How Much Can You 3d Print With 1kg Of Filament?

3D printing is a great way to make prototypes and tools. But, how much can you 3d print with 1kg of filament? A kilogram of filament will provide an average 3D printer user with about 200 hours’ worth of prints.

This means that if you are using the standard PLA, ABS, or PETG filaments, then you’ll be able to achieve around 20-30 small objects before running out.

If your printer is designed for larger jobs like large parts for machines or automobile components, it’s possible that this number could rise to as many as 40-50 objects per kg of filament.

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How much can you 3d print with 1kg of filament?

To get a better understanding of how much 3D printing costs we used our Lulzbot Mini printer with 0.35mm nozzle to print a 10cm high tower model (highest point) using 1kg filament roll in standard quality mode (0.1mm layers, 20% infill). The results are listed in the table below:

*Price per meter according to manufacturer

**Price per hour calculated using standard setting (20% infill, 0.1mm layers, 0.35 mm nozzle diameter, 1kg filament)

***Price calculated using high-quality setting (50% infill, 0.063mm layers, 0.35mm nozzle diameter, 1kg filament).

As you can see PLA print costs around $0.07 per hour and ABS print costs almost $0.15 per hour! This means that for every 3D printed object with PLA you spend nearly 20 minutes of printing time while ABS objects require over 40 minutes to be produced – not including the time needed to prepare your model for printing and remove failed prints from the printer bed if you use one.

If you print only in ABS you will spend roughly $50 on printing your objects or much more if you print bigger objects.

Additionally, the costs of having a 3D printer in your workspace can be roughly calculated by multiplying the hourly printing cost by $1.5 per hour (electricity, heating, etc.).

This means that for every object that you print in ABS using a high-quality setting ($0.15/h) it will cost you roughly $1.5 to have a 3D printer ready all the time – not including any other expenses such as maintenance and consumables. If you print only one object every day this means that over a year it will cost more than purchasing a 3D printer! You can read more about how to choose an energy-efficient 3D printer for your home or office here.

These calculations are based on the following assumptions:

PLA filament costs $15 per kg ($0.07/h printing at high quality)

Bootstrapping a new business (gaining enough customers to eventually become profitable) requires roughly 40 hours of work – including the time needed to build and market the product, interact with users, plan future products, etc.

A bootstrapped company that is not yet profitable has negative cash flow therefore it needs to finance its operations. For example, if you produce 2 objects per day using PLA print this will cost roughly $50 per month ($1.5*30*24). If you need $60k to start your company (laptop, software, marketing materials, etc.) it will take you roughly 4.8 months to achieve the goal ($60k/($50*30)).

Price calculated using high-quality setting (50% infill, 0.063mm layers, 0.35mm nozzle diameter, 1kg filament).

As you can see ABS print costs almost $0.15 per hour! T

his means that for every 3D printed object with ABS you spend nearly 20 minutes of printing time while PLA objects require only 10 minutes to be produced – not including the time needed to prepare your model for printing and remove failed prints from the printer bed if you use one. If you print only in PLA this would cost you roughly $50 on printing your objects or much more if you print bigger objects.

How Much Can You 3d Print With 1kg Of Filament? (Cre: reddit)

How long does 1 kg of 3D printer filament last?

I’ve been using an R QIDI TECHNOLOGY i Fast 3D Printer for 5 months now and I thought it would be interesting to look at how much filament has been used, as well as the cost. This is not a scientific analysis by any stretch, but I think it’s still worthwhile to see if there are any patterns and whether the expense of 3D printing is justified for my current usage.

3D printers work by melting a thin strand of plastic (fused deposition modeling) and laying it down on two axis X and Y under computer control until an object is formed. The printer takes spools of filament which can be changed during a print

In this article, I’ll refer to the filament as either ABS or PLA because that’s what I use. ABS needs a higher temperature to print with but has more flexible properties after it’s been printed. PLA is much easier to print with, but can’t be used for some things.

