Hi, it's Tim here.
I had a bit of a moment in my garage on the weekend. I went looking for a shelf and found a tower of empty filament spools instead. Twenty odd of them, all different brands, all doing nothing except taking up room and making me feel guilty about chucking them in the bin.
If that sounds familiar, this one's for you. Nearly every Pixel Filament we make now comes as a refill as well as on a spool. 53 refill options at last count, across PLA Basic, PLA Matte, PLA Max, Hyper PLA+, Hyper PETG, Translucent PETG, PETG-CF, Marble, Chameleon, ASA, Hyper ABS and HIPS.
What a refill actually is
It's the same kilo of filament, wound the same way, made to the same spec. It just arrives as a bare coil with a cardboard core instead of being wound onto a plastic spool. You drop it onto a spool you already own and away you go. Bambu spool, Sunlu, an old Pixel one, doesn't matter, they all fit a standard 1kg coil.
Then you're not paying for plastic you already have three of. PLA Basic is $22 a kilo as a refill against $25 on a reusable spool. Matte is $23 refill, $26 spooled. That's about three bucks a roll, which doesn't sound like much until you're a school going through a box a term, or a business printing every day. Ten rolls a month and you've saved yourself a decent lunch.
The new ones worth knowing about
We've just put refills up for a heap of the nicer colours, not only the boring blacks and whites. PLA Matte in Fog Of War grey, Singularity black, CryoFrost white, BIOS Mint, Ion Glow blue and Pixel Blaze red, all $23. Dungeon Master Marble at $24.50 if you're printing terrain or anything you want looking like stone. And the Chameleon Supernova black at $27, which shifts colour depending on how the light hits it. That one's good fun on a print with curves.
A couple of honest catches
Refills aren't magic. If you've got no spools at all, buy one spooled roll first, then refills after that. And if you're an AMS user, keep two or three good reusable spools handy so you can swap coils in without mucking about mid print. A bare coil left loose will tangle on you, so slide it onto a spool before you cut the tie, not after. Learned that one the hard way.
Also, refills like being kept dry the same as any filament. Straight into a dry box or a sealed tub with the desiccant that came in the bag, especially the PETG and ABS ones.
All prices include GST and everything's here in Auckland, so it ships the same day if you order before the courier turns up. If you're not sure whether a refill suits your setup, ring the shop on 09 367 7474 or flick us an email and we'll tell you straight, even if the answer is stick with spools for now.
Have a look at the Pixel range here. And if anyone's worked out a good use for 20 empty spools, I'm all ears.
Tim