Drying filament ?  

Re: Drying filament ?

I actually think I have a problem with mine. Would those in the know say this is a high moisture content? Ive tried a few settings to adjust.
We had rain last night and I left the window adjar. Although the spool is covered with a box and silica gel could I still be getting the problem?

Camera is rubbish sorry.
[attachment=0]IMG_20160910_114550[1].jpg[/attachment]

Re: Drying filament ?

It's not easy to be sure Ben, but that's could be a case of mildly damp filament. Dampness usually shows up as looking like little bubbles either whole or popped, and a rough texture. The other cause can be a bad batch of filament so is this an old spool that used to print OK or the first print with a new spool? When it is printing can you here any hissing and/or see any steam coming from the the tip of the nozzle?

Assuming everything else that could cause print problems has been ruled out then I would go with it's damp...

Re: Drying filament ?

Yes never had any problems before with the silver but been a while since I used it. I have not played with retraction settings so they have not changed. Thats all I can think of that would cause it. I will try a few different things but I will also invest in a dehydrator just to see what happens.

Re: Drying filament ?

Bumping this up, since I see people buying and promoting expensive filament dryers for PLA/ABS... After some google-ing when I designed my wall mounted filament holder (best way for me space wise to store the spools), I draw my own conclusion that the only filament that really should be stored air tight is pretty much Nylon/PC. PLA/ABS/PETG CAN ofc be stored air tight, it doesn't hurt but is it really worth it? I've had my spools on the wall for 6 months now, its quick and easy to change the filament, I have a great view of how much filament I have left, and I cannot see any issues that could be connected to moist-damaged filament?

Whats your take on this, has anyone here actually got any problems that can be directly connected to moist in PLA/ABS/PETG filaments?

Re: Drying filament ?

Patrik

You may recall the photo I posted of the corroded brass filament drive gear, but other than that I have not had issues with damp filament.

At the moment I am just printing a few models and using up old filament - some of which has been out in the open for over a year - and I am not having any printing problems at all.

Peter

Re: Drying filament ?

If you're really concerned about moisture, you can pick up a Eva-Dry de-humidifier for about $15 or less. Throw it in a tote with a reasonable seal (you can even use a plastic garbage bag laid over the top before placing the lid as a passable gasket) and you're all set. I grabbed a $5 humidity monitor and threw it in there as well.

The reason I like the Eva-dry is because you can refresh them and they have a way to tell when they are ready to be refreshed.

Re: Drying filament ?

Would this work or am I missing something? If you have a side loading dryer than a built in rack ( used to dry sneakers) so items do not tumble, could you put the spool in the dryer? The dryer has good airflow and different heat settings.

Re: Drying filament ?

My dryer hits 150F so this would work for PLA, maybe not for ABS according to these links:
- http://www.3dprintinggeeks.com/3d-printer-filament-storage/
- https://www.matterhackers.com/news/filament-and-water

Re: Drying filament ?

I have found drying *all* of my filament, regardless of material, gives me confidence in the consistency and strength of my prints. I bought a food dehydrator specifically for this purpose, and I now dry every new spool of filament before packing it in an airtight bag with a silca gel cylinder. I re-dry if a filament has been out for more than a few days.

Would it probably print fine even without? Sure. But at the end of the day I am much happier knowing that any print consistency problem I am having is NOT related to moisture.

Re: Drying filament ?

I backed the Kickstarter for PrintDry's filament dryer. I'll report my findings after the finished model is delivered to me. It's entirely possible such a device is overkill for my use-case (as I store my filaments pretty airtight surrounded by lots of silica gel already), but there's no way to tell how the filament was stored by the company I bought it from.

Re: Drying filament ?

... before packing it in an airtight bag with a silca gel cylinder.

What are you using for silica gel desiccant? So far, I've been using left over packages from other shipments I receive. I imagine I should be using more than a tiny pack or two per bag/spool.

Thanks,

John

Re: Drying filament ?

... before packing it in an airtight bag with a silca gel cylinder.

What are you using for silica gel desiccant? So far, I've been using left over packages from other shipments I receive. I imagine I should be using more than a tiny pack or two per bag/spool.

Thanks,

John

For the gel, I use this.

Then I printed a heck-ton of these and placed them into the center of the spool before packaging the whole spool inside one of these for storage.

Re: Drying filament ?

Thanks for the tip on the cases for the center of the spool. Do you ever experience silica beads falling through the slots?

Re: Drying filament ?

... before packing it in an airtight bag with a silca gel cylinder.

Excellent! Thanks for the links!

Re: Drying filament ?

Thanks for the tip on the cases for the center of the spool. Do you ever experience silica beads falling through the slots?

Though not much they do create dust when moved. I would put them in some cotton bag first.

Re: Drying filament ?

Thanks for the tip on the cases for the center of the spool. Do you ever experience silica beads falling through the slots?

Some of the super-tiny beads or cracked ones will fall through from time to time. It hasn't been too much of an issue for me, but I can tell you there is nothing more face-palm-worthy than dropping a full cylinder of these beads onto the ground and having the cylinder break open, spreading tiny hard silica beads that will fly everywhere and hide until weeks later when you step on them.

Re: Drying filament ?

Stepping on beads isn't so bad, one of those little paper bags once broke open in my backpack and apparently the beads were hard enough to cause tiny bumps in the side of my laptop >.<

Guess I'll be sticking to my cotton bags to put in my filament boxes.

Re: Drying filament ?

Stepping on beads isn't so bad, one of those little paper bags once broke open in my backpack and apparently the beads were hard enough to cause tiny bumps in the side of my laptop >.<

Guess I'll be sticking to my cotton bags to put in my filament boxes.

So, my issue with that is that it defeats the purpose of the orange indicating dye. I like to be able to see visually and at a glance if there is a moisture problem, and also when to re-dry the beads. Perhaps a desiccant container with thicker walls and thinner slats would solve the issue somewhat?

Re: Drying filament ?

Stepping on beads isn't so bad, one of those little paper bags once broke open in my backpack and apparently the beads were hard enough to cause tiny bumps in the side of my laptop >.<

Guess I'll be sticking to my cotton bags to put in my filament boxes.

So, my issue with that is that it defeats the purpose of the orange indicating dye. I like to be able to see visually and at a glance if there is a moisture problem, and also when to re-dry the beads. Perhaps a desiccant container with thicker walls and thinner slats would solve the issue somewhat?
I agrat it could defeat the purpose. I work around that by also throwing in one of these packs in each box, as a canary in a manner of speaking. My filament storage boxes are transparent, so I put the dry-pack in a corner. I just need to shine a flashlight on them to check and if I notice the beads in the pack have darkened, it warrants inspection of the ones in the cotton bags.

Re: Drying filament ?

I use the commercial print dryer on all of the filament that we print. It will allow you to print from the dryer and have another roll in the dryer. It will cure your H2O problems.