January 24, 2024 • 38 mins
This enlightening episode of our Ham Radio Guide podcast welcomes Megan Brooks, the co-owner of American Filament, for an extensive discussion on the exciting world of 3D printing and its application in Ham Radio. We explore the many facets of 3D printing technology, delving into printer variations, filament choices, and the unique products that can be created.
Megan shares her journey from environmental engineering to the establishment of American Filament, a company committed to American-sourced resin. She highlights the importance of the safety and quality of filament materials and provides a comprehensive overview of their products, including the unique PLA Plus filament.
Discover the artwork of lithophanes, or 3D-printed images, as Megan demonstrates one of their own multi-colored lithophane boxes. We also demystify 3D printer brands like the Elgato, Neptune, and Bamboo, offering guidance and advice to those stepping into the 3D printing world.
Learn about the different qualities of filaments, how they affect the final print quality, and the optimal storage conditions to maintain their quality. Megan also shares tips to combat the water-absorbing nature of filaments, such as using filament dryers or dehumidifiers.
Whether you are a 3D printing beginner or a seasoned veteran, this episode is packed full of valuable information, insider tips, and expert advice. Dive in to understand the full potential of 3D printing in the Ham Radio space.
SHOW NOTES
Our website: https://americanfilament.us/
Lithophane Maker: https://www.lithophanemaker.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanFilament/
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/american_filament/
Discord (when I say we just started I mean like last week haha): https://discord.gg/AKZTmGVa79
STL Sites:
Sites for Printers
Links:
Hook and Loop Cable ties https://amzn.to/478uCoA
Black Dacron ¼ rope. https://amzn.to/3vEVRKx
LINKS
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar
NEWS:
https://twitter.com/TheHamRadioGuy
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thehamradioguy
Email: W0MET@thehamradioguy.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Ham Radio Guide podcast. Today we have Megan Brooks
with American Filament with us.
And we're going to be talking about 3D printers that are used quite often in Ham Radio.
And talking about some of the determinations you should make when you're considering your filament.
And why, you know, maybe you want to choose an American product.
(00:21):
And just a little bit of different things about 3D printers maybe.
You know, why some may be better than the others. and we'll
uh you know see how this all goes and i
mean him a lot of people use things in ham radio quite often
for 3d printing whether it might be a guy wire or some other type of you know
wire winder so megan welcome to the show thanks for having me absolutely i appreciate
(00:48):
i'm glad we could finally uh kind of meet up and get together on this and and
make this work and i tell us a a little bit about you.
Tell us a little bit about American Filament and we'll go from there.
All right. So yeah, my name is Megan Brooks. I own American Filament with my husband, Thomas.
We make filament here in Huntsville, Alabama using American sourced resin, spools, labels, boxes.
(01:17):
I mean, every part that we can get from American manufacturers, we do.
If we just can't find it in America. We only go with America's allies for sourcing materials.
We refuse to go to the big bad guys. So our journey started with Lithophane Maker.
My husband created the lithophanemaker.com website tool in 2018.
(01:41):
That's how we kind of got into 3D printing. And during COVID,
when all the filament shortages came around and the supply chain issues became
more and more our parent, we decided to start American Filament.
So that's where a lot of the philosophical basis of American manufacturing,
supporting it in our own small way, where that all comes from.
(02:02):
So you've only been around since maybe 2020 then? We sold our first spool in August of 2021.
Wow. So you're still relatively new, really, in the whole industry overall.
We are. We are. We just barely hit two years, I guess. Uh-huh. Right.
It's been a journey, too. We've had, you know, we're not perfect.
(02:24):
We've gotten a lot more perfect than we used to be. You know,
starting from the beginning, we...
We've learned a lot. We've gotten a lot better. We've brought on an excellent
employee. His name's Taylor.
We've improved our processes, our ingredients.
So we're really proud of where we are just two years down the road.
(02:45):
Absolutely. I think that's all to be said. It sounded like it was last fall.
We had a hard time getting together. You were really busy, which is good. I'm glad to hear that.
What made you think you could go into making filaments?
Did you know anything about it? Background, engineering? I mean,
what made you do 3D printing, you
know, filament versus doing some other business, you know, of some sort?
(03:06):
Well, so really, this is my husband's brainchild to begin with. And now it's my baby.
With the Lithophane Maker community, we weren't just, you know,
shouting into the void at first. We already had a community of wonderful users
who were excited to try our products when we got them on the market.
(03:29):
So that's kind of where the convincing of me came from with my husband.
We've always tried to figure out how to grow Lithophane Maker into a business
and American Filaments, kind of where that came from.
Thomas is an aerospace engineer. engineer.
He has his master's and I am an environmental engineer, which when it comes
(03:53):
to production facilities actually has a lot of crossover.
Now, wastewater treatment systems use a lot of the same filtration and equipment,
machinery, stuff like that.
So once I got into it, it was surprising how much crossover there was with both of our careers.
That definitely makes sense. So do you just make one type of filament or do
(04:14):
you have multiple lines like the PLA or ABS and PET, and I'm sure there's many others.
Yeah. So we started off initially with just PLA and kind of our specialty flagship
was our lithophane line.
We have, I know I keep coming back to lithophanes, which isn't really a hand
maybe explain, explain to the listeners a little bit. What is a lithophane?
(04:37):
What is a lithophane?
I should have an example, but could I step away for a second?
Sure is it is a type of filament what so a lithophane is a yeah i'm sorry i
should have been prepared do you mind if i step away and go grab one no that's
fine okay that'll be a lot better no problem.
Well, she goes and grabs some information. I hope that you'll find this episode
(05:01):
informational and maybe gain some of your interest in your 3D printing.
There's lots of things like thermoplastics and polycarbonates.
And we're going to get into why some of the spools and things are different
from each other and how they're different.
So, as she will show us this lithophane material and give us some examples of
(05:24):
that or maybe show us what that looks like for those who are watching on YouTube.
Okay, I'm back. I'm back. So, a lithophane is, here's an example of a box that I printed.
See if I can get it to. Oh, yeah. It kind of shows it up. Yep.
Yeah. So, you see some images on the side of the box and everything.
(05:46):
Yeah. almost like 3d etched in there type thing
yeah so then when you turn it on
i don't know how well this is going to work on oh
it kind of becomes a box you can see a light then
yeah the images that you have chosen are then visible and i don't know if i
can get it to work very well in this yeah no i think we can see it from our
(06:06):
side people who watch the video okay you captured the light now yeah yeah it
really is cool you know i if you go on our social medias and all all that,
you can see better, better pictures.
So the tool, the lithophane maker tool, what it does is you put in your images,
you can adjust your dimensions, and then it spits out the STL file for you,
(06:30):
which for people who are just new to 3D printing,
the STL file is your 3D file that you put into your software.
Gotcha. And then the software, it's called a slicer because it literally slices
it into teeny tiny little layers that the printer then prints. So...
Lithophanes are very personalized things that people can print,
(06:54):
but the amount of light that can come through the print obviously affects the
quality of your lithophane.
You want light to be able to come through the thin areas better and have the
thick areas still block it because that's how you get that image.
It's just the thin to thick of the print.
Sure. So prior to our filament line, there were maybe a couple internationally
(07:19):
white lithophane filaments.
But we've developed a line of five different colors that give you like kind
of a neutral white, a warm white.
That's our crisp gray. It actually looks kind of like a black and white image
when you can see it the right way.
So that's kind of our thing that we really developed.
(07:42):
Started on our, one of our obsessions, I suppose you could say,
but so going circling back around to our different filament types,
we started with that standard PLA.
We use a resin that is made with corn from the Midwest.
