← Back to articles
Article
How to spot a good PETG spool before you print it
The checks I run on every new filament supplier, originally written for the Maker Weekly AU newsletter.
1 min read
External article
This one lives on Maker Weekly AU. The notes below are kept here for context and corrections.
Read this on Maker Weekly AUWhy this one lives elsewhere
I wrote this for the Maker Weekly AU newsletter after a run of bad spools. It is a supplier checklist rather than a settings post, so it made more sense over there.
The checks, in short
- Weigh the spool before you dry it and again after. More than 8 g of water is a red flag.
- Bend a 200 mm offcut and listen for cracking.
- Measure the first metre with calipers at three points.
- Print a single-wall cube before committing a full part.
The full piece has the supplier names and the numbers behind each check.
A cheap spool is only cheap if the part works the first time.
The settings these checks feed into are in my PETG notes.