Qidi Plus 4 vs. PETG Filament Failures

I came back down to this and 250 g of filament. Now, that blows my mind. This

filament. Now, that blows my mind. This

stuff is a little bit past its prime.

Welcome back, folks. Today, we're going to be looking at the Plus4 from Cheety.

I've had this machine now for about 3 months, and I've put quite a few hours on it. So, one of the things that I

on it. So, one of the things that I wanted to do today was test out some new filament that I got in from Sunloo. It

is their matte pet G. This is something that uh Bamboo did with their Pet GHF.

And most PET G's are going to be shiny.

If you take a look at Eligu, Eon, uh those are just the two that I have laying around here in the shop. They're

very, very shiny even before you throw them into a printer. The Bamboo Pet GHF, however, has a very matte finish to it, and that's what I'm hoping for out of this

Sunloo. Now, full disclosure, Sunloo did

Sunloo. Now, full disclosure, Sunloo did send over four spools of this matte pet G for us to use. I did ask for orange and then of course I've also got red and

green because those are colors that I use pretty often in here. We're going to be trying a few of those out today. I do

have some white as well. One of the things that I had a question about the other day was those bins that I put the dog keychains in and if they're available or if they work rather to

scale up. And actually those bins are

scale up. And actually those bins are scaled down from the original size. So

the answer to your question, yes, you can scale them and they will still work.

So, the first test that I want to do is comparing two different types of filaments. Some regular Eligu PETG G,

filaments. Some regular Eligu PETG G, the Rapid PETG G anyway, which you can see right here off the bat is very, very shiny. And if we take a look even

shiny. And if we take a look even through the package at this matte pet G from Sunloo, we can clearly see a difference already. The reflection that

difference already. The reflection that we see off the side of this is not there in the Sunloop. So, now that we have that out of the way, I'm going to go ahead and get the Eligu loaded up into the plus4 right now, just so we have our

base for our red. And while this is running, I am going to put this into the dryer. This has already been through the

dryer. This has already been through the dryer. Uh, just came out a couple hours

dryer. Uh, just came out a couple hours ago. So, we should have perfect luck

ago. So, we should have perfect luck with this guy. Let this guy dry up a little bit before we start printing with it and go from there. So, the loading and unloading

there. So, the loading and unloading process on the Plus4 is super easy. Go

into control. We'll go up to replace filament. Since we have PLA in there

filament. Since we have PLA in there right now, it's maybe if it'll focus.

It's Eligu's gold PLA. Their silk gold.

We can unload it at 220. You can see here we're only at 50° rapidly heating up. But I'm able to go back here and

up. But I'm able to go back here and just pull this out right away. I don't

even have to wait because it cuts the filament before it actually heats up.

What it is doing is heating up so it can flush out any of the remaining filament that is in the nozzle. So that's pretty cool. And you can see it right there

cool. And you can see it right there flushing the remaining gold out of the nozzle. And the machine is returning

nozzle. And the machine is returning materials. When it's finished purging

materials. When it's finished purging all of that gold, we'll see filament unloading completed. See there? It just flung the

completed. See there? It just flung the poop out the back and we are ready to load up our PET G. Doing that is super

simple. Just feed the filament in

simple. Just feed the filament in through the little PTFE tube until it stops. Right about there. Then we can

stops. Right about there. Then we can come up, hit load, next. And since it's PET G, we'll load it in at 250 and it will proceed to heat the nozzle back up

to 250. One thing about the Plus4 that I

to 250. One thing about the Plus4 that I absolutely love is how quick that nozzle heats up. On the same side, it cools

heats up. On the same side, it cools down just as fast. So that is partially a negative, I guess. But for heating the nozzle up, super super quick. And I'm

just going to give it a little bit of help here. Right on the screen there, it

help here. Right on the screen there, it says, "Please continue to push the filament." So, I'm just going to feed it

filament." So, I'm just going to feed it into here until the machine kind of takes over and does it for itself. You

can see right there it is slowly changing to the red. All right, so it's finished

red. All right, so it's finished loading. If we'd like to, we can hit

loading. If we'd like to, we can hit retry. And what that will do is heat the

retry. And what that will do is heat the nozzle back up, purge a little bit more filament to make sure we have all of the PLA out of there. And once that's finished, we can hit complete and move on to bigger and better things. Before

we head over to the computer though, let's get the Matt Pet G loaded up into the Sunloo Filery. Sunloo filament in a Sunloo filry. I have links to this down

Sunloo filry. I have links to this down in the description below if you'd like to pick one up for yourself. Okay, so I found this model on

yourself. Okay, so I found this model on Printables. It's by a creator named

Printables. It's by a creator named Fabian. Fabian. Fabian. I'm gonna call

Fabian. Fabian. Fabian. I'm gonna call him Fabian Guerero. Fabian Guerero. That

sounds good enough. Boy. Yeah. Anyway, I

found this model printables. I'll have

it linked in the description below if you want to print it out for yourself.

