The latest Filament to fall into my grubby mitts is the unusually named Tianse Red Copper. Once again sourced from Amazon UK.
Previously, I have used Tianse Wood infused PLA on personal projects. I found it was of a good standard, but as with all wood infused PLA, it was weak and hard to get a decent print from. This is my first review for this manufacturer, so I am not going to let that cloud my judgement. Let’s get printing!
Cu – Copper
I am unsure why Tianse have called this PLA Red copper. I do not see any “Red” in colour at all. Regardless, this is the first “Metal” colour filament I have tried. Additionally, others in the range from this manufacturer are Bronze, Silver and Gold.
Packaging
Tianse has taken the idea of the bland card box and thrown it out with the bathwater! Firstly, this box is a sleek black with a smart Blue Logo and “laser” effect writing. Secondly, the packing is marked as recyclable, which is great!. Inside the box, things are a little more reasonable. The filament is, as usual, vacuum-sealed with the desiccant bag.
Printer Set-Up and Test Print
To be fair to Tianse, I was still dialling my in new Brozzl hot end at the time of this test. Because of this, the results early on can’t be blamed on the filament. Setting up, I printed my calibration cube and Benchy with the Tianse Red Copper. I printed a little hotter than usual with 215c on the hotend and 55c on the bed. I was delighted with the results! The filament easily adhered to the glass bed even without my goto 3DLAC.
Critical eye
Looking close to my test prints, I could see that I hadn’t finished with my slicer tuning. There were some blobbing and inconsistency in the Benchy and ghosting in the calibration cube. That aside, the Tianse Red Copper had a deep even colour and printed smoothly even with the deficiency in my printers set up.
Big Print
For my larger test piece, I am fortunate to have the STL file for Anti Venom’s bust. Designed by Dennis Xawery Moore and available from 3D Figure prints. They can be found on Facebook here. Printed on my standard Ender 3 at 75% of its full size, using the Tianse Red Copper, the model is split into five pieces. The base, bulk of the body, the head and the vines coming from Venom’s back.
After printing and removing the supports, I glued the pieces together using the usual Mitre fix glue. After retrieving the print from my three-year-old, I was able to take some pics and get a decent look at it. The print has come out well. The textured nature of the skin was challenging for the printer but its done an admirable job in capturing the uneven rugged almost rippling texture.
Final Analysis
So, in the end, how did it print using the Tianse Red Copper? To sum up, I have to give Tianse the benefit of the doubt here as I have said earlier, my slicer is not as tuned as it was before the hotend upgrade. However, the filament did print nicely, adhere well, and the print is durable. I addition, I can see plenty of uses for the colour. Although I’m still having my doubts about the choice of name, I would purchase it again. I have ordered a second roll from Amazon UK priced at £21.99 per KG as I’ve been asked to use it to make some Christmas decorations for my wife.
Like this review? Why not check out my review of Thumwan PLA or Michael’s Longer3D Orange 10 Resin Printer Review, or any of the other great articles on Inov3D
Whilst the name is Red Copper, I really don't see it. The colour is darker than I would expect for a copper filament but hardly red, The filament does print well and sticks well with no tangles in the spool and decent packing.
