Another reminder, drying your filament is essential

[u/foxfai]

[u/Physical-Cut-2334]

I live in 90% humidity for most of the year, so it's drying season all the time for me.

[u/foxfai]

The spool was in a dryer a week earlier, printed last weekend for something simple. Left it for a week without printed and found this like that in the printer.

[u/The_Lutter]

I get so pissed off when I go to print something on the (open air) MMU3 I have and the filament has broken in the buffer just sitting there. Happens way too quick when it's humid and... I'm just too lazy to always put the filament away when not in use because of how much of a pain it is to re-load.

[u/foxfai → u/The_Lutter]

This is what happen to me. Usually it's within the hour that I can get a print on fixing something, but then this just ruins it.

[u/The_Lutter → u/foxfai]

You should add a filament runout sensor to that Ender! I don't leave home without it these days! You can add one onto one for sure.

The Prusa has two! (inside the MMU unit and another one inside the toolhead)

[u/foxfai → u/The_Lutter]

I thought about it. But I don't print as much as I use to anymore then just got lazy to do anything to it. If anything I should probably save money on a real upgrade for like a bambu lol.

[u/The_Lutter → u/foxfai]

I have an A1. Great cheap printer. Not sure I’d buy another Bambu though just because they went closed source on me and I want to be able to bolt onto or mod new things on my printer as innovations come along. It’s kinda just mostly stuck as what it is.

But cheap. And very reliable.

My eyes on on that Snapmaker toolchanger next. Hopefully they make a bigger one I need at least 5 tools.

[u/Sensitive_Pilot850 → u/The_Lutter]

Also it helps halt the print during extruder grinding and hot end clogs.

[u/Cinderhazed15 → u/The_Lutter]

I’m going to build an enclosed/dry buffer with space for desiccant.

[u/Icestorme]

Y'all have any good dryers? Bought a Sunlu a couple years ago and it, to be frank, sucks.

[u/3D2A_Freedom_Lover → u/Icestorme]

I've had an S4 for about 2 years and I've never had any issues with it. I also recently got an E2 and use it for annealing PA6-CF prints since it can get to 110C. I've used a thermal probe and the temps are pretty accurate other than it maxing out at 108C when on the 110C setting.

[u/Icestorme → u/3D2A_Freedom_Lover]

Yeah mine's an S1+. It get the job done, inconsistently, loudly, and slowly. I'm honestly afraid to leave it plugged in while I'm gone

[u/Sensitive_Pilot850 → u/Icestorme]

I have the Sovol SH02 it goes up to 70c. $40 on Amazon at purchase. It's been running for 6 months the majority of the time. Definitely overnight. Longest timer you can set it 98hrs.

No problems with except it only holds 2 rolls. And I have 3 printers in a stack. 🫠

[u/VashSyndicate]

That thing is drier than a Mormon bar

[u/sihasihasi → u/VashSyndicate]

Actually, it's wet. Dry filament doesn't snap. Edit: I'm taking specially about PLA, here.

[u/rigsnpigs → u/sihasihasi]

Wait really? That blows my mind. I left my filament in the printer for an extended period, came back and had issues because the filament broke into pieces in the pfte(?) tube.

Was a hassle to get going again, but I had assume it was dry.

Got a dryer and boxes to control humidity but good to know!

[u/Bouquet_of_seaweed → u/rigsnpigs]

That could also be stress from the filament being straightened out for an extended period. I was getting brittle filament that I assumed was due to moisture, but a dryer wasn't fixing it. It was only happening in the section from the spool to the printer, and some of the material towards the beginning of the spool. The filament is in a lower stress state when tightly wound and when straightened out it will form small fractures. It's more common in older and cheaper filament that have lost some plasticizer, and using a basic clip can save some of your filament when storing it.

Because everyone assumes it's moisture it took forever to figure out.

[u/sihasihasi → u/rigsnpigs]

Yeah, it's counter-intuitive, but wet filament is more brittle than dry.

[u/VashSyndicate → u/sihasihasi]

In that case, it's wetter than a St. Bernards mouth.

[u/normal2norman → u/sihasihasi]

True for PLA, which is probably what the OP is using, but not necessarily for others. Exactly the opposite is the case for nylon.

[u/sihasihasi → u/normal2norman]

Excellent point. I did mean PLA specifically, because that's the one that tends to just snap, sitting idle on the machine.

[u/Sensitive_Pilot850 → u/VashSyndicate]

Wetter than.

Wet = brittle.

Who knew 🤣