>> Frequently Asked Questions

3D Beint is a webstore developed by me (Karen Róbertsdóttir) because filament was just too damned expensive in Iceland. But let me back up for a minute!

I would consider myself late to the 3D printing party. I dismissed it for decades. "Not metal? Then it doesn't matter." "That's just for Warhammer figurines and the like!" Very dismissive. But then when working on an electronics prototype, I realized I'd either have to be shelling out lots of money to a 3d printing service, or buying my own printer. So I bought one... and discovered how wrong I was. I found that you could just fix all of life's little inconveniences, from "buttons accidentally being pressed on the remote" to "the shower nozzle hangs too low" to "I just ran out of clothes hangars". I started mass-printing with Druk Armiya to support Ukraine. Etc. But the bill kept adding up, because filament in Iceland was so damned expensive. And most online stores don't ship to Iceland or take a long time and heavily mark up the goods.

Eventually it became clear that the only solution to the problem was to buy direct from a factory - in quantities best measured in tonnes. I figured I'd buy once and be set up for many years of nonstop printing. There's a lot of risks to doing that, but relative to the benefits, I found it worth the risk!

Yet, it kept gnawing at me that I may be solving the problem for myself, but not for all the other printers here in Iceland. And I don't really need years of inventory sitting around in a shed - it'd be doing a lot more good going to people who need it right away! Eventually I talked myself into starting 3D Beint.

We're a new company, so we genuinely want your feedback - good or bad - to improve our service! Please get in touch to let us know how we did. Note that we often give out coupons to people who send us high-quality pictures of neat things that they've printed with our filament so we can include them on that filament's listing - check your emailed receipt for more. :)

Also, if you like our service, be sure to mention us to others who are currently paying too much for filament! :)

I'll cut you in on a little secret. That basic PLA or PETG filament that you spend 4000+ krónur per kilogram on? It costs a factory like 150-200 krónur to make, all costs included (the raw resin is like 100 kr/kg). They mark it up severalfold, then shipping adds on, and warehousing, and sales, and taxes, and so forth, but the real markup is on the chains of middlemen. Most filament "manufacturers" you find online don't even make their own filament - they use "white label" service from filament factories, where they slap their brand name onto it, sometimes order custom spools and packaging, etc. Name brands often make their own, but have large marketing spends they have to recoup. To get to Iceland there's often a chain of "hubs" and "resellers" after the actual factory, each with their own warehousing, sales costs and markup. And the final leg or two is often expensive air freight. The fact that filament is so bulky amplifies all of these costs.

Our approach is literally the lowest-cost possible way you could get filament in Iceland unless you're (like I was) planning to buy tonne-scale quantities of filament for yourself:

• Direct from factory: We buy directly from the manufacturer.
• Sea freight: No expensive air freight.
• No retail store: No rent, no staff.
• Bulk warehousing: We use a high-volume e-Commerce warehousing system to handle inventory and serve orders.
• Algorithmic pricing: Fair prices calculated automatically - whatever you save us (for example, bulk buys, preorders), we just pass it along to you
• Limited profits: To be honest here: this isn't my full-time job, or even close. I don't need to live off this.

We beat any Icelandic competitor's price by at least 10% on equivalent products (equivalent product and quantity, for in-stock items only)

Found the same filament cheaper at another local Icelandic retailer? Send us a link and we'll not just match their price, but beat it by 10%.

The simple fact is that there's literally no way to supply filament to the Icelandic market cheaper than how we do it. And I don't need much in terms of margins to justify this business - it's not my full-time job. If someone wants to engage in a price war with me, well, bring it :) They'll just hurt themselves more by doing so.

This is William Stanley Jevons. In 1865, he documented a seeming paradox: that after James Watt introduced the Watt Steam Engine, which greatly improved coal-burning efficiency, the use of coal actually skyrocketed, rather than falling. "Jevon's Paradox" observes that as you make something more efficient and less costly, that stimulates demand growth, and that demand growth can outpace the savings.

3D printing in Iceland has been prohibitively expensive. This discourages printing. It discourages printer sales. It discourages printing businesses. It's my hope that by getting filament prices down, we can significantly grow the 3d printing market in Iceland. Paradoxically: less profit could actually mean more profit.

And lastly... as a printer myself, I personally find the previous high prices people had to pay for a material that's so cheap to produce galling. It's obscene. Let's get these prices down.

No.

Let me explain: first, it just doesn't fit into the business model that lets me deliver products so much cheaper than everyone else. If I were to buy, say, Bambu filament, I wouldn't be getting low-cost factory-direct pricing, but Bambu markup. I'd be warehousing goods that stick around on the shelf for longer. Etc. The same applies to printers, parts, accessories, etc.