And I spent two years trying to find an additive to create a PLA plus Plus product.
(08:06):
We finally identified a product in the fall and are in the process of transitioning
from standard PLA to PLA Plus for all of our colors.
Would that be unique to you guys? Anybody else have PLA Plus out there?
And what would be the plus sides?
So PLA Plus is, it is not unique to us.
(08:26):
It's one of the common filament types that you see. So PLA is going to be your
basic six starting point.
Then you go up to PLA plus, PETG, or kind of depending on what you're looking
for, that's kind of like the next step.
The plus means that it is tougher, which a lot of people will just say it's stronger.
(08:50):
You throw it on the ground, it's less likely to crack.
It's got a little bit of a bounce back to it, which keeps it from shattering.
And it's also, it can withstand stand a little bit higher temperatures than just standard PLA can.
Because here in Alabama on a hot summer day, standard PLA left in your car will droop a little bit.
(09:12):
So the PLA Plus helps a little bit with that to a point.
So one of the hurdles with the PLA Plus additive that I kept running into is
as an environmental engineer, I was very concerned about.
What goes into our filament, what people are going to be breathing in.
Because when you print with filament, you're melting the plastic and there's
(09:33):
going to be off-gassing.
So we identified a bio-based polymer to add to our PLA to create the PLA Plus.
So you're not getting... A lot of foreign filament manufacturers will use ABS,
which has a lot of VOCs that come off when you print with it.
And people will print PLA Plus on their printer without any sort of enclosure,
(09:59):
filtration, anything like that, not realizing what's coming off of it.
So that's why it took us so long to get here is I wanted to make sure it was
an additive that was going to be safe for people to be around.
So that's our PLA Plus journey. And the third plastic that we don't quite have
(10:19):
have on the market yet, it's also been an interesting journey is PETG or PETG.
Now that's going to be the one that most people in the ham radio community are
likely printing with that or that ABS ASA, but PETG is not as dangerous to breathe in.
(10:40):
It's a little bit easier to print than ABS ASA.
It's going to have even better temperature resistance and UV resistance than the PLA plus.
That's certainly probably what listeners would want to be listening or be using
that it sounds like because it's you know most of the stuff would be used in
probably an outdoor environment not always but sometimes and you know I think
(11:00):
most people might know PET is like what water bottles are made some are made
from or food containers sometimes that it's PET is that PETG or PET both?
So PET is exactly what you're saying it's used in a lot of containers and water
bottles but But they tack a glycol onto the chain, the polymer chain.
(11:22):
Otherwise, it won't work in a 3D printer.
Gotcha. So for those who are kind of wondering, well, what is PET?
It's polyethylene terafetalate. I don't know if I probably messed that last
name up, but I'm not a scientist.
I'm going to let you try to pronounce it. I may be good. Right.
(11:44):
But yeah, those are pretty common. There's also like nylon or thermoplastics as well.
Are you familiar with those much or have we used them? So this is all thermoplastics.
PLA, PLA, anything you're putting in a 3D printer is going to be a thermoplastic.
Gotcha, understandable.
There, yes, there's, so continuing on from PETG, you have ABS and ASA,
(12:10):
which are probably pretty commonly used in ham radio. So, ABS is...
A lot of the stuff that you have in your house, at least older stuff,
was probably made with ABS.
Some of that's being replaced with polystyrenes and polycarbonates and stuff like that.
I mean, but there's going to be a lot of ABS in your house, a lot of the harder plastic. Sure.
(12:33):
And ASA is ABS plus UV stabilizers to make it even more outdoor friendly.
Now, those plastics, you are going to want an enclosure, both for just your respiratory health.
The VOCs that are coming off of it are very bad for you.
But also, it's more difficult to print. It's a little bit more difficult to
(12:55):
get it to stay on the bed, and it tends to warp.
So that's why you want an enclosure keeping a good consistent temperature within the print area. area.
Beyond that, nylons are becoming more popular. They're becoming a little bit
less difficult to print with.
As people are buying the bamboo labs printers, I think more and more people
(13:18):
are getting introduced to nylons.
It's another one you're going to need an enclosure and it can be very finicky to print with.
Right now though, from a hobby level, the highest grade, engineer grade filament
that you can find is going to be a nylon filled with carbon fiber.
So a lot of people are using that.
(13:38):
In most instances, you don't really need that, but it's kind of fun.
And, you know, like really it's, it's definitely going to be strong and,
and more temperature resistant for you.
So you have someone who is looking to buy a 3d printer that are not sure what
to look at getting, I mean, you've got the Elgato's and you've got,
there's another one that It starts with an N on top of my head, I'm drawing a blank, but.
(14:02):
I want to say Newton. I know that's not right. Neptune. Neptune. Neptune.
Thank you. And then you've got like the bamboos. I mean, those are probably
the top popular three brands that I'm aware of. Maybe there's others.
Yeah. So it's like, all right, well, where should I really start with maybe
just getting some simple images?
I mean, I know people can go out to get things, you know, universe or thing
(14:24):
universe and grab stuff and get some images to print from there.
But they're looking to get fulfillment like and you're
i can go to amazon and get a spool for you know 20 bucks or
whatever the difference of going to amazon getting something
from there versus yours i always like to go on american made when i can but
i mean is there differences in you know your pla versus someone else's pla yeah
(14:47):
do you want me to start with printers and kind of move into the filaments yeah
we can talk a little bit yeah we can go that right sure let's go down that Well.
I guess it was kind of two questions. We can talk about printers,
maybe what your experience with them is and what you might recommend for somebody being new.
But then also like, hey, we're looking to buy more of the filament line.
(15:08):
And where should I go get filament? And why should I look at getting something
from American Filament versus I can buy a $20 Chiefs ball on Amazon to play with?
Absolutely. Sure. So with printers, we usually tell people there's kind of two tiers.
If you want to buy a product that you set up and it works, you don't have to
(15:29):
mess with it, it just works, then the Bamboo Labs are going to be your best option.
Now, they have introduced the A1 and A1 Mini series.
I don't have any experience with those, but people have been very happy with them.
That model is what we would call a bed slinger.
(15:50):
That's where the nozzle is going to come down and move in this direction and this direction.
And then what you're actually, the bed you're printing on is going to do this
back and forth for your Y axis. So...
That that's not going to be quite as stable as what's called
a core xy where you actually have a stable you
(16:12):
know like box and the the printhead can go both x and y using belts and everything
and then the bed is actually going down instead of the bed being the part that
goes back and forth Fourth, it's going down.
So it's going to be more stable.
(16:33):
So again, the A1s, I haven't used them, but I've heard really good things.
And I think those are $200, $300 range.
And what we use are the Bamboo P1P and the Carbon, X1 Carbon.
So anything from that line, I think, is a good place to start for reliability and ease of use.
(16:58):
There are there's another company
called reality anyone who's dabbled in 3d
printings probably heard of the ender series oh yeah
that's another very popular one for sure yep the
ender 3 v2 and the cr10 as well
those are two very very popular ones forever but
the ender 3 they now have a instead of 3v2 it's 3v3 they've had to start competing
(17:26):
with bamboo bamboo was really stealing their market share because it was just
so much easier to use so we have a 3v3,
shoot s1 i think something like that and for the price point and compared to
the older creality vendors it's been a major improvement and then i think there's
(17:49):
even a newer version since then that's supposedly even better.
Those are worth considering. One thing with Creality in the past is you never
really knew what you were going to get. Some would come perfect.
Some would be a bit of a lemon.
I think they've ironed out some of that. They also have the K1,
and they're about to come out with a K1 Plus or Pro, or maybe they already did.
(18:11):
And those are going to be more in line with the Core XY Bamboos I mentioned,
where the bed is what moves.
