Filament name:
Wood-Natural
Filament vendor: eSun
Hotend used: V4 PTFE
Nozzle diameter: 0.35mm
Layer height: 0.2mm
Printing temperature: Bed 40°C, Extruder 190°C
Other information: Retraction - 1.4mm, Skirt 3+, Infill > 50%, Speeds: Printing 60 mm/sec, X/Y 60mm/sec, No odor
Some things to watch for: It's hard to get the flow started evenly through the small nozzle, so use a skirt of 3 or more to get it flowing well, depending on the footprint of the part. (Using a larger nozzle might help, but it also might just let the filament drip out - it's very runny) There are a lot of fine ooze travel strings, but increasing the retraction did not help with this filament, it already has a hard time staying put in the nozzle. Print speeds are slow. (They could stand to be slower.) There were a few boogers, but not consistent ones, leading me to think there was an occasional plug pushed out of the nozzle.
It sticks fairly well to itself, but i had a hard time bonding the first layer onto a Kapton-taped bed. (Might have been a slight leveling problem in that case.) Increasing the heat on the bed to 60°C did not improve the first layer adhesion. Use a sticking agent (hairspray - several coats, sanded) and slow the speed of the first layer down to about 40%. I did use 100% cooling for the print shown, but I might try it again with no fan later, to see how it works.
The extruded thread is stiff, and it is excellent on overhangs. Bridging is absolutely no problem with this filament, it does not sag at all. No warping or cracking whatsoever. Support is easily removed.
At low infill rates, the material can both delaminate and break, just like wood. At higher infill it is fairly strong, somewhat flexible, and feels almost like wood. Sanding is very easy (like wood, not plastic), and after sanding away the layers, it resembles wood completely - anyone looking at it won't be able to tell it isn't wood. Even the weight of the piece resembles wood weight and texture.
Okay, now the bad news......The main print went fine, but when I started playing with the settings (coasting and retraction, etc.) to print the barrel rings, i started seeing a lot more problems with extrusion - basically the thread coming out was so thin that it wasn't sticking to anything. I could visibly see that it wasn't extruding enough, and had to kill the print half a dozen times. And while it never clogged the nozzle, I did manage to jam up the filament drive with the softer cleaner filament that I ran through to switch out the filament, so it's probably a better idea to either clean out the nozzle with a length of PLA, or print this on a 0.5mm nozzle. I just wanted to see if it could be done with a 0.35mm and it can. Love this filament, it's just like printing wood. But this is going to be one of those filaments that require you to get it dialed in
just right, so plan on a bit of fiddling.
Update: I've changed the recommended printing temp down to 190°C - it cuts way down on the stringing (although there is still some), and it doesn't seem to impact the flowrate.
- very oozy/stringy
- Barrel1.jpg (214.19 KiB) Viewed 66110 times
- breaks/splinters at low infill just like wood
- Barrel3.jpg (209.07 KiB) Viewed 66110 times
- PLA on the left, Wood on the right
- Barrel2.jpg (199.46 KiB) Viewed 66110 times