I just received my second spool of Sunlu PLA 1.75 mm filament, a Silk in Light Gold. My first spool was not a good experience as the Sunlu black PLA clogged and produced low quality prints versus other filament manufacturers. Was it just a bad roll? Maybe! Just like the first spool, the packaging was nice with a standard vacuum sealed bag with a desiccant pack. After opening the spool, I noticed the filament was covered with little black specks. At first glance, I thought the specks were impregnated into the PLA but then I noticed they could be wiped off.
The color seems uniform but very dull in comparison to the advertised photographs on Sunlu.com or other reseller sites. Once printed however, the color really shines and looks great. As for the print quality, it took a while to get the settings just right.
Test Prints
On my Flashforge Adventurer 3, prints failed left and right, three failed Benchy’s to be exact. I do believe this is more to do with the current state of my nozzle than the filament. My Adventurer 3 has hundreds of hours on the nozzle and it may be due for a replacement (on order!). On my Ender 3 Pro, print quality with the Sunlu PLA was surprisingly good. The color of this Sunlu Silk PLA is spectacular once printed. I was able to get solid prints with a first print layer set to 215 degrees with a 60 deg bed temp (first layer print speed = 15mm/s) and then 210 and 40 for the remaining print. On both the Adventurer 3 and the Ender 3 Pro, anything below 210 resulted in a clogged nozzle. The Ender 3 Pro did produce some artifacts, especially salmon skin, but for the most part the prints came out nice. The Ender is a fairly new printer for me so I may have to try out some TL Smoother’s on the X,Y axis at some point. Although I have heard mixed reviews on whether or not they work.
Final Thoughts
This second roll of Sunlu filmament has been a far better experience than the first. Leading me to believe that the first was just bad. The colors are nice and the print settings are very similar to other PLA’s like Hatchbox, eSun, etc. I will be picking up more as the price is good, around $26 per spool. If you want to try out this filament, I found it priced well with good shipping times on Amazon.
