Reviving 7yr old filament with a $20 Dehydrator
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- Опубликовано: 16 авг 2019
- I have been skeptical about filament drying for some time, so I decided to test several old spools to see if they 3D Print after years of neglect... and if they can be revived with a cheap food dehydrator!
Models used:
Gayer-Anderson Cat - www.myminifactory.com/object/...
Bucket O' Octopodes (thicker legs) - www.thingiverse.com/thing:8896
Food Dehydrator (amazon affiliate) - amzn.to/2Z0FIsI
Food Dehydrator I used (Aus only no affiliate) - www.catch.com.au/product/heal...
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This makes me feel better about how I store my pla
How do you store your pla
@@C0NFUZED-yourmother i'm sure he leaves it inside the water reservoir
stic
Yeah - I saw the warnings about storing PLA and ignored them - I have no problems with even 13 year old PLA that's been stored in an unheated/uncooled storage facility in Dallas, TX.
@Kodokushi` Well, now I think about it - it was the transparent filament that came with my 2009 MakerBot! The MakerBot is long gone ...but the filament was at the bottom of the box containing the recycled stepper motors, bearings and stuff that I kept after the MakerBot was scrapped. However, the filament lived for all of those years in various storage units, garages and workshops in south-west Texas and NewMexico - where it's generally hot and with very low humiditiy. I never use dehumidifiers or store my PLA carefully in bags or whatever...and I don't have problems with it. But in a humid climate - that stuff would have been dust by now!
I headed up a NASA study regarding using 3D printing in space. One of our findings was that ABS and Nylon filaments did not create a measurable amount of particulates when extruded if they were desiccated to 25% RH prior to using them. They put off large amounts of particulates when stored at 50% RH then extruded.
That's a great reason by itself to dry your filaments.
Regarding strength... I've found that prints using several year old Zortrax ABS filament are more brittle and delaminate much easier even though print quality is the same.
Silly question, do those kind of studies get published online anywhere? I'd love to geek out over NASA 3D Printing studies :)
@@itmovesitchats I'm not sure. It was a SBIR Phase 1 project with the "Space plastics recycling" in the title. It was 4 years ago or so and I don't remember the exact title but that should get you close if it is publicly available.
interesting :)
This might explain why my old shelf filament smells like burning death compared to a fresh roll.
"Burning Death" ... hah - @@mimigaamigo7099
I have experienced the PLA cracking issue too. Especially with 3mm diameter PLA. My best guess is that it gradually forms to the tight coil shape of the spool. Then unwinding the filament generates stress cracks on the inside of the coil shape.
To solve this on the 3mm filament I made a small resistive heater tube that the filament passed through just as it came off the spool during printing. The tube was about 25mm long. This heated the filament to about 65 degrees C and slightly softened it, allowing it to straighten out without forming cracks. It also prevented the feed tube from coiling up.
I think that it could be related to the absorption of moisture into the PLA. Generally only a short term problem in Nylon and PETG but most plastics are somewhat capable of collecting moisture from the air, especially over long periods of time. There could be some weird heat cycle related polymer physics going on though so I can't say for sure.
I usually have this problem when I let the filament loaded into the extruder for a long time after a print. After 1 to 2 days it can be broken very easily. Sometimes it snaps without interfering with it at all. But I also have some rainbow pla with a really shiny surface and this one never broke this way
@@dasjulian3 that's interesting. I wonder if the smooth shiny finish doesnt form cracks as easily? This needs to be explored by CNC Kitchen...
@@HB-ps6rn I have always wondered if moisture is a factor as well. The thing that makes me think it might not be, is that after baking the filament at about 60C for several hours, it doesnt seem to prevent cracking. However maybe the damage is already done... its definitely is something that happens over time though because new spools don't seem to have a problem.
@@gusmartin6053 Interesting to hear. I've done a bit of reading on it and it seems that the hydrolytic reaction isn't reversible so baking it may dry it but not necessarily repair the broken polymer chains. From what I've read it could also be caused by photodegredation or oxidization. It would be a good experiment to put some PLA into some H2O2 or other oxidizing agent to see if it degrades in the same way.