So i would say those are probably the two the main two to consider the neptunes that you mentioned.
They've had some issues they've been they've been
working on upgrading their motherboards and the firmware that they use there's
(18:35):
a new version of firmware that's much faster and can do a lot more apparently
the first neptune 4 that came out had a lot of issues but there are people people
who have the threes and absolutely love them.
I think my buddy just got the Neptune max and he, he seems to love it.
I mean, it seems to be using it quite a bit so far. So, um, which is good.
And the entry level bamboo, I mean, it starts around six 50,
(18:59):
700 bucks, something like that. So not terribly expensive overall.
And then if you get the print head on top with a spools, I can,
uh, hold three or four spools on top, but you know, it's another 300 bucks,
two or 300 bucks and like that.
So it's like 900 bucks, nine 50, something like that overall.
So, yeah, I mean, I think it is pretty good. I mean, yeah, Yeah,
you can go out and buy, you know, an Ender or something like that for two or three hundred bucks.
(19:19):
But maybe that's a good starting point for someone to just to play and learn
how to grab the files and prints and stuff.
For sure. If you've never done
before, before you go spend nine hundred bucks and you end up breaking.
Because when you start doing 3D printing, you have to realize,
I don't know if you have to realize the melting point necessarily of what you're dealing with.
But you definitely have to know what type of head you're using and, you know, what the...
(19:43):
The temperature of those things are and obviously you have some
dangerous gases coming out so you definitely want to
have an exhaust of some sort on some of those things so if
you're starting to print with something like abs that does give off a gas a
you know elgato or something may not be working may not be your best choice
for that you know yeah and one thing with the enders and with the way the market's
(20:06):
changing i don't know how much this holds true anymore but uh you know up Up until last year,
I would have said an Ender 3 v2 is a great place to start because you're going
to end up tinkering. You're going to end up upgrading.
Things are going to fail. And you're really going to have to figure out how
every part of it works, either because you upgrade it or it breaks and you have to fix it.
(20:28):
Put your own 3D part. If you're someone who really likes to know how things
work, the ins and outs of it, then it's a great place to start.
But if you're someone who just wants it to work out of the box,
then those $600, $700 bamboos are just, you know, depends on what you're looking for.
Right. A better way to go. So we're talking about pricing a little bit and,
(20:50):
you know, 3D printer filament prices.
You know, you can have a low range of maybe $8 a spool.
And depending on what type of material you're getting, you could be up to,
you know, 30 or more bucks per spool.
Pool so how does your prices kind of range and and you know what uh what does that look like.
So as we all know there's always going to be a bit of a
(21:11):
premium for american materials we don't
have to get behind you know everyone knows that we don't have to get into that
but so there is a little there's going to be a little bit of a premium on our
filament just because we insist on using american materials now what does that
get you though that gets you a higher quality base resin,
(21:32):
it gets you a filament that's going to just,
work. A lot of that cheaper stuff, you may end up wasting so much of it that
it costs you twice as much in the end because you're just wasting material and time.
So that's one of the benefits to art filament is that it just works.
(21:53):
Another thing is a lot of those cheaper filaments, they get the price down by
diluting the PLA with other plastics.
And to do that, They have to use some industrial chemicals and compatibilizers
and plasticizers, stuff like that,
which kind of goes back into what exactly are you breathing in when you're printing that filament?
(22:17):
And, you know, most of us like to have them just like in our office or in the next room over.
So depending on what brand it is, you don't really know what you're going to get coming off.
So that's kind of the two big things is you get the quality where you're wasting
less filament overall because you're not failing, your prints aren't failing as much.
(22:40):
And you also get the knowledge that we're just using biopolymers and colorant. That's all we're using.
Now, PETG, we're just wrapping up our trials.
We have identified the best PETG resin.
It was a bit of a journey. Had to talk to our manufacturers and everything,
but we have one more day of trials with our colorant added and that goes the
(23:06):
way I think it goes. Then we should be adding PETG later this year.
Now that is not a biopolymer. That is a petroleum-based plastic.
However, it does not off-gas with the same nasties that ABS, ASA nylon does.
Nice. That's good for everyone across the board, hopefully on that one.
Yes. So, you know, some of the things I've read is that, you know,
(23:30):
definitely there's different qualities out there.
And when you're using a filament in your machine, I guess I'm trying to get
rid of either it's a rumor or myth.
But, you know, if I've got an Amazon filament here and I've got an American
filament line here and I'm running
Amazon through and then I start to feed American filament in there.
(23:50):
One of the things that I've read is that you don't want to mix manufacturers
because they could have different melting points between maybe the same product, PETG.
But, you know, Amazon's version or whatever you got off Amazon versus what you're
buying from yourself from American Filament, they could have different melting points.
(24:11):
And of course, if you're PETG versus ABA, of course, they got different melting points.
But is there a difference in that and filaments that you might see?
So is this mirrored or is it? Oh, no, yeah, I can see it. Yep,
nope, you're good. All right, so can you see this temperature?
The temperature ranges on there? Yep.
When you buy a filament, it should come almost always with a sticker on it,
(24:35):
but at least on the box or on the website or whatever, it's going to give you
a range for your nozzle and then for the bed temperature.
The bed temperature is not really probably going to change much for PLA versus,
you know, Amazon PLA versus my PLA versus someone else's PLA. Okay.
(24:55):
But PETG is going to be different for PLA.
It's just you know kind of like the bed temperature it's kind of
like one thing for pla one thing for petchi but you're
right the nozzle temperature that is that is definitely going to be dependent
upon what's in the filament so ours tends actually to melt a little bit higher
(25:16):
temperature because we don't have a lot of those other things added that i just
mentioned a lot of that stuff brings that melting temperature down.
So you do have to run ours a little bit hotter, but I mean, as long as you're
paying attention to your labels and you can always reach out to the manufacturer.
And also there's a lot of Facebook groups and discords and Reddit posts and
(25:40):
all sorts of stuff out there.
Makers like to talk about what we do. So there's a lot of conversations about,
well, I had more luck with this on this printer and I had more luck with this.
So there's a lot of information on the internet and you know
like i said manufacturers we're usually more than
happy to talk to you about stuff like that as well gotcha is
there a shelf life of most of the filaments so maybe you know it does have an
(26:04):
expiration it should be used within you know six months or can it sit there
for two years obviously like anything it shouldn't sit out in the sun or maybe
a hot attic in the middle you know of summer in tennessee or alabama but But, you know,
where does that, the cork, I mean, I would deal would be, you know,
in your house somewhere where we're
comfortable or maybe a heat or maybe a controlled basement or something.
(26:27):
But is there a shelf life to filaments and how long it can last for?
Yes and no. So the problem you run into with PLA and PETG and some of the other
ones out there, too, is they are hygroscopic, which means that they love to soak up water.
But boiling water in the hot end while the plastic is coming out,
(26:51):
it's going to cause problems as you can imagine.
From brand to brand that's going to the level of water absorption is going to vary.
Again, it all goes, it all ties back into what's being mixed with the PLA.
So for ours, we.
(27:12):
I've, I've used a spool that I made my first run in like, I guess it would have been July of 2021.
I've used one of those within the last month.
It's just been sitting out. It's been sitting out in my Alabama house through a couple summers.
I mean, not exposed to the heat, the heat would be a problem,
(27:32):
but you know, it gets humid around here.
So all I had to do was take like
the the most outer layer i had to
take that off and you can usually tell with pla because it it
feels more brittle when it gets wet now that
being said so sorry let
me finish my thoughts so with our filament we've had a lot of luck with it just
(27:57):
sitting out and it hasn't really absorbed water to a point where it's been problematic
if you find that your filament is too wet and you You don't want to pull any off of the outer layer.
