The premium Express option for our European customers

DHL EXPRESS (EXPRESS)

The premium Express option for all customers outside the EU. Also available for certain European countries as an overnight option.

DHL ECONOMY PARCEL (EUROPLUS)

The parcel option for certain Eastern European countries.

DHL EUROPACK (EUROPLUS)

One specific option for our German customers.

With the express options (the first two in the short list above) you also have the option to change the delivery address, etc. once you have received the notification that your order has shipped. This gives you complete control of your shipment:

As said, lower pricing for us also means lower pricing for you. For example:

Country Was Is
Austria € 12,95 € 9,95
Denmark € 12,95 € 9,95
Switzerland € 22,95 € 12,95
United Kingdom € 9,95 € 3,95
USA € 29,95 € 26,95

Pricing based on one spool

Please note: An XL spool is seen in our system as 2 regular spools (due to the double weight).  We have managed to make more free shipping options available. Look in the table below if your country qualifies:

Country Free shipping from
Austria 5 spools
Belgium 1 spool (not applicable to samples)
Bulgaria 5 spools
Switzerland 5 spools
Czech Republic 4 spools
Germany 1 spool (not applicable to samples)
Denmark 4 spools
Estonia 4 spools
Spain 4 spools
Finland 4 spools
France 4 spools
United Kingdom 4 spools
Greece 6 spools
Croatia 6 spools
Hungary 4 spools
Ireland 4 spools
Italy 4 spools
Lithuania 6 spools
Luxembourg 1 spool (not applicable to samples)
Netherlands 1 spool (or a minimum of 21 samples)
Poland 5 spools
Portugal 4 spools
Romania 5 spools
Sweden 4 spools
Slovenia 5 spools

In the near future we will add more options:

  • Postal service worldwide
  • Pick-up at nearby access points
  • Same day delivery (for The Netherlands to begin with)

We are excited to work with DHL. Having a global partner enables us to explore more options which will benefit you. This essentially means that no shipments will be made with UPS anymore. If you have any questions, please contact us at sales@colorfabb.com

To start this co-operation with DHL, we have re-introduced our Sales page. Up to 8 filaments at 15% discount!

Wireframe Skull Pencil Holder

Last week we were at the CES in Las Vegas as Lulzbot’s material partner. It was a fantastic show where we met a lot of our users. It was great meeting all of you! And once again we saw several Lulzbot Mini’s and TAZ 6 printers flawlessly printing with nGen during the entire run of the show. Aside from printing during the show, the giant (21kg) Rocktopus was printed with nGen as well and quite a showstopper!

For today’s print of the day we go for small instead of huge on the Lulzbot Mini. For this model we chose the Wireframe Skull Pencil Holder, designed by Phil Nelson.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1388237

We printed these parts on the Lulzbot Mini in our printlab with nGen Purple and nGen Transparent. The height of these prints is only 4cm!! The layer height for these detailed prints was 0.08mm. The combination of the Lulzbot printers and our nGen filaments allow for extreme details.

nGen was launched with Lulzbot a year ago during the CES show. It has been a proven hit ever since and one of our best selling filaments.

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop, Lulzbot’s webshop and our distributor network worldwide.

 

Material tiles

We designed and printed these 100mm x 100mm tiles to showcase some of our special materials. The wavy tiles have been printed on a Ultimaker 2 and the polygon inspired tiles have been printed on the Mass Portal.


We created two different designs for each group of materials. The metal infused filaments are used for the wavy tile, which should be easy to polish. It was printed in copperFill and bronzeFill.

We used the polygon inspired tile for the fiber filled materials such as: woodFill, bambooFill and corkFill. With all three materials right next to each other it’s easy to see the color and surface finish difference.


At colorFabb we offer various special type of filaments, for the complete portfolio have a look at out Specials overview page.

Handlebar grip

colorfabb_ngen_flex-handlebar-grip

If you’re looking for good inspiration for what your next 3D printing project should be, just take a look at Daniel Norée his Youmagine account. We found some really nice handlebar models to demonstrate the use of semi-flexible filaments, such as nGen_FLEX.

colorfabb_ngen_flex-handlebar-grip

We printed two different handlebar grips, one for a BMX bike and another for a 1966 Harley Davidson M50S.

colorfabb_ngen_flex-handlebar-grip

The handlebar grip for the 1966 Harley Davidson M50S was printed on the Mass Portal, with dark gray nGen_FLEX. With a 0.6mm nozzle printing at 0.2mm layerheight this model was printed in no time at all, in just 1 hour and 30 mninutes you’ve got yourself a spare part!

colorfabb_ngen_flex-handlebar-grip

The BMX Handlebar we decided to print on the UM3 and alter the model slightly to make it compatible for dual material extrusion. Using Meshmixer we seperated the bottom plate from the grip part, so we could merge them in Cura 2.3.1 and assign different materials for each part. The flat part is printed in nGen Silver Metallic, at 0.1mm layerheight. The handle is printed nGen_FLEX black, also at 0.1mm layerheight.

colorfabb_ngen_flex-handlebar-grip

About nGen-FLEX

nGen_FLEX was developed with Eastman chemical company. Based on their work with co-polyesters nGen_FLEX makes a very compatible material with other Amphora grade materials.

