Filastruder - spool.Works E3D Edge - Filament Review

If you are looking to take the next step in your 3D printing then Filastruder's spool.Works Edge 3D filament might be perfect for you.

For more info you can also watch the video i created where i go into more depth about the filament and clips of it being printed:

Filastruder - spool.Works E3D Edge - 3D Filament Review

https://youtu.be/MIxlstaG9e8

Filastruder send me a roll of their spool.Works Edge 3D for review.  My goal was to show people specifics about the filament, how it will print, tips for bed adhesion, and the final result of what they can expect.

Filastruder is a company that offers tons of different filaments of all different types.  You can also buy loads of spare parts for your printers there, stuff like hotends and extruders.  They have a great, easy to follow website:

FILAMENT

I really like the look of the filament and clear roll.

Edge 3D is offered as an all-around filament for every situation.  Combining the best of PLA, ABS and PETG.  With the ease of printing of PLA, durability of ABS, and strength and finish of PETG.  It's perfect for someone who may not print a lot, but when they do print, they want the filament to look great and print easily.

You can see the super glossy finish.

It comes in dozens of really bright colors.  I got their Limey Green color filament.

The first overall look of the filament is that it looks super bright and shiny. 

Here's what it looked like when it came in the mail.

Here's the information on the box, showing print temp, bed temp, and recommended adhesion method.

A very professional look and feel to everything.

And here's what it looked like wrapped in an air-tight bag.

It comes on a clear spool which is great for seeing how much filament you have left to print with.

More about the color, type, and size.

The overall look and feel is more like a PETG with a glossy shine.  It is very pliable and smooth, again much like a PETG filament.  Also it is recommended that you print above 230 deg C, which is closer to a PETG, but does print under a wide range of settings which is similar to a PLA.

COMPANY

Like i mentioned earlier, Filastruder offers tons of filament from various companies.  They sell just about every filament that exists.  

Their filament product page clearly shows what you are buying and settings for printing.

They will even give a link to the producer of the filaments like spool.works where you can get more pictures and information about the product.

TEST PARTS to be PRINTED

I decided to print 4 test parts, each of which will show a different characteristic of the filament:

1.  Chess Piece - (OVERALL)  This is a good overall part to show how the filament will print.  It has smooth round lines, slight overhangs, and detailed ridges at the top.  If this chess piece prints well in all areas then you can be confident that it will print everything well.


2.  Bottle Opener - (STRENGTH)  I wanted to print the bottle opener to test the filament's strength in a typical, everyday type of part.  See how it reacts to bending, stress, strain, tension, and compression.  Whether the printed part will be rigid or deform when a force is applied to it.


3.  Caribener - (DUCTILITY)  Similar to the bottle opener, the caribener needs to be strong in tension, but it also needs to bend.  This may be a difficult test for filament like PLA which typically has a rigid characteristic.


4.  Yoda - (DETAIL)  Both of these parts will really require the printer to be able to print in great detail and need to handle tricky overhangs.  The settings for these parts will have to be slowed down to print accurately.

SETTINGS

Like i just said, their filament prints very well under a wide range of settings.  So the settings i used can be thought of a just a general guideline of where to start.  Also i used Cura v15.04.06 because of it's clear and simple settings layout.  For filament that is more difficult to print with, a different slicer program may be needed, and more advanced settings may need to be adjusted.

The first thing i do after opening Cura is to import a saved profile for base PLA filament, then drag in the part to be printed.  Obviously the 4 different test prints will need to have some settings different from each other.  The Bottle Opener, which is focused on strength, will need a higher infill percentage but can be printed at a faster speed and higher Z axis.  Where as the Chess Piece and Yoda will have little to no infill, but printed slowly for more accuracy.

There are no specific suggestions for printing with their PETG, but the following is a good baseline to start with:

Basic Settings

Advanced Settings

Expert Config

One thing to note is that the company suggests that the extruder temp be set to 240 degrees with an 80 degree heated bed.  These numbers are rather high and reflect more of the PETG quality of the filament.

Once the gCode is saved and loaded into the printer we are ready to start printing.

PRINTING

I like to print directly onto glass with a heated bed, and 90% of the time i use a glue stick to insure adhesion to the glass bed.  You probably don't need to do this, it would work just fine printing onto masking tape, non-heated bed, or hairspray.  I just like my process because i know it works on everything and the part won't lift half way through printing.