Secondly, I don't think customers would be well served. Filament is filament, but when you're, say, shopping for a printer, it's best to be able to see the options for yourself, have a person to talk to, someone who's ready to provide support, etc. That's not 3D Beint's business model.

Lastly... this role is already well served. 3d Verk provides excellent service and I strongly recommend them. I already feel bad about taking a share of others' filament sales (with the caveat about growing the market above), and do not wish to undercut them further. If you need a printer, parts, accessories, or name-brand / specialty filaments - things like Bambu TPU for AMS, PAHT-CF, interface/breakaway materials, materials/colours that we don't have in stock, etc - shop there. There's also 3D Plast, and you can import products.

Right now we're only purchasing from Yasin (a major whitelabel-service manufacturer located in Shaodong, Hunan Province), but we'll purchase from wherever we feel we can get you the best products for the best prices. Right now the lion's share of filament manufacturing is in China due to its pricing advantage and industrial base, but as other markets mature, we look forward to providing more options. For now, we chose Yasin because of their combination of mature production, low cost, and product diversity.

It's not marketing gimmick - it's real.

We want you to see exactly where your filament is in the supply chain. When we say "Factory Direct," we mean it. You can literally watch the ship carrying your filament cross the ocean. Transparency isn't just a buzzword to me. :)

It's just a standard Shopify website. Select the number of items you want, click "Buy" rather than "Preorder", click the cart icon in the upper right, and go to checkout! Your bulk and preorder discounts will be applied automatically. Note that preorders will not be billed until the order is fulfilled and must be ordered in a separate purchase.

For those willing to wait in order to get more discounts and not-in-stock items, you can click to preorder items. You will not be billed until the order is finalized, and may cancel at any time up to that point. When the order is finalized, you will be sent a bill, which must be paid within 5 days in order to be included in the next shipment. The shipment will take around a month to arrive by sea and get through customs. As soon as your goods are scanned into the warehouse in Iceland, or sooner if availability allows, they will be immediately dispatched. Note that some items have a MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) for their preorder (the manufacturer does notkeep them in stock, and they're made to order); these show up with a red preorder button and must be preordered individually. Be aware that MOQ items might take a very long time before they can be ready, but as usual, you will not be billed until the order can be made. Because we rely on sea freight to keep costs down, filament can spend longer in humid environments during transit; for moisture-sensitive materials (including PETG), we strongly recommend drying before printing.

Everything Shopify accepts! If you need a new payment method added, contact me and we'll see what we can do.

Normal purchases are processed immediately for rapid delivery, and thus cannot be modified or cancelled. Preorders can be cancelled at any point up until the next shipment has been finalized - just get in touch! :)

Our prices are calculated, not arbitrary. Every price is based on a transparent formula involving:

• Factory cost (what we pay the manufacturer)
• Shipping cost (sea freight)
• Current exchange rate
• VAT (24%)
• Overhead allocation, in terms of warehousing and picking, as a mixture of start costs, per-type costs, and per-unit costs (warehouse storage is the largest overhead component - the more volume we do (the shorter inventory stays on the shelf), the lower our prices will be)
• A low target profit margin

If your order saves us money in some way (buying in bulk, preordering, etc), it just gets passed straight back to you.

Some of our costs are fixed per order, not per item:

• Processing your payment
• Picking your order from the warehouse
• Walking to each product bin
• The length of time that goods average sitting on the shelf

We calculate this automatically and pass the savings to you if your purchase saves us this sort of overhead.

Quite possibly! Contact us and tell us about your project or organization, ideally with pictures and/or models of what you're doing (unless it's sensitive). You do not need to be a registered charity; we will evaluate every project and organization on its own merits, with discounts of some fraction of our profit (up to 100% / at-cost!).

Currently supported charitable causes include:

• Druk Armiya
• (More coming soon!)

We want to give back to the community, and feel that growing the 3D printing market is beneficial for everyone - us included!

