Duramic 3D Glow Green
Pros/Cons-
Pros:
-Very reactive glow
-Strong glow
-Reasonably Priced
-Strong
-Variety of glowing colors
Cons:
-Can only seem to find them for online ordering
-Sensitive to a variety of printer and ambient variables
-Sulfur heavy can lead to clogs
-May need specific printer set up to get full printing capability out of
Review-
The Duramic 3D Glow in the dark Green PLA is a mouthful to say and an interesting filament to be working with. I purchased this expecting it to work like most other PLA filament and based on the reviews on Amazon, I was hopeful. Once I started printing with it though, I found very quickly that this filament is not for the faint of heart.
I started with my first 2 prints for review being the Benchy boat and the Extreme test and the print seemed to print flawlessly. No messy overhangs or stringing, good surface finish and when it says glow in the dark, they mean GLOW. I quickly had the benchy outside to charge the glow and noticed on my way to the dark room that I was able to see the filament glow in a dimly lit room no problem. Once in the dark room, I was able to see that the filament glowed like the movies would have you believe a ghost would. Everything seemed great, but then I started to print things that move.
I attempted to print one of the YAFC(yet another fidget cube) that can be bought here on our site and found that if there are any free hanging parts, the filament would fling, brake or spaghetti. I originally used the generic PLA settings on my AnkerMake M5C and the print works physically, but the free floating hinges at the top are messy and missing an entire face. I then attempted to troubleshoot by adding support both standard and organic(tree) and the same issue happened. I then attempted to slow the print down and run the settings at the recommended settings on the side of the spool and the print had a bed adhesion issue almost immediately. This was troubling since part of the reason I bought the filament was to fulfill an order that wanted glow in the dark filament finished cubes. What was I to do?
I did the next logical step and thought clearly it has to be this spool or brand and bought a new spool different color and brand but still glow in the dark. To my surprise, I got 1 good fidget cube out of it and then the same issue happened. I talked to one of my friends who is chemist by trade and he enlightened me on the nature of the glow in the dark filament. With the filament being sulfur rich to glow, the printing process will be much more sensitive to a variety of different factors like ambient humidity and temperature. That left me with 1 conclusion.
Buy a new printer. So I ended up buying a Bambu Labs P1S combo for its enclosure to keep consistent temperatures, core x/y printing design to keep the parts more steady during the print and AMS system which keeps the filament more dry and allows me to print in multiple colors. The fist thing I did after bringing the printer home was try another fidget cube and to my surprise, even with the generic PLA settings, the print came out flawlessly! In fact, the cube came out even better! The finish had some transparency this time where you could see the internal structure of the print. If you print with an enclosed printer and use a dryer, I could see this PLA being an awesome filament for wall art or even halloween decor! The only thing I would warn of is that when you print supports with this filament, even the supports tend to be fairly stiff and strong. You may need to break out tools and sand paper to get the desired finish from the support points.
In conclusion, over my journey, I would say that if you need a glow in the dark PLA to use for static single parts with no need for supports, floating or moving parts, this filament is great to have and use for any printer. If you plan on using and need supports, floating or moving parts, I would highly recommend to have an enclosed printer and dryer for your filament as well as be prepared to put in a little bit of elbow grease to get the supports off.
Files Used:
Yet Another Fidget Infinity Cube v2
Buy:
