Filament

Short answer: a 1kg spool of decent PLA or PETG costs somewhere between $14 and $26 at the brand’s own store, and ASA runs a few dollars more. Right now the cheapest PLA I track is ELEGOO PLA at $13.99/kg, and the cheapest PETG is ELEGOO Rapid PETG at $13.99/kg. That number moves, though. Filament goes on sale constantly, and the same spool can swing 20–30% in a month. So instead of writing numbers that are stale in two weeks, every price on this page is pulled from my filament price tracker, which checks each brand’s store every morning. ...

If you just got your first 3D printer and opened Amazon to buy filament, you were probably hit with dozens of options immediately. But two names keep coming up: PLA and PETG. The good news is that these are the two best filaments to start with — and for most people, they’re the only two you’ll ever need. Here’s what they actually are, how they’re different, and which one to reach for first. ...

If you’ve been printing in PETG and it’s working great, you might wonder why anyone would bother switching. The answer is simple: put a PETG part in direct sunlight for a few months and see what happens. PETG doesn’t handle UV exposure well. It yellows, gets brittle, and eventually fails. For anything that lives outside — a garden fixture, a car mount, a mailbox bracket — you need something built for it. That’s ASA. ...