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In all honesty, I've found my PLA prints to be very durable.  Of course, you shouldn't be leaving it in a hot car anyway.  Depending on size, you can store your prints in a 5 gallon bucket (light color).  Or even just cover it with a blanket (out of the sun).

 

I've used several brands of PLA.  By FAR, I've found 3D-Fuels Workday PLA to be the absolute best as far as strength.

https://www.3dfuel.com/materials/workday-pla/

 

I would also recommend that you coat your part in XTC-3D.  It will seriously make your part better, and with gold, easier to clean.

https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/xtc-3d/

 

The green riffle drop-ins in my sluice setup are made from the 3D-Fuel PLA (because of its durability)

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I mostly use PETG  for mechanical parts, sometimes Taulman nylon if I'm feeling spendy.

While PLA + etc are decent, I pretty much just them it for indoor models and stuff. Decent PLA is the same price as decent PETG. I like the stiffness of PLA and the dimensional stability but it's not as forgiving with fasteners etc. If you drop a PLA Benchy, it sounds like a golf ball.

With a E3D hot end and a filament dryer I don't really lose print quality to speak of with PETG vs PLA, though it was a challenge at first.

 

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I use Esun PETG mostly, I pay about $27 Canadian for a killo. (About the same street price as PLA here)

The most important thing with PETG is to dry the filament. I made up something like THIS to dry my filaments.

I'm sure somebody could do you a bulk order on filament when you are ready.

As far as print surface, I use sanded blue masking tape. I use another ball of tape to get the sanding dust off. There are all kinds of new surfaces like spring steel and PEI etc, but the blue tape is a decent standby readily available.

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11 hours ago, Alluminati said:

I use Esun PETG mostly, I pay about $27 Canadian for a killo. (About the same street price as PLA here)

The most important thing with PETG is to dry the filament. I made up something like THIS to dry my filaments.

I'm sure somebody could do you a bulk order on filament when you are ready.

As far as print surface, I use sanded blue masking tape. I use another ball of tape to get the sanding dust off. There are all kinds of new surfaces like spring steel and PEI etc, but the blue tape is a decent standby readily available.

I've tried PLA on painters tape, and it ends up stuck to the bottom of the print, so I have to sand it to get it clean again, and even that's not enough.  I currently use purple Elmers Glue Sticks on my TH3D build mat, and print on it like that.  Pops right off, and cleanup is just a rag with water.  Zero residue, and comes 100% clean.

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