"Its difficult for me to quantify if the print is actually gonna be any stronger now, since i'm not CNC kitchen" HAHAHA
Angus, as always, another great video. I look forward to all of your videos for their helpfulness. To the point, I was able to rescue a very brittle spool of PLA with my dehydrator. Here's how:
I have a temperature controlled Rosewill Food Dehydrator. Rather than sacrificing the trays, I found out a clear Better Homes & Gardens Round Cake Carrier fits the dehydrator perfectly. I drilled a 15mm hole in the top of the carrier for ventilation. The Rosewill keeps fairly accurate temps.
I had a spool of PLA that was so brittle it was impossible to use. Having nothing to lose, I put the spool in the dehydrator at 45c for 4-5 hours (per the PrintDry website). The unusable spool of PLA returned to a perfectly pliable spool that I was able to use through to the very end.
The brittle spool was stored in the open air. I live in Vegas, so you would not think humidity would be a problem. But since then, I am a firm believer in keeping my spools dry. Now I store all my spools in large tubs with desiccant. I haven't had a brittleness problem since.
time to wait for cnc kitchen to make a comment
not in the next 3 weeks ...
I commented about him drying his PETG for more consistent results after his most recent video exploring the effects part cooling has on overall print strength. He responded by saying "Yes, probably. But who dries his PETG all of the time?" which makes it seem like he probably doesn't bother with drying that much.
Interesting results Angus. I've dried TPU with excellent results. I generally print it directly from the dryer like you did. If I can find before and after pics I'll tag you on twitter with the comparison. I've dried PLA at a lower temperature and had decent results as well but it didn't get near as soft as yours either. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Angus. I really enjoy your videos as they are well made and very informative. In the past I worked with a Markforged desktop printer. The machine is known for printing in nylon and allowing you to embed continuous fiber (glass, carbon or Kevlar) in the print. When you purchase the printer it comes with a Pelican brand watertight box that is connected to the print head with a tube. The filament comes sealed in a vacuum bag with desiccant pouch or two. The filament then lives in the Pelican box with the desiccant pouches and stays sealed in the tube till extrusion. The machine lays down a healthy purge line between prints unless it has been sitting for a while. Then the purge line gets really heavy. As far as strength of wet vs dry nylon. Wet nylon tends to be stronger than dry. In injection molding the nylon is dried so you can mold it then it is allowed to absorb moisture to gain strength. Some shops even place newly molded parts in a bag with some water to accelerate the process.
If you don't want to destroy the bottoms of the food dehydrator (3:24) you can also use a microwave lid instead. In my case the microwave lid from IKEA called Prickig just fits perfect! It has a diameter of 26cm, my food dehydrator has 25,6cm.
Angus I love your videos you’ve inspired me so much to 3D print so much stuff
Congratulations on 500K! Also, great video.
Another good tip for cheap filament drying is 'crystal kitty litter'. Its just silica gel desiccant, but much, MUCH cheaper than buying packets off eBay.
be careful with that shit though... It will suck up all moisture in the air, and once its full all excess moisture will build up around the bag. If you placed it right next to your filament, you filament will be even more gone
You can use 25kg bags of calcium salt for pools to dry bulk filaments, if you wanna go more expensive, lithium salts are more efficient. Table salt works too.
how about using rice? :p
@@St0RM33 rice is harder to dry and might get insects.
I use packets I find and two evadry that I can plug in and recharge. I recharge the packets in a food dehydrator.
Thanks to your video, I used a food dehydrator to dry out some really bad PLA. The result: all but one reel revived perfectly; my oldest filament got better, but is still unusable due to bad layer adhesion. Thanks for saving almost all of my filament!
You helped me out in the 3-D printing hobby so much and I love the shirt
It's definitely worth the investment for something with a proper variable temp control! Definitely impressed with the results either way!
Thankyou for this video, it really cleared things up for me! We have loads of old donated filament spools at our new Makerspace (here in Adelaide), nice to know we won't need to dehydrate most of them!
Always the shiz'ouk' Angus - TY for taking the time out with this stuff. I came home with a simple used food dehydrator over the summer, and just found my plug-in lamp adjustable lamp dimmer to make use of with it [the food dehydrator] as night, as... ...the default [single-setting ON/OFF switch] took things to the level of "a lil' to toasty" for my white Chromatica PLA. ;) Getting a cheap handheld IR thermometer will serve one well also with these extra cheap food dehydrators. Excellent and very empowering content as always - thank you for your time and effort you put forth.
Great insight Angus. I bought a food dehydrator last year, specifically for drying filament .... never needed to use it yet. But I do like to be prepared 👍
Back up from the dust - Great video and information Muse
Thanks for the videos! You earned my sub, since all the videos I have seen so far are well done and have been very helpful. I like your experiments like this one. Keep them coming!
Cheers
Was very impressed with the change in PETG, great video must have taken ages!
Great job, informative video. This makes nylon seem more encouraging! As you noticed, PC has a pretty insane bonding strength (unlike ABS), but like ABS it wants to pull off the bed from the thermal stresses. I use the textured build sheet on the Prusa with Magigoo PC (Prusa doesn't recommend putting anything on this sheet but there is no way around it here). For anything bigger than 5 inches or so I put the Prusa in a pop-up photo tent. I prefer PCMAX (now called Polymax PC), I haven't done pure PC on the Prusa. You would probably need an enclosure more often with pure PC just due to the higher print temperatures increasing the stress. Some settings: Bed at 110C, chamber temp around 38C. Fan off but you can use 10-15% for bridges and for autocooling with smaller parts. Perimeter width 2x nozzle diameter, 1.5x for outside perimeters, only print with 0.15mm layer height. Also I'll use makerbot's old "helper disks" to drop on any corners in the slicer to keep them down (0.3mm thick). Ref. Github user metacollin's PC settings, except use 0.15mm layer height: gist.github.com/metacollin/18ecb0a58fb475cfae86e0781bf51325
I think the PLA snapping is related to moisture. I’ve left two roles if pla in a cabinet for a few months a while back, one in a bag with Silica gel, and one without. The one in the bag didn’t break, the one without the bag did
Excellent. Bought myself a cheap dehydrator a couple of weeks ago just for drying PETG. Didn't know it was a "thing" ..... much better to be lucky than good!
Excellent work! This sums up a lot of useful info!
Incidentally I went through troubleshooting my petg prints this week. They all seemed to delaminate and break very easily. I tried different temps, cooling etc. What worked was drying the filament in a dehydrator for about 7 hours. After that the parts are not brittle but more plyable and strong. Perfectly matches your results with the octopus leg breaking off. Great vid!
PETG suffers from hydrolysis if processed in the presence of moisture. Basically it means that the polymer chains will be broken as they chemically react with water at melt temperatures which lead to lower physical properties, so your results are perfectly normal.
(I work in industrial plastics)
Thanks for the vid, great info as always. I did my own testing last year with an ALDI dehydrator and had very similar results to you. I also live in Australia, so we would have similar environmental conditions. I came to the same conclusion that PLA, ABS & ASA do not need to be dried. Nyon absolutely needs to be dried and PETG can definitely benefit from drying. I found that TPU seemed to also benefit from drying and exhibited less stringing and a better print surface. I also just looked at an old spool of clear PLA and it also snaps easily and has hairline cracks in it.
I have the temp controlled dryer and live in a high humidity environment. This thing has saved me so much filament. PLA & PETG especially.
About 2ish years back, I, for some reason, bought a half kilo roll for a 3d pen I've used maybe used twice. It's been sitting in the bag it came in a locker ever since. Can't wait to try and use it
Thank you CHAMPION! I am beginner, and love you videos.
Wow, congrats on 500k subscribers!
