Protopasta Electrically Conductive PLA 3D Printer Filament 1.75mm 2kg PLA Filament; 3D Printing Filament on Recyclable Cardboard Spool for 3D Printers Like Creality Ender, ANYCUBIC, FlashForge

I am part of a community called Makers Making Change. We volunteer our time to make adaptive technology devices. I used this filament to print a palm ball stylus (a ball you can hold to operate touch screens). The original design called for a wire in the ball that runs down to the tip that contacts the screen. I thought about using conductive filament and found the Protopasta stuff. The palm stylus worked perfectly and looks great. The clients said the units worked perfectly. I have gone through two spools already with issue. Good stuff!

We've had great results with our prints, with beautiful detail and quick relays to our Arduino hook up. The filament is surprisingly brittle. We store it in a bag with silica dessicant, but still have frustrating prints that snap mid print or right at the end. Snapping also occurs when loading. The biggest frustration is that the filament residue seems to be left behind. We've had a series of prints with black speckles deposited within the color. If the print isn't painted the end results looks really bad, especially if you're trying to make a clear print.

At first I had the issue of the filament grinding and it would stop extruding. But after troubleshooting it was found to be my fault. The first layer was too close to the bed causing back pressure and eventually causing the hobbed bolt to grind up the filament and stop feeding.I also had the issue of the parts sticking too well to bare glass or pei, causing the print to stick to the bed and tear when removing. A light application of elmers purple glue stick resolved the over adhesion and I was able to then print 3 rolls on my Lulzbot Taz 5 perfectly.

I'd give the Conductive PLA 4.5 stars if I could. It's a bit pricey, but I'm only using it for small limited prints. It worked perfectly for an adaptive stylus I printed: http://kfkdesigns.com/stylus/I followed the manufacturer's recommendations & cranked up the print temp (basically treated it like ABS) & it printed fine on my Simple Metal. I also used a heated bed, just to prevent unwanted warping.I've noticed two downsides to the filament: (1) reduced layer adhesion (ever at the higher print temps) which results in parts a little more brittle than standard PLA, (2) when switching to a different filament, black residue remains in the hotend and discolors the new filament for about 30 minutes of print time, even after using a cleaning filament.However, I can easily overlook/work around these issues for the conductive benefit.

This does exactly what I wanted. I can use it as low-temp solder and apply it directly to metal wires to make low resistance joints.This plastic seems somewhat less hard than normal PLA, I have not found brittleness to be a problem.The resistance is hard to measure and seems to vary depending on the voltage potential across the plastic. Measuring the resistance of my first circuit (w/o voltage connected obviously) disappointed me with a really big number; however, when I turned on the power and the LEDs winked on I was not disappointed at all!Filament runs at PLA temperatures and smells mildly of PLA-Waffles. ABS temperatures do not appear to burn the filament. The MSDS for this product (posted on Proto-pasta's website) notes that the conductive polymer could potentially be bad for people HOWEVER it is completely encapsulated in plastic and should remain inaccessible to biology. Combine that with the fact that PLA can biodegrade; store this stuff carefully, keep it dry, discard scraps. This is new technology.So far I have enjoyed using this filament with my new MYNT 3D pen. I have had a prusa mendel for about 2 years but haven't actually run this through the printer yet.The cardboard spool is cool. I didn't expect to like that but it's lightweight and you can easily punch a hole to hook the filament for storage (that way you don't have to cut off a foot of filament like when the end doesn't line up with the pre-cut hole on a plastic spool).

I had really big hopes for this filament. But it doesn’t pass a simple continuity test. Super disappointed. Otherwise, its a great PLA filament… for 4x the price!

This filament didn’t work very well in my Bambi Labs printer and clogged the nozzle after only a few prints. The few prints that I was able to make were low quality because the filament seemed to blend together with a translucent filament I was also using. Perhaps my usecase is too specific, but this didn’t work for me.

I recently bought a conductive filament from Protopasta and couldn't be more satisfied. The quality of the filament is outstanding, and the delivery was impressively fast. Highly recommended for anyone in need of high-quality conductive filaments!