• Dropp: Pickup points across Iceland (cheapest option)
  Capital region, 0-7 kg: 750 kr
  Capital region, 8-21 kg: 1700 kr
  Elsewhere, 0-7 kg: 950 kr
  Elsewhere, 8-21 kg: 2200 kr
• Dropp Evening: Delivery to your door in the evening (Southwest = Akranes, Eyrarbakki, Hveragerði, Selfoss, Stokkseyri, Reykjanesbær, Þorlákshöfn):
  Capital region, 0-7 kg: 1300 kr
  Capital region, 8-21 kg: 2200 kr
  Capital region, 22-52 kg: 3200 kr
  Capital region, 53-104 kg: 3900 kr
  Southwest, 0-7 kg: 1500 kr
  Southwest, 8-21 kg: 2900 kr
  Southwest, 22-52 kg: 4600 kr
  Southwest, 53-104 kg: 6700 kr
• Górilla day delivery: Capital area only:
  Capital region, 0-7 kg: 1550 kr
  Capital region, 8-21 kg: 2450 kr
  Capital region, 22-52 kg: 3450 kr
  Capital region, 53-104 kg: 4150 kr
• Rural delivery: Via Samskip/Flytjandi:
  Elsewhere, 0-7 kg: 1700 kr
  Elsewhere, 8-14 kg: 3300 kr
  Elsewhere, 15-35 kg: 5400 kr
  Elsewhere, 36-70 kg: 8900 kr
  Elsewhere, 71-142 kg: 14500 kr
  Elsewhere, 143-214 kg: 21500 kr

These are all at-cost to us; we neither profit from, nor subsidize, shipping. Masses are listed per kg of filament (the spool and packaging add extra weight) - for example, 599 kr is actually the cost for 0-10kg of weight delivered in the capital region with Dropp, but only 0-7kg of filament).

Unfortunately no, not as things stand :(. Hopefully Górilla will change their mind about offering such a service! :)

Generally, most options will be from 1-2 business days in the capital area, and 3-5 business days outside of it, but it depends on the shipping method. Dropp pickup points are usually available next business day, or delivery to your house that evening for Dropp evening service. Górilla day delivery depends on whether you get your order in and it's processed before the delivery vehicle goes out - either the same day or the next.

Alternatively, if I had to sum it up in two words: "pretty fast."

I'm sorry, but no we don't. It is not an option provided by our order fulfillment provider.

This depends entirely on what you're doing!

• If you need specific material properties, use our search bar on the left to filter by properties.
• If you need a more nuanced discussion (such as "I'm making a kitchen scraper, it needs to tolerate warm water and not dent when scraping hard stuff off pans - what material would be best?"), consult our help system in the lower right.
• If you're a beginner, you probably want either PLA or PETG. PLA is "corn plastic", high-temperature compostable, hard (though brittle), usually matte, and (excepting HTPLA) should not be exposed to >60°C or prolonged water contact. PETG (related to the plastic of soda bottles and polyester fabric) is easy to print, tolerates up to ~80°C and prolonged water contact, is shiny unless otherwise specified, and is less brittle. Other polymers you should be aware of: TPU and TPE for flexible parts (PEBA for bouncy parts); ASA for the outdoors (UV tolerance); polycarbonate for high temperatures and impact/dent resistance; PA6 and other PA variants for general high-performance applications; and so forth. Note that these can be more challenging to print for a beginner, and lower-end printers may not be able to print some of them at all. Also note that PLA variants, such as metal-filled or wood-filled PLA, can impose printing challenges not present in standard PLA. Always look up how to print a new material before you try it.
• Humidity matters: Moisture-sensitive filaments (such as PETG/PCTG, PA6/PA12, TPU/TPE, PVA, and PEBA) should generally be dried before use, especially after long sea-freight transit.

For many materials, the first step should be drying. Moisture-sensitive filaments absorb water from the air, which can lead to bubbling/popping at the nozzle, more stringing, rougher surfaces, and weaker parts. This includes PETG, PCTG, nylons (PA6/PA12), TPU/TPE, PVA, and PEBA.

We keep prices lower by relying heavily on sea freight. That is great for cost, but longer transit can increase moisture uptake. So for best print quality, drying moisture-sensitive filament before use is strongly recommended.

It depends on the material.

