T-Rex

Our very first special filament, woodFill, remains one of the most fun materials to print with. Not only does it print easily, it also makes your printing room smell like a woodshop due to the fact that we used real wood in our unique PLA/PHA blend. One of our colleagues, Paul (he who ships all your spools in logistics) printed a large T-Rex entirely made with woodFill with awesome results:

T-Rex Design link

Paul printed the T-Rex on the Prusa i3 using the woodFill settings. The entire print measures 39cm high and is 76cm tall. It took about 150 hours to print all the parts.

Lego minifig for scale

Launched in 2013, woodFill was our first special 3D printing filament. It has been a bestseller for over 6 years and we fully understand why: the ease of printing, the authentic wood structure and the smell of wood while printing make it a fan favorite. Read more about woodFill and its origins in last year’s blog.

 

 

As said, woodFill is a great filament to print with. Very easy and it makes for great decoration, like the world map we printed recently.

woodFill color disclaimer: due to the natural origin of woodFill (wood fibres) slight color variations may occur from batch to batch. We do not chemically process or color the filament in any way and aim to maintain the original wood look of the material.

 

woodFill is available now and ships daily from stock on spools containing 600 and 1800 grams. Click here to head directly to our webshop.

World Map

 

Every material has its right application. Our woodFill is mostly decorative and we came across a great world map that begged to be scaled at 300% and put up as a fitting decoration for a baby’s nursery.

Design by 2c2know (design link)

Lasting for over 75 hours, it took quite a while to print dozens and dozens of parts. (Add to that the 3+ hours to organize and put up this puzzle). We printed on the Stacker S4 XL, its largest model, with a 0.8mm nozzle and at 0.35mm layer height (with 15% infill). The print temperature was 220C and we had the bed heated at 65C

Launched in 2013, woodFill was our first special 3D printing filament. It has been a bestseller for over 6 years and we fully understand why: the ease of printing, the authentic wood structure and the smell of wood while printing make it a fan favorite. Read more about woodFill and its origins in last year’s blog.

As with most large prints we printed this world map on the Stacker S4 XL. It is next generation industrial grade 3D printing, based on the technology and experience of the S2 and S4 printers. Featuring unique closed loop servo motor system and a massive 61cm build space (in all directions), the Stacker S4 XL is the ultimate production platform within FDM for large scale and small series 3D printing. As you can see it also works very well for decorative printing, like this world map where needed a certain size!

 

 

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 7 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another. We recently published two blogs about Dutch companies Optima and Mifa and their use of Stacker 3D printers.

 

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

WoodFill – the original

Today’s blog looks back at woodFill, our first special 3D printing filament. Launched back in November 2013 it marked the first step into different materials beyond our standard PLA/PHA filaments. There are already many filaments called woodFill in the world. colorFabb woodFill is the original woodFill.

Achieving amazing results on the Lulzbot Mini: https://learn.colorfabb.com/woodfill-lulzbot/

A bit of history

True story: We produced the first test run of filament late October 2013, put it on the printer and… it worked! Flawlessly! This was mere days before we were off to the 3D Printing Show in London, early November 2013. With the few spools we had we printed a lot of examples, put them in our suitcases and off we went! (By train, it was still the olden days…) We heard the following many, many times during those 3 days:

“It smells like… wood.”

“That’s because there is real wood in the filament.”

“But how did you get the smell in there?”

“Because there is real wood in the filament.”

We admit, the main component is our signature PLA/PHA, but the wood is what makes the filament truly special.

We started with two variations: woodFill Fine and woodFill Coarse. Problem was that the Coarse could only be printed with a 0.8 nozzle and sales reflected that people were not eager to switch nozzles a lot. Only after a few months we discontinued woodFill Coarse and focused entirely on woodFill Fine. But a few times every year someone informs if there are still some spools of the Coarse left. Although we have seen great results with a 0.4mm nozzle, a lot of users would be more comfortable printing with a 0.6mm nozzle.

Printing with woodFill is rather easy:

Adviced 3d printing temperature:

195-220C*

Adviced 3d print speed:

40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary)

50-60C

woodFill has been added to the Ultimaker Market Place. You can easily download and use the settings in the latest Cura version for your Ultimaker printer. These settings have been verified by both colorFabb and Ultimaker to ensure a flawless user experience.