I mean, I understand I have sheet filament on my hands, right?
I get off stack spools. So for me to pull a layer off, it's not the end of the world.
(28:19):
But if I were buying my filament, then I'd be a lot less inclined to do that.
So there are filament dryers out there. They're basically just little dehumidifiers.
The bamboo carbon, you can actually use it as a dehydrator.
So there are ways to pull the water out.
(28:41):
And then if you get on the internet, there are a lot of really creative people out there.
The best one I've seen is I guess you can go to Lowe's and get these DeWalt
like outdoor storage bins that have a weather seal on them.
And then there are various dehumidifiers that you can put in there with your
(29:02):
filaments, both active and passive, meaning, you know, ones like pellets.
And then the other being sort of like a fan or, you know, something like that.
But there are people who store their filaments like that and never have an issue.
Very interesting. Yeah.
You know i i think you've answered a lot of the questions that you know may be considered of a,
(29:25):
new user considering looking getting into 3d printing anything else that you
can find that maybe or can think of that you know you'd want to share with with
someone and you know might be useful for them and looking at filament or and
what's the easiest way to find you and where can Can we get you your products?
(29:45):
Yeah. So the best place to buy our products is American filament dot us. It's our website.
We are available on Amazon. Some fulfilled by Amazon. Some is seller fulfilled by us.
We find it hard to make it using the fees on Amazon.
(30:07):
They've just gone up and up and up. So PSA, if you can find a manufacturer's
website, it's almost always better to buy straight from them than from Amazon.
Just helps the small businesses out.
But we are available on Amazon. I understand. Amazon's nice. It's easy.
You know, I get it. So that's the best place to find us.
(30:29):
But also, you know, I met you at the Huntsville Ham Fest in the GigaParts area.
In the GigaParts area, yep.
Yeah. Yeah. So GigaParts actually is our biggest retail partner.
They carry our filaments in store and on their website as well.
And have you heard about their expansion? I have heard about their expansion.
(30:52):
I've not been to their new place that's coming up, but I would look forward
to getting down there and seeing it. They're going to be huge.
Yeah. So with that expansion, they're also looking to expand their whole maker
world world department.
So they're looking at some different printer brands to carry accessories.
And then again, American Filament. So they're going to be nice.
(31:16):
Yeah, well, we're excited. We're excited for them. We're both fellow Hansel
businesses. We like seeing each other succeed.
But they will be a good place to go for a lot of your 3D printing printers and stuff like that.
And if you're looking for something right now, matterhackers.com is probably
the biggest online 3D printing everything website.
(31:41):
And if you have a micro center where you live, they also have...
They're kind of the one chain store that carries several different printer options.
But they don't have American filament yet.
Yet. Yet.
So we'll make sure we put all those links to...
The GigaParts and the other site that you mentioned just now,
(32:04):
or you can shop online. Give it to me one more time.
Americanfilament.us. No, no. The other one where you said it's kind of the biggest
store that you can find if you want something right now.
Batter Hackers. Okay. I'm not familiar with that one. I hadn't heard that before.
But yeah, certainly go out to Americanfilament.com and get your filament there from them.
(32:25):
See if that's a good place to go. or even if you're ordering your radio on GigaParts
and you want to order your film at the same time, you can get all in one shipment
there from GigaParts as well. So that's awesome.
I thought of one thing that we didn't discuss. I didn't know if you wanted to,
where to find free online models.
(32:46):
Absolutely. Yeah, let's talk about it. That's a great idea. I kind of mentioned
Thingiverse a little bit ago.
That's a good place to go, but maybe you have some others to share as well.
Yeah, Thingiverse is probably the one everybody thinks of.
Warning to parents, children should probably not cruise it without your assistance.
(33:08):
There are some things on there that might not be appropriate or definitely not appropriate.
Good to know. Not to have search terms. Yeah, well, now you know to stay away from them.
Right. Yeah. So Thingiverse, that's a big one. Another one is printables.com.
They have a lot of the fun things that are on Thingiverse too.
(33:31):
But I find that printables is really good when you're looking for functional
things that people have designed.
Oh, it's good to know. You know, binders or improvements, things you can print
to improve various printers.
Yeah, people do like door stops and all kinds of stuff sometimes. Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy how much stuff. stuff like my
buddy's picked up his 3D printer sometime late last year and
(33:54):
he's printed like a little boat type thing that will actually like
a float in water and yeah it's
kind of crazy though he just like made it for his little kid you know but he's
he's made uh some other parts like uh
he was wanting to beget the Neptune because he wanted to
print like bigger body parts like like a knee cap or an
elbow protector type thing so yeah it's pretty
(34:16):
crazy it's pretty cool people can come up with and what
they do so it really is there are whole
like project kits you can buy i know there's a
guy we we work with here in town who bought this whole project kit for an r2d2
it's like a life-size r2d2 it has all the 3d models that you need to print and
then it has instructions for like all the servo motors and gears and belts and
(34:41):
all that stuff to make it actually roll,
Huh. That's incredible. It is. And there's amazing what people can do.
There's all sorts of little kits and stuff like out there. There's even some
free ones out on thingiverse and printables where it tells you go buy this bearing
and this motor and here's how you put it together.
It's pretty. Yeah. I know my brother has ordered several times from a guy online
(35:04):
Etsy or something like those Milwaukee packout cases.
They have like little red boxes in them and, but they're usually just come as a little,
just a little box to put screws and stuff stuff in but he wanted more
compartmentalized boxes to go
inside the Milwaukee pack outs so a guy printed
them all the different sized boxes just for those and yeah it
looked and it worked great so it was it's
(35:25):
pretty cool so yeah it's amazing what you can do with
with 3D printing and you know how things
hold up I know guys who sell antennas and have made
you know masked items items caps for their
antenna or use them as bearings you know for
you know sizing something down so it's pretty
incredible what you can end up building 3d printing if you can have a
(35:45):
little bit of knowledge or a lot of people will share things out there on thingiverse
or yeah the other sites and you can just use their ideas so yeah yeah exactly
also if you have some interest and And time to sit down on YouTube,
you can teach yourself how to 3D model.
Then you can start designing your own stuff. And there's a program called Tinkercad
(36:10):
that is a good place to start.
A lot of kids even start to learn on it.
It's more where you can put together blocks like here's a sphere, here's a cube.
And you can kind of use that to start your 3D modeling journey.
Journey and then Fusion 360.
I believe that it's still free for personal use. That's going to be kind of
(36:33):
the next step into true 3D modeling.
There's all sorts of tutorials out there.
That's awesome. I appreciate all the information. Well, I wanted to keep this
close to an hour or less if possible, but I thought this was great to be able
to share and talk about it.
I knew this is something that, again, is growing in the ham radio community
(36:54):
and wanted to be able to give listeners an opportunity to learn a little bit more about it.
If they haven't gained the interest yet, maybe this might spark their interest
to look at getting into the 3D printing and finding useful ways for it that
they can make it in their household or on their ham radio adventures,
whatever they might choose.
So thank you for coming on to the Ham Radio Guide podcast today.
(37:16):
I really appreciate this.
We'll be sharing this on our pod bean on our podcast site.
We'll do the audio only and we'll do the YouTube version of this as well.
So people can see some of the models and things that you show and anything else
before we wrap up for the day.
I don't think so. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
I could talk about this all day. I'm surprised it was only an hour-ish.
(37:38):
Right, right. Absolutely. Well, sometimes people lose interest to have an hour.
Maybe it's their drive home and their drive to work.
They'll kind of get to listen to this a little bit.
