Review on 🔩 500g Proto Pasta Composite Iron 1, 75mm Filament by Alex Jones

I have used 3 spools of this filament in my Lulzbot printers for various projects. The key takeaway is that while at least 3 other competitors are selling metal-filled PLA composites with copper, brass, bronze, etc., there is simply no other competitor (to my knowledge) that offers readily available PLA mixed with iron powder. Luckily, Proto-Pasta's Magnetic Iron PLA is pretty good. In my experience, printing with it can be either easy or impossible, depending on various factors. For me, PLA thermal creep has been an issue with all high-temp proto-pasta PLA filaments, but the iron mix is the worst. I have one printhead that can't really print this filament after a few layers and another that luckily prints it without error with the default settings. I got a third die head by lowering the retract settings to almost zero and counterintuitively INCREASING the extrusion temperature on the hot end! After printing it looks very good. It bridges well, doesn't shrink too much, hides a bit of layer lines, and has a nice matte texture. Strong magnets can stick to it if you have thick walls and/or dense filling and a strong enough magnet. I'm not sure what the point is. Its weight and ability to rust seem to be its best attributes. Just using a bleach solution sprayed on the printed part and left for a few days can create a very pleasing rust effect. Many tutorials tell you that you can improve the quality of iron PLA parts by grinding and wire brushing them. . However, sanding alters the lightness and texture. So when you do this, sign up for an even and thorough sanding of all nooks and crannies of the part. Since in some cases it can be difficult to evenly sand and clean the entire part, I recommend rusting the part without sanding to see if you like the effect. I attached a rocket that I printed with PLA Proto-Pasta irons and had minimal finishing and no sanding as an example.