We're going to be using the Elgu Pet G.

I've changed the settings around a little bit just to match my Eligu settings, but also keeping the pressure advance for the cheating. It does

require a little bit more. We're going

to slice this up. I'm going to print it at full size with two walls, three top layers, three bottom layers, and 15% adaptive cubic infill. We're going to use a total of 258 grams. So, we're

right around there. Take about six hours to complete. Again, this is out of the

to complete. Again, this is out of the Eligu Pet G, their rapid pet G, so it's going to be shiny. Hit upload. Send this

on over to the cheaty. So, you can see in real time

cheaty. So, you can see in real time here just how quick the nozzle is heating up. The downside to the cheaty

heating up. The downside to the cheaty is the bed takes quite a bit of time to heat up when compared to the nozzle.

Considering the thickness of this bed though, when compared to some of the other machines, I'd say that's pretty fair. So, I'm just going to let this

fair. So, I'm just going to let this cheaty do its thing for the next 6 hours. We will come back when it is done

hours. We will come back when it is done printing, take a look at it, then we can load up the matte pet G from Sunloo, print out the exact same model, and compare the two of them. A few inches

later. So, I let this thing do its thing

later. So, I let this thing do its thing overnight and well, I came back down to this and

this. These parts here

this. These parts here were printed on top similar to that. Uh,

I pulled them apart obviously, but we got a little clog in the extruder. Let's

see if we can fix it. So, these are the plus four nozzles. Look at that bad boy.

Got this preheated right now. I'm going

to loosen up that old nozzle, pull it out, and uh take a look at what we've got going on. Then we'll probably just replace it with this one since I've got one here. So, the nozzle has been replaced.

here. So, the nozzle has been replaced.

I've got filament up here that is currently being pulled in. And there we go. No more clicking, no more clogs. All

go. No more clicking, no more clogs. All

right, I'm going to get the front cover put back onto this and we can get to printing something else out. I am not going to be printing this out again

because it took 6 hours and used almost 250 g of filament and I don't want to waste that much filament. So, we're

going to print something a little bit more simple, but you'll still be able to see the difference. One thing I thought was really weird, like you can see the shininess on the outside, right? But the

inside is more shiny, at least in person. I don't know. Let's uh figure

person. I don't know. Let's uh figure out something else to print out with this Sunloop PG. Okay, so I found this model on Maker World from Selino CZ.

This one's pretty cool because if you've ever mixed epoxy before, you'll know that most of the time the containers you find for it are pretty deep and a lot of times you can end up overmixing epoxy

and then end up with way too much. So,

I'm going to do the base here in Bamboo Labs Pet GHF over on the Flash Forge Adventure 5M Pro because that's what I've got loaded into it right now. I've

got the red loaded into the cheaty. So,

might as well print the little spatulas with the cheaty. And then after that's done, we'll print out some of the cups with Sunloo's matte pet G and white.

This is pre-sliced for the Bamboo Lab X1 Carbon, but since we're doing this on the cheaty, we are going to focus on this plate. I'm going to have to come in

this plate. I'm going to have to come in here and change all of these to the right filament. Just going to click on

right filament. Just going to click on each of them. Press number one on the keyboard. You can see if I press two, it

keyboard. You can see if I press two, it changes it to white. If I press one, it goes to the bamboo lab. I have found the settings for the bamboo lab pet GHF to

work perfect with the cheaty matte pet G. Let's change this to.20

G. Let's change this to.20

layer height. I'm only going to do three walls, three top and bottom, and 15% adaptive cubic infill. This should not take too long at all. 26 minutes and 41

seconds. We've got our filament loaded

seconds. We've got our filament loaded up. We can hit upload. And the next

up. We can hit upload. And the next thing that I would like to do is new project. Load our file back into here

project. Load our file back into here and change over to the flash forge for this guy. Same scenario. Three walls,

this guy. Same scenario. Three walls,

three top and bottom. I'm going to do 15% adaptive cubic infill. Except this

time I'm going to print it at a 26 layer height. Could take about an hour and 23

height. Could take about an hour and 23 minutes. And you can see in the back

minutes. And you can see in the back there, I've got the spool of Bamboo Pet GHF loaded up into the 5M Pro. I am

running the Clipper mod on this. If you

would like to install this Clipper mod for yourself, so you've got a little bit more functionality, tuning, bed mesh, all that stuff in here, I'll link Zero.com's video down in the description

