Filament Samples.

[Brookwood Croquet]

I have recently had a situation where I had to closely match colours of PLA to a client Logo. Few suppliers will send samples especially with the demise of 3D Filaprint. The colours shown on suppliers websites are not always true and it can be very expensive to buy whole spools to find it is thexwrong colour. In the end a friend sent me some samples from his collection which allowed me to confirm the actual colours that I needed.
It seems to me that we could help each other by offering 5 or 10m samples of our stock for a modest price. If many members were to upload the basic colour, manufacturer and manufacturer's reference, we could look those colours up on the manufactur's website and if we thought the colour might be right, arrange to purchase a sample. I for one, have 14 different PLAs and 10 different PETGs. Would it be possible to modify the website to include a schedule where details of samples and who to contact could be displayed.?

[CrazyIvan]

Interesting idea. Might as well use this thread to do that.

Anyone willing to offer samples should list them here, people can contact by PM.

If an existing offer needs to be altered, post again with a link back to the old post and a mod will remove it.

[Antipodean]

I would have thought the way to do this is to ask the filament manufacturer what RAL colour https://www.ralcolorchart.com/ their filament is (you did get RAL numbers for the colours you were asked to match, didn't you). The worst that can happen is the manufacturer will come back and say they don't match a colour chart, but I suspect that you will find someone who will colour match for you if they don't already have it in their range.

[Brookwood Croquet]

Further to my suggestion for making samples available, I am in the process of developing a Google Spreadsheet which can be accessed on line. In this individuals each have a sheet where they can enter details of filament samples available including the colour as an RGB number. The sample colours are classified under generic colours such as red and blue. Anyone can then carry out a search for say red, and it will list all samples available under that generic colour. If a suitable colour is found, the owner can be emailed to arrange purchase of a sample. The spreadsheet has complex programming and I need a volunteer who might be interested in offering samples, to assist me in making sure that it works as intended. If someone could show willing via this medium, we can get in contact. Ps. suppliers do not give Ral numbers for their filaments.

[CrazyIvan]

IMO way too complicated, and too much effort.