• PLA is high-temperature compostable. Sorpa accepts it with "burnable" waste. If you try to compost PLA in a normal low-temperature compost pile, it will take a long time to break down, potentially many years for thick parts. If you want to try composting it at home in a reasonable time, you can try printing a compost bin of a heat-tolerant plastic designed to be attached to a radiator.
• 3D Verk accepts PLA waste. It is unclear whether they accept waste from any of the below.
• PETG (also PCTG and PETA) cannot be recycled with regular PET, as it gums up the input stream due to its different softening point. Sorpa advises disposing of it with hard plastics; they will remove it from the stream. If one has several hundred kg of PETG waste, they will consider taking it for actual recycling, but they do not deal with it in small amounts.
• ASA, an ABS relative, suffers from the same limitations as PETG. Dispose of it in hard plastics, ideally labeled.
• ABS is recycleable with normal ABS recycling streams, and should be disposed of as hard plastic, but as ABS not as common as other types of household waste (ABS products are designed to last many years), it's unclear whether it actually will be recycled. You can increase its odds of recycling by including "#9" or ">ABS<" on the product.
• PC is marked as "#7", often with "PC" underneath the triangle. Like ABS, it is technically recycleable, but as it's not as common as typical "disposable" plastics, it often isn't.
• Nylons like PA6 are also marked as "#7", often with "PA6" / "PA66" specifying the type. Like ABS and polycarbonate, they're technically quite recycleable, but usually aren't due to being comparatively uncommon in recycling streams.
• HIPS (High-Impact Polystyrene) is plastic category #6, the same as other polystyrene. It is technically easier to recycle than styrofoam, but polystyrene in general is seldom recycled regardless.
• In general, if you're not sure, dispose of "normal" quantities of plastic waste as "hard plastic" in labeled bags, while if you have potentially a couple hundred kilograms to dispose of at once, contact Sorpa to ensure that it will get recycled.
• One exception is PCL (polycaprolactone), a low-temperature filament commonly associated with 3d printing pens, but also workable with FDM printers. Like PLA, it is compostable, but unlike PLA, it breaks down reasonably fast in a normal compost bin. It is perfectly fine to dispose of with your food waste.
• Another case worth mentioning is that of PVA, which is normally printed for things that one wishes to dissolve (PVA is water soluble). Dissolved PVA is essentially wood glue, and can be used as such, or dried out for disposal. It should however not be flushed directly down the drain (for the same reasons you would not flush glue down the drain).

• The nozzle temperature range defines the thermal window required to melt the filament properly for extrusion; going below this causes clogs, while exceeding it can degrade the polymer. In general, the lower end of the range is better for aesthetics (such as less stringing), while the upper end of the range is better for strength.
• The bed temperature range specifies how hot the build plate must be to ensure the first layer adheres properly and to prevent the part from warping or detaching during the print.
• An enclosure requirement indicates if the printer needs a sealed chamber to maintain a high ambient temperature, which prevents parts made from materials like ABS or Nylon from warping and delaminating.
• The adhesion recommendation suggests specific bed surfaces or bonding agents (like glue stick, PEI, or painter's tape) required to keep the print anchored to the build plate.
• The cooling fan speed (min/max) controls how quickly the material solidifies after extrusion; high cooling improves detail and overhangs, while low cooling improves layer-to-layer strength.
• The drying temperature and time specify the oven conditions needed to remove absorbed moisture from the filament, which is crucial for preventing bubbling, stringing, and weak prints.
• Practical rule: if a filament is moisture-sensitive, treat drying as a normal pre-print step, especially after long sea-freight transit.
• The print speed range guides how fast the print head can move in millimeters per second while maintaining acceptable print quality and consistent flow.
• The Glass Transition temperature (Tg) marks the point where the hard plastic begins to soften and become pliable, effectively serving as the maximum temperature a printed part can endure before losing structural stability.
• Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT) at 0.45 and 1.80 MPa indicates the temperature at which a printed part will deform under a specific load, providing a realistic measure of heat resistance under stress.
• Tensile yield, break, and modulus measure the material's stiffness and resistance to being pulled apart, indicating how much load it can bear before stretching permanently or snapping.
• Flexural strength and modulus describe the material's resistance to bending and its stiffness when a load is applied perpendicular to its axis, which is critical for load-bearing brackets or beams.
• Izod and Charpy notched impact values quantify the material's toughness and ability to absorb sudden shock or energy without fracturing.
• Elongation at yield and break measure how much the material can stretch as a percentage of its length before deforming or snapping, indicating whether the material is brittle or ductile.
• Density determines the weight of the final part per unit volume, which is useful for calculating the cost of a print and the final mass of the object.
• The melting point range defines the temperature at which the plastic transitions completely from solid to liquid, dictating the absolute minimum temperature required for extrusion.
• Filler percent indicates the ratio of additives (like carbon fiber, glass, or wood) to base plastic; higher percentages increase stiffness but are more abrasive, often requiring a hardened steel nozzle (and often a larger diameter).
• Hardness (Shore A/D or Rockwell) measures the material's resistance to surface indentation, distinguishing flexible rubber-like materials (Shore A) from rigid plastics (Shore D/Rockwell).
• Melt Flow Rate (MFR)—along with its test temperature and load—measures the viscosity of the plastic; higher values indicate easier flow, which generally supports higher printing speeds.
• Mold shrinkage (min/max) estimates the percentage the material contracts as it cools; while primarily for injection molding, high shrinkage values in FDM warn of significant warping and dimensional accuracy issues.
• Water absorption indicates how much moisture the material soaks up over 24 hours, highlighting how sensitive the filament is to humidity and how strictly it must be stored.
• The continuous service temperature is the maximum temperature the material can withstand indefinitely without significant degradation or loss of mechanical properties.
• Flammability (UL94), dielectric strength, surface resistivity, and transmittance are specialized properties that describe the material's resistance to burning, its electrical insulation capabilities, and its optical clarity, respectively.