Great video, I appreciate the effort. It'd be interesting for you to try desiccant as a followup on the PLA since heating seemed to mess it up.
Very useful information. Thanks.
Hi Angus, that was a pretty nice test of the topic. I think one thing that would help for the issues you had drying PLA is a temperature controlled dehydrator. As you mentioned, the PLA was damaged by overheating, and conversely some materials might actually need higher temperatures. I've had very good results drying PLA that was causing massive stringing (Hatchbox wood PLA) and while not completely eliminated, drying turned a spool that was basically unprintable into one that gave good results. Principles for plastics drying are the same as in injection molding, though typically don't cause as much problem in extrusion for 3D printing since the visual quality of FFF printing normally can't reach the quality of molding. I want to do some more moisture testing at work, though it takes quite a bit of plastic to get a good test result (about 50 grams). I have done one test on a spool of ABS left out for months in ambient and moisture content went from 0.9% down to about 0.1% after drying, and made a good improvement in print quality. For molding, typical ABS recommended moisture level is around 0.02%.
I bought a cheap one from Amazon (sold under multiple names, including Rosewill, Flexzion, Eastman Outdoors, etc.) that has a basic temperature control.
In fact, there's a company called PrintDry that sells the EXACT SAME unit for a lot more money; their main selling point is that they include custom trays instead of the plastic grates. I just used the same trick of cutting out the grates from all but one of the trays, and it works really well. If you really wanted the custom trays you could buy the dryer from Amazon and the custom trays from PrintDry and you'd save some money AND have the original food drying trays if you ever wanted them. :)
There's 3D printable tray extenders on Thingiverse for the Westinghouse model of dehydrator. But I'm sure Angus could model his own if he wanted to. :)
I got lucky with the cheap food dehydrator I bought, it didn't need the trays being snipped out, they were already designed to be taken out whilst keeping the cylinder shell intact.
We've had a wet spring in 2023 in the south of the US. My new roll of eSun white PLA sat on the printer for 3 weeks and started snapping like spaghetti. I have a dehydrator from back in the 90's with no thermostat but airflow is right at 115 degrees. Amazing how a $12 appliance kept all these years is back in service.
I got back into 3d printing after about a 6 year break. Started printing with some PLA that i got when i got my first printer without doing anything to the filament. Worked perfectly
EXCELLENT WORK!!!
i had a roll of pla that spent the most of its time in the south high humidity. after 5 years its printed wonderfully.
Glad to see you back. I thought you'd given up on YT!
Super practical - thanks!
Well done Angus - thanks!
I found the same . I live in Queensland where it humid as hell and never had to dry anything, (abs and pla used). The rolls are only 2-3 years old but still work!!
youre the man. ive been having exactly this problem this week
I haven't had any issues with my PLA, either. Other than it sometimes snapping if left out for months. My PETG starts to print okay and then the stringing gets worse throughout each print. I've started keeping those in dry boxes and might get a cheap dehydrator now. Thanks, Angus!
I grab a roll of PLA out of the shed the other day that had been sitting open for 5years. I took the top layer off to get rid of most of the dust then made a quick filament sweeper. And it printed like magic
Just used a 5 year old spool of Natural ABS a few days ago that I had recently dehydrated but never used and it was the best print I have ever had in ABS. I was testing the SKR V1.3 and Marlin 2.0 and due to 32bit controllers never pausing everything was the smoothest I have ever seen for 0.2mm layer height. I was floored.
I found an item I printed 3 years ago. It crumbled apart as if it was made of sugar.
Was it outside? I have 3D prints that old and they are fine.
@@Niloc1922 Same
What filament was it? Lol
Did you leave it in a really sunny spot? UV light could have had something to do with it
If it was PLA, that is to be expected. PLA is made from organic materials after all.
Great write up mate, i retract my earlier statements at robowars! My issue with the pla was definitely the snapping off at the extruder.
💕💕 Loved this video !!! And I don't even 3-D print ! 😄 Nice job !!! 👍👍👍👏👏👏
Super informative vid!