Everybody, Megan Brooks with American Filament. Thank you for joining us today.
And reach out to AmericanFilament.com if you have any questions about filament
and you need answers. Oh, American filament.us. Thank you.
(38:03):
So reach out to them. If you have any questions about your filament or you need,
you're trying to figure out a project and need to know what the best option
is. They can help you out with that, right?
Yeah, absolutely. And we're also on Facebook, Instagram, and we just started a discord server.
Nice. If you want to share that discord server link out, can I find it on your website?
(38:24):
Yes. Yeah. But I can send you an email with all the links that we talked about.
And I'll share those out in my podcast notes as well on YouTube here so people
can have access to them and gain access to you and find you an easy way there.
Sounds great. If you want to click on more and you should be able to find more information.
So, all right, I'm going to go ahead and end this and appreciate it.
(38:44):
And thank you for being with us. Great. Thanks, Marvin.
Hello and welcome to the Ham Radio Guide podcast. Today we have Megan Brooks
with American Filament with us.
And we're going to be talking about 3D printers that are used quite often in Ham Radio.
And talking about some of the determinations you should make when you're considering your filament.
And why, you know, maybe you want to choose an American product.
(00:21):
And just a little bit of different things about 3D printers maybe.
You know, why some may be better than the others. and we'll
uh you know see how this all goes and i
mean him a lot of people use things in ham radio quite often
for 3d printing whether it might be a guy wire or some other type of you know
wire winder so megan welcome to the show thanks for having me absolutely i appreciate
(00:48):
i'm glad we could finally uh kind of meet up and get together on this and and
make this work and i tell us a a little bit about you.
Tell us a little bit about American Filament and we'll go from there.
All right. So yeah, my name is Megan Brooks. I own American Filament with my husband, Thomas.
We make filament here in Huntsville, Alabama using American sourced resin, spools, labels, boxes.
(01:17):
I mean, every part that we can get from American manufacturers, we do.
If we just can't find it in America. We only go with America's allies for sourcing materials.
We refuse to go to the big bad guys. So our journey started with Lithophane Maker.
My husband created the lithophanemaker.com website tool in 2018.
(01:41):
That's how we kind of got into 3D printing. And during COVID,
when all the filament shortages came around and the supply chain issues became
more and more our parent, we decided to start American Filament.
So that's where a lot of the philosophical basis of American manufacturing,
supporting it in our own small way, where that all comes from.
(02:02):
So you've only been around since maybe 2020 then? We sold our first spool in August of 2021.
Wow. So you're still relatively new, really, in the whole industry overall.
We are. We are. We just barely hit two years, I guess. Uh-huh. Right.
It's been a journey, too. We've had, you know, we're not perfect.
(02:24):
We've gotten a lot more perfect than we used to be. You know,
starting from the beginning, we...
We've learned a lot. We've gotten a lot better. We've brought on an excellent
employee. His name's Taylor.
We've improved our processes, our ingredients.
So we're really proud of where we are just two years down the road.
(02:45):
Absolutely. I think that's all to be said. It sounded like it was last fall.
We had a hard time getting together. You were really busy, which is good. I'm glad to hear that.
What made you think you could go into making filaments?
Did you know anything about it? Background, engineering? I mean,
what made you do 3D printing, you
know, filament versus doing some other business, you know, of some sort?
(03:06):
Well, so really, this is my husband's brainchild to begin with. And now it's my baby.
With the Lithophane Maker community, we weren't just, you know,
shouting into the void at first. We already had a community of wonderful users
who were excited to try our products when we got them on the market.
(03:29):
So that's kind of where the convincing of me came from with my husband.
We've always tried to figure out how to grow Lithophane Maker into a business
and American Filaments, kind of where that came from.
Thomas is an aerospace engineer. engineer.
He has his master's and I am an environmental engineer, which when it comes
(03:53):
to production facilities actually has a lot of crossover.
Now, wastewater treatment systems use a lot of the same filtration and equipment,
machinery, stuff like that.
So once I got into it, it was surprising how much crossover there was with both of our careers.
That definitely makes sense. So do you just make one type of filament or do
(04:14):
you have multiple lines like the PLA or ABS and PET, and I'm sure there's many others.
Yeah. So we started off initially with just PLA and kind of our specialty flagship
was our lithophane line.
We have, I know I keep coming back to lithophanes, which isn't really a hand
maybe explain, explain to the listeners a little bit. What is a lithophane?
(04:37):
What is a lithophane?
I should have an example, but could I step away for a second?
Sure is it is a type of filament what so a lithophane is a yeah i'm sorry i
should have been prepared do you mind if i step away and go grab one no that's
fine okay that'll be a lot better no problem.
Well, she goes and grabs some information. I hope that you'll find this episode
(05:01):
informational and maybe gain some of your interest in your 3D printing.
There's lots of things like thermoplastics and polycarbonates.
And we're going to get into why some of the spools and things are different
from each other and how they're different.
So, as she will show us this lithophane material and give us some examples of
(05:24):
that or maybe show us what that looks like for those who are watching on YouTube.
Okay, I'm back. I'm back. So, a lithophane is, here's an example of a box that I printed.
See if I can get it to. Oh, yeah. It kind of shows it up. Yep.
Yeah. So, you see some images on the side of the box and everything.
(05:46):
Yeah. almost like 3d etched in there type thing
yeah so then when you turn it on
i don't know how well this is going to work on oh
it kind of becomes a box you can see a light then
yeah the images that you have chosen are then visible and i don't know if i
can get it to work very well in this yeah no i think we can see it from our
(06:06):
side people who watch the video okay you captured the light now yeah yeah it
really is cool you know i if you go on our social medias and all all that,
you can see better, better pictures.
So the tool, the lithophane maker tool, what it does is you put in your images,
you can adjust your dimensions, and then it spits out the STL file for you,
(06:30):
which for people who are just new to 3D printing,
the STL file is your 3D file that you put into your software.
Gotcha. And then the software, it's called a slicer because it literally slices
it into teeny tiny little layers that the printer then prints. So...
Lithophanes are very personalized things that people can print,
(06:54):
but the amount of light that can come through the print obviously affects the
quality of your lithophane.
You want light to be able to come through the thin areas better and have the
thick areas still block it because that's how you get that image.
It's just the thin to thick of the print.
Sure. So prior to our filament line, there were maybe a couple internationally
(07:19):
white lithophane filaments.
But we've developed a line of five different colors that give you like kind
of a neutral white, a warm white.
That's our crisp gray. It actually looks kind of like a black and white image
when you can see it the right way.
So that's kind of our thing that we really developed.
(07:42):
Started on our, one of our obsessions, I suppose you could say,
but so going circling back around to our different filament types,
we started with that standard PLA.
We use a resin that is made with corn from the Midwest.
And I spent two years trying to find an additive to create a PLA plus Plus product.
(08:06):
We finally identified a product in the fall and are in the process of transitioning
from standard PLA to PLA Plus for all of our colors.
Would that be unique to you guys? Anybody else have PLA Plus out there?
And what would be the plus sides?
So PLA Plus is, it is not unique to us.
(08:26):
It's one of the common filament types that you see. So PLA is going to be your
basic six starting point.
Then you go up to PLA plus, PETG, or kind of depending on what you're looking
for, that's kind of like the next step.
The plus means that it is tougher, which a lot of people will just say it's stronger.
(08:50):
You throw it on the ground, it's less likely to crack.
It's got a little bit of a bounce back to it, which keeps it from shattering.
And it's also, it can withstand stand a little bit higher temperatures than just standard PLA can.
Because here in Alabama on a hot summer day, standard PLA left in your car will droop a little bit.
