I have a 3d printer at home that I bought used, together with a pile of filament. It worked pretty much perfectly for a couple of weeks, but all of a sudden, prints started coming out with a really weird texture, which you can see in the photos below. You can see in the first one it was even printing fine and then it went all weird mid-print. I changed the filament, and the second one came out pretty much all ruined.
I have no idea why, but… I’ve heard that filament must really be kept as dry as possible, and I tried, but my apartment is a damp nightmare, so I may not have been able to do that very well…
Is this what happens when filament absorbs humidity? Is that a possible explanation?
And if so, is there a way, given a spool of filament, to know whether it’s been ruined without doing a test print? Or even better, to dry it back out?
Just some amateur advice from me, if you want to check of the spool is not fit for prinitng without doing a test print, you can try a couple of things…
First check to see of the spool appears swollen from moisture absorption. Second thing to try, give a small peice of the filament on the spools a bend test, if they snap away without much flexability that can be a sign its no good.
in terms of recovery, i think an application of heat would help, but i would check on how to specifically do it or see if soomeone else responds with an answer
Grab some air tight boxes to store them if your worried about them getting damp!
Yes this is very wet filament I’m afraid. The texture is cause my the water that has been absorbed by the filament boiling off at the nozzle. Causes surface defects and structural problems.
Josh mentions all good ways to test a filament before hand. Drying out the spool can be tricky as you want to avoid taking the filament past its glass transition temperature. Most filaments recommend a drying time of about 8hours at about 50C You can get small filament driers like the small one we have at the space for about £20-30 and feed directly from there into the machine.
Always best to not let it get damp in the first place so air tight box with desiccant pouches is the best bet. Or you can get ‘drying beads’ which change colour when wet so you know when they need changing. Can also be reused. (Not tried these though.)Even if you are able to dry out filament, its mechanical properties don always go back to full quality.
Different filaments are prone to different levels of moisissure absorption. Pla is normally not to bad.
