Although clearer than generic ABS, this filament is not "crystal clear" compared to clear or pigmented transparent PETGs. Also does not respond to acetone vapor polishing as do standard ABS grades. I suspect the higher clarity than std. ABS is achieved by reducing the rubber (butadiene) level, which might reduce its toughness. Print quality otherwise good, no warping with 1-layer raft on 85C PEI bed.
I bought a spool of MP clear from Amazon because it was a lot cheaper... I should have known. Like what others have said, this filament is extremely brittle, and has wild fluctuations in size, sometimes up to 1.9mm!!! I used about 10%, and I'm going to have to throw away the rest. it's not worth my time to fix the constant jams and breaks.
I hope they never stop making the gold and crystal clear
I am using the Monprice Dual 3D Printer (Discontinued). There is something different about this Gold and Crystal Clear ABS. At first this stuff was frustrating and horrible, but ultimately led me to correct all the problems with my printer (over extrusion, bad heat bed settings, etc.). The cool thing about this and Crystal Clear ABS is that I can print full height on glass with just hairspray, 60C Heat Bed, and 240C extruders with no warping or cracking! I can verify that it does dissolve in Acetone and will behave as expected in a Acetone vapor bath. I would give it a higher rating, but the spool I received was wound too tight and unevenly causing snags.
A very good clear ABS(if you know the materials limitations)
TLDR: Great material for its type, print at high temps with a hot heated bed, print with thick layers as few perimeters as possible and as little infill as you can get away with for the most transparent results and the material is brittle simply because of what it is.
The material prints well with a little work. I printed with a hotend temp of about 250C and a heated bed temp of 95C. As other people have mentioned before the material does not print completely clear if you treat it like your average print the lack of transparency is not a limitation of the material but a side effect of how 3D printing works. Printing in layers causes diffusion because of the inconsistency's between the layers to improve clarity increase your layer thickness, reduce perimeters/shells and print with as little infill as possible. Doing these things will give you the clearest possible prints with the trade off that they will be weaker. Also mentioned before the material is brittle, sadly there is not much you can do about this it is simply a property of clear ABS materials even the great LEGO company has tried to fix this and have failed. All in all this is a great clear ABS and has many uses due to its ability to bond to other ABS materials and smooth it with acetone. It is a very good material for some applications but may not be exactly what you are looking for. I would suggest that people looking for a more clear material that is less brittle look into clear PETG as it will better suit your needs.
PROS: Very Clear for ABS Smooths with acetone Can be bonded to other ABS materials with acetone High temperature resistance
CONS: Brittle (sadly just a property of clear ABS) Needs to be printed quite hot to avoid warping
I have tried several times with this and the prints just turn out like garbage. There seems to be a little more shrinkage then with normal ABS, and it causes a little more warping. Prints just dont come out nearly as sharp as from other ABS...
PROS: Its not PLA...
CONS: VERY brittle. Not "crystal clear" after print (its just the nature of printing and light refraction). Its much more temperamental then the other ABS plastic. Does not make as clean of prints as the normal ABS.
Too Brittle, and not exactly 1.75 diam, more like 1.85 and jams
I too have given up trying to print anything with this, as it is too brittle. It snapped during several attempts to print. the filament is also not exactly 1.75 diameter and measures more like 1.85 to 1.88 and jams my extruder head, causing hours of cleanup and replacement.
PROS: Lightening fast delivery
CONS: too brittle, easily broken. Not exactly 1.75mm diameter as advertised, and definitely not premium
Thank you for your review and truly sorry to hear about the issues experienced with PID 11548. I will submit a complaint on this filament to our product team to help resolve these issues or make the product better. Thank you for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated! If I may ask, how much filament out of the spool have you used so far? Please let me know so we can look into this further. Apologies again for the trouble and thank you in advance!
Regards, Gabby Villa Tech Support Associate
November 18, 2016
Monoprice Administrator
Rated 1 out of 5
Brittle / Does not work in Makerbot
I would not recommend until they come up with a new version of this product.
PROS: very clear
CONS: As with other people that have reviewed this filament, its very very brittle, it snaps very easily. I have found it completely unusable, by the time it prints a bed, it either snaps inside the heat head or on the wheel. I have not been able to finish one full print yet.
This is high-quality filament, but the increased hardness of this variant diminishes the advantages of using ABS over PLA. Still less brittle than most PLA, but I'm going to stick with normal dyed ABS for now. The finished parts are also not really that transparent - more translucent - because all of the tiny ridges from each layer reflect/refract light everywhere.
PROS: Good spool wrap quality, no air bubbles, works as advertised.
CONS: Harder and more brittle than other ABS filaments I have worked with - whatever chemical modifications were used to make it transparent seem to have made it a bit less flexible.
Makes a really annoying buzzing sound when it rubs against things - things like the feed mechanism for my extruder.