1 Topic by MeshMoth

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Topic: Humid Filament

I remember a post on Ian's blog about humidity affecting the quality of the filament. So if filament gets effected by the humidity then do prints that have already been printed also get affected by moisture? Do parts get weaker or anything if its been under water for a long time?

I keep my printer in the garage because it stinks when it's printing. And I'm sure the garage isn't the most dehumidified location i can keep it, but I'm also not going to keep it in the house because of the fumes. Just wondering if the replicated parts will fall apart over time since there is tension between the belts and nuts and bolts that hold everything together.

2 Reply by macmub

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Re: Humid Filament

From what I know if the filament has moisture in it you will notice immediately as it will bubble etc as it prints.
I keep my filament in a plain plastic box with a few old bags of dessicant. Seems to do the trick.

I imagine there would be some weakness of some sort if youve printed with moist filament, how bad depends on how bad the filament was I suppose.

Im sure the more experienced guys on here could elaborate.

3 Reply by MeshMoth

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Re: Humid Filament

Odd... my fresh spool of filament from Amazon/China bubbles like crazy when I have it at 190 degrees. I thought it was because it's clear, so its a softer filament, so I turned down the temp and flow rate on it and it prints ok... I do get occasional bubbles but its not a big deal to me. I set the flow rate to .6 and temperature to 175 and it does pretty well. Maybe they sent me a spool of PLA instead? It says ABS though...

Here is a pic of my latest print...

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4 Reply by solijohn

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Re: Humid Filament

MeshMoth wrote:

Odd... my fresh spool of filament from Amazon/China bubbles like crazy when I have it at 190 degrees. I thought it was because it's clear, so its a softer filament, so I turned down the temp and flow rate on it and it prints ok... I do get occasional bubbles but its not a big deal to me. I set the flow rate to .6 and temperature to 175 and it does pretty well. Maybe they sent me a spool of PLA instead? It says ABS though...

Here is a pic of my latest print...

We've seen bubbling filament in the states a great deal as well. What's the Chinese company?

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

5 Reply by MeshMoth