Print+ headphone. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/printplus/

We have literally sent out thousands of woodFill spools all over the world and it has been a solid hit with our customers, old and new. Its ease of printing has really helped, but again: the smell of wood during printing, that authentic woodshop idea has been appealing for a lot of printers. And be honest: the prints look like they have been carved from… wood. Below are some great examples of prints made over the past few years:

Puzzle pieces

 

 

Tony Short’s gift box. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/colorfabb-gift-box/

 

Megafone amplifiers by AKLIH. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/aklih/

 

 

 

 

BioPlastics Award. Base plate printed with woodFill: https://learn.colorfabb.com/bioplastics-award/

 

Design by Labern: https://learn.colorfabb.com/steelfill-canon/

Elephant design  Acorn design Both the elephant and acorn were printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.6mm nozzle and a 0.2mm layer height. Print speed was 40mm/s with 20% infill and a nozzle temperature of 210C. Part of the acorn was printed with corkFill.

 

woodFill is available at all times and ships from stock. It is a very popular filament and altough it sometimes seems to be out of stock we are always in production and ship as soon as possible. Click on the spool below to go directly to the webshop:

 

Ultimaker Market Place

Updated: XT-CF20 has been added as well!

We are proud to announce that two of our filaments have been added to the Ultimaker Market Place. By adding both Color on Demand  ( PLA )  and woodFill to the market place it is easier than ever to start printing with the right settings on Ultimaker printers. How? Download the latest version of Cura (3.6) and add the profiles as detailed in the short video below:

https://youtu.be/h_5mp_TK5zw

Our filaments have always been tested on Ultimaker 3D printers ever since the beginning. In fact, the very idea of colorFabb started with an Ultimaker Original and it was the first printer we tested on back in 2012. Fun fact: that printer is still in our print lab. We have added more printers to our test lab ever since and have made sure that every major Ultimaker release was added to it as well: The Ultimaker 2, 2+, 3 and S5 are all part of our standard range of printers to ensure our filaments work as flawless as possible on these highly popular Dutch printers.

We’re joining an ever expanding range of premium material brands in the market place.

Update December 14th: We are happy to announce that XT-CF20 has been added to the list as well. Simply add the profile the same way as described above to make functional prints that need extra stiffness.


CARBON FIBER IS ABRASIVE: A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. Therefore we  recommend to use hardened steel nozzles for this material.

Will more materials be added? Probably in due time. But rest assured that, as mentioned above, we have tested all of our materials on the Ultimaker printers at our disposal. One can also choose Ultimaker materials as a starting point (like CPE settings for our colorFabb_XT and CPE+ for colorFabb_HT). We also share the settings of most of our materials on dedicated blogs, like:

Still not sure if you’re on the right track? Contact us at support@colorfabb.com so we can help you further!

woodFill: 5 years of special 3D printing filaments

Today it is exactly five years ago that we launched woodFill at the 3D Print Show in London. It was our first special 3D printing filament! Let’s look back!

Design: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-39788

Our first special filament was woodFill. In our first year of existence (this was in 2013 – ancient times by now) we had a great filament, PLA/PHA, in the market and we were already looking for more filaments to be added to the portfolio. Someone asked us a very serious question: “Why don’t you make a wood filament?” We thought: “Why not?” Granted, we weren’t the first, but the filament world was still young and with our compounding partner FKuR, located in Willich, Germany, we went to work.

 

Elephant design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:257911 Both the elephant and acorn were printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.6mm nozzle and a 0.2mm layer height. Print speed was 40mm/s with 20% infill and a nozzle temperature of 210C. Part of the acorn was printed with corkFill.

True story: We produced the first test run of filament late October 2013, put it on the printer and… it worked! Flawlessly! This was mere days before we were off to the 3D Printing Show in London, early November 2013. With the few spools we had we printed a lot of examples, put them in our suitcases and off we went! (By train, it was still the olden days…)

The very first woodFill print… ever

The 3D Printing Show was an amazing experience. As luck (or mad negotiation skills) would have it, we were placed right at the entrance. As anyone who has ever printed with woodFill knows, the material really smells like wood when printing. And that was exactly what the visitors smelled when they entered the show floor.

As heard many, many times during those 3 days:

“It smells like… wood.”

“That’s because there is real wood in the filament.”

“But how did you get the smell in there?”

“Because there is real wood in the filament.”

We admit, the main component is our signature PLA/PHA, but the wood is what makes the filament truly special.

We started with two variations: woodFill Fine and woodFill Coarse. Problem was that the Coarse could only be printed with a 0.8 nozzle and sales reflected that people were not eager to switch nozzles a lot. Only after a few months we discontinued woodFill Coarse and focused entirely on woodFill Fine. But a few times every year someone informs if there are still some spools of the Coarse left.

 

We have literally sent out thousands of woodFill spools all over the world and it has been a solid hit with our customers, old and new. Its ease of printing (can your printer print PLA? If yes, you can print woodFill. If no, buy a new printer) has really helped, but again: the smell of wood during printing, that authentic woodshop idea has been appealing for a lot of printers. And be honest: the prints look like they have been carved from… wood.

