Filament Donations

This site is mostly powered by filament donations, either from manufacturers directly or fellow hobbyists. This isn't my job (though I do have a lot of fun with it) so I can't afford to bring you all the filaments on the face of the earth... but you can help with that!

If you have a filament that I don't, I want to make it easy for you to get that filament to me so that we can get it in the library. Here's the important part before we get to the details:

There are a lot of plastics that I have on hand but might not be on the site yet -- take a look at the inventory to make sure what you have is new to the library! If you have any questions, give me a shout!

Supplies Needed

• Sandwich Baggies (I use something like this but you can get them cheaper at your local dollar store)
• Pen / pencil
• Knife or scissors
• A padded envelope to ship in (more info on that later)
• A way to print out (or make) the labels for your filaments

You can use something else to hold the filament if you'd like; the important part is that the labels you print out in the next part stay with the proper coils. Little baggies are tried and tested, so that's what I recommend.

Process

Gather your filaments

I can print most filaments that are printable on a consumer-grade printer with a hardened nozzle. Things that I cannot take at this time include:

• 3mm filament
• Tri-(or more)-color filament
• Rainbow / transition filament
• Super high-temp exotics

Everything else is fair game, including engineering samples and coextrusions. If you have 3mm filament that you want to donate and a 3mm printer, please get in touch with me so that we can work something out.

Print (or make!) labels

For each filament that you want to donate, you'll need a label. I've made a Google Doc that you can use to print out labels. If you don't have a printer, you can write the information on a piece of paper and cut it out to put in the bag.

Each label needs the following information:

• Filament Type - PLA? PLA+? ABS? PETG? TPU? Nylon? etc.
• Filament Name - What is the technical name of the filament? (e.g. Sakura Pink)
• Manufacturer - Who makes the filament? (e.g. Hatchbox, Prusament, etc.)
• Your name - If you would like to be credited on the site, include how you want to be credited here.

An example label might read:

Make sure that this label is as accurate to the filament as possible — the more information, the better! If the label is not in English, please write the names as you see them on the label. (For example, if you have a German filament sold as "Himbeerrot", you should write that instead of translating it to "Raspberry Red".)

Prepare each filament

For each filament, cut a small piece that is at least 2 meters long. (If you don't have a good way to measure it: hold the spool in one hand, the end of the filament in the other, and open your arms as wide as you can. Do that twice and it should be enough.) Coil it up and put it in a baggie with its proper label. If you want to save some space, you can combine multiple filaments in one baggie as long as they are very easy to tell apart (e.g. a white and a black filament), but I recommend using one bag per filament if you can as it makes it easier on my side.

Side note: please do not put in 26 filaments into a single bag with all the labels in a pile. I've had to untangle that mess before and it's not fun.

Prepare to ship

Most flat-rate packaging (or whatever is designed for small, mostly flat things) will work for shipping filament. If you're in the US, the USPS has Priority Mail Flat-Rate padded envelopes that work well. Stick your filament bags in there and address it as follows:

I can receive packages from any carrier and country, so feel free to use whatever is most convenient for you. UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. are all fine. If you have any questions about donating, feel free to shoot me an email so that we can chat!

Ship that sucker!

Drop your package in the mail, and I'll get your filaments indexed as soon as I can. Because this is a hobby, the current queue is roughly a few months... but they will get added! Feel free to follow up and make sure that I've received them.

Want to print them yourself?

If you're really itching to print them yourself, follow the below instructions. Please note that if you print swatches and send them without verifying quality first, I may not be able to accept them.

Open the below file in the slicer of your choice and configure the following settings:

• 3 walls
• 3 top layers
• 3 bottom layers
• 17% hexagonal (sometimes called 'honeycomb') infill
• 0.2mm layers (should be 10 layers high when sliced)

Print one and send me pictures of the top, bottom, and side of the print so that I can doublecheck quality. If it looks good, then you'll be good to go with printing the rest as long as they match or exceed the quality of the first one. I also need a cutting of the filament you used to print the swatches so that I can measure it for its TD value; just 10cm / 4in is all that's needed. Please make sure it's with the swatch when you send it in!

Please note that I will not be able to return any swatches sent in, so please don't send me anything you're not willing to part with.

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for considering donating to the library. The more colors we add, the more useful this site is to everyone. Most of the colors I have are only easily available in the U.S., so I definitely want to hear from you if you live elsewhere!

Cheers and happy printing!