Every standalone desktop 3D printer shipped today promises the same unwritten joys of manufacturing anything you can design, in any material, straight from a spool of plastic. Yet for sheer cost efficiency and other inexplicable reasons, you’ll only see a roll of Polylactic Acid or PLA shipped as the trial filament with most new printers. It is affordable, odorless, and behaves beautifully on a bare glass bed without generating toxic fumes. The ease of use has made it a universal default for print after print based on the dangerously incorrect a**umption that if it looks solid on the build plate, the print will perform well in real-world conditions.