| Warning |
|---|
Wet filament is the number one contributor to failed/poor quality prints. |
Wet Filament
Plastics are hygroscopic and readily absorb moisture from the air. If spools of filament are left out they can gain upwards of 1% of their mass in water content. When wet filament is passed through a hotend, the water boils off as steam and exits the nozzle orifice, causing uncontrolled extrusion of material. If the filament is very wet, you can hear hissing, popping and crackling noises and even see steam or bubbles in the filament when extruding in the air.
[gif of wet filament extrusion]
This tends to show up in prints as excessive stringing and poor surface quality.
[photo of wet vs dry filament]
Drying Filament
Our filament is dried and vacuum sealed before shipment so that they are ready to print straight out of the package. In the case that you have to swap filaments or store material in the open, you will need to dry the material before printing. We recommend using a food dehydrator to raise the spool temperatures and remove moisture.
PETG | Nylon |
|---|---|
65°C for 24h | 80°C for 48h |
...
Keeping Filament Dry
Our filament cartridges are air tight and feature a Hygrometer to help keep your filament moisture free when printing. It is important to maintain a humidity level of <10% and to recharge the desiccant inside the filament cartridge when necessary. It’s also a good idea whenever you need to open the cartridge to One must minimize the amount of time the lid is open to keep the air inside dry. With an approximate volume of 1050 cubic inches, you will need 25grams of silica gel to protect the spool inside.
...
Desiccant Types
| Note |
|---|
In the past we have experimented with a variety of desiccants varying from clay types to activated alumina and have found that silica gel is the most effective and what we recommend to use in our filament cartridges. |
Additional desiccant can be purchased at this link on our webstore.
Alternatively, you can purchase large volumes of desiccant from Uline.
Drying Filament
Our filament is dried and vacuum sealed before shipment so that they are ready to print straight out of the package. In the case that you have to swap filaments or store material in the open, you will need to dry the material before printing. We recommend using a food dehydrator to raise the spool temperatures and remove moisture.
PETG | Nylon |
|---|---|
65°C for 24h | 80°C for 48h |
...