I use my oven to dry multiple roles of PLA all the time 1.75 mm @ 150 degrees F and never had an issue. Love the vids, keep it up!
How long do you keep them in the oven? I have about 30 spools that need dehydrating and don't want to do it in a food dehydrator..
I had a roll of clear PLA that sat in an outdoor storage facility for 13 years in the heat and humidity of Dallas, TX...it printed perfectly.
I had a roll of PLA in the basement 4 years and then in attic for 2 more years, just took it out and put it over the radiator for 24 h, and got amazing reults.
Living in the low humidity of Alaska, and storing my filament rolls out of direct sunlight, (because we do have more than 16hrs of it for months), this also makes me feel better about how and where my PLA is stored.
I do dry my filament. I have numerous comparison tests where I took PLA that was stringing a lot and dried it, and it does wonders. I have a dehydrator that has a temperature control, so it makes it easier. It makes a real big change for fiber filled PLAs. I don't print a lot in PETG (but IIRC, it doesn't really absorb moisture). PLA doesn't absorb much moisture, but I still have gotten better results out of drying it then not. No experience with any of the other materials you tried (though I should run my Taulman PCTPE through it). I also have a dry box that I run the filament out of, so that helps.
I will agree on the time. I have read or heard people drying filament for 12, 24, even 48 hours. I don't think I've run anything for longer then 8 hours, and that was because I forgot I had it running. Results were better then pre-dry, but never seen a real difference between 3-5 hours vs. 12/24 hours.
Great information. Thank you.
I had my PLA-rolls and printer in the same area as my washing-machine and my PLA started snapping off after just a few weeks. Now i store them in a plastic container with some silica-gel and they work just fine. So i guess moisture from my washing-machine was the issue here tho.
Love your videos, so keep up the good work. :)
I also mentioned PLA to snap after the print if its a bit older or was exposed to moisture or normal environment without putting it into a bag or something. Seems to be normal. It stopped after i dried it 1h in the oven at 50°C.
Useful video. I was having issues with an (old) filament spool I tried to use, and a web search told me filament expires in 2 years. I decided to do some research. My other spool was clearly bad for whatever reason, but others that were as old seem to be doing fine. Dunno.
Awesome video, and well-timed for me. I was just going through all of my old filament and wondering if any of it was usable. One roll of cheap transparent PLA definitely wasn't though. I thought it was water damage but after seeing the warped roll from the dehydrator and my general knowledge of how hot it gets in my shed in summer, I dare say I need to keep it indoors. #Australia
I'm still using up some old MakerBot PLA filament from back in 2012, no problem. It has gotten very brittle, but prints just fine, the prusa MMU2S does tend to break it at the intake on a regular basis.
I have 7 year old Octave brand ABS and it still prints fine on my Afinia H479. Stored in a Sterilite storage container with a loose fitting lid. Not airtight by any stretch. So I agree and see the same results with ABS.
I got loads lying around, must be around 5 years old by now, I used it now and it is not great but it is still work without breaking the filaments. It is very fragile, I just put it in the oven just an hour around 40-50C and filament strength it before I put it in my 3d printer. My 3d printer is Nereus from Tevo.
Hi Angus...at first..thanks for all the good videos. Keep up the good work :) ... to the topic.... if you don´t want to spend money on a filament dryer you can put the filament in your oven at 60-70 degrees celcius for around half an hour. Does a pretty good job in my experience.
The food dehydrator works for sure. I just bought a brand new roll of armadillo TPU. It came with one tiny little dry pack. When I put it on my printer it was spitting and popping and full of moisture. One overnight in my dehydrator and it was like butta
I love your positiwe and exiting attetude
I can't wait when we start to print clothe
I use a portable room dehydrator and stick it in a small closet or sometimes a large cardboard box and leave it running set to minimum humidity for about five hours with the filament sitting on the ground next to it. This technique worked like a treat with my stringy petg and pla. The air gets to around 100F or about 38C by an hour in.
I want to see Angus's channel surpass one million subscribers. Going for gold mate.
