SainSmart is an American brand that sells electronic equipment (Arduino related products, Raspberry, 3D Printer and 3D filaments). I had heard about the quality of their TPU filament sold on Amazon, but today I will test a new series of PLA and PETG filament, it is the PRO-3 Series. This series was not yet on the market when I first got it from SainSmart, but now you can already find it on their website and Amazon.
The PRO-3 is sold in a 1kg reel on graduated transparent coils to better visualize the quantity of remaining filament, I will present the SainSmart PLA PRO-3 filament in white, as well as the purple PETG. When unpacking the reels are very well packaged with a small moisture-proof bag. They took care of the packaging.
Test SainSmart PRO-3 PLA Filament
The color of this white PLA is really beautiful, a "very white" white and at first glance it looks good (not brittle). The recommended print temperature for this PLA is very wide, from 185 ° C up to 215 ° C, for the hot plate it’s between 40 and 60 ° C but the hot plate is optional, only recommend it for large prints. To get started, I'll just print a 3D Benchy on my Creality CR-10, with a print temperature of 205 ° C, and hot plate at 60 ° C for a speed of 50mm / sec with a layer height of 0.10mm.
The result is impeccable, the color remains faithful to the coil, the printed part is also very resistant (filling to 10%).
For my second print, my son asked me for a baby groot that he wants to paint himself, this white filament is the ideal opportunity to customize the printed piece! I keep the same print settings except for the layer height that I change it to 0.15mm.
The result is also very clean! This white is really very pure!
Before trying to print on another printer without a heat plate, I also redo a stormtrooper in low-poly, my son has broken the one I had made the last time I tested with another brand, the advantage of 3D printing is you can just re-print one when it breaks. 🙂
Same layer height in 0.15mm, at 205 ° C / 60 ° C, looks great!
And so ultimate test, I printed without the hot plate on the Neva Magis from Dagoma, with an extrusion temperature of 210 ° C. I made several prints of animals "flex articulated", also to remain the resistance. No problem of delamination during printing despite the lack of hot plate, super!
In the first conclusion for this PLA filament, I am rather satisfied with the result, very easy to print, no bad smell with very good resistance, only small flat, this coil is in theory perfectly wound according to the product sheet of the manufacturer, without a node. But I saw 2 layers of overlapping filaments on the spool, with a slight tension in the unwinding, it did not block my prints and for the moment I used about 200g of the spool, I just hope it won’t fall on other larger nodes, still, 800g to be on. 😉
Test SainSmart PRO-3 PETG filament
On unpacking, we find the same type of graduated transparent coil for the SainSmart PRO-3 PETG filament.
The recommended extrusion temperature for this filament is between 220 ° C and 250 ° C, it is theoretically also a hot plate, "theory" because on the manufacturer's site it is advisable to use a heating plate between 0 and 50 ° C, but generally the use of a heating plate is essential for PETG. I may test occasionally without a heating plate, but for this test, I will go on a temperature of 70 ° C.
For this filament, I will use my Anycubic i3 mega, with a temperature of 230 ° C for the nozzle, and 70 ° C for the heating plate, I also increase my retraction to avoid the phenomenon of "stringing".
I'm not in a hurry, and I want to get the finish as good as possible, so I'll go on a layer height of 0.10mm.
The result is impeccable, we can slightly see through the wall filling, it is normal since this filament is translucent, the surface is really very beautiful and bright, for a first print, it's pretty good. It is partly for a second print, and for the translucent filament, nothing is better to show its quality than just printing a vase. I keep the temperature at 230 ° C / 70 ° C but to save some time I change the layer height to 0.15mm.
The result is also very satisfying, no apparent defect or hole, I also made a test by putting water in the vase, and no apparent leak. Even if there is only one wall, it is quite rigid. This brilliant rendering is really top, my wife adored this pretty little vase. I took the opportunity to print another model of a vase.
The rendering is really nice, we do not see the layers of printing at all, and yet I printed this vase in 0.20mm (2 hours of printing). Unlike the PLA coil, I did not notice any "knot" in this reel, rather reassuring 😉In conclusion, these PRO-3 filaments from SainSmart are really easy to print, works both for PLA and PETG. Here we have these quality filaments that I will not hesitate to buy, hoping to find these filaments on Amazon France futures.