I always pay great attention to the first layer, removing any stray filament, and remove any filament that may clump onto the nozzle.

Before the printing starts i will manually slow the speed of the print down by roughly half, to ensure that the filament sticks to the print bed.  After the first couple of layers are secure i manually turn the speed up to full.

This filament flowed very well, not too runny like PETG can sometimes be.

PARTS

Here's the printed results:

And here are some close-ups:

Here is the Yoda head, on the print bed, with supports.  The adhesion to the print bed was excellent.

Another advantage of this filament was its high melting point, which allowed me to test and modify the cooling fan shroud.  Other filaments would melt and deform when set this close to the extruder hot end, but the Edge 3D kept its form.

REVIEW

Filastruder said that the spool.Works Edge 3D is the perfect all-around filament, which combines the best features of PLA, ABS, and PETG... i tend to agree.   

This is one of the most forgiving filaments that i've printed with.  The way that the layers blend together creates a very smooth part that does not resemble your typical 3d print.  

It was very forgiving in terms of settings, it printed well under a wide range.  Adhesion to the glass bed was not an issue and again i had no issues with clogging.  

Although the high 240 degree printing temperature was similar to a PETG filament, it did not act like a PETG.  It did not droop or sag during printing.  

The overall finished part is very professional looking with a very smooth surface.

The chess piece turned out very good.  Even with insufficient cooling there was hardly any drooping on the overhang.  And the curved and detailed sections came out very clean.

The versatility of this filament shows up in the bottle opener.  Some PLA's would crack or break when force is applied to this part, but this filament was quite strong.  

Again, this filament performed well when testing the caribener.  It had some bendability and tensile strength, but was not rigid like most PLA.  This is where their new filament formula was noticeable.

Even at 0.3mm for the Z layer height, the Yoda head turned out good.  There were no issues with the overhangs and the finished part looked great directly off the print bed.

Final Summary

Admittedly at $38 it's not the cheapest filament you can buy.  But if you want a filament that prints excellent parts with a perfect finish then the Edge 3D filament is a perfect choice.  It is easy to print with so it would be perfect for a beginner.  It also hides mistakes so it's great for a complex part.  Also with a beginner printer like the Monoprice Select Mini it is a filament that prints with absolutely no problem.

I would use this filament for when i want to print a really nice 3D part.  This is not the filament to use when you are printing a ton of prototype parts, or you aren't sure what you are printing.  This filament is for your final display piece when you want everything to be perfect.

If you've ever printed with this Edge 3D filament let me know what you think.  I predict that you've had the same results that i had.  And if you haven't tried this filament you definitely should.

Visit Filastruder to buy a roll.

Replace Van Starter - Chrysler Town & Country

So you go out to your 2007 Chrysler Town and Country and try to start it only to hear ... TICK.  And you say "uh oh".

Replace Starter - Chrysler Town and Country / Dodge Caravan

https://youtu.be/Quds2qPkteg

The first thing you probably think it would be is a dead battery, since that is the usual culprit.  Maybe you accidentally left the lights on or something and your battery died.  So you try to jump start it, turn the key and ... TICK.

Just 1 tick.

Typically when the battery is dying you will hear tick, tick, tick, tick...slowing down and trailing off.  That sound is from the starter attempting to turn the engine but there isn't enough power to get it to spin.

When you hear one single tick, it means the starter isn't turning at all.  The tick you hear is from the gear on the starter motor engaging with the flywheel on the engine.  Usually that gear engages, then the starter spins and the motor turns on.

So your starter gone bad.

The first way to fix a starter that isn't starting is to hit it with a hammer.  Sometimes you can get dead spots on the coil of the electrical motor and if you hit it with a hammer it can shift it around and get off that dead spot and start up.  This is a good temporary fix, but eventually it will find that dead spot again and you will have to keep hitting it.

BUY NEW STARTER

So you need to replace the starter.  The good news is that the starter on the Chrysler Town & Country only has 2 bolts and is near the front of the car.  The bad news is that it's a pain to replace.

As always, i go to SlickDeals and search for Advanced Auto Coupon Codes.  They always have big discounts when you buy online from Advanced Auto, the code is usually something like TRT30, TRT41, etc...

