Sorry about that, I must have confused this forum with another… It does seem strange that .stl and .gcode files aren’t allowed in a forum on 3D printers. Probably need to figure out how to contact the moderators and get that changed. Otherwise, we are stuck uploading those types of files to file sharing sites and posting links here.
Thanks, I found some good test models to download. Thanks for the tip about gcode files, I hadn’t thought about them being machine specific. I sent a message to one of the admins asking if they’d consider allowing some of the common 3D file formats as attachments. Admin profiles are linked on the forum’s about page from that menu at the top right.
I suppose PLA or maybe all filament is hygroscopic then? How long does it take to have an effect? (Though I suppose that would depend on ambient humidity.) I’ll have to do some GoogleSleuthing.
This sample filament failed straight out of the sealed bag from Lulzbot, but I suppose it could be a bad batch? Come to think of it, on OHAI there are pictures with huge reels of filament in the background – the green stuff they do the test print with, so they apparently don’t store it sealed up, and the little samples they send aren’t pre-packaged either.
But if humidity is an explanation, I might be in a bind given that I live in Florida. Big bad storms are a near-daily occurrence. However, my thermostats always show a steady 40% humidity throughout the house. I’d have thought that’s pretty dry. What would a good target be for printing? I wonder if a room-sized dehumidifier would help?
I live in Colorado Springs and its pretty dry here (less than 20% much of the time) but I occasionally have problems with a “wet” filament. There are a variety of filament dryers (dehydrators) on the market. I have one from PrintDry and it has the capability to feed filament from inside the dryer.
I’ve got some rubber-sealed airtight storage containers on order that I’m going to try with good-quality dessicant first. I figure I can do one of those filament-wiper things as a sort of feed port. If that doesn’t help or is a problem for some reason, I can always try a dryer.
Still waiting on my storage containers but I read an interesting comment somewhere suggesting that something about the dyes in many white filaments make them harder to print – the point being they’re a poor choice for calibration. Since this is just the factory sample, maybe I’ll switch to the red sample once my dry boxes are ready.
Just wondering if anybody has ever heard of such a thing.
I have heard of the issue with “white” multiple times and experienced it myself. But sometimes filaments can change from spool to spool even in the same color. Still… I do seem to notice that white filaments have a bit of a reputation.
An air-tight storage container with desiccant will help avoid a spool absorbing moisture, but once the moisture is in, a desiccant bag wont pull it back out. It has to be heated to dry the spool.
I tried a few filament dryers but … they don’t get nearly as hot as they claim and made almost no difference. I ended up buying a toaster oven. I looked into reviews to make sure the oven could handle low enough temps (I’m not really cooking food) and it turns out Breville makes the most accurate oven (they maintain the oven temp with 2° … some ovens swing 20-25°) and I they let me set the temp low enough for drying filament without melting it.
For what it’s worth, I find that any filament that’s kind of “extreme” in color tends to need tweaking in terms of temperature at least. White is certainly one of those colored ones that needs special care, but metallic filaments and wood-filled are also touchy – PLA is not all the same by any means.
I found it helpful when starting out with my original Mini to have a roll of “Natural” eSun PLA-plus. That behaved very well, in general, with the provided stock profiles in Cura for PLA – I tweaked it to get it perfect, and that formed the basis for my eSun PLA-plus profiles.
White has always needed higher temperatures to print, and for the eSun PLA-plus, the white tended to be a bit more stringy than the other colors.
I use a food dehydrator modified for filament. Any roll gets a 24 hour dry before it gets used, and every few months I go through my stock of filament and re-dry every roll, re-seal it (vacuum sealer), with a freshly-dried silica packet. Filament is expensive, a few hours a month to keep it dry and usable is not too hard.