When starting off a project, especially for a client that wants the best, sourcing the right filament is really important. I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to remember all the different places to get filament and how good they are, so I wanted to create small list of ABS filament available in the UK that I’ve used and what I’ve found works well, or not. I’ll also include some that I haven’t used yet but without knowing how good they are I can’t really recommend them. This page will remain dedicated to the UK.
Ooznest ABS
For quite a few years Ooznest was my go-to place for ABS, especially for my own printer builds, because they have such a large range of colours. However, it looks like its now on clearance, so maybe they will not be supplying filament anymore. They are mainly CNC based so this could make sense.
There were a couple of consideration for Ooznest filament. The spools are really wide, so spool holders on Voron and RatRig are not quite wide enough to hold them. I have created some wider versions you can use. The other consideration was that the colours, although vivid, did tend to have some effects on the overall strength of the filament. I never measured this so I can’t give any objective data, but it did seem to have some effects.
The stock levels at Ooznest have always been reasonably good, although that could be because they have not had the level of popularity of other suppliers as it hasn’t been their main business focus.
BambuLab ABS
With the acquisition of a BambuLab printer with AMS the automatic spool detection makes the use of BambuLab filament a big bonus, and It would be great if this was more openly used. The filament itself I’ve found to be really quite good and consistent. They also have refills so once you have a couple of spools you can just refill them which is cheaper and a simple way to reduce waste.
The downside is that currently their stock levels are really inconsistent, most of the time the colours are out of stock. The pricing is reasonable though.
3DQF ABS
As far as I know, 3DQF is not just a seller of filament but also a UK manufacturer. I have only every owned one spool of their black ABS which I purchased. I couldn’t identify any significant issue with the material it self, but I was not a big fan of the spool. The only labelling regarding material was on the inside of the core and the spool itself was quite weak. They can be made AMS compatible with the addition of a printed ring, although for the older spool design the lid of the AMS has to be open.
3DQF ABS does also need a higher nozzle temperature (260-300C) than most other ABS filaments (230-250C), probably due to just a slightly different material recipe.
ESun ABS+
One of the few filaments that I’m certain I will never use again. Sadly the layer adhesion of this filament was extremely poor. For functional parts it made them effectively useless and since ABS is normally ideal for functional parts it makes it especially useless.
SUNLU ABS
This is normally sourced from Amazon which makes it very easy to get and with fast delivery. There isn’t a huge colour range but enough to keep you mostly happy I think. I’ve not yet used this filament so can’t give any direct feedback on its quality.
PrintyPlease CatYarn ABS
I’ve not used this filament at all, but it seems to have been quite popular with the UK Voron builders. It all seems to have sparkles so maybe not ideal for a commercial customer but for home DIY builds that’s maybe a nice bonus.
Filament PM ABS
I’ve not used this filament but it can be found in the UK from 3B3D.com. They don’t have a large range of colours, but do have the all important black.
Filamentive
Filamentive don’t tend to have a very wide variety of colours, but they do have ABS and ASA available in 2.3kg and 4kg spools which may be useful for those running a small production line for mechanical parts. I have used their materials in the past and I believe, although this may not be true, that they use the same manufacturer as Ooznest which is why their spools are virtually identical. Bear in mind that these cardboard spool are wider than most other spools so you may need a slight modification to accommodate them.
3DPrintz
3DPrintz main focus for printing materials seems to be PLA rather than ABS, to the point where they may be stopping soon as (at the time of writing, 25/2/24) they currently have a 38% discount. I’ve not used their materials in a long time but might be worth checking if you need some material. If colour isn’t important the current discounts could be really attractive too.
3DTomorrow
Although its not ABS, in fact it seems to be a modified PLA, BioPro by 3D tomorrow is an interesting alternative material which you could consider using instead of ABS. BioPro is quite a premium price currently and I suspect this is down to the limited production quantities that are created but it might be worth a try if you like to experiment with new materials and potentially find something a little better than you expected. They do genuinely seem to care about optimising their eco friendly credentials too rather than just claiming some random stuff and whacking it on a label. As a UK company with a UK supply chain it’s great for supporting our own economy too.
Not Easily Available
There are quite a few ABS filaments that can be found in the US or Mainland Europe that are not easily sourced in the UK.
- Polymaker
- CookieCAD