Comment on Want some advice on which filaments to use

• lemmyman@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Every filament - literally 100% of them - will print better when dry. Brand new filament can be wet. PLA, sitting in my printer for a couple weeks, can get brittle enough from absorbed moisture to crack in a dozen places in the ptfe feed tube. So yeah I guess petg is moisture sensitive, but my take is that everything is. So I would recommend a filament dryer, and using it on new spools and spools that haven’t been used in a while.

  Vacuum sealing will help, but I still dry filament after storing in vacuum sealed containers.

  That said, you could also just wait until you see signs of wet filament before drying (stringing, bad surface finish, etc).

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  • idunnololz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I saw some debunking videos that said the opposite unless you live somewhere extremely humid. But I do remember there are certain filament types that benefit greatly from being dry and IIRC PETG was one of them.

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    • elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I live in a dry climate. Trust me, dry your PETG.

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• Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Store filament in a big plastic tub with a kg of colour change silica. But yes a filament dryer is a good investment too. Just a single roll one will do.

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  • idunnololz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Is that better than vacuum sealing them? Vacuum sealers are pretty cheap IIRC.

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    • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Your best hope for storage is it not getting much wetter, ziploc bags with silica are fine, a tub is easier to paw through and grab what you need quickly.

      A drier will actually refresh a roll and get it printing close to new again. Look for excess stringing for the early signs, and the filament bubbling and/or popping as it comes out of the nozzle for extreme signs of wetness.

      I’m in a fairly dry environment, I’ll happily leave a roll on the printer for a week without adverse effects. But always store an opened roll off the printer in the tub. 3d printer filament storage

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    • elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Dry and then store in sealed container with silica gel. Silica will maintain dryness, but will not dry filament by itself.

      Also, containers must have a seal of some kind. Regular plastic tubs will let some moisture in. For a few days or a couple of weeks that’ll be fine, but over a month they’ll let moisture in. Get vacuum bags.

      There are pretty cheap reusable vacuum bags that use a little pump. I use a cheap kitchen vacuum machine, and regular food storage vacuum bags.

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