Introduction

There’s been a lot of different manufacturers that have been adding things to their filaments lately.  They can range from carbon fiber strands, ACTUAL diamonds, all sorts of metallic powders, and finally.. wood.  I have been using this 3D Hero Wood filament for a few weeks and I feel that I am ready to write a review.  I also couldn’t help myself with that title.

Disclaimer

Any filament that has additives in it will be hard on the standard brass nozzles that most 3D printers get shipped with.  If you plan on doing a lot of 3D printing with additive stuffed filament, you should spend the money and upgrade your nozzle.  Filament additives will shred your  brass nozzle in short time and cause print quality issues.  I highly recommend a Micro Swiss TwinClad-XT Plated nozzle.  Also, you should look into a slightly larger diameter nozzle than the 0.4mm nozzle that many 3D printers come with.  In fact, 3D Hero recommend a 0.5mm diameter nozzle for this filament.  The 3D Hero Wood filament is a PLA blended filament.

I have been using this 3D Hero Wood filament on my Tevo Tornado with a Micro Swiss All-Metal Hotend.  Yes, to answer your question.. I know it is a 0.4mm nozzle.. but I didn’t have a SINGLE jam.

Opening and Loading

Firstly, this filament came boxed with the spool in a tightly vacuum sealed bag.  The 3D Hero Wood filament didn’t smell strongly like wood after opening the bag or smelling the spool directly.  After heating up the hotend and easing the filament in, there were some whiffs of burning wood.  This brought back some nostalgia with my experiments in wood burning as a youth.  No, I am not talking about arson.

Setting Up the Slicer 3d hero wood-skully

I used my standard PLA profile to start off with and sliced my easy go to print, Skully.  This is a nice quick print that doesn’t have any challenges with overhangs.  After watching the initial layer lay down, I gradually increased the extruder temperature until the texture and color was to my liking.  I settled on 210C.  I left all of my other settings in Cura, my slicer of choice, untouched for all of the prints in this review.

How Did 3D Hero Wood Do?

Well, I think it did really nice!  The layer lines really seem to melt away while using the 3D Hero Wood filament.  After the Skully came out I decided it was time to fire up one of my favorite models, the Left Facing Owl.  I love this model!  There is a fair amount of unsupported overhangs and high details.  It’s not uncommon when printing this that the bottom of the chest and belly feathers will be strings of filament, because it is literally printing in thin air.  That was also the case when printing with the 3D Hero Wood filament, and they cleaning snapped off.  There was also a fair amount of stringing in between the owl’s plumicorns, which could be a combination of slicer related things and the ‘not so fantastic‘ parts cooling on my Tornado.

I thought another fun print would be this floating model boat, Jun.  It’s a wooden looking jungle boat.  There’s a LOT of detail in the print and I was really excited to see how it would look in the 3D Hero Wood!3d hero wood-furry boat

The amount of stringing on this model was intense!  I went back into my Cura profile and increased the retraction speed and distance from 2.5mm @ 40mm/s to 3.6mm @ 100mm/s.  I also printed a few tiny Retraction Tests to test the changes.  The model on the left is where it started and moving to the right is what it looked like after upping the retraction to my final setting.3d hero wood-retraction

It’s Not JUST For Models!

I also decided that this would be a great filament to print some of my new assistive devices with.  My youngest son, Aidan was born without any fingers on his left hand.  I typically use my printers to make 3D printed hands, but also make other kinds of assistive tech.  My newest design is a special stand to help him play his recorder at school.  This design prints flat and I use hot water to thermoform the part into the final shape.  The 3D Hero Wood filament made this look really nice, dare I say professional looking?!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed printing with the 3D Hero Wood filament and I didn’t have any issues with it over the few weeks that I used it.  The quality, look and feel that this filament printed at was very nice.  I was expecting slightly more of a wood smell or feel, but I am fine with this the way it is.  The smaller wood particles are probably why I didn’t have an issue using my 0.4mm nozzle.  I also wasn’t able to get the large variance in color that other people seem to get with wood filaments.  The color and shade all stayed very close to the same shade with the only REAL difference being the texture.  When I printed at colder temperatures the texture would be rougher and not as smooth.

3d hero wood-fixed jungle boat
Some of the uprights for the upper deck failed, but otherwise it printed good.

Did you want to try this filament for yourself?  Check it out on Amazon.com!  Don’t forget to check out the section on 3D Printer Filament Deals and Coupons, new things are always being added!

 

The post 3D Hero Wood Filament Review: Read This and Get Wood! appeared first on Inov3D.