Steam cleaning! Brilliant!
In my experience, drying PLA at 45C works wonders. I keep rechargable dessicant packs in a cabinet where I store my PLA and rotate those out every week or so to recharge them (they have a wall plug built into them to dry out the dessicant). It's worth noting that where I live, the summer air gets to about 50% humidity. In the winter it's more like 15%-18% so I don't worry about it as much. But PLA that's left out gets brittle and I have lots more issues with it than when I try it out ahead of time. Same with the PETG as Angus found here. Drying out PETG the day before I use it works wonders.
yes, it is good at least in 4 years as I have an old roll of Ultimaker PC and tested it even without drying and the result is perfect using Ultimaker S5
That's good to hear I have a 2014 ABS spool in the cupboard and have been wondering about its viability.
PLA can crystalize over time which leads to the snapping. When it's heated it crystalizes as well. I also have some rolls from 2013 of 3mm filament (with dyes) that I've gotten bad print quality with on my fixer upper printer from 2012.
I use a larger oven-style dehydrator with temperature control, and have found it helps a lot with PLA and PETG. Not a ton of difference in quality, but better surfaces and way less smell.
I've seen the filament snapping issue with our Taz 6. After 2 consecutive successful prints with a brand new spool of matter hackers PLA (3mm) I came back to broken filament. It also happened with a fairly new spool of ABS as well, also from matter hackers. The printer is next to a big window and the humidity here is pretty intense. I printed a strain relief that fit on the top of the extruder that holds the PTFE tubing.
No real conclusion on PLA, and it's the most common material.
I found a difference personally after I got a PrintDry. My PLA filament was crackling and popping before I dried it and I got a better surface finish when dry.
@S A Maybe not for $140, but what about at $34? That's what I paid for a food dehydrator on Amazon and, after a "quick" converter print, was up and running.
@S A lol yeah, that's what I said. Even so, I guess it depends on the local climate.
@@ncurley999 In Germany you pay around 0.28€ for 1kW/h (and thats cheap). I would pay 140€ if it need less energy coz its better isolated and maybe better controlled by the system. After a year of constant usage of the dryer it doesnt make a huge difference if you pay 34 or 140... the energy is the worst cost.
I've had improvement with petg and pla drying. Nylon and tpu are required. I dry everything from new and keep it all in a dessicant box with 4 spool holders in it. Works great! You definitely need a temp controlled dehydrator though (I paid $35 for mine)
good stuff!
You are my legend and i will explain you why and dont think i want promote my chanel.... Because evrything start with you!
I was interesting about 3d printing but newer think to buy it i go on youtube where i find many your videos many your explanations so i decide to buy my first CR 10 s4 i was happy to trying but i must say i have many many problems with that printer... Many solutions i found by you i was totally beginer... You insoired me trying new materials my prints was so crapy long time so i buy ultimaker 3 and afcorse i buy a working horse.... From time i have it i buy also priusa because i see it on your videos and i see its work great.... I learned with you how to improve my prints how to use thinkercad haha i never forget so stuoid easy for beginers and later i start with fushion 360 (still busy with learning) you open my word to creativity eaven if im still for my self beginer... I try with timelapse i love it to look so one day i decide to make my ovn youtube channel whitch one is afcorse in begining and i dont care how many views i get... But you was my motivation from beginning and i want to thank you very much
Small videos like your can change people life at least is change my one!
I have always printed PA straight from the dryer. Other filaments that I appreciate being printed straight from the dryer include: Igus J260, PC, and Ninjaflex
^^^yes^^^ ninjaflex is one that really does like to be dried first^^^
A note on food dehydrators: you do not have to cut its original plates. Instead you could try to find a suitable size microwave oven lid. They come in various sizes and they ususally have a hole in the top, so they work really well to dry filament spools :)
Or you could always print a new Lid + Tray.
Anything but PLA should take the temperature just fine.
Found a clear bucket at a $2plus type shop, that fitted near perfectly and added a couple of holes at the top.