(09:12):
So the PLA Plus helps a little bit with that to a point.
So one of the hurdles with the PLA Plus additive that I kept running into is
as an environmental engineer, I was very concerned about.
What goes into our filament, what people are going to be breathing in.
Because when you print with filament, you're melting the plastic and there's
(09:33):
going to be off-gassing.
So we identified a bio-based polymer to add to our PLA to create the PLA Plus.
So you're not getting... A lot of foreign filament manufacturers will use ABS,
which has a lot of VOCs that come off when you print with it.
And people will print PLA Plus on their printer without any sort of enclosure,
(09:59):
filtration, anything like that, not realizing what's coming off of it.
So that's why it took us so long to get here is I wanted to make sure it was
an additive that was going to be safe for people to be around.
So that's our PLA Plus journey. And the third plastic that we don't quite have
(10:19):
have on the market yet, it's also been an interesting journey is PETG or PETG.
Now that's going to be the one that most people in the ham radio community are
likely printing with that or that ABS ASA, but PETG is not as dangerous to breathe in.
(10:40):
It's a little bit easier to print than ABS ASA.
It's going to have even better temperature resistance and UV resistance than the PLA plus.
That's certainly probably what listeners would want to be listening or be using
that it sounds like because it's you know most of the stuff would be used in
probably an outdoor environment not always but sometimes and you know I think
(11:00):
most people might know PET is like what water bottles are made some are made
from or food containers sometimes that it's PET is that PETG or PET both?
So PET is exactly what you're saying it's used in a lot of containers and water
bottles but But they tack a glycol onto the chain, the polymer chain.
(11:22):
Otherwise, it won't work in a 3D printer.
Gotcha. So for those who are kind of wondering, well, what is PET?
It's polyethylene terafetalate. I don't know if I probably messed that last
name up, but I'm not a scientist.
I'm going to let you try to pronounce it. I may be good. Right.
(11:44):
But yeah, those are pretty common. There's also like nylon or thermoplastics as well.
Are you familiar with those much or have we used them? So this is all thermoplastics.
PLA, PLA, anything you're putting in a 3D printer is going to be a thermoplastic.
Gotcha, understandable.
There, yes, there's, so continuing on from PETG, you have ABS and ASA,
(12:10):
which are probably pretty commonly used in ham radio. So, ABS is...
A lot of the stuff that you have in your house, at least older stuff,
was probably made with ABS.
Some of that's being replaced with polystyrenes and polycarbonates and stuff like that.
I mean, but there's going to be a lot of ABS in your house, a lot of the harder plastic. Sure.
(12:33):
And ASA is ABS plus UV stabilizers to make it even more outdoor friendly.
Now, those plastics, you are going to want an enclosure, both for just your respiratory health.
The VOCs that are coming off of it are very bad for you.
But also, it's more difficult to print. It's a little bit more difficult to
(12:55):
get it to stay on the bed, and it tends to warp.
So that's why you want an enclosure keeping a good consistent temperature within the print area. area.
Beyond that, nylons are becoming more popular. They're becoming a little bit
less difficult to print with.
As people are buying the bamboo labs printers, I think more and more people
(13:18):
are getting introduced to nylons.
It's another one you're going to need an enclosure and it can be very finicky to print with.
Right now though, from a hobby level, the highest grade, engineer grade filament
that you can find is going to be a nylon filled with carbon fiber.
So a lot of people are using that.
(13:38):
In most instances, you don't really need that, but it's kind of fun.
And, you know, like really it's, it's definitely going to be strong and,
and more temperature resistant for you.
So you have someone who is looking to buy a 3d printer that are not sure what
to look at getting, I mean, you've got the Elgato's and you've got,
there's another one that It starts with an N on top of my head, I'm drawing a blank, but.
(14:02):
I want to say Newton. I know that's not right. Neptune. Neptune. Neptune.
Thank you. And then you've got like the bamboos. I mean, those are probably
the top popular three brands that I'm aware of. Maybe there's others.
Yeah. So it's like, all right, well, where should I really start with maybe
just getting some simple images?
I mean, I know people can go out to get things, you know, universe or thing
(14:24):
universe and grab stuff and get some images to print from there.
But they're looking to get fulfillment like and you're
i can go to amazon and get a spool for you know 20 bucks or
whatever the difference of going to amazon getting something
from there versus yours i always like to go on american made when i can but
i mean is there differences in you know your pla versus someone else's pla yeah
(14:47):
do you want me to start with printers and kind of move into the filaments yeah
we can talk a little bit yeah we can go that right sure let's go down that Well.
I guess it was kind of two questions. We can talk about printers,
maybe what your experience with them is and what you might recommend for somebody being new.
But then also like, hey, we're looking to buy more of the filament line.
(15:08):
And where should I go get filament? And why should I look at getting something
from American Filament versus I can buy a $20 Chiefs ball on Amazon to play with?
Absolutely. Sure. So with printers, we usually tell people there's kind of two tiers.
If you want to buy a product that you set up and it works, you don't have to
(15:29):
mess with it, it just works, then the Bamboo Labs are going to be your best option.
Now, they have introduced the A1 and A1 Mini series.
I don't have any experience with those, but people have been very happy with them.
That model is what we would call a bed slinger.
(15:50):
That's where the nozzle is going to come down and move in this direction and this direction.
And then what you're actually, the bed you're printing on is going to do this
back and forth for your Y axis. So...
That that's not going to be quite as stable as what's called
a core xy where you actually have a stable you
(16:12):
know like box and the the printhead can go both x and y using belts and everything
and then the bed is actually going down instead of the bed being the part that
goes back and forth Fourth, it's going down.
So it's going to be more stable.
(16:33):
So again, the A1s, I haven't used them, but I've heard really good things.
And I think those are $200, $300 range.
And what we use are the Bamboo P1P and the Carbon, X1 Carbon.
So anything from that line, I think, is a good place to start for reliability and ease of use.
(16:58):
There are there's another company
called reality anyone who's dabbled in 3d
printings probably heard of the ender series oh yeah
that's another very popular one for sure yep the
ender 3 v2 and the cr10 as well
those are two very very popular ones forever but
the ender 3 they now have a instead of 3v2 it's 3v3 they've had to start competing
(17:26):
with bamboo bamboo was really stealing their market share because it was just
so much easier to use so we have a 3v3,
shoot s1 i think something like that and for the price point and compared to
the older creality vendors it's been a major improvement and then i think there's
(17:49):
even a newer version since then that's supposedly even better.
Those are worth considering. One thing with Creality in the past is you never
really knew what you were going to get. Some would come perfect.
Some would be a bit of a lemon.
I think they've ironed out some of that. They also have the K1,
and they're about to come out with a K1 Plus or Pro, or maybe they already did.
(18:11):
And those are going to be more in line with the Core XY Bamboos I mentioned,
where the bed is what moves.
So i would say those are probably the two the main two to consider the neptunes that you mentioned.
They've had some issues they've been they've been
working on upgrading their motherboards and the firmware that they use there's
(18:35):
a new version of firmware that's much faster and can do a lot more apparently
the first neptune 4 that came out had a lot of issues but there are people people
who have the threes and absolutely love them.
I think my buddy just got the Neptune max and he, he seems to love it.
I mean, it seems to be using it quite a bit so far. So, um, which is good.
And the entry level bamboo, I mean, it starts around six 50,
(18:59):
700 bucks, something like that. So not terribly expensive overall.
And then if you get the print head on top with a spools, I can,
uh, hold three or four spools on top, but you know, it's another 300 bucks,
two or 300 bucks and like that.
So it's like 900 bucks, nine 50, something like that overall.