There's several and you have to find the best one for the biggest discount for what you are buying.  Sometimes the 30% off is the best.  This time i got $40 off when you spend over $100.  Also they will email you $20 codes every once in a while.  So the starter was $167, which includes the core return charge.  Then we got the $40 off and additional $20 off.  With tax the final charge was $113.  After it was all done we returned the old starter and got $30 back so the final total was $80.

REPLACING STARTER

First disconnect the battery, then climb under and disconnect the 2 wires going to the starter.  There's a small yellow wire which just pulls off and a big red wire.  To get the bigger wire off you have to remove a nut.

Here you can see the larger of the 2 wires going to the starter.

Many, many hours later you will end up by reconnecting that wire to the new starter.

Before going through everything, to make sure it's the starter that's bad, we connected those 2 wires to the new starter, grounded the starter to the metal frame, connected the battery and turned the key.  The new starter whizzed as the motor spun around.  So we knew for sure that it was the starter that needed to be replaced.  If the new starter didn't spin it would have been something else that was wrong.

Eventually we got the old starter out.

And ready to put in the new one.

So now time for the hard work.  Like i said, there are only 2 bolts holding the starter in place.  The bottom bolt is the easier of the 2 to remove.  It's best if you use a wracheting wrench because there isn't enough room for a socket wrench.

Not enough room for the socket.

BUT... the upper bolt is a real pain to remove.  It is a weird bolt.  You need to use a 15mm deep well socket to remove it.

The view from the top.

Eventually you will have to get down to removing this small plug to get a direct line on the bolt to remove.

  We tried for hours to get it off, using every socket extension and swivel socket head we had, but could not get it to bite.  There was too many things in line with the bolt and we could not get the socket to fit.  The bolt itself has threads, then a nut, then more threads.  it's where the larger of the 2 wires attaches.

The big thing to know is that in order to remove the other bolt you have to remove a ton of other things.  You have to take off the plastic fan shroud, frame rail, and radiator fan.  You also have to take off a plastic electrical cap and move it to the side.  All of those things have to be taken off, just to get that socket and 15mm deep well aligned straight.

All in all it wasn't that much of a pain to remove that stuff.  It only took 20 minutes, compared to the 3 hours we spent failing to get it off the first day.

To install the new starter, there is a metal spacer that has to be wedged in between.  It says "UP" on it so you don't screw it up.  But it takes a lot of effort and jiggling to get the starter to slide into place.  Then just tighten the 2 bolts back down.

Before putting everything back together we tried to start the car.  Luckily it started up perfectly.  So we put the fan, frame rail, and plastic shroud back in place.

As with most car repairs you do, the first time you do it takes hours of screwing up.  If i had to do it again it might only take 2 or 3 hours, but the first time it took about 6 or more.  Had i of known that i couldn't remove that bolt without removing all that stuff it would have saved a lot of time.

It still isn't an easy job but not impossible.

How to Cut Glass

How to Cut Mirror Glass - QUICK

https://youtu.be/uniR7W9U5gM


Here's the quick lesson on how to cut glass or a mirror.  I needed to cut some glass for my 3D printer.

First, about  what you are cutting.  I used a mirror which was about 1/8" thick, which is pretty standard.

I bought a 6 pack of 12"x12" mirrored glass at Lowe's for $10.  

Or you could buy individual pieces of glass.  For example a 10"x12" piece of glass is under $3.

Second, you need the right tools.  The main tool is obviously the glass cutter.

I have a fairly cheap one, which you can buy on Amazon for $5.

The way that the glass cutter works is that there's a tiny wheel on the front which is made of carbide steel, which is able to "score" a line into the glass.

Other tools are safety glasses, gloves, straight edge, a metal file for rounding the edges, and a work surface with a towel.

For some small cuts you may need a wrench to snap off the glass piece.

Another thing you need is some type of oil, i used 3-in-1 oil.  Because the cutter needs lubrication in order to sline smoothly.

Once you know where you want to cut the glass, apply a thin line of oil over the line, hold the straight edge tightly to the glass, then in one smooth movement firmly score a line in the glass.  It should take a lot of force pushing down and you should hear a crackling sound.

Make sure the score line goes from one end to the other, if there's a gap you can go back and score the ends.

Then use the ball end of the cutter to gently tap on the glass near the score line.  This will help promote the score line cracks all the way through the glass.

Next it's time to snap the glass on that score line.  Wearing your gloves, hold the score line on the edge of the table.  Then slowly apply pressure on the overhanging edge until it snaps (hopefully on the scored line).