I admit it: I'm a total geek. I love electronics, programming, 3D printing, 3D art, and vintage Apple hardware. I'm always juggling half a dozen projects. I also enjoy documenting it all: my successes, my failures, my experiences... and everything geeky along the way.

colorFabb Woodfill PLA | Kevin Rye.net - Main

Kevin Rye

Geek Extraordinaire. Yeh, I said it.

colorFabb Woodfill PLA

Aug 13, 2015 Filed in: 3D Printing
The prototype case for my nixie clock came out awesome. I want to print the final version in wood-filled PLA. You know, for that vintage look. I ordered a roll of colorFabb's woodfill PLA. From my research, it appears that it's the best one around. While there may be a few cheaper alternatives, they either don't look like wood, or they just jam up your extruder.

It's pretty expensive stuff. It's not even a full 1kg roll and it's $58 bucks.

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I have to hand it to them, their stuff is pretty high quality. Even the packaging is nice. The spool that it comes on has to be the nicest spool I've seen.

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Even though they say this PLA is less likely to jam your extruder, I opted to print my first model with a layer height of .3mm. The rest of the settings were what I'd use for any old PLA.

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There were no jams and it came out great. There was a little funny business at the top, but overall not bad at all. The white marks I think are where it touched it up with a blade. There was a little blob here and there that I scrapped off with a blade. I didn't even notice it left a mark until I looked at the picture, so maybe it's just the way that the flash hit it.

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As soon as the print finished, I tried it again at .2mm. I sped the print up a bit to 1.2X. The results were even better.

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As soon as the print was finished, I removed the woodfill PLA and ran about 2 or 3 inches of regular PLA through the extruder to clear out the woodfill PLA. I've read that if you let it cool down and harden in the extruder, you'll have one hell of a time removing it later.

What a great first test. This stuff is great. It's pretty expensive, but I think the results are worth it. People say your man-cave will smell like a workshop while you're printing, but it's not that strong. There is a slight wood-burning smell, but nothing too overpowering. As far as the finished print, it smells slightly woody but again, not overpowering. It is lighter in weight than I had imagined. I pictured it being a little more dense. It still feels a little like PLA, just not as plastic-y. Definitely not as smooth or shiny. It has a really nice matte finish to it.

I can't wait to print the nixie clock case. It's going to be awesome!