mayo - hrmm, the plot thickens. any idea which of these four would be best for phone cases?

odiewan - ABS is very common plastic and is quite useful. It's very easy to machine, which is engineering speak for easy to carve, sand, shape. It is a petroleum based plastic. It's the same stuff that Legos are made of. The down side of printing with ABS is that if it cools too fast from the melt temp, it can warp. This make printing big parts kinda tricky. That's the reason why the Replicator 2x has the clear plexiglas enclosure. You have to have a heated build plate for the part to stick, so it takes more energy to print.

PLA is derived from corn so it's renewable and better for the environment. I think it also biodegrades. It doesn't need a heated build plate, so it takes less energy. Because of the way it melts, it can be easier to deal with on big parts as it's much less prone to warping.
But, of course, there are downsides. It's more brittle than ABS, which means it's more likely to crack as opposed to just bend. It degrades if you keep it hot too long. You can overcook it and will burn. So, you have to be careful to purge material in the printer if it's been heated too long.

Of the two, I would suggest ABS, but PLA would, it just might be more prone to cracking.

Nylon is a great material, much stronger than ABS and PLA and it's resistant to a lot of solvents (gasoline, acetone, etc). I have some Nylon that I am going to fiddle with. Only thing is that Nylon isn't produced in many colors in printing filament.

As 3dcgmodeler mentioned, there are a lot of new material coming out. There is Flexible PLA and other material that are neither PLA or ABS. One in particular is called NinjaFlex by a company called Fenner Drives. It melts at a much lower temp than PLA, ABS or Nylon. I have an order for some NinjaFlex for a customer. I will fiddle with it when I receive it.

mayo - wow, thank you so much for the info. based on what you say here, sounds like ABS might be a good fit, and nylon even better.

augustaht - fwiw, i've had cracking issues with the nexus 4 cases i've printed in PLA. Go with ABS or nylon on this one.

makerbeck - Depending on the design of the case my answer may vary, but sight unseen I would vote for ABS for a case as it has more flex. The colors for ABS are mostly opaque while with PLA, you can get some translucence.

cope413 - Nylon has as much flex and 10x the strength of ABS. Nearly impossible to delaminate without a pair of pliers. Rugged as all get out. It's just most people cant print because they don't have all metal hotends. I'd be happy to quote you in nylon if you're interested

mebalzer - There is another material I have been working with that is called t-glase. As the name indicates, it gives a glass type appearance, and is more durable than PLA, but melts at 212C and does not warp. Getting the flow numbers down requires some work and it only comes in clear. They are working on other colors as well.

jlark - http://jlark20.wordpress.com/ here is a blog post with some details

nyl0cke - Cope413 or someone else, how do you keep your nylon dry enough to print with? Mine is always soaked and ends up with tiny bubbles of air which ruin the prints strength and integrity.

harrisdesigns - I recently got the EcoFlex PLA from makergeek.com and I am loving it.
A: It works with my Rep. 2 and
B: it is perfect for this design project I am working on for a client who wants a flexible material.
I would highly suggest this material to anyone who is looking to invest in a flexible material (better cost than Makerbot flexible material by half).
Two things that I have learned us this:
1. You must print extremely slow with this material (10-15mm/s max. speed)
2. If you need support material (single extruder printers), use Meshmixer from AutoDesk and make tree shaped support material. It does take longer to slice in Makerware and Replicator G (takes much longer in Rep. G), but it is so much easier to remove the supports than the regular supports with cutting pliers. In MeshMixer, you can reorient the design for the supports using Edit, Transform, and then turn using the red, blue, or green curves. Then add supports under the Analysis menu/tab.

If you have any other questions about the material, let me know!

fabhappy - @harrisdesigns thanks for the MeshMixer info, I was completely unaware of it and its cool approach to support material!

jadcld7603 - mayo, if you decide to go with ABS, please send an RFQ to us (Printivity 3D LLC). We have printed cases before.