Comment on Remember to dry your filament kids
Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 days agoI agree with you about PLA, I have never dried a single gram of the stuff and I’ve got open spools being stored on a bathroom closet shelf for several years now. I’m more worried about the spools simply aging out than moisture.
PETG is more location dependent. If you live somewhere with higher humidity levels, you will need to be more careful about storage and use. My personal habit is that I take a spool of PETG out, run a quick test print and then decide if I need to dry it or not. It’s about a 50/50 thing. And for the practical things I make, a bit of stringing isn’t a big deal unless I decide the aesthetics really matter.
Marketing has really sold the idea that everyone needs multiple specialized driers, (that don’t really work nearly as well as a cheap food dehydrator for actual drying). And if you don’t spend all that money on those things from driers to special vacuum storage bags and desiccants, you simply can’t print anything.
Whitebrow@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’ve had PLA spools go bad due to age, so I can definitely attest to them eventually crumbling out of existence, good to do the bend test if you’re not sure, if it snaps/breaks when you try and fold it in half, it’s too old and the print will come out much more brittle than you’d want it to be.
True for the location dependency, but even here with about 20-30% humidity, it’s pretty noticeable after a week, granted, that’s assuming you leave it out and open, storing in a dry box or in a vacuum sealed bag with a desiccant between prints will help prolong that period immensely in my experience.
Marketing definitely has had quite a creeping presence into 3D printing in recent years, and similarly to gaming, it seems to be targeting the enthusiast class, so trying to convince people to try printing with more fancy (and toxic, and hydrophobic) materials than just the standard run of the mill PLA and PETG and upsell them on all the accessories before they’re actually needed.
Makes you wonder how much of all of this is gonna end up in the dumpster or in the attic at some point
Bluewing@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I know. As an old toolmaker that managed a few shop floors, inventory management is something I practice with a vengeance.