Polylight LW PLA - A happy medium.

[SSgt Duramax]

So In my general cheapness I was looking for a substitute for colorfab LW PLA. In my travels I found this. It is polylite LW PLA. Apparently it is already "foamed" and you can print using standard PLA settings. It is 31.99 a roll.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H2SC1CX/?tag=lstir-20

According to the description:

• 🚁 【Light Weight PLA】 - PolyLite Light Weight PLA is a low-density PLA (0.8 g/cm3 compared to 1.17 g/cm3 for regular PLA). It prints using the same settings as regular PLA (temperature and flow rate), making it easy to print and compatible with most 3D printers. It will not foam when printing, which saves you from a lot of troubles brought by active foaming of traditional light-weight PLA
• 🛠️ 【High Rigidity & Good Layer Adhesion】 - Our Polymaker lightweight PLA has high rigidity and good layer adhesion so you can easily get some stiff parts of the radio-controlled plane with it. PolyLite PLA is a worry-free 3D Printer Filament Grey Low Weight PLA that has great bed adhesion, very consistent color and dimension accuracy, and no warping, no jamming, no blobs, or layer delamination issues. 【Note - turn off the fan for the first layer for improved bed adhesion】

However, don't make the mistake I made the first time and get the standard polylite PLA. Make sure what you get specifies it is lightweight. The standard polylite PLA is rebranded PLA+. This is what I accidentally bought the first time. I am sure it is fine for PLA, but if you want the lightweight stuff... DO NOT BUY THIS!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IAVQP2C/?tag=lstir-20

It is 22.00 and standard PLA. I am sure I will eventually use gray PLA. Again, this is what NOT TO BUY if you want the lightweight, use the first link.


So after I bought it, I started looking for how to print with the stuff. This guy has a pretty good write up on it. It seems like a happy medium between LW-PLA and standard in both strength and weight, as in it is stronger than LW PLA it seems and lighter than standard, but not quite as light as the color fab. However, it is allegedly very easy to print. I am planning on using this for the shark I am going to build. I will keep you posted, but this stuff could be a game changer. I will get to printing the shark after I am done with the color fab LW-PLA Model D I am building.

 

[ColoFlyer]

I just got a roll of the eSUN Lightweight PLA-LW. Haven't tried it as yet, but will be interesting to see how it prints.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0969J44XJ/?tag=lstir-20

 

[SSgt Duramax]

I just got a roll of the eSUN Lightweight PLA-LW. Haven't tried it as yet, but will be interesting to see how it prints.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0969J44XJ/?tag=lstir-20

I am going to load it up today. The color fabb is pissing me off, it keeps clogging my nozzle.

 

[ColoFlyer]

I am going to load it up today. The color fabb is pissing me off, it keeps clogging my nozzle.

If you have not seen Troy McMillan's video on printing with LW-Pla it might help. He also does videos on the assembly of a number of the 3D Printed planes. You may be having a problem with Flow Rates, Troy talks about that in his video.

 

[tamuct01]

I just got a roll of the eSUN Lightweight PLA-LW. Haven't tried it as yet, but will be interesting to see how it prints.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0969J44XJ/?tag=lstir-20

I have a spool of the eSun PLA-LW. It seems to follow the same printing parameters as the ColorFabb LW-PLA. I ran through the same tuning parameters that ColorFabb recommends and the foaming behaved just as eSun states on their website. I've built a number of components with it, but no full planes yet. One problem with the foaming PLA brands is that stringing is unavoidable. There are several print settings to help reduce this, but it's going to happen. Printed parts were about 1/2 the weight of the standard PLA.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

If you have not seen Troy McMillan's video on printing with LW-Pla it might help. He also does videos on the assembly of a number of the 3D Printed planes. You may be having a problem with Flow Rates, Troy talks about that in his video.

I am using eclipsons g codes and the flow rate is what he said. I am getting good quality prints until it clogs. I printed another fuse section and about 20% of it is missing, so trash. I can get about 1 part out of a nozzle at this point.

The colorfabb site says that too high of heat can cause bubbling before the filament leaves the nozzle, so I may try to drop the temp. Ive read that the thermostats on lower end printers can be off by about 10-20 degrees C one way or another.

 

[w1lp33]

Using my first roll of esun Lw-pla right now. Prints great. At 250 degrees I’m at 55% flow/extrusion multiplier, so almost double.

No issues with clogging, some stringing which is to be expected, but it does have a slightly yellowish colour to it.
still, 1kg vs 750g rolls, and have the price compared to colorfabb, at least in Canada.

Very happy with the esun.

 

[w1lp33]

 

[ColoFlyer]

Using my first roll of esun Lw-pla right now. Prints great. At 250 degrees I’m at 55% flow/extrusion multiplier, so almost double.

Looks like your Sovol is doing a nice job on that print. I recently added the Sovol magnetic plate to mine and it has amazing adhesion.

I have both the Sovol SV01 and the Ender 3 V2, and I think, on some filaments, the direct drive works better like on TPU, but i'm not sure about the LW-Pla yet. Are you using the gcodes provided by Eclipson or are you slicing the files yourself.

