Protopasta Magnetic Iron Filled PLA 3D Printer Filament 1.75mm | 500g Spool | High Strength & Precision for DIY Projects, Model Making & Prototyping

I bought the Protopasta 3D Printer Filament | Magnetic Iron Filled PLA to print some of my sculptures, I use vinigar and water to rust the printed piece. To my surprise it rusted really well i also can atest to the fact that the filament can be attached to magnets.I have printed over 14 kg (~32 lbs) of the Magnetic Iron PLA which is probably more than any other filament I've ever used. What I like about this filament is the realistic look it gives after rusting the print. This is especially helpful as I work in the railroad industry where many of the prints are for demonstration purposes and the rusty look immediately catches people's attention - see attached photos of a scaled down R36 switch stand. Though this filament does have its caveats. First and foremost, I found that having a geared extruder was practically a must for successfully printing this filament. I'm not saying you can't get a good print without one, but it only helps. Second, I have a bowden setup and have had countless successful prints, but I have to increase my extruder flow rate by about ~10% to avoid under-extrusion issues. Third, I have to print much slower (<35 mm/s) than regular PLA, though this makes sense as there are literally iron particles inside the filament. Fourth, I have to print mine at the higher end of the suggested temp range at 235° C. Lastly, as other people have said, getting a clogged nozzle is much more common with this filament than normal. To help prevent this I implemented the adjustments I mentioned above, but also I found that reducing the retraction distance to around 3mm (less may be fine) really helped too.All that said, if you can be a little patient then this filament is wonderful, but do not assume that you can just load up the filament, start the print, and walk way the first time you use it and not have any issues, which is why I'm giving it four stars.I used a mix of 3% peroxide and vinegar, roughly 50% of each by volume. And saturated with table salt.Also I lightly scuffed the surface with a brass brush. I couldn't see any change to the surface but the idea was to expose more iron at the surface that might be just below a thin layer of PLA. Spray the mix and within seconds it starts to visibly rust. Spray a few more times over an hour or so and leave overnight. Super easy.I know that some people are reporting issues with using this filament, and to be honest, it is important to not use a brass nozzle. I use a .4mm steel nozzle on my Anycubic Mega Pro without any issues. The filament is wound nicely on the reel, and the prints are beautiful. They have a heavy feel to them, and have some slight magnetic qualities. The only downside that I have found is that the amount of material on the reel is significantly less and the cost is just a little high. But if you want a nice looking, and feeling print then you might want to give this a go. Just don't forget to upgrade that nozzle!Looks good and prints goodOkay so honestly I feel bad leaving such a negative review of this product seeing how most people seem to be happy with it, and maybe I was just expecting too much from it but either way here's what I experienced.The Negatives1. The filament is very brittle and while they clearly state this in the description it's still annoying. My 3d printer always puts a slight amount of tension on the filament even when you are loading the filament so despite me being cautious I still had the filament break one time, not a big deal if it's removed but if it were to break and you pushed the broken filament into your machine I would imagine it could do some damage.2. I'm not a fan of the cardboard spool, sure it's eco friendly but it can be damaged in shipping. It also doesn't roll as smoothly on the stand while it's being fed into the machine as a plastic spool does, not a big deal but I feel like if I'm paying a premium price I want something to preform better not worse.3. The filament lingers around after you change filament colors, while all filaments do this to some extent none of them have been as bad as this filament. I suppose you could just steady run the extruder for a few minutes after you load a different filament but then you're wasting filament which seems kind of pointless.4. The biggest negative for me of them all is I simply couldn't get a proper print out of this filament. Maybe it was something I did wrong or maybe it was just my cheap 3d printer but every other PLA I have tried has worked fine and I just couldn't get this to print properly. I'll update my review if I am able to get a decent print out of this but that still doesn't change the fact that it's preforms vastly different than a standard PLA.The NeutralThe prints do weight more than a regular PLA filament, I'm not really sure why you would want or need this especially considering the extra weight doesn't add any strength to the print but if you're looking for that this filament has it.The PositiveDespite not being able to get a complete print out of this filament the part I did get looked pretty cool, it has almost like a stone/concrete look to it and if you put some peroxide and salt on it you do get the cool rust affect that everyone likes.So after all those negatives and aggravation the only really benefit you get from this filament is it looks kind of cool, even with that though it's not that cool looking when you compare it to something like a wood filament. When you use a wood filament and stain your print you can get a 3d print that looks exactly like wood, however with this no matter what you do it still looks like something printed out on a 3d printer. Overall I'm not really happy with this filament even if this printed out fine and I had no problems with it I still don't think I would be impressed by it. It's just not unique or good looking enough to justify the $40 and the difficulty of use was just the icing on the disappointment cake.Even with the bad experience I will give another one of proto-pasta's filaments a try in the future but I'll be looking for one that is easier to use.Presto Pasta brass looks pretty good. The filament is brittle and takes some close attention ( I can now tell the sound of it snapping from across the room). If you have a brass print head the filament will trash it before the spool is done. Once I upgraded to hardened steel there were no problems. The finish looks better than in the photo and it shines and sparkles in the sunlight. I sanded the final part with wet 600 grit and then used 000 steel wool to give it a final buff. It quickly takes on a greenish tint so as soon as I buff it out I hit it with a clear coat to prevent oxidation of the fine brass particles.I've used the copper and steel filament and the brass, by far, has been my favorite in terms of the finish!!!! Printed at .12 layer height at 180c and sanded with 120, 400, 1000, then hit it with steel wool, all very quick and rough. Will try tumbling next; the aging effects are awesome. I think if I had a Dremel with polishing bits, it would make more of the detail work easier.Fast delivery as I’m in the uk and I haven’t used it but I will definitely try it later as I say I only have a direct drive but if i slow the speed down I think it will be ok but thank you as I seen all the reviews on YouTube and I thought I got to try this out. Will package and I’m happy. Thank youWhile I have not tested the rustable part yet, the magnetic attribute of this filament is definitely true.As you can see in the photo, I printed a nice holder for my ES121 screwdriver.The filament is easy to work with, I am printing at 200C, it sticks well to a heated (60C) bed (with a hint of hair spray).The material is definitely about 50% denser than normal PLA, I estimate it to be about 1.89 g/mm^3.I am using a 0.6mm nozzle currently, but only because I don't like waiting. And for most non-high details required prints, a 0.6mm nozzle makes a difference in speed.This stuff will start printing but the most I've been able to print is maybe 15 layers then gets clogged. I've tried slowing down the print, decreasing the tempature I've had easier time printing flexible materials and crappy wood filament .... I've also tried it on two different printers with the same outcome for both regardless of what I try to do. Proto pastas mermaid tail teal is a hit this is not one of those filamentsThis is a bit of a fussy filament, and very brittle to work with. Seemed to like printing painfully slowly and I had a lot of failures 1/2-2/3 of the way through prints which was frustrating. When this filament DOES work, which is not all the time even when the settings are dialed in, it is almost worth all the fuss. Very cool, heavy prints that are easy to get a rust effect on.Needs to print really slow and spool must spin as smooth as possible because filaments strips easy in the extruder (Even with dual drive gear extruder) Otherwise, this is a good filament and I really like how it looks when rusted!