Endless PLA #18 (April 2022) - Purple, Gray, & Gold for Bobbi, Derek, & Maz

by Protoplant, makers of Protopasta comments

This month features a variety of makers in our community!

You may remember Derek from 3DPD. We featured his gorgeous 3d printed busts back in December 2020. At that time, we worked with Derek to replicate his most popular colors and relieve supply constraints he experienced with other vendors. Now, Derek is working with us to fully-convert his filament supply to Protopasta. We’re excited to continue to meet this challenge for him, all beginning with Good Old Gray. Who doesn’t love a run-of-the-mill gray for prototyping or painting? It’s a wonder we waited this long to add it to our line-up, but here it is! Thanks, Derek, for the push!

For our second color, we bring you What Karat? Smooth Gold for a finish that looks like silk without the hassle of printing with silk. Silk filaments are beautiful, but they can be a pain to print. Our long-time customer and fan, Maz, who challenged us to design colors like Galactic Empire Purple and Mermaid’s Tale Teal, operates an Etsy store based almost entirely on Protopasta and relies on 3D Printing for her business. She was fed up with how finicky silk filaments are and asked for help. While we don’t make silk filaments, we designed something that was shiny and gold, has minimal texture, and is still easy to use like the rest of our PLA and HTPLA. The result is really beautiful, and is featured in her Digimon eggs. We hope you enjoy it!

Our third color is a collaboration with a new customer, Guy and Bobbi Barton of Bobbi’s Cutters. It’s very common for custom cutter companies to have a signature color, so Guy came to us with a very specific color in mind. A couple revisions later, we’re all very pleased with the result! Check out Bobbi’s Purple Iris!

We reached out to Guy for a little more of his story:

We first purchased a 3D Systems SLA 250/50 in 2008, we used it to produce prototypes for various companies and individuals. That system was very expensive to operate and maintain. We ended up selling it in mid-2013. We purchased our first extrusion 3d printer, a Lulzbot Taz 2.1, in 2013 just to tinker around with and to learn more about 3d printing.
Bobbi had started making cakes, then cupcakes finally moving on to decorated sugar cookies. She had a customer request a specific grasshopper shape for a set of cookies. Since we had the 3d printer, it was easy enough to make the cookie cutter she needed for the order. She posted those cookies in a cookie Facebook group she was in, and had a lot of people request the cutter. We sold 20 of those right off the bat. And that's how our cookie cutter business started. We launched our Etsy shop in November 2014.
Forty-five 3d printers later, we run a successful business. We have a lot of cookie friends who provide us with their drawings and cookies to put on our site. While Bobbi still likes to make cookies, her time for it is limited, so she relies on customers to provide the cookies to pair with our cutters for the shop. A lot of those "Cookiers" offer tutorials and online classes to learn to make the cookies from their designs.
Our signature color is purple, which comes from Bobbi's mom. She had a love for purple irises, so the color selection was an easy decision for us.

 

Together, we think these colors are a beautiful combination, just waiting for your next spring project. We can’t wait to see what you print! Tag us when sharing your prints on social media and take care!

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We find these general parameters to work well for our prints, but don't hesitate to reach out to support@protoplant.com if you need any further guidance.

Machine(s): Prusa MK2/3, Prusa Mini, Creality Ender 3 
Nozzle: 0.4 mm standard brass w/ sock (if possible)
Nozzle Temp: 205 - 235 C      Bed Temp: 60 C      Bed Type: PEI
Bed Prep: Clean w/ water or alcohol; Magigoo for additional adhesion + easy release when cool

Outlines: 3      Top/Bot layers: 6     Infill type: Lines     Infill: 25%     
Overlaps: 0     Min layer time: 0     Min Speed: 0          Fill gaps: no     Expansion: 0
Layer height Ext width Speed Fan
 1st Layer 0.32 mm 0.44 mm 20 mm/s all over 0%
Rest of print 0.16 mm 0.44 mm

20 mm/s outline

40 mm/s infill

 40-60%

Interestingly enough, I found a similar result with the above parameters on all 3 machines at 205 C - 235 C. The Prusa Mini is upgraded to a Bondtech heatbreak to move the PTFE junction farther away from the hotend to reduce hang-ups. The Prusa MK3 has the stock Prusa heatbreak with lip, but swapping to a standard e3dv6 heatbreak or e3d lite6 hotend can bring more trouble-free results. The Creality Ender 3 requires no modifications.

All can benefit from a calibrated first layer that is not too close to the build platform. Leaving enough room for material to come out without restriction, yet still close enough to stick, is key for more trouble-free printing.
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Having trouble with your loose coils? We can help! Check out this awesome printable spool that only takes 50g of filament!

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We know printing isn't always trouble-free so if you're looking for instructions on how to wrangle those loose coils or need other printing help, please consider our getting started guide!

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Love the subscription? Let us know! Write a review, share your prints on social (including Twitter and Instagram), or spread the love by telling everyone you know where to find us!

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Don't forget to show off your creations with our newest colors. When you tag Protopasta on Instagram, your photo could be chosen as one of our Top 9 for the month!