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Filament and printing

What to buy first, which material and finish suits which job, and how to get a print to stick.

• Your first filament order: what to buy
  What to put in your first filament order, and what to leave until your third. One material, one diameter, two colours, and the three things worth paying more for.
• PLA vs PETG: which should you buy?
  The two filaments that cover nearly everything. What each is actually good at, where PETG is worth the extra difficulty, and why PLA is still the right default.
• Filament bundles: are they worth it?
  Multi-kilo bundles roughly halve the price per kilogram, and small sample sets cost three times as much. The real numbers by pack size, and when each one is the right buy.
• Where to find free 3D models to print
  The best sites for free 3D printing models, what each one is actually good for, how to tell a model that prints from one that only renders well, and what the licence lets you do.
• Bed adhesion: what actually works
  Glue sticks, hairspray, rafts, brims and expensive surfaces — an honest ranking of what fixes prints coming loose, starting with the free fix that solves most cases.
• Do you need a filament dryer?
  Wet filament is real and ruins prints, but a dedicated dryer is not the only answer. How to tell if moisture is your problem, and what to do about it.
• Filament storage: dry boxes, vacuum bags and desiccant
  Keeping filament dry is cheaper than drying it out. What actually works, what desiccant to use, and why the little sachet in the bag is already spent.
• First layer calibration, properly
  Nearly every adhesion problem and half of all print failures start in the first layer. How to set Z offset by eye, and what a good first layer actually looks like.
• Printing with TPU: what to know before you buy
  Flexible filament is genuinely different to print. Shore hardness explained, why direct drive matters so much, and the settings that separate success from a nest of spaghetti.
• Silk filament: how to get the shiny finish
  Silk PLA gives prints a metallic sheen, and dual or triple colour silk shifts colour as it turns. What it is, how to print it, and where it falls short.
• Does glow in the dark filament really work?
  Yes, with caveats the listings leave out. How bright it gets, how long it lasts, which colour glows best, how to print it for the strongest glow, and why it eats brass nozzles.
• High-speed PLA: what it is and who needs it
  High-speed PLA is a real reformulation that melts and flows faster, not just a label. What changes, the flow-rate number that decides whether you need it, and what it costs.
• How many filament colours do you need?
  You want all of them. You will use about four. How to decide which filament colours earn their shelf space, in what order to buy them, and which ones to try in small quantities first.

Live filament prices