So, yeah, I mean, I think it is pretty good. I mean, yeah, Yeah,
you can go out and buy, you know, an Ender or something like that for two or three hundred bucks.
(19:19):
But maybe that's a good starting point for someone to just to play and learn
how to grab the files and prints and stuff.
For sure. If you've never done
before, before you go spend nine hundred bucks and you end up breaking.
Because when you start doing 3D printing, you have to realize,
I don't know if you have to realize the melting point necessarily of what you're dealing with.
But you definitely have to know what type of head you're using and, you know, what the...
(19:43):
The temperature of those things are and obviously you have some
dangerous gases coming out so you definitely want to
have an exhaust of some sort on some of those things so if
you're starting to print with something like abs that does give off a gas a
you know elgato or something may not be working may not be your best choice
for that you know yeah and one thing with the enders and with the way the market's
(20:06):
changing i don't know how much this holds true anymore but uh you know up Up until last year,
I would have said an Ender 3 v2 is a great place to start because you're going
to end up tinkering. You're going to end up upgrading.
Things are going to fail. And you're really going to have to figure out how
every part of it works, either because you upgrade it or it breaks and you have to fix it.
(20:28):
Put your own 3D part. If you're someone who really likes to know how things
work, the ins and outs of it, then it's a great place to start.
But if you're someone who just wants it to work out of the box,
then those $600, $700 bamboos are just, you know, depends on what you're looking for.
Right. A better way to go. So we're talking about pricing a little bit and,
(20:50):
you know, 3D printer filament prices.
You know, you can have a low range of maybe $8 a spool.
And depending on what type of material you're getting, you could be up to,
you know, 30 or more bucks per spool.
Pool so how does your prices kind of range and and you know what uh what does that look like.
So as we all know there's always going to be a bit of a
(21:11):
premium for american materials we don't
have to get behind you know everyone knows that we don't have to get into that
but so there is a little there's going to be a little bit of a premium on our
filament just because we insist on using american materials now what does that
get you though that gets you a higher quality base resin,
(21:32):
it gets you a filament that's going to just,
work. A lot of that cheaper stuff, you may end up wasting so much of it that
it costs you twice as much in the end because you're just wasting material and time.
So that's one of the benefits to art filament is that it just works.
(21:53):
Another thing is a lot of those cheaper filaments, they get the price down by
diluting the PLA with other plastics.
And to do that, They have to use some industrial chemicals and compatibilizers
and plasticizers, stuff like that,
which kind of goes back into what exactly are you breathing in when you're printing that filament?
(22:17):
And, you know, most of us like to have them just like in our office or in the next room over.
So depending on what brand it is, you don't really know what you're going to get coming off.
So that's kind of the two big things is you get the quality where you're wasting
less filament overall because you're not failing, your prints aren't failing as much.
(22:40):
And you also get the knowledge that we're just using biopolymers and colorant. That's all we're using.
Now, PETG, we're just wrapping up our trials.
We have identified the best PETG resin.
It was a bit of a journey. Had to talk to our manufacturers and everything,
but we have one more day of trials with our colorant added and that goes the
(23:06):
way I think it goes. Then we should be adding PETG later this year.
Now that is not a biopolymer. That is a petroleum-based plastic.
However, it does not off-gas with the same nasties that ABS, ASA nylon does.
Nice. That's good for everyone across the board, hopefully on that one.
Yes. So, you know, some of the things I've read is that, you know,
(23:30):
definitely there's different qualities out there.
And when you're using a filament in your machine, I guess I'm trying to get
rid of either it's a rumor or myth.
But, you know, if I've got an Amazon filament here and I've got an American
filament line here and I'm running
Amazon through and then I start to feed American filament in there.
(23:50):
One of the things that I've read is that you don't want to mix manufacturers
because they could have different melting points between maybe the same product, PETG.
But, you know, Amazon's version or whatever you got off Amazon versus what you're
buying from yourself from American Filament, they could have different melting points.
(24:11):
And of course, if you're PETG versus ABA, of course, they got different melting points.
But is there a difference in that and filaments that you might see?
So is this mirrored or is it? Oh, no, yeah, I can see it. Yep,
nope, you're good. All right, so can you see this temperature?
The temperature ranges on there? Yep.
When you buy a filament, it should come almost always with a sticker on it,
(24:35):
but at least on the box or on the website or whatever, it's going to give you
a range for your nozzle and then for the bed temperature.
The bed temperature is not really probably going to change much for PLA versus,
you know, Amazon PLA versus my PLA versus someone else's PLA. Okay.
(24:55):
But PETG is going to be different for PLA.
It's just you know kind of like the bed temperature it's kind of
like one thing for pla one thing for petchi but you're
right the nozzle temperature that is that is definitely going to be dependent
upon what's in the filament so ours tends actually to melt a little bit higher
(25:16):
temperature because we don't have a lot of those other things added that i just
mentioned a lot of that stuff brings that melting temperature down.
So you do have to run ours a little bit hotter, but I mean, as long as you're
paying attention to your labels and you can always reach out to the manufacturer.
And also there's a lot of Facebook groups and discords and Reddit posts and
(25:40):
all sorts of stuff out there.
Makers like to talk about what we do. So there's a lot of conversations about,
well, I had more luck with this on this printer and I had more luck with this.
So there's a lot of information on the internet and you know
like i said manufacturers we're usually more than
happy to talk to you about stuff like that as well gotcha is
there a shelf life of most of the filaments so maybe you know it does have an
(26:04):
expiration it should be used within you know six months or can it sit there
for two years obviously like anything it shouldn't sit out in the sun or maybe
a hot attic in the middle you know of summer in tennessee or alabama but But, you know,
where does that, the cork, I mean, I would deal would be, you know,
in your house somewhere where we're
comfortable or maybe a heat or maybe a controlled basement or something.
(26:27):
But is there a shelf life to filaments and how long it can last for?
Yes and no. So the problem you run into with PLA and PETG and some of the other
ones out there, too, is they are hygroscopic, which means that they love to soak up water.
But boiling water in the hot end while the plastic is coming out,
(26:51):
it's going to cause problems as you can imagine.
From brand to brand that's going to the level of water absorption is going to vary.
Again, it all goes, it all ties back into what's being mixed with the PLA.
So for ours, we.
(27:12):
I've, I've used a spool that I made my first run in like, I guess it would have been July of 2021.
I've used one of those within the last month.
It's just been sitting out. It's been sitting out in my Alabama house through a couple summers.
I mean, not exposed to the heat, the heat would be a problem,
(27:32):
but you know, it gets humid around here.
So all I had to do was take like
the the most outer layer i had to
take that off and you can usually tell with pla because it it
feels more brittle when it gets wet now that
being said so sorry let
me finish my thoughts so with our filament we've had a lot of luck with it just
(27:57):
sitting out and it hasn't really absorbed water to a point where it's been problematic
if you find that your filament is too wet and you You don't want to pull any off of the outer layer.
I mean, I understand I have sheet filament on my hands, right?
I get off stack spools. So for me to pull a layer off, it's not the end of the world.
(28:19):
But if I were buying my filament, then I'd be a lot less inclined to do that.
So there are filament dryers out there. They're basically just little dehumidifiers.
The bamboo carbon, you can actually use it as a dehydrator.
So there are ways to pull the water out.
(28:41):
And then if you get on the internet, there are a lot of really creative people out there.
The best one I've seen is I guess you can go to Lowe's and get these DeWalt
like outdoor storage bins that have a weather seal on them.
And then there are various dehumidifiers that you can put in there with your
(29:02):
filaments, both active and passive, meaning, you know, ones like pellets.
And then the other being sort of like a fan or, you know, something like that.
