ZIRO Stone PLA Filament 1.75mm, Straw

Out of all of the filaments I purchased in anticipation of receiving my printer, this one is one of my favorites. I have been using it on the single spool located on the back of the printer. I received my AMS today and it loaded the filament just fine. I haven't used the AMS yet, but I will try and report back on any successes or failures.

I've used it to make 4 or 5 things already, and the last couple of prints there has been some SLIGHT stringing going on, but I believe that's due to me not drying it. Even so, it wasn't that much of a pain to remove them. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to store all of these damn things.

I had troubles getting first layer to stick to the build plate. I cleaned the plate thoroughly with soap, raised the bed temperature to 60C - didn't help. Then I decided to try a glue and it finally worked. I never had such issue with other PLA filaments I used before. Although I suspect that could be issue specific to this color (Straw).
Despite the adhesion issue I really like how the printed part turn out (bottom part on the picture). It has matte, slightly rough finish and it looks great! And it printed very well. Extrusion is very consistent and the outer surfaces look flawless. I'm definitely going to buy this filament again and probably give a try their PLA-CF.

**Soda can added for scale**

I have previously used Ziro silk gold & silk silver filament (they are GORGEOUS and print great). My previous bust prints I'd been using Hatchbox granite PLA, which is awesome, but about $30/roll normally. So I was looking to find a less expensive, but still quality alternative. This is one of two "stone" options I am trying. I printed a filament swatch as soon as I opened the package...it printed well but it did have some minor issues with adhesion to the PEI plate I use. A small piece of blue tape solved the issue. After a successful swatch on the 2nd attempt at it, I immediately set out on this 300mm tall Princess Leia bust from Return of the Jedi. 18 hours later and the print looked great. So why the 4 stars instead of 5?

Reason 1 is the adhesion issues on the small print. The bust I ended up using a raft (as I do on most larger prints just for a safety net) and I had no issues with that (as expected because rafts are super easy to adhere to the bed, hence the point).

Reason 2 is that there is a bit of minor stringing that I haven't seen with other filaments. Nothing major, but I'm used to getting NO stringing. So even a little was noticeable to me. So if you have stringing issues already, you MAY have a bit more with this filament. Obviously, it's just a warning as you can't know until you try, but just something to be mindful of.

That's it. I really wish we could give 1/2 stars, as if we could, I would 100% give this a 4.5 star based on my experiences to this point. I know that specialty filaments tend to be a bit "moodier" to print compared to standard PLA. Comparing it to the Hatchbox, this holds up EXTREMELY well, with minor complaints and at 2/3 the cost. If something with the 3rd brand (Eryone) of "stone" filament changes my mind on this rating, I'll update. But I am REALLY happy with this overall.

The color (straw in the stone PLA variant) is really gorgeous and adds to the marble-ish look. I'd definitely recommend giving this filament a try as it both prints and adheres to the base well above average. The key metric for good filament is "would I buy this again?" and I have to say without question I would do so. If I had a piece to be displayed for others regularly, I'd probably go Hatchbox still, but for hobbyists looking for stuff to make for display at home...this is more than you would probably ever need in terms of quality. Ziro impressed me greatly with their silk gold & silk silver...and they've done so again with their stone PLA.

Setup - FLSUN Super Racer with MicroSwiss Dual Gear Bowden Extruder, MicroSwiss CM2 0.6 Nozzle, Capricorn Bowden Tube, FYSETC PEI build plate.
Settings - 180c print temp, 60c bed (these settings worked great for ME and are my normal settings for PLA, your printer, even a FLSUN SR, will likely use different settings, just posting these to give more info to those looking at this filament).

The specification states that it can be used with nozzle 0.4 or larger but did not work in my Prusa Mini with 0.4 nozzle, I recommend considering another filament or be prepared with a larger nozzle (ex. 0.6) to be able to print with it, good luck!!!!

I was getting compliments left and right at my office after I pulled off a print using this. Love the color, it printed very well. No problems at all.