1 Topic by ennogs (edited by ennogs 2019-07-21 16:45:36)

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Topic: Can filament dry out too much?

Can PLA dry out too much and cause printing issues? I have been having lots of problems with an Ender 3 pro. It would take too long to type up all the issues I have had and fixes that have been tried lol. The latest issue is not getting any filament through the extruder.

A friend of mine has been doing all the fixing and testing. He is in the middle of trying his PLA in my printer and says it seems to be printing ok whereas my PLA doesn't seem to be printing ok. We buy our PLA from the same company and use the same brand. The only difference was the colour he used. His is red PLA. My PLA is black.

I live in a flat (apartment) that does get very warm in the summer. I don't know how hot my flat gets as I have never recorded my temperature. I have ordered a digital thermometer to find out just how hot my flat gets.

The latest issue is filament is not coming out of the extruder. I have the all mental feeder assembly upgrade. My friend said it looked like my feeder assembly wasn't gripping the PLA and pushing it thorough the tubing and that is why no PLA was coming out of the extruder. He took the feeder off and changed the spring for a better one. He also put new Bowden tubing on. After doing all that when he put it back on there was still no filament coming out of the extruder. He then tried taking my extruder off and putting the extruder from his printer on my printer. Even with his working extruder on my printer, he was unable to get the filament to come out of the extruder. He then changed my PLA for one of his. It is early days but he seems to be able to get a good print with his PLA. He said his next test is going to be to see what happens when he puts my PLA back on my printer.

TL;DR

My question is can my flat (apartment) be getting so warm it is drying out the PLA too much and causing printing issues? Specifically feeder gripping issues and/or extrusion issues.

2 Reply by ennogs (edited by ennogs 2019-07-21 16:03:04)

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

My friend and I have another question related to this.  I have upgraded the firmware from the original one that came with the Ender 3 pro.  Could the firmware I upgraded to be causing the current extrusion issues I am having?

3 Reply by ennogs

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

My friend just did the following tests with my printer

Put his red PLA in and did a bed level test.  It was perfect.

Put my black PLA and did a bed level test.  It wasn't good.

Put his black PLA in and did a bed level test.  It was perfect.

He tried one last time doing a bed level test with my black PLA and it wasn't good.

It seems as though it is my PLA at fault as when he prints with either of his PLA he gets good bed level test prints.   

Could it be that my PLA has some got moisture on it and that is what is causing my PLA to give out bad prints?

4 Reply by heartless

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

moisture would be my guess.
how long has the spool been open to the air? more than a couple of days in hot, humid conditions and it is going to be very saturated with moisture. PLA is quite hydroscopic and will start absorbing moisture from the air as soon as you open that vacuum sealed bag.

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5 Reply by ennogs

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

I opened a brand new spool of PLA. 

I am getting filament come through the extruder but getting layer sepration after the first few layers.  I had added a couple of photos of my failed prints to this post.

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6 Reply by heartless

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

layer separation is a different issue.

need more information to properly diagnose

temps, layer heights, cooling fan or not, etc

SD4 #1 & #2 - Lawsy carriages, E3D v6, Rumba controller board, mirror bed plate, X motor fan, upgraded PSU & Mica bed heater
SD4 #3 - in the works ~ Folgertech FT-5, rev 1
Printit Industries Beta Tester - Horizon H1

7 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

ennogs wrote:

I opened a brand new spool of PLA. 

I am getting filament come through the extruder but getting layer sepration after the first few layers.  I had added a couple of photos of my failed prints to this post.


See my response in your other thread with same discussion. Honestly you should not discuss the same topic in two threads as it is confusing and you may miss a response.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
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8 Reply by ennogs

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

heartless wrote:

layer separation is a different issue.

need more information to properly diagnose

temps, layer heights, cooling fan or not, etc

My layer height is 0.3
My print temp is 210
My build plate temp is 60
My flow is 100
My retraction distance is 7 mm
My retraction speed is 50mm/s
My fan speed is 25
My Build plate adhesion type is skirt
My skirt line count is 4
I am printing on glass and I use pritt stick.
I use Cura to slice my files. This is happening with all the things I try and print. It also happened when I just tried to print a test file that came with the printer. I have enclosed a photo of the failed test file print.

9 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

ennogs wrote:
heartless wrote:

layer separation is a different issue.

need more information to properly diagnose

temps, layer heights, cooling fan or not, etc

My layer height is 0.3
My print temp is 210
My build plate temp is 60
My flow is 100
My retraction distance is 7 mm
My retraction speed is 50mm/s
My fan speed is 25
My Build plate adhesion type is skirt
My skirt line count is 4
I am printing on glass and I use pritt stick.
I use Cura to slice my files. This is happening with all the things I try and print. It also happened when I just tried to print a test file that came with the printer. I have enclosed a photo of the failed test file print.


What is your printing speed as well?

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

10 Reply by ennogs

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

Print speed is 50.0

11 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

If you are printing at 50 then you should raise your temperature to 215 and see if that makes a difference.  Especially with a .3 layer height. As filament passes through the hot end it sucks heat away. The more that passes through such as larger layers or higher print speeds then the higher the temp needs to go to compensate.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

12 Reply by ennogs (edited by ennogs 2019-07-22 19:13:58)

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

I think I may have found the problem.  After looking at my failed prints photos a couple of people suggested that I wasn't printing PLA.  I got in touch with my PLA supplier and they have confirmed they sent me one white PLA, one blue PLA and two black ABS. All the time we have been trying to work out was wrong with my printer and it was that I had ABS on the spool not PLA. 

We, well I say we I mean my friend and his Dad have tried a lot of things to get my printer going right. 

I am doing a print now.   I am 100% using PLA to print.   Hopefully this should go ok now.

13 Reply by ennogs

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

Good news I changed the black ABS for white PLA and my test print was perfect.

14 Reply by creatorgirl13

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Re: Can filament dry out too much?

I honestly believe drying your filament is important for a successful build/print. Maybe this can help out, gives you some great detail on what it does etc.

https://visionminer.com/pages/drying-filament