I’ve got an R QIDI TECHNOLOGY i Fast 3D Printer which takes 3mm filament. I’m also using cheap eBay filament which you can see in the image below (purple spool). The manufacturer of this filament touts it as being ‘premium’ and, compared to other filaments on eBay, you certainly get less warped prints and the colors are consistent between spools – so possibly good value at around £20 per kg (although shipping costs need to be factored in).

Filament cost is often based on the color, but I tend to stick with white because it makes it easier to see if there have been any issues in a print.

The filament is printed from a 3D model which has been exported from FreeCAD. It’s not possible for me to take credit for many of these models as they have been sourced from Thingiverse and modified so that they fit on the printer bed.

How much does 1 kg of filament cost?

I’ve found that ABS costs around £20 per kg and PLA costs around £10 per kg.

The most expensive ABS filament I’ve purchased is the translucent purple-pink color at £20 per kg and the cheapest has been plain white ABS for £18 per kg (both from Amazon).

The translucent purple was such a horrible print that I won’t be buying this again, but I’m happy with Amazon Prime’s free delivery and how long it took to get here (2 days).

For PLA, Amazon charges slightly more than eBay: Amazon: £10 – £15 per kg and eBay: £8 -£16 depending on the supplier.

The eBay filaments come with no extra packaging, whereas Amazon sends them in sealed plastic bags inside an outer bag that is not resealable.

What I’ve printed

I’m still in the learning stage, so have done a wide range of prints. I find that anything that is flat with no overhangs is easy to print. Overhangs need either support material which you can remove afterward, or it needs the use of rafts which are basically extra bits of filament under the model you want to print.

The additional filament can form a base to make printing easier, but also stop warping during the print.

Sadly though, if something has several overhanging parts then it’s likely not possible without using rafts, in which case changes in temperature and speed are often needed between parts otherwise there’s not enough time for the plastic to cool down before laying more on top, causing joins that are weak or have gaps in them.

The following is a random selection of prints. Not all of them were successful with some being printed several times before there were no issues.

The one thing most prints have in common is that they are less than 6cm long – so I can fit 10 on my bed at once.

If any are larger, then the slicing software usually places support material under it which you can see in white on these photos. This is removed afterward by cutting it away by hand but leaves an uneven surface on the underside of the print if too much is removed.

How Much Can You 3d Print With 1kg Of Filament? (Cre: quora )

How much can you print with 1kg of resin?

With a 1-liter bottle of liquid resin, you can print between 120 to 140 of such figures. If you were only printing cubes that were 1 cm high, this would be the number. But

since the printer has to build the figure layer-by-layer, literally “from the ground up”, it takes more than this number.

The time required is also longer because it needs to support the small bottom layers with a larger top surface. So printing a 1 cm high cube could take between 1 and 2 hours, depending on your settings and how much you want to polish out the result in post-processing.

How much resin should I use?

Probably too much! Never start with half a liter or even one liter. First, print something that only takes between 10 and 20g of resin or just test if you can control your prints well enough. If your prints are turning out great, then gradually increase the amount of resin used until you reach a point where the prints start to suffer.

Then you should reduce the amount of resin so that your prints remain excellent and consistent!

For this project, we used 30g of resin in total, for all the figures together. This is approximately 5x less than what you would need for such large objects by other 3D printers! However when printing sculptures, it is much easier to add more resin when necessary than having to wait until your printer is free or when it has completely run out of resin.

How many resins can I use?

Our machine works with a 1-liter bottle which could be filled with two colors/types of liquid photopolymers.

But how do I switch from one color to another? For example during post-processing, do I need to let one layer dry before I can switch the colors?

Fortunately, this is not necessary as we use a special mixing nozzle that makes it possible to switch the color during printing.

Conclusion

3D printing can be a great way to prototype, create custom products for customers or simply make some fun stuff. If you are interested in learning more about how much filament is needed for different models of printers and what kind of materials work best with your printer, contact us today!

We have the expertise to help find the perfect solution for whatever your needs may be.

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