But there are people who store their filaments like that and never have an issue.
Very interesting. Yeah.
You know i i think you've answered a lot of the questions that you know may be considered of a,
(29:25):
new user considering looking getting into 3d printing anything else that you
can find that maybe or can think of that you know you'd want to share with with
someone and you know might be useful for them and looking at filament or and
what's the easiest way to find you and where can Can we get you your products?
(29:45):
Yeah. So the best place to buy our products is American filament dot us. It's our website.
We are available on Amazon. Some fulfilled by Amazon. Some is seller fulfilled by us.
We find it hard to make it using the fees on Amazon.
(30:07):
They've just gone up and up and up. So PSA, if you can find a manufacturer's
website, it's almost always better to buy straight from them than from Amazon.
Just helps the small businesses out.
But we are available on Amazon. I understand. Amazon's nice. It's easy.
You know, I get it. So that's the best place to find us.
(30:29):
But also, you know, I met you at the Huntsville Ham Fest in the GigaParts area.
In the GigaParts area, yep.
Yeah. Yeah. So GigaParts actually is our biggest retail partner.
They carry our filaments in store and on their website as well.
And have you heard about their expansion? I have heard about their expansion.
(30:52):
I've not been to their new place that's coming up, but I would look forward
to getting down there and seeing it. They're going to be huge.
Yeah. So with that expansion, they're also looking to expand their whole maker
world world department.
So they're looking at some different printer brands to carry accessories.
And then again, American Filament. So they're going to be nice.
(31:16):
Yeah, well, we're excited. We're excited for them. We're both fellow Hansel
businesses. We like seeing each other succeed.
But they will be a good place to go for a lot of your 3D printing printers and stuff like that.
And if you're looking for something right now, matterhackers.com is probably
the biggest online 3D printing everything website.
(31:41):
And if you have a micro center where you live, they also have...
They're kind of the one chain store that carries several different printer options.
But they don't have American filament yet.
Yet. Yet.
So we'll make sure we put all those links to...
The GigaParts and the other site that you mentioned just now,
(32:04):
or you can shop online. Give it to me one more time.
Americanfilament.us. No, no. The other one where you said it's kind of the biggest
store that you can find if you want something right now.
Batter Hackers. Okay. I'm not familiar with that one. I hadn't heard that before.
But yeah, certainly go out to Americanfilament.com and get your filament there from them.
(32:25):
See if that's a good place to go. or even if you're ordering your radio on GigaParts
and you want to order your film at the same time, you can get all in one shipment
there from GigaParts as well. So that's awesome.
I thought of one thing that we didn't discuss. I didn't know if you wanted to,
where to find free online models.
(32:46):
Absolutely. Yeah, let's talk about it. That's a great idea. I kind of mentioned
Thingiverse a little bit ago.
That's a good place to go, but maybe you have some others to share as well.
Yeah, Thingiverse is probably the one everybody thinks of.
Warning to parents, children should probably not cruise it without your assistance.
(33:08):
There are some things on there that might not be appropriate or definitely not appropriate.
Good to know. Not to have search terms. Yeah, well, now you know to stay away from them.
Right. Yeah. So Thingiverse, that's a big one. Another one is printables.com.
They have a lot of the fun things that are on Thingiverse too.
(33:31):
But I find that printables is really good when you're looking for functional
things that people have designed.
Oh, it's good to know. You know, binders or improvements, things you can print
to improve various printers.
Yeah, people do like door stops and all kinds of stuff sometimes. Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy how much stuff. stuff like my
buddy's picked up his 3D printer sometime late last year and
(33:54):
he's printed like a little boat type thing that will actually like
a float in water and yeah it's
kind of crazy though he just like made it for his little kid you know but he's
he's made uh some other parts like uh
he was wanting to beget the Neptune because he wanted to
print like bigger body parts like like a knee cap or an
elbow protector type thing so yeah it's pretty
(34:16):
crazy it's pretty cool people can come up with and what
they do so it really is there are whole
like project kits you can buy i know there's a
guy we we work with here in town who bought this whole project kit for an r2d2
it's like a life-size r2d2 it has all the 3d models that you need to print and
then it has instructions for like all the servo motors and gears and belts and
(34:41):
all that stuff to make it actually roll,
Huh. That's incredible. It is. And there's amazing what people can do.
There's all sorts of little kits and stuff like out there. There's even some
free ones out on thingiverse and printables where it tells you go buy this bearing
and this motor and here's how you put it together.
It's pretty. Yeah. I know my brother has ordered several times from a guy online
(35:04):
Etsy or something like those Milwaukee packout cases.
They have like little red boxes in them and, but they're usually just come as a little,
just a little box to put screws and stuff stuff in but he wanted more
compartmentalized boxes to go
inside the Milwaukee pack outs so a guy printed
them all the different sized boxes just for those and yeah it
looked and it worked great so it was it's
(35:25):
pretty cool so yeah it's amazing what you can do with
with 3D printing and you know how things
hold up I know guys who sell antennas and have made
you know masked items items caps for their
antenna or use them as bearings you know for
you know sizing something down so it's pretty
incredible what you can end up building 3d printing if you can have a
(35:45):
little bit of knowledge or a lot of people will share things out there on thingiverse
or yeah the other sites and you can just use their ideas so yeah yeah exactly
also if you have some interest and And time to sit down on YouTube,
you can teach yourself how to 3D model.
Then you can start designing your own stuff. And there's a program called Tinkercad
(36:10):
that is a good place to start.
A lot of kids even start to learn on it.
It's more where you can put together blocks like here's a sphere, here's a cube.
And you can kind of use that to start your 3D modeling journey.
Journey and then Fusion 360.
I believe that it's still free for personal use. That's going to be kind of
(36:33):
the next step into true 3D modeling.
There's all sorts of tutorials out there.
That's awesome. I appreciate all the information. Well, I wanted to keep this
close to an hour or less if possible, but I thought this was great to be able
to share and talk about it.
I knew this is something that, again, is growing in the ham radio community
(36:54):
and wanted to be able to give listeners an opportunity to learn a little bit more about it.
If they haven't gained the interest yet, maybe this might spark their interest
to look at getting into the 3D printing and finding useful ways for it that
they can make it in their household or on their ham radio adventures,
whatever they might choose.
So thank you for coming on to the Ham Radio Guide podcast today.
(37:16):
I really appreciate this.
We'll be sharing this on our pod bean on our podcast site.
We'll do the audio only and we'll do the YouTube version of this as well.
So people can see some of the models and things that you show and anything else
before we wrap up for the day.
I don't think so. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
I could talk about this all day. I'm surprised it was only an hour-ish.
(37:38):
Right, right. Absolutely. Well, sometimes people lose interest to have an hour.
Maybe it's their drive home and their drive to work.
They'll kind of get to listen to this a little bit.
Everybody, Megan Brooks with American Filament. Thank you for joining us today.
And reach out to AmericanFilament.com if you have any questions about filament
and you need answers. Oh, American filament.us. Thank you.
(38:03):
So reach out to them. If you have any questions about your filament or you need,
you're trying to figure out a project and need to know what the best option
is. They can help you out with that, right?
Yeah, absolutely. And we're also on Facebook, Instagram, and we just started a discord server.
Nice. If you want to share that discord server link out, can I find it on your website?
(38:24):
Yes. Yeah. But I can send you an email with all the links that we talked about.
And I'll share those out in my podcast notes as well on YouTube here so people
can have access to them and gain access to you and find you an easy way there.
Sounds great. If you want to click on more and you should be able to find more information.
So, all right, I'm going to go ahead and end this and appreciate it.
(38:44):
And thank you for being with us. Great. Thanks, Marvin.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.