I even made a roll holder to feed the printer with warm filament. Was having trouble with some snapping and this helps soften the filament.
I love the way you guys say garage. lol
I have been printing on 2014 filament for a few months. I got it with 2 Printrbot Plus Metals and am having no problems with it. It's mostly PLA. I have not dried it and it was stored in a basement without any protection from moisture.
Awesome video! I've had different PLAs break & have fractures as well. Curious to know why too.
I used to work in a plastics plant where we made PP closures and PET bottles. The PP went straight from the hopper to the extruder, but the PET we had material dryers that we would wait at least 4 hours on before we started making bottles.
The reason fo it is that PET is very susceptible to moisture and the plastic would cloud badly (in our transparent bottle) and delaminate even though it was injection molded.
The clouding was very apparent in our particular bottles because they were stretch blow molded which increased strength. Heck , even our air compressors had systems in place to make sure the air we blew the bottles with was as dry as possible
Interesting results. I think you must live in a dryer climate than I do.
I always place my opened rolls of filament in ziplock bags with desiccant.
My experience in my climate:
PLA: Will get brittle if left out for a couple of weeks.
PETG: Will extrude stringy with lots of blobs after a couple of weeks in the open.
I now print straight from a filament dryer and life is better :-)
What does the ambient humidity run typically in your area? The soaked filament was very interesting. Thank you for doing this test!
This explains why some of the filament my brother gave me sucks.
Finding life in an ancient material; your shirt is quite fitting.
Love the shirt 🤩
Awesome video and love the Jurassic Park shirt.
Just got into 3-D. Have a ANKERMAKE. Also have a Harvest Right Freeze-Dryer. Was planning on Giving all Colors needed for a project an Overnight in The Vacuum Chamber at Circa 200 milliTorr, and 100F. Then, as needed, Bring out whichever Reel I needed.
drying my pla at 55 degrees c (just before it softens) saved my prints... MANY times. same for my tpu.
Just was talking to a guy at work about this yesterday. My 3D printer from 2016 (wanhao i3 v2) came with a spool of see through yellow PLA filament which I love but I’ve had so many failed prints recently and as you mention the snapping mid print but only started recently. I put it down to age
Angus, I print with pure PC from time to time. My experience is that it behaves similarly to nylon but the effects are not as noticable. When wet, PC prints will be more milky with less layer adhesion and overall strength. It will also be a bit more runny and therefore stringy.
I too do some printing with pure PC, and live in a very humid area. The real difference in my experience is strength and layer adhesion. The appearance of the print is not that greatly changed between wet and dry PC, but the layer adhesion is very greatly effected, with wet PC, even printed at 300+C having somewhat poor adhesion, and fresh/freshly dried PC having excellent to exceptional layer adhesion. I also make functional parts with PC and the hydrolysis that occurs in extruding wet PC (even only slightly wet) does effect the strength signifficantly. Wet printed PC is noteably brittle compared to dry. I also see worse problems in wet PETG than Angus's results and although it's not as hygroscopic as nylon I treat it almost the same way in order to get best results.
Awesome video Angus! One filament I would really like to know a little more about is PVA. I've just gotten into dual extrusion and I am having a lot of fun with PVA supports, but I can see I am getting a lot of moisture steaming out from my hot end when using PVA. Can you please try removing the moisture from some PVA and let us know how you go? Would be greatly appreciated! Keep up the great work!
My PLA definitely is negatively affected by humidity!! No question! I can hear it crackle going through the nozzle and it gets a bit more stringy when printed, with a bunch of zits on the print surface. The filament is also MUCH more brittle before printing!! (which seems antithetical that humidity would make it more brittle rather than mushy) I've improved it BOTH with "active drying" (I used a convection oven) AND using plenty of rechargeable desiccant over several days in a sealed dry box getting the humidity down to 10%.
Angus, what timing. I'm sitting here looking at a dehydrator my cousin gave me. I print mostly in petg and our air is slightly humid. I have to get to cutting those trays! Thank you!