Zero.com's video down in the description below. He's got an awesome tutorial on

below. He's got an awesome tutorial on getting your printer set up with the Clipper firmware.

So, I know what some of you are probably thinking. Why are you printing stuff out

thinking. Why are you printing stuff out on the 5M Pro when this was supposed to be a video on the Plus4? Well, cuz I have more than one printer, and it'll make this process go quicker. I don't

have any black from Sunlib. So, the

filaments that I'm looking at today or really paying attention to are going to be the red matte pet G compared to the Elgu Rapid PETG G. Then I also have some Overture Pet G in white that I have in

the filler dryer right now. And we can compare that to Sunloo's matte pet G in white. These just finished up on the

white. These just finished up on the Plus4. All of them came out looking just

Plus4. All of them came out looking just great. These might be a little bit of a

great. These might be a little bit of a pain to get off the build plate. I'm

going to pull this off. And uh well, let's set it down and

off. And uh well, let's set it down and see if we can't get these off. Going to

snap the build plate. See if they pop. Just as I was

pop. Just as I was expecting. I might have to go searching

expecting. I might have to go searching for some of these. Prefer not to touch the build plate. So, I'm just going to take this scraper here and come in from behind. I know you're there. I can see

behind. I know you're there. I can see you budging. There you

you budging. There you go. Build plates's all clean. We can

go. Build plates's all clean. We can

throw it back into the machine. Just

take an initial look at what we've got here. Colors a little bit

here. Colors a little bit different. But you can see

different. But you can see clearly which one is shiny and which one is not even with just this little bit here.

So maybe our little test is going to work out in the end. Problem is, if you see way down there, that's where one of our little spatulas went. So I'm going to have to

spatulas went. So I'm going to have to go around and search for these. Well, I suppose we'll find out

these. Well, I suppose we'll find out how many of them flew away when this guy is finished. Looking pretty good.

finished. Looking pretty good.

So, I'm going to swap this out now for the Overture Pet Jeep. That is what I've got sitting in the dryer right now.

I'm just going to feed it straight through the filler dryer and into the cheating. Can pull that guy

cheating. Can pull that guy out and feed our filament in the tube.

So, I haven't checked out in here if Overture has a filament profile for their PET G. One would think, but looks like all

G. One would think, but looks like all they've got is ABS PLA and matte PLA.

It's very interesting. I wonder why. So,

I've got Chi's generic PETG G profile loaded up on Orca Slicer for the plus4.

We're using Overure standard PET G for printing these first initial ones. Then

we'll switch it over to the Sunloo Matt Pet G. So, I can't make any guarantees

Pet G. So, I can't make any guarantees about how this is going to print. I've

never tried this PET G before on this machine. And historically speaking with

machine. And historically speaking with the Overture PETG G, I've not had the greatest success with it. So, you're

going to be just as surprised as I am with how these turn out. Our base for these are looking real

out. Our base for these are looking real good on the flash forge. I got to say, I love matte sheen.

forge. I got to say, I love matte sheen.

I don't not really one for shiny anything. So, when Bamboo came out with

anything. So, when Bamboo came out with this, I was like, "Yep, that's my go-to." Then, when I saw that Sunloo had

go-to." Then, when I saw that Sunloo had their own matte pet G, I was like, "Huh, I should probably test this stuff out, too, because I hate shiny filaments."

And I use Pet G a lot now. So, finding

filaments that aren't shiny is great.

The more options, the better, too. If

Bamboo is ever out of their filament, you know, I can always go to Sunloo. In

fact, I prefer this red Pet G from Sunloo, I think, over Bamboo's Pet GHF, just because it works so well on the fiber laser. It's got some sort of

fiber laser. It's got some sort of different makeup in it. And uh I can get pretty much white engravings on this, whereas with the PET GHF, I'm pretty much getting a slightly tinted red

engraving. Still great, but this works a

engraving. Still great, but this works a little bit better. I'm curious to see how some of these other colors work, too. But that's not what this video is

too. But that's not what this video is about.

