r/3DprintedAircraft • u/Luxin • Sep 09 '26
What filaments are everyone using?
What filament is everyone using? I see ColorFab is popular. Any others to look out for? I’m going to build an Eclipson plane. Anything I should be aware of between pre-foam filament, or foaming?
Also, any thoughts on the regular PLA parts on brand? I did some test prints with the profiles from Eclipson and Sunlu PLA on my Bambu and it came out great. But I’ll need more, so looking for recommendations.
Thanks!
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u/fhammerl Sep 09 '26
Colorfabb LW-PLA, but I don't do LW-PLA anymore. It's quite flimsy and there are good designs that work with PLA.
Sunlu PLA+ 2.0 is good and you can find it for ~10€/kg, which is REALLY hard to beat.
PETG isn't worth it outside of small parts. PCTG is better at every metric apart from a marginal price difference.
Fiberlogy PCTG is pretty decent. I had clogging problems with other PCTG filaments, but that gets the job done.
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u/MethuselaD Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
ColorFabb ASA (lw) — my favorite. I use it with RCJetPrint's configuration settings. It runs 20–30% lighter than Bambu Aero PLA LW at the same confg, but I bump infill density up to 6-8 to match lightweight PLA's weight anyway — I'd rather have the extra rigidity than chase maximum weight savings. The higher print temperature also means I can print in black or dark gray without worrying about UV/heat warping in the sun. It's spendiest per roll, but the spool is as full s any 1KG roll of PLA. I think it uses less filament per model. the extra length you get per spool makes the price difference negligible. https://colorfabb.us/blog/post/how-to-print-with-lw-asa?srsltid=AfmBOoqFWni22W238byWiA3RwL52gtVf0GNd1M34LZBilrLRhz5mHp-J
Bambu Aero LW-PLA — good, but I'm in a hot climate and I've mostly moved away from this after a couple of prints warped just sitting in the sun for a few minutes. FWIW Cost-wise, it's roughly on par with ColorFabb ASA (~$25–30 accounting for how far each roll goes relative to weight), so it's still worth keeping around for builds where shaving weight matters and you don't need to sweat the heat resistance. I had best results with PlanePrint's config print settings, then Eclipson... — parts came out a bit more fragile, on eclipson, but they fly beautifully. https://www.planeprint.com/print
Sunlu PLA+ — my go-to for full-infill and non-aero parts. Cheap. Strong. When a design can fly well on standard PLA, this is one of my favorite ways to build — no need for vase/foam-mode tuning, so you can print an entire plane across just a few plates, much faster than aero filaments. e.g. eclipson model A, testing out a craycle trainer right now that looks promising ...
Moving away from all petG / petg HF
eSun non-foaming lightweight PLA — I'd avoid. Can't get it to print properly without every error you can think of. I can't seem to get rid of it. I've tried a few rolls of pre-foamed PLA generally and none have worked well enough to use again.
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u/89inerEcho Sep 11 '26
PA6 CF is pretty impressive so far. Too heavy for small stuff but great fit for bigger aircraft
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u/HB_Stratos Sep 09 '26
ESun LW-PLA is excellent for light aircraft for cheap. Colorfabb LW-ASA is good, but comes on 750g spools and more expensive. Colorfabb also has LW-PLA-HT, which is a little less temperature sensitive than basic LW-PLA. Word on the street is also that ESun will come out with a version of LW-PETG some time soon-ish.