Polymaker Light Weight PLA Filament 1.75mm Grey 0.8kg, PolyLite 3D Printer PLA Filament Grey Low Density, Print with Most 3D Printers

The important bits: layer bonding and strength is incredible! very rigid and much lighter than PLA or PLA+ but heavier than foaming lightweight PLA. I am going to use this on all my future 3D printed planes! Now my long boring story :) Patience was the key with this filament! I have seen too many great reviews to think that there was an issue with the filament itself. I took the recommended approach of printing using PLA settings and increasing the retraction distance and speed to the settings recommended on polymakers website. My prints were completely unusable initially. I didn't have a lot of time after work to run calibration tests but I did what I could in my free time. I would change one setting and print a part, I didn't write anything down and I didn't keep track of my changes. The poor print quality was completely my fault for not taking the proper time to dial in the print settings. I even tried multiple slicers! I finally had a day off! no chores, no work... time to get this right :) I started with the basics, e-step calibration and PID tuning. Those were very close to perfect already so I knew that wasn't my issue. I started back with the defualt PLA settings and did a retraction test (two 10mm cubes spaced 40mm apart). I would do a print and take a picture, record the settings and results and then make only 1 change to 1 setting at a time until I got the setting dialed in. Then I would move to the next setting. Rinse and repeat until I got everything dialed in. About 10 hours later, a nearly perfect print with just the smallest amount of stringing! Don't do what I did and just get frustrated and start throwing different settings at this stuff! It took the perfect mix of speed, temp, retraction speed & distance as well as extra prime after retraction to get this stuff dialed in. A change to any one of those setting will throw off the print! Cura 5.10 Artillery Sidewinder X2 (love this printer!) Fulament magnetic flex PEI bed Temp 190 Bed temp 60 (I always run 60 for everything, just seems to work) Print speed 40mm/s Travel speed 250mm/s Retraction 3.5mm Retraction Speed 35mm/s Extra prime after retraction .36mm My issue was an extreme amount of stringing and oozing. I am printing a single walled print and it is important to have a strong Z seam. The loss of material during travel moves and layer changes made the Z seam very weak.

For RC airplane building this stuff is the greatest. Not having to dial in the settings from the standard PLA settings and getting good results is a huge advantage.

This is a good light weight plastic, but printing can be a bit fussy. Read the package. It must print slowly - 50 mm/sec max. Slow the travel and acceleration times, too, so you don't knock things around too much. If you print at normal PLA speeds - up to 200 or 300 mm.sec you'll get a mess. It prints at 210C not the 230C that other foam PLA's print. I had some problems getting it to adhere to the bed - an issue for tall wing sections. I used a raft to get good surface contact with the bed. Otherwise it does a great job of printing model wings, ailerons, etc.

This stuff prints great. Just like regular PLA except with a little post cleanup required. However, it must be noted that if you’re trying to print RC planes, this is NOT the active foaming LW PLA that many RC planes are supposed to be printed out of. That being said, this pre foamed filament will likely still work, just a bit heavier and more expensive. Way easier to print though.

Works great prints very well on my creality ender 3 s1 pro. Prints seem to be strong and very light. I am printing parts for a R/C airplane. I bought a second spool because i really liked how well it works

While it does have some positive aspects, I encountered significant issues that outweighed the benefits. Here's a breakdown of my experience: Pros: Very strong for a lightweight PLA: The filament boasts impressive strength despite its lightweight nature. It produces sturdy prints that can withstand some stress. Really nice color and matte finish from the filament. Cons: Constant clogging on multiple printers: The most significant drawback I encountered with this filament was the constant clogging issue. It became a frustrating experience as the filament would clog randomly, either within 15 minutes of printing or after as long as 20 hours. This inconsistency made it difficult to complete successful prints. Random distortion and clogging: The filament showed signs of random distortion in certain sections, which eventually led to clogs. It seemed like there might be some foreign material embedded within the filament itself, as unclogging the nozzles became nearly impossible without resorting to extreme measures like using a torch. Wasted spool on failed prints: Unfortunately, due to the frequent clogging, I ended up wasting a almost all of the spool on failed prints.

Like most PLA you have to find your grove in temp and bed temp during printing. I do recommend that if you work in a humid area - dry it out before a run. I also use a thin layer of glue stick on the print board to keep the initial layers in place. Very strong and much lighter than the PLA or PLA+. I use it in combination with PLA+, the light is perfect for airframes, wings, nose cones etc... Not so good for gears, servo arms or moving parts which can easily be stripped. It is prefoamed so the parts come out as designed. The ball cam shown here is mostly PLA LW with PLA+ only on the control arms and inner gears.

A finished print with this filament has a nice finish, but honestly, it doesn't look quite "woody". The final color and texture print is fine, but may be too pricy and not worth for paying extra for it. Be aware that the filament requires proper calibration of the print settings first. This filament is not easy to print with, it can get very gooey and even in colder temperature settings, the filament gets stringy, as it has different flow parameters than average PLA, so using this material requires some experience, not recommended for beginners.