One thing I noticed about this filament that I've noticed for quite some time, every time I print with it, actually, pretty quickly, it starts to accumulate stuff around the nozzle. You can see it already. Doesn't happen with any of the

already. Doesn't happen with any of the other Pet G's. Even the black Pet G from Overture, this didn't happen. But I'm

going to let this thing roll and we're going to see how it looks at the end, assuming nothing gets messed up. This guy just finished up on the

up. This guy just finished up on the plus four. These didn't turn out bad.

plus four. These didn't turn out bad.

Definitely some stringing there.

probably due to it being not the perfect flow ratio. But the rest of these look

flow ratio. But the rest of these look okay. They seem a little bit weak. Like

okay. They seem a little bit weak. Like

if I can Well, I can just pull it right up off the build plate. Actually, this

one actually doesn't show very much shininess in it at all. So, I am going to reprint these using our matte pet in white. I got to unload the overure from

white. I got to unload the overure from the plus4. Then we'll get these on their

the plus4. Then we'll get these on their way. It didn't take very long at all.

way. It didn't take very long at all.

about 45 minutes for all 10 of these.

And on the same note, this guy is finished as well. Of course, it looks awesome out of

well. Of course, it looks awesome out of Bamboo's pet GHF.

So, we can take our little spatulas here and load this thing up. I guess is I'm going to be missing a couple of them. Move that thing out of the way.

them. Move that thing out of the way.

Oh, that's cool. I didn't even realize that. There's a couple different sizes

that. There's a couple different sizes of the spatulas, too. So, some of them have this wider edge and then others have this real narrow one. Now, that blows my mind. I did not

one. Now, that blows my mind. I did not lose any of them. All

them. All right. And these should just slide right

right. And these should just slide right into here.

Something tells me those are supposed to be a little straighter, but all in all, not bad. Nice little color arrangement

not bad. Nice little color arrangement there. Whenever you need to mix up a

there. Whenever you need to mix up a tiny little bit of epoxy for whatever reason, pull it off. Grab yourself one of the spatulas and you're good to go.

All right, the Sunloo just finished up.

I'll get it off the build plate once again and take a look at how it came out. Right off the bat, one thing I

out. Right off the bat, one thing I noticed is it's far cleaner, a little bit lighter. If you look at the

bit lighter. If you look at the color compared to the Overture, if we put them side by side, that's a easier way to see the difference. The overture

is on top. That's just the standard PET G. And then the Sunloo is on the bottom.

G. And then the Sunloo is on the bottom.

So, it's not quite a pure white. It's

more of a little bit of an off-white.

And as far as the sheen goes, they're pretty much the same. I don't really notice any difference. You know, one thing I'm noticing actually that may be

my own fault. I printed this with three three top and bottom layers, although that shouldn't matter. It's it's only a certain thickness, right? It can't get

any thicker than the model itself. What

I was thinking was because I printed this with three top and bottom layers instead of the five like I did over here on the overure that I honestly just remembered that. I was thinking maybe

remembered that. I was thinking maybe that's why we can see my fingers come through there. But again, there's no

through there. But again, there's no sparse infill in the middle there.

That's only about half a millimeter or a millimeter thick on the bottom. So, we

could have put 10 bottom layers. It was

still only going to do as thick as the model actually is. So, it is a little bit more translucent. Maybe that's the right word for it. The Sunloo Matte PETG G is a little bit more translucent than

your standard PETG G. Since we printed these, I figure I might as well put them to use and see how they work. All right,

I'm going to do this over on the CNC table so I don't get anything else all dirty. Epoxy is known to make a mess.

dirty. Epoxy is known to make a mess.

So, throw on some gloves first. And I

guess I'm just going to stick these two pieces of MDF together. So, we can take one of our

together. So, we can take one of our cups out. Uh, let's see. Let's find

out. Uh, let's see. Let's find

one maybe this size. Load the dust out of there. Guess

size. Load the dust out of there. Guess

I should show you what I'm using first.

This is the G5 5minute adhesive resin from West Systems. And this is the hardener. So, we're just going to mix a

hardener. So, we're just going to mix a 1:1 ratio. Don't need very

ratio. Don't need very much. This stuff is a little bit past

much. This stuff is a little bit past its prime. As you can see, the color of

its prime. As you can see, the color of the hardener is starting to change, but for the purposes of this video, it should be fine.

