Editing Choosing the Right Plastic (section)

== Common Plastics ==
Below are some tables of often-used plastics, categorized based on suitability for DIY firearms:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Good Plastics
!Plastic
!Pros
!Cons
!Notes
|-
|PLA+
|
* Does not warp very often
* Cheap and accessible
* Does not emit noxious fumes
* Does not require CF/GF infill
* Yields instead of breaking
|
* Extremely low temperature resistance
* Can sometimes be confused with PLA-CF and Silks, which are not suitable
|The go-to basic plastic and what most DIY firearm novices cut their teeth on.
|-
|PA-6
|
* Very high temperature resistance
* Pleasing surface texture that hides layer artifacts
* High durability
|
* Expensive
* High print temperature required
* Most blends use CF/GF infill, which requires hardened steel nozzles
* Must be dried before and during printing
* Creeps if not [[Annealing Plastics|annealed]]
|A tried-and-true durable filament and oftentimes the plastic of choice for experts. Variants of PA-6 are often used in commercial plastic firearm parts
|-
|PA-12
|
* High temperature resistance
* Pleasing surface texture
* Cheaper than PA-6 with most of the same benefits
* Less hygroscopic than PA-6
|
* Lower temperature resistance than most other Nylons
* Must be dried before and during printing
* Creeps, albeit not as badly as PA-6, if not annealed
|PA-6's little brother shares a lot of its benefits with less headache
|-
|ASA
|
* Cheap and accessible
* Incredibly high bed adhesion
|
* Off-gasses styrene while printing and must be printed in a filtered enclosure
* Not very abrasion-resistant
* Mid layer adhesion
* Incredibly high bed adhesion -- use a release agent like gluestick
|Similar to ABS, ASA takes almost all of its benefits with fewer downsides, though it still doesn't make it suitable for all DIY firearm use cases.
|}
These plastics should be avoided. They've been tested and tend to produce undesirable results when used to produce high-stress parts:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Bad Plastics
!Plastic
!Reasons to Avoid
!Notes and Exceptions
|-
|PETG
|
* Failure mode is breakage
* Low impact resistance
| rowspan="4" |In cases where risk is low, such as on furniture, weaker plastics may be acceptable for their UV resistance, heat resistance, or price point.
|-
|PLA
|
* Failure mode is breakage
* Low impact resistance
* Low temperature resistance
|-
|PLA-CF
|
* Typically does not contain PLA+ additives and is thus a weaker PLA
|-
|Any recycled filament
|
* Recycled filaments are never as good as a virgin plastic
|}