With just the right amount of flex, nGen_FLEX is best described as a semi flexible material. Still capable of being fed through a Bowden tube and printed at regular PLA speeds.

Fast printing
nGen_FLEX is engineered as a semi-flexible materials which allows most users to print at regular print speeds, cutting down build times compared to other very flexible filaments. Also bowden style 3D printers, 1.75mm and 2.85mm, will be able to push this filament through without much trouble.

Temperature resistance
nGen_FLEX is temperature resistant to about 125C. That means 3D printed objects can be steam sterilized at 121C.

Flexible and tough
Printed in single perimeters and without infill or very little objects will feel quite flexible, but printed with multiple perimeters and more infill objects will be very firm and tough. The material is rated at a shore hardness of 95A.

Vertical Windmill

Michael Broderick posted an inspiring project about a 3D printable vertical axis windmill. After his first design, he returned to the drawing board and improved various parts to finally develop the Vertical Windmill Mk2, get the files here.

The vertical windmill is not just any standard looking windmill, as the name suggests it’s build up along a vertical axis and not a horizontal axis like most ordinary windmills.

Each wing consists out of five pieces, which interlock easily and can be fixated with a bit of glue. When fully assembled it will be 625mm tall and hopefully able to handle the Dutch wheather.

Great push-fit construction for easy assembly.


For this print we selected colorFabb_HT. A very tough co-polyester material developed by Eastman Chemicals. In part two we’ll show the final assembly and hopefully show how it operates in the wind.

colorFabb_HT is made with Amphora HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. Learn more about colorFabb_HT on our special dedicated landing page.

Spring-loaded Drive Block

After printing for almost 3 years the wear on the injection molded parts of our Makerbot Replicator 2 started to effect print quality and reliability. The drive block just wasn’t able to put the same amount of pressure on the filament as it used to. If you’re wondering how to detect this issue, check if the teeth marks on the filament look shallow. When the Replicator is feeding the filament, you should not be able to stop the feed by clamping the filament between two fingers. A good drive block will pull it through.

In our case it was time for some fresh new parts. We considered buying the original parts, but a quick search on thingiverse guided us towards these STL files uploaded by Makerbot, perfect!

We selected colorFabb_HT, a co-polyester material by Eastman Chemical with great toughness and good temperature resistance, 100 – 110C. These parts will be mounted against the stepper motor and onto an aluminum beam which mounts the hot-end. Therefore heat resistance is much needed for this particular case.

All parts have been 3D printed on a Ultimaker 2, at 0.1mm layerheight. We printed multiple parts at the same time without cooling for best possible layeradhesion. Printing temperature was at 250C and 90C bed temperature, speed between 35mm/s and 40 mm/s.

colorFabb_HT is made with Amphora HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. Learn more about colorFabb_HT on our special dedicated landing page.

Have you tried PLA Economy?

colorFabb’s PLA Economy: Large volume, High quality, Low price

In November we launched a new product line: PLA Economy. This new grade of PLA, with an added impact modifier, has been a hit from the moment of release. We developed this new PLA, separate from our lauded PLA/PHA, as a filament for large volume users.

Because it’s made with the same processing technology used for other premium colorFabb products, this PLA Economy filament is just as reliable. PLA Economy is available on 2.2kg spools only, delivering a whopping 740 meters of 1.75mm filament and 270 meters of 2.85mm filament.

So far, we have released PLA Economy in four colors: White (RAL 9010), Black (RAL 9005, Red (RAL 3020) and Silver (RAL 9023). More colors will be made available in 2017.

We advice the following settings:

Adviced 3d printing temperature
195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed
40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary)
50-60C

Cooling fan
100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.

 

Design spool holder: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862683

At a little over €35 (excl. VAT) for 2.2kg pricing for this filament is extremely attractive. That comes basically down to a little less than € 16 per kg for a high quality filament! But wait, there is more….

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

Happy printing!