 

[ColoFlyer]

I have a spool of the eSun PLA-LW. It seems to follow the same printing parameters as the ColorFabb LW-PLA. I ran through the same tuning parameters that ColorFabb recommends and the foaming behaved just as eSun states on their website. I've built a number of components with it, but no full planes yet. One problem with the foaming PLA brands is that stringing is unavoidable. There are several print settings to help reduce this, but it's going to happen. Printed parts were about 1/2 the weight of the standard PLA.

I have the "Savage Bobber" from planeprint.com that I believe might give me a good oppertunity to try out my eSun PLA-LW .

 

[ColoFlyer]

Ive read that the thermostats on lower end printers can be off by about 10-20 degrees C one way or another.

Did you by happen get a chance to do a PID tune on your extruder. This will help make sure your hot end is maintaining the exact (or very close) temperature. I believe you said you have an Ender 3 V2, and If you have installed the JyersUI firmware, there is a menu item that will preform this function.
If not, you can still do it manually from OctoPrint., lots of vids on youtube.

 

[w1lp33]

Looks like your Sovol is doing a nice job on that print. I recently added the Sovol magnetic plate to mine and it has amazing adhesion.

I have both the Sovol SV01 and the Ender 3 V2, and I think, on some filaments, the direct drive works better like on TPU, but i'm not sure about the LW-Pla yet. Are you using the gcodes provided by Eclipson or are you slicing the files yourself.

I generally prefer direct drive over Bowden. I had an ender 4 previously and converted it.

Thst print is a 3dLabPrint Zero, and I’m using the Simplify3d factory files for it. I very rarely use supplied gcode, cause I maleays worried it won’t work well with my printer, so I use factory files for the 3dlabprints and the stls for eclipsing planes.

 

[jpot1]

The eSun lw pla has been working well for me. I like that fact that it’s a full 1kg roll and cheaper with delivery to the US as compared to Colorfabb. You do get occasional brown blobs with the eSun (never happened to me with Colorfabb) but they typically can be picked off or sanded off.

Tempted to try the polymaker but the weight saving is a little less. A 10-15% weight gain can make a huge difference.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

This is looking good. I got my new nozzles in today and we are doing just groovy so far.

 

[Matagami Designs]

That looks great. Is that model designed for no retraction? Currently have my twin mustang printed with colorfabb LW-PLA and the internals are a mess with stringing.

Has anyone tried 3d Labs polylight filament? people on the 3d printed pilots FB group recommended this one.
https://3dlabprint.com/shop/polylight-1-0-lw-pla-filament/

 

[SSgt Duramax]

That looks great. Is that model designed for no retraction? Currently have my twin mustang printed with colorfabb LW-PLA and the internals are a mess with stringing.

Has anyone tried 3d Labs polylight filament? people on the 3d printed pilots FB group recommended this one.
https://3dlabprint.com/shop/polylight-1-0-lw-pla-filament/

Thats what this thread is about! I am printing my model d in it.

The black is the colorfabb and the "white" is the polymaker.

That is what the guy was going over in the first video i posted.

There is still some stringing.

But this is the inside of my 2 fuse sections I got done with color fabb on the model d. Flying spaghetti monster!

Of course i am a noob at 3d printing, so take what i say based on that.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Yeah the one I'm talking about is made by 3d lab prints, not polymaker. They all have the same name polylight or polylite so it gets confusing.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

Yeah the one I'm talking about is made by 3d lab prints, not polymaker. They all have the same name polylight or polylite so it gets confusing.

Oh I see theirs does foam.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

Did you by happen get a chance to do a PID tune on your extruder. This will help make sure your hot end is maintaining the exact (or very close) temperature. I believe you said you have an Ender 3 V2, and If you have installed the JyersUI firmware, there is a menu item that will preform this function.
If not, you can still do it manually from OctoPrint., lots of vids on youtube.

I finally took you up on installing jyers, and it seems like every single print problem I was having with the LW-PLA went away. I wonder if my firmware was corrupt.

It was making a weird sound when it was warming up, and it was pretty jerky when it printed, now it is buttery smooth. I never thought just changing the firmware would make that much difference, but using the exact same G Codes and everything it works great. It is way easier to level the bed, and do the PID tune.

 

[ColoFlyer]

I finally took you up on installing jyers, and it seems like every single print problem I was having with the LW-PLA went away. I wonder if my firmware was corrupt.

It was making a weird sound when it was warming up, and it was pretty jerky when it printed, now it is buttery smooth. I never thought just changing the firmware would make that much difference, but using the exact same G Codes and everything it works great. It is way easier to level the bed, and do the PID tune.

The Jyers firmware definitely makes everything better, faster and easier. There are alot of menu options available that were not in the stock firmware like PID Tuning and UBL. Did you also flash the screen?

Now the next thing you need to consider is installing a BLTouch. Jyers has firmware that will use the BLTouch to automatically do a 3x3 or 5 x 5 automatic bed level before every print so you don't really have to do manual bed leveling very often. Once setup and you have your offset dialed in, you get great print after print.
https://github.com/Jyers/Marlin/releases/tag/v2.0.1

Also, did you by chance see this guys video. He really goes through everything in detail.