Short answer: It's complicated.

Even with "food safe" materials like PETG:

• Layer lines may harbor bacteria - hard to clean properly
• Colorants may not be food safe
• Microplastics are an uncertainty, particularly at high temperatures

The general advice is to use natural/uncolored filaments (such as PLA or PETG), avoid those with known health issues (such as polycarbonate), print with a stainless steel nozzle, and either use for single-use only or coat with food-safe epoxy or food-safe silicone (the latter is the better choice for microplastic safety, esp. at high temperatures, but is easier to damage). Do not use PLA or PETG with high-temperature liquids, as (excepting HTPLA) they cannot tolerate the heat and will deform. Even heat tolerant plastics should be looked on with caution when dealing with hot liquids, as hot liquids can often lead to the production of microplastics. PLA is also not entirely water-stable, and particularly when exposed to hot water will slowly leach into it. That said, its limited water stability strikes both ways, as PLA microplastics are not stable either (~10h life at 60°C, breaking down to lactic acid, which your body already produces) and should not be bioaccumulative. That said, we do not warranty any product as food-safe on its own.

For more advanced projects, you can print moulds for making glass, ceramic, silicone, or metal utensils.

Yes, absolutely!

Carbon fiber (and glass fiber) filaments are highly abrasive. They will destroy a brass nozzle within 100g of printing. Use hardened steel or ruby nozzles instead. Hardened nozzles are recommended for any "filled" material, even wood fill. Also, printing with a 0.4mm nozzle is usually iffy and at risk of clogs; a 0.6mm nozzle is usually a smarter choice.

Filled polymers often have poor bed adhesion - slow way, WAY down, especially for the first layer.

Metal-filled polymers need to be polished to bring out their shine. Start with a coarse sanding and then work all the way down to grits in the thousands, then finish with a protective clearcoat.

Glass fibre fill polymers generally have higher tensile strength than carbon fibre - the opposite of what you may be used to from bulk GF vs. CF composites. At these small fibre scales, it's not the fibre itself, but rather how well the polymer grips it, that determines the tensile reinforcement impact. What CF-fill brings to the table is great stiffness.

Fibre fill, especially CF-fill, can make your life a lot easier when printing materials that tend to develop significant heat stress during printing (for example, ABS, ASA, etc), as the added stiffness helps prevent the print from pulling off the bed / warping.

Ideally, glass and carbon-filled prints should be immediately clear-coated after printing to avoid the risk of shedding small fibres during use.

Models designed for wood-fill fibre should have the wood grain texture designed into the model; it won't just appear on its own. There are many tutorials online for how to do this, and some even work directly in the slicer. Wood fill can generall be stained to some extent, but your success will vary.

In general, to lock-in heat resistance in HTPLA, you bake it at ~100-110C for 10-20 minutes (less for thin parts, more for thick parts), with lower temperatures (<100) needing even longer times. Be sure to preheat the oven first. Have it well supported in the oven so that it does not droop (e.g. not, say, on a wire rack). Let it cool slowly (ideally, shut the oven off and let it cool there). Expect it to shrink by 2-3%, and possibly unevenly if the geometry has uneven thickness.

What you're doing is changing the amorphous / glassy polymer that forms when the PLA cools rapidly after leaving the nozzle, into an ordered crystalline polymer by letting it cool slowly.

Unopened, undamaged products or defective products can be returned within 14 days of receipt for a full refund. Opened filament or filament with otherwise damaged packaging cannot be returned unless defective. Please contact me with any issues you have (beyond general printing questions - you can direct those to the Facebook group "3D prentun á Íslandi", or ask our (quite helpful) help system in the lower right).

By all means, contact us (ideally with photos/videos of the issue). If it's not defective, we'll help you solve your problem, and if it is, you can return it and we'll refund your order - we stand behind our products.

Multiple options:

• General questions: Use the help bubble in the bottom right corner
• Specific questions that it cannot answer, or feedback: Get in touch