3D printing mess - because I'm an idiot

[skotl]

Printing PETG on Saturday and got this:

Crapped out bits of shrapnel all over my poor printer:

The spool has been in the printer for 3 months so figured it had sucked up all of winter's moisture, so ordered a Sunlu dryer and some ultra special storage tubs.

Dried the spool for 6 hours yesterday but was slightly bemused that the before/after weight was only 5g different...

Tried the print again, and same result.

Then I spotted the print file name "dro_mount_plate_PLA_202601261518"... PLA....? Yep - was using a PLA profile to print PETG - fixed that and, of course, it's printing like a champ!

The 6 hours of heating for 5g of moisture removal should have been the giveaway.

 

[Anguz]

I use quality street tins (other chocolates are available) to store opened filament rolls.. they fit quite well with room for desicant in the middle

 

[Dapph2]

I use quality street tins (other chocolates are available) to store opened filament rolls.. they fit quite well with room for desicant in the middle

Once inside the tin ( plastic or genuine tin ) do you seal the tin with sellotape type stuff to keep the atmosphere in the tin stable ?

 

[MattF]

Then I spotted the print file name "dro_mount_plate_PLA_202601261518"... PLA....? Yep - was using a PLA profile to print PETG - fixed that and, of course, it's printing like a champ!

I did exactly the same, a few month ago. Several times, before I twigged. Easily done.

 

[Onoff]

I use quality street tins

Cause for a celebration I'd say!

 

[Onoff]

I use quality street tins (other chocolates are available) to store opened filament rolls.. they fit quite well with room for desicant in the middle

As does my lad. If we get any loose silica gel sachets we throw them into the tins:

 

[Pete.]

I had to print some petG that's been sitting around for about a month. I set my bed heater to 65 degrees, put the reel of filament on it and shut the door on the printer. left it there for about 4 hours and it printed great.

 

[Beanwood]

I have a 4 reel drier and it tends to get used for storage even when drying a fresh spool. Is it possible to over dry filament (PETG typically)

 

[Anguz]

Once inside the tin ( plastic or genuine tin ) do you seal the tin with sellotape type stuff to keep the atmosphere in the tin stable ?

Plastic , and no I think they seal well enough

 

[Dapph2]

As does my lad. If we get any loose silica gel sachets we throw them into the tins:

View attachment 528003

You can reactivate the silica bags hundreds of times.
A few minutes after the oven is switched off and the food is taken out put the used bags in the oven on a baking tray and leave them there till the oven is cool enough to touch the racks .

Then take them out and either heat seal them in poly bags or put in tie off sandwich bags then store them in a spare sweet tin /tub seal it with tape if you feel like it.

TIP.

Lots ot BT guys have used desiccant bags that have had the witness tag turned colour to indicate the bag is well damp . It used to be the rule that every time you opened a roadside cabinet you hung 2 , 3 or 4 desiccant half pound bags in the cabinet depending on the size of it just before closing it up.

If you can get hold of a fair few sew or tie a pair to a 1200 mm soft cotton tape or non plastic string &. dry them out in the oven as above or over a few days in the airing cupboard .

Use the dried bags to dry our damp cold wellies overnight one bag or two bags in each wellie almost down to the toes . Dad used to have five sets of such bags for his wellies during winter as well as summer if he was digging out ditches etc.

They also work well in damp work boots that have steel toe caps.

 

[Dapph2]

I have a 4 reel drier and it tends to get used for storage even when drying a fresh spool. Is it possible to over dry filament (PETG typically)

Around 20%
The moisture content for 1kg of PETG is typically around 20%. This moisture content is considered acceptable for most printing applications, as PETG has a relatively low moisture absorption rate. If the moisture content is higher, it may affect the physical and mechanical properties of the material, potentially leading to warping or reduced strength over time.
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fb25...udC1iZS1mb3ItcGxhLWFuZC1wZXRnLzIyMzQ1Nw&ntb=1
Bambu Lab
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fb25...udC1iZS1mb3ItcGxhLWFuZC1wZXRnLzIyMzQ1Nw&ntb=1
Would a simple moisture meter help decide if you get reading off a very new opened back of filament for the comparative standard ?
Or
Maybe use a multimeter in the meg ohm range to see any great difference in resistance in a metre of filament .

 

[skotl]

Around 20%
The moisture content for 1kg of PETG is typically around 20%. This moisture content is considered acceptable for most printing applications, as PETG has a relatively low moisture absorption rate. If the moisture content is higher, it may affect the physical and mechanical properties of the material, potentially leading to warping or reduced strength over time.
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fb25...udC1iZS1mb3ItcGxhLWFuZC1wZXRnLzIyMzQ1Nw&ntb=1
Bambu Lab
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fb25...udC1iZS1mb3ItcGxhLWFuZC1wZXRnLzIyMzQ1Nw&ntb=1
Would a simple moisture meter help decide if you get reading off a very new opened back of filament for the comparative standard ?
Or
Maybe use a multimeter in the meg ohm range to see any great difference in resistance in a metre of filament .

Interestingly, my shiny new de-moisture-ator seems to bottom out at around 40% rh, so that's hopefully a good sign.

 

[MattF]

Interestingly, my shiny new de-moisture-ator seems to bottom out at around 40% rh, so that's hopefully a good sign.

Which make/model have you bought?

 

[Dapph2]

Thanks for that , I'll put my humidity stat/thermometer in my printer cabinet and see what it reads in two days time.

 

[Anguz]

With desicant my storage bottoms out at about 25% in air... not sure if room temp pulls any out of the filament? I mainly use petg

 

[Kram]

Quite easy to get filament properly dry. This would be more useful if I had an AMS compatable TPU in there, as petg doesnt really care too much but TPU is extremely sensitive to it.

Silica gel is not much good below 20%, unless you use quite a bit of it. Small sachets do almost nothing unless its a vacuum bag.
Molecular sieves are better at low humidities.

Take dessicant out, dry it seperatly, 180c in convection oven for 45 mins or so. Dry filament 6h at 65c in my case. Add several hundred grams of desicant back in. It will soon drop to 0% humidity and stay there.

 

[skotl]

Which make/model have you bought?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F93N86RG

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F8B8C9Q6

 

[Anguz]

I dry my desicant at work... we have a dry air setup for the ozone generators... I stick my desicantbin a bottle with one of the sample line vents and it drys it in a few hours

 

[Onoff]

My lad's:

 

[jimbo84]

Being new to printing I didn’t realise this and just leave the coil of filament on the machine unsealed. I’m only using PLA at the moment, does that suffer from moisture absorption or is it just PETG?