Then we can take our little spatula, mix it all up.

Then should just be able to take it and apply it right onto our surface. That's all she wrote.

surface. That's all she wrote.

Obviously, this is a one-time use thing unless you really scrape the base of this out. At least the the spatulas are

this out. At least the the spatulas are a one time use. You could probably use these containers over again after they've fully cured, but I I don't know that I'd risk it if there's any unccured

resin in there. You might mix up your ratio. So, look at these as one time use

ratio. So, look at these as one time use things, but they really don't cost that much for 10 of them. It was 50 or something. Let's stop talking and smush

something. Let's stop talking and smush this piece together. So, we got a little bit of a

together. So, we got a little bit of a little bit of coverage there. Squeeze it

together. Typically, you'd throw a clamp on it, but I'm not going to do that for the purposes of this video. You can see we have a little bit of epoxy coming out the side there. I'm just going to let

that sit for a few minutes. We'll come

back and see if this stuff is still actually good. A few moments later. All

actually good. A few moments later. All

right, it's been about 5 minutes or so, and coming back to it. Even down here at the base, you can see it start to lift up. I know this isn't an epoxy video,

up. I know this isn't an epoxy video, but just want to show you how the epoxy works if you haven't seen it before.

Super quick for this 5minute adhesive.

Like you could probably twist it and get it off of there.

Maybe. No, that that's stuck. And it's

just from that tiny little spot that we put in the middle there. Anyway, that's

what these are for. They came out great.

Let's move on. So, I've got my test results. They work really well for the

results. They work really well for the purpose of this video. Not that I really was doing this video to see how well an epoxy spreader would do, but we did it anyways. The Sunloo Matt Pet G, aside

anyways. The Sunloo Matt Pet G, aside from being a little bit more translucent, still comes out great quality. Before Sunloo even sent over

quality. Before Sunloo even sent over the Matte Pet G, I had already purchased a couple spools, so I was pretty familiar with the quality of it and how it was going to print. Although, I

hadn't tried the orange or the white yet. I still have not tried orange, but

yet. I still have not tried orange, but I plan to do that pretty soon. So, our

results here from the Eligu, aside from the Chi's nozzle getting clogged up for whatever reason overnight while this was printing, you can see it's a very shiny,

reflective filament. Then, when you compare it

filament. Then, when you compare it to these guys, again, not a fair size comparison in terms of the models we printed, but you can see there's really

no reflective properties to it at all.

Sometimes with a satin or even the bamboo, you'll see a little bit of a reflection from the lights, but this stuff is it's matte. Of course, we also printed with

matte. Of course, we also printed with the overture pet G. That came out fine, aside from the first one on the plate had a little bit of stringing in between. Could have been from filament

between. Could have been from filament getting clogged up around the nozzle and then dropping off. Happens quite a bit with PET G. And then we switched over to

the Sunloo Pet G, which if we put them side by side once again, we've got Overture on the bottom and Sunloo on the top. Definitely see the Sunloo is more

top. Definitely see the Sunloo is more translucent. I know this isn't the usual

translucent. I know this isn't the usual type of video that I put out, but going forward, I'm going to be doing more variation in content instead of just going through, you know, day-to-day life

here in the print farm because it gets pretty repetitive and people want to see more than that, right? If you enjoyed today's video and feel I've earned your subscription, I would appreciate it if you smash that subscribe button down

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some new pictures that I want to take of some of this stuff. I mentioned it in one of the previous videos. So, we are going to be doing that in an upcoming video. Want to see how I take the

video. Want to see how I take the pictures, get them edited and thrown into Etsy, hit that notification bell so you'll be notified when I upload that video. Oh, and the little elephant in

video. Oh, and the little elephant in the room here. I don't have an H2D.

Guess Bamboo didn't want to send one to me. But if you want to see what the H2D

me. But if you want to see what the H2D is like, go check out my buddy Sam's channel over at Samcraft. He did a full unboxing and setup, initial print at like 3:00 in the morning the other day just to get the video out. So, if you

want to see that printer in action, first prints, go check out Sam's channel. I will have a link down in the

channel. I will have a link down in the description below. I will see you all in

description below. I will see you all in the next video, folks. Take

care. Welcome back, folks. Today I'm

going to be before Sun even sent that M.