thanks muhammed!
ok that photo was the second prototype, i'd experimented with ABS for the
sides and for the screen-hinge after leaving the first prototype in a bay
window, in the sun where i had photographed it... you know what's coming next
don't you.... it had melted because PLA has a glass point of 60C :)
so that's why the left and right sides in that photo are white: it's "plain"
ABS which has a glass point of 110C. however i didn't like the quality of
ABS, so i will not be using it. instead i will be trying PETG.
the materials that i've used for the laptop so far are Faberdashery's PLA.
Robot Silver, Transluscent Black, Village Green - they don't do that
beautiful dark purple any more, sadly. their web site is
http://www.faberdashery.co.uk, you can review their materials and if you use
facebook they have people posting stuff there. faberdashery's PLA is known
amongst the "power users" of the 3D printing world to be EXTREMELY good.
people order it for delivery world-wide because they've never been able to
find anything equivalent.
i did try some of 123dprint.nl's apollo series "Budget" PLA.... it was so
ludicrously low quality as to be borderline mis-selling and deceptive
marketing. fortunately after explaining to them that even when the filament
was left in a 3D printer without doing anything, just the bearing and gear
pressing against it, after two days of pressure the filament would just FALL
OFF it was such bad quality, they gave me a full refund without even having
to pay postage costs. they recommended some of their PETG, i bought that
instead, and have been really happy with it.
now, i haven't had a chance to 3D print up some of the laptop parts with
their PETG yet: it has a much higher glass point and is structurally stronger
than PLA, so i am looking forward to trying it out.
so. when i am in S.E. Asia i will be endeavouring to source materials that
are as good quality as Faberdashery's. if i can't find any i'll just have
their filament imported (!). there aren't that many laptop pledges so this
should be absolutely fine.
