The honest answer? Because we got fed up with everyone else's.
When you're running 8 printers day in, day out — producing custom prints, tool holders, jigs and workshop products for customers across the UK — filament quality isn't just a preference. It's everything.
We've tried more filament brands than we can count. And time and again, we faced the same problems: inconsistent diameter causing under-extrusion mid-print, colour batches that didn't match, moisture-absorbed spools that popped and crackled, and failed prints that cost us time, material and our reputation.
Every failed print is a cost. Every inconsistency damages trust with our customers. We couldn't keep gambling on other people's quality control.
So we decided to do the only thing that made sense — make our own.
We started with one printer, a big idea, and a passion for 3D printing. Word spread fast. Demand grew, and before long we had a farm of 8 machines running around the clock producing custom prints for customers across the UK.
As the business grew, so did the emails. Customers would ask for a quote, then we'd go back and forth asking which colour? What infill? What layer height? How many? It was time-consuming for us and frustrating for them. So we built 83D Farm — a single page where customers upload their STL files, configure every setting, and send us everything we need to provide an accurate quote straight away. No back and forth. No wasted time. Just great prints.
As our volume grew, filament consistency became critical. We sourced from every reputable supplier we could find — and still faced batch-to-batch variation, diameter inconsistencies and colour mismatches that caused failed prints and wasted material.
After one too many failed prints from a "premium" supplier, we made the decision: if we couldn't find filament consistent enough for our farm, we'd develop our own. Every batch would be tested by us, in our farm, before it went anywhere near a customer.
Today, 83D Filament is our answer to the problem we lived with for years. Farm-proven, UK-quality filament in PLA, PETG, ABS and TPU — developed by makers, for makers. If it's good enough for our print farm, it's good enough for yours.
Every batch is run through our print farm before release. We catch problems before they reach you.
We use this filament ourselves, every single day. That's a level of quality assurance no testing lab can match.
Held to the high standards our UK customers expect. No compromise, no shortcuts.