S**N
Outstanding Customer Service, Great Consistency (actually measured 1 roll of product)
I purchased and received two rolls of Melca Filaments using the promotion offered here on Amazon. I have read a whole lot of reviews on many of the filaments available and have purchased a few different brands and types. I am new to 3D Printing and purchased a Flsun i3 about a month ago and have been building it here and there and will have it completed soon.Please see the bottom of this review for the specificsEven though I am new to the 3D Printing world, I am not new to the plastics world as having been a Mechanical Engineer where I specialized in Materials Testing. With a focus on plastics and exotic metals, I learned a whole lot more than my education could have ever taught me. So moving into 3D Printing as a hobby is a natural fit.A lot of the reviews state that there are problems with every single filament out there and there will always be. The reason for this is because of a lack of understanding of the dynamics of melt flow or viscous flow. Then you get into the precision of the machine doing the printing and you have a whole lot of dynamics going into a big hole and coming out a tiny micro hole. There are so many variables which can cause things to go wrong and they will, I assure you. YOU SHOULD NOT BLAME THE FILAMENT first, instead you should look at your machines calibration, general settings, material settings and the entire extruding & processing of your individual setup all while taking into account Viscous Flow/Melt Flow, whichever you prefer. Then spend the time printing calibration blocks/cubes or other items so as to obtain the very best outcome from that particular roll of filament as each roll comes from a "Lot". Each "Lot" should be consistent in properties, different "Lot" numbers may vary slightly and be enough to cause a difference in each printed object's outcome. Something to be aware of and again, this is not the filament's fault. Don't forget, humidity plays a big factor in your print outcome.Of course there are filaments out there that are not real good or have a consistence of manufacturing issue, just as there are fantastic quality filaments out there. You, literally, should come up with a materials calibration process or print for each roll of filament (which I intend to do) and take humidity and weather data into consideration when you do the test. Silica Gel packets are not very expensive, nor are 1 gallon ZipLoc Baggies. I purchased both for under $15.00. Notes or spreadsheets work great for this.With regards to this specific filament, I took one of the rolls, 1kg roll, and measured every few feet with a digital caliper and the results were absolutely consistent across the roll. The quality is consistent and appears to be on par with other well known brand names which I also purchased. Additionally, the vac sealed bags did leak, however, there were silica gel packets in each bag. You should also note, that the silica gel packets WILL NOT WORK in a complete vacuum. There must be freely moving air within the sealed package for silica gel packets to work properly and effectively. SO, if your bags were torn or leaked in outside air before you received them, you should not be concerned as long as a silica gel packet was installed.I also received a nice hand written Thank You note that was personal and sincere. I also communicated with Melody who was just absolutely fantastic!!! Melody also advised that the additional colors are on the way. The personal level of customer service, the price point of the filaments and knowing that Melca is very and quickly responsive say a whole lot about the back end of Melca. All of this leads to trust of the seller. And lets face it, we buy things online on a basis of reviews and trust. When I find a good product with responsive support, I stay with it and you probably do the same.I will continue to purchase Melca Filaments and will also update this review after I have "learned" each specific filament. Above all, don't forget - ALL Plastic is a Chemical and the slightest deviation within the "mixing" process changes the individual properties for each batch or Lot.Thank You Melca,S.A. Morrison
W**S
Mixed results
Edit *Update*:So I was contacted on 11/02/17 by the company rep / owner(?) (apologies if im wrong on that) Melody. She apologized for my issues and stated that they had found issues with their batch of filament and had taken "drastic" actions to correct them. She then offered me a choice of either a refund or a re-supply of filament when the new batch hits amazon in approx. 2 weeks. I opted for a re-supply, willing to try a fresh batch. There will probably be a new review from me once this happens.Filament aside, It is obvious that Melca has customer service at the forefront of their mind, so at the very least, they get top marks for going out of their way to see the customer satisfied.I purchased this and a spool of their black filament and have had a bit of a mixed time with the white (have not tried the black yet)Im printing on a CR-10 with temps usually between 195-210 and 60-70 on the bed, Mirror tile and a bit of gluestick. With this setup ive had no problems on a multitude of different PLA's (Inland, Ziro, MG Chemicals, Zyltech, Hatchbox to name a few) and wood filled.When I first received the filament, I was a little irked that it wasnt vacuum sealed (noted this in a suggestion email to customer service for them to consider in future) but I have a drybox setup and stored it for a few days as I was in process with another series of prints.At first it seemed to print well. Decent adhesion, good flow, all the stuff you look for. I was stoked a bit, hoping that i found a source of good budget pla. Then I started running into some issues. Non-adhesion caused me to loose a few prints in mid work. I figured "Eh, it happens, just bad luck". Started to get some extruder clogging and found some variance of the PLA diameter, up to 1.88- 1.92 was about as high as I saw.I stripped a few layers off, got back to a run of normal diameter and reloaded. Got a few good prints in, then started having adhesion issues again.Since I was actively trying to get some project work done, I removed the Melca and loaded in a known good partial of Zyltech and had no issues.I could be just a slip of bad luck on one spool. As I stated, I havent tried their spool of black that I had ordered, but I think ill wait on it til some of my project work is done and then give it a really good testing with some temp and bridging towers and see what results i get. I kinda hope its a fluke, Id like a nice budget PLA for working with new projects and simple work.
Trustpilot
3 days ago
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