Rigid Ink not selling 3D printing filament any more !!!

I went onto the website to find out why their ABS 1.75 mm filament needs to get to 240C to print properly and found out that their mainstay business is not prospering, so they are retracting to a training and advice subscription service.

They quote that the rising price of raw high quality plastics is making their price/quality business model untenable. There again, to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies 'They would say that wouldn't they'.

Not selling filament means they don't need a warehouse, staff etc... Just a website and a telephone. No overheads and very little in the way of costs.

I am not that bothered as I have only had two reels of filament and a few samples from them, I must say that for £30 a Kg it was better than the £10 a Kg cack, off eBay, but there are plenty of suppliers who do good enough stuff for £20 a 1Kg reel.

Cheers,

Rob-T

Lee - this ain't a BUILD LOG, can you put it in the right place please !

Hi Rob

I think I've only ever had one or two reals of filament from Rigid Ink when I first started printing 4-5 years ago - I found their consistency wasn't worth the premium they were charging imho.

I've been using Real Filament (Dutch via Amazon ~£21 per kg) mostly over the years, but very recently their prices took a hike upwards and I think they did it thinking we were going to be out of the EU and then we didn't....

As a result I took a punt on some filament from Sunlu also via Amazon and its actually been surprisingly good so far and was ~£15 per kg

I've also used Technology Outlet, but whilst some has been very good, I've also had some duff reels....

Technology Outfit is just down the road 15 miles from me, and I bought the printer from them, but I find them a bit pricey, £17 for a roll of 'special heated bed tape' turned out to be £6 worth of blue Scotch masking tape.

I have actually only had two reels of ABS from Rigid and both were for jobs where I needed good results. Water clear filament that actually printed quite well (but not like acrylic sheet would look) and some black, which was because I needed good stuff to test the printer.

I tend to buy filament using Amazon as most of the eBay stuff is cheap shite.

I tend to use Real filament and buy it via Amazon or Reprapworld UK. Prices aren't bad and quality is good and consistent. Stay well in a container with RV dry sacks and no printing issues. I tend to print it a bit hot then suggested but also print a bit faster then suggested so it evens out. Good quality finished product and low levels of stringing on their PETG. Their ASA prints well and with good results.

I have used RigidInk and from what I can see basically ,Ed sees the writing on the wall that raw material prices are dropping and folks like Prusa are getting into the game which furthers was cutting into his market share. While their quality tended to be good, it had started having issues and I don't know if that is do as a change of suppliers or their supplier changing processes. The filament market is very competitive and unless you have a good base market you can count on, it is very risky.