Below are some (but not all, at all) great examples of woodFill creations:

Tony Short’s gift box. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/colorfabb-gift-box/

 

Megafone amplifiers by AKLIH. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/aklih/

 

Print+ headphone. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/printplus/

 

Replicas of historic church figures. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/excellence-woodfill-3d-printing/

 

Some printed examples on the Lulzbot Mini: https://learn.colorfabb.com/woodfill-lulzbot/

 

After woodFill we expanded the range with bambooFill (since discontinued) and corkFill (still available). Both great materials, but woodFill will have a special place in our portfolio as our first special filament. Don’t believe us? Read the five star reviews on our website:

woodFill is available in our webshop and through our reseller network. We offer both 600 grams and 1800 grams (XL) spools.

Part of this blog was previously published in another blog

5 Years colorFabb: woodFill revisited

We  launched our first filament range, PLA/PHA, in February 2013. In this short, limited series of blogs we look back at some of the materials released in the past five years. The first entry is about woodFill.

Our first special filament was woodFill. In our first year of existence we had a great filament, PLA/PHA, in the market and we were already looking for more filaments to be added to the portfolio. Someone asked us a very serious question: “Why don’t you make a wood filament?” We thought: “Why not?” Granted, we weren’t the first, but the filament world was still young and with our compounding partner FKuR, located in Willich, Germany, we went to work.

True story: We produced the first test run of filament late October 2013, put it on the printer and… it worked! Flawlessly! This was mere days before we were off to the 3D Printing Show in London, early November 2013. With the few spools we had we printed a lot of examples, put them in our suitcases and off we went! (By train, it was still the olden days…)

The very first woodFill print… ever

The 3D Printing Show was an amazing experience. As luck (or mad negotiation skills) would have it, we were placed right at the entrance. As anyone who has ever printed with woodFill knows, the material really smells like wood when printing. And that was exactly what the visitors smelled when they entered the show floor.

As heard many, many times during those 3 days:

“It smells like… wood.”

“That’s because there is real wood in the filament.”

“But how did you get the smell in there?”

“Because there is real wood in the filament.”

We admit, the main component is our signature PLA/PHA, but the wood is what makes the filament truly special.

We started with two variations: woodFill Fine and woodFill Coarse. Problem was that the Coarse could only be printed with a 0.8 nozzle and sales reflected that people were not eager to switch nozzles a lot. Only after a few months we discontinued woodFill Coarse and focused entirely on woodFill Fine. But a few times every year someone informs if there are still some spools of the Coarse left.

We have literally sent out thousands of woodFill spools all over the world and it has been a solid hit with our customers, old and new. Its ease of printing (can your printer print PLA? If yes, you can print woodFill. If no, buy a new printer) has really helped, but again: the smell of wood during printing, that authentic woodshop idea has been appealing for a lot of printers. And be honest: the prints look like they have been carved from… wood.

Below are some (but not all, at all) great examples of woodFill creations:

Tony Short’s gift box. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/colorfabb-gift-box/

 

Megafone amplifiers by AKLIH. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/aklih/

 

Print+ headphone. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/printplus/

 

Replicas of historic church figures. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/excellence-woodfill-3d-printing/

 

Some printed examples on the Lulzbot Mini: https://learn.colorfabb.com/woodfill-lulzbot/

 

After woodFill we expanded the range with bambooFill (since discontinued) and corkFill (still available). Both great materials, but woodFill will have a special place in our portfolio as our first special filament.

woodFill is available in our webshop and through our reseller network. We offer both 600 grams and 1800 grams (XL) spools.

Utility Ship

Here at colorFabb we regularly have interns hard at work in the print lab, creating awesome things. As you may remember, Stephan Schürmann designed and printed a bike during his internship here (and is now about to ship his very own Blackbelt 3D printer!). Earlier this year Niels van Valburg made the FLEX_Link chair. And former current co-worker Jos Deelen worked on the early concepts of the biofoam spool during his internship here. Our current intern is Mike Baetsen and to get him more acquainted with 3D printing and designing he printed the Utility Ship, originally designed by Petersripol:

Original design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2192118

As you can see, we put it in the lobby of our new building right away! Mike used the Ultimaker 2 and 2+ for this print (or various prints, if you will) with various settings. Several items on the boat he designed himself using SolidWorks.

3D printing has always been a great tool for model work and this once again proofs that the best results can be achieved with a variety of materials.

The materials (all colorFabb’s, of course), where:

  • PLA/PHA Standard White for the hull
  • PETG Economy Red
  • woodFill for the deck
  • PLA Economy Black

Mike mentions that he wanted to use a variety of materials (two kinds of PLA, our PETG and a special filament) to see how well they work on the Ultimaker printers as well and of course for the aesthetical aspect.

As showcased in the lobby, together with the Subaru and Chevy engines, printed by Korneel Bullens.

 

 

About the materials

PLA/PHA Standard White

And what a standard it is! We started with this modified grade of PLA almost 5 years ago and this filament remains one of our biggest hits. The unique blend of PLA with PHA make it a fantastic filament to print with on a wide variety of printers.

PLA Economy

About a year ago we listened to you – our users – and brought a more economic version of PLA to the market. This new grade of PLA, with an added impact modifier, has been in huge demand 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.

PETG Economy

Not long after PLA Economy we released PETG Economy this summer. This is our first PETG and has already found a large group of devoted users. colorFabb’s Economy line is developed for users who need a lot of filament. By adding a specifically sourced PETG to our portfolio we are adding more functionality and diversity to our range of filaments.

woodFill

What can be said about woodFill that has not been said already? woodFill was launched exactly 4 years ago this month during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we discontinued earlier this year) and corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

 

Eager to try our filaments? At the time of writing we are in the middle of our Black Friday discount. Click here for the details. Basically: you get a 25% discount on all filaments! Use discount code BLACKFRIDAY when shopping online.

Sale lasts until Monday November 27th.

 

Looking for a new printer? The desktop 3D printers in our portfolio ship with a 10% discount during the Black Friday campaign. No discount code needed – we already lowered the price! Of course you get a free spool of filament with every printer and for selected European countries we offer free shipping!

 

[masterslider alias=”ms-96″]

 

Can’t choose? Check out our catalogue:

Poly Cup

Low Poly designs have been 3D print favorites for many years. And with good reason: Nice and clean designs that allow for great prints. Designers like Flowalistik specialize in low poly designs. For today’s print we used the Low Poly Cup by HummusBird.

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2548981

Printed on the Makerbot Replicator+ using the Experimental Extruder with the 0.6mm nozzle. We used corkFill and woodFill and combined it with our transparent PLA. Simply use the change filament routine during print to conveniently switch between materials during print.

The Makerbot Experimental Extruder was recently announced and allows for more experimenting on the existing Makerbot printers. Over the course of several months, we participated in a beta-test program that included a select group of MakerBot’s Thingiverse power users. During this time the new Experimental Extruder was tested using a range of colorFabb specialty materials – including the corkFill, copperFill, bronzeFill, and woodFill.

woodFill was launched exactly 4 years ago this week during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we discontinued earlier this year) and corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

As it happens, corkFill is on sale now. Click here to get corkFill with a 15% discount (for a limited time only).

It is not said often enough, but the transparent and translucent colors we offer in our PLA range offer stunning results. You can choose from Red, Green, Yellow, Orange and Violet. All these filaments ship from stock!

Making miniature furniture with the Robo C2

Model making has always been a great use for 3D printers all over the world. To all model makers looking to enter 3D printing with an efficient plug&play 3D printer, we present to you the Robo C2 which we used for today’s print in combination with woodFill and corkFill!


28mm Round Table
by Curufin

Making tiny furniture on the Robo C2 is a breeze, combined with colorFabb special materials such as woodFill and corkFill the results look very convincing. One great benefit of these materials is that the final part looks not at all like a plastic part.

Since woodFill and corkFill are PLA based materials the cold build platform of the Robo C2 is not a problem. Printing with a raft works beautifull and parts stay flat and seperate easily.


Miniature Queen Anne Coffee Tables
by PrettySmallThings

woodFill was launched exactly 3 years ago this month during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we discontinued earlier this year) and corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

 

The Robo C2 retails for €799.00 excl. Tax (€966.79 incl tax) + 1 FREE SPOOL

The Robo C2 compact smart 3D printer with Wi-Fi gives you the freedom to make whatever you can imagine right from your mobile device using the Robo app.
  • Engineered to fit anywhere in your home or workplace
  • Efficient 12.7 x 12.7 x 15.2cm print size
  • 8.9cm built-in color touch screen
  • Class-leading print speed
  • Automatic self-leveling
GET ONE TODAY

 

A wooden cup barrel on the Replicator+

We’ve been searching Thingiverse for great models to show the aesthetic quality of woodFill filament. One model we particularly  liked is this Cup Barrel. It’s a cool model and we can see this being used for many different purposes. It could be used as a dice cup, a desk organizer for pens and pencils and perhaps even a planter.

Cup Barrel
design by kevin Grijalva

This model is printed on the Replicator+ using the Makerbot Labs Experimental Extruder equipped with a 0.6mmm brass nozzle.

The Makerbot Labs Experimental Extruder

As a leader in the 3D printing materials space, we at colorFabb were excited to be part of the beta-test program that included a select group of MakerBot’s Thingiverse power users. During this time the new Experimental Extruder was tested using a range of colorFabb specialty materials – including the corkFill, copperFill, bronzeFill, and woodFill.