Proto-Pasta Stainless Steel Filament (500g)

8" diameter spool of 500g of ProtoPasta's stainless-steel-infused PLA. Contain powdered steel. Prints with normal PLA settings (195-220ºC). A heated bed is not required but can be used at 50ºC.

This is a dense material that prints as easily as standard PLA but results in heavy cast-metal-looking prints that can be brushed, sanded, or polished post-print to achieve amazing results. Perfect for jewelry, costumes, props, figurines, crafting, robots, and more!

In an unfinished form, prints look like cast metal. They can be left that way, or finished through a variety of methods to achieve different results. Here are some of the methods recommended by ProtoPasta:

• Wire Brushing: Simply rubbing back and forth with a stiff wire brush will give your print increased shine, but will not remove print lines.
• Rock Polisher: Small prints can be tumbled for 24+ hours with abrasive materials for a variety of finishes. We recommed steel shot.
• Wheel Polishing: The most brilliant results were achieved by lightly polishing prints using a polishing wheel (a wheel with layers of soft cloth, attached to a bench grinder, you can buy smaller wheels for drills) and Fabulustre Cut and Polish Compound (or similar polishing compound). Aside from the eye-catching shine, it is also possible to remove layer lines with this method.

The material is quite abrasive as it prints, so it can increase wear on soft brass nozzles. As a result, Ultimaker owners may wish to order spare nozzles, or upgrade to a more easily maintainable system such as the Olsson Block (ideally coupled with harder nozzles, such as Stainless Steel) to minimize wear. Larger diameter nozzle openings, such as 0.6mm, are also recommended for best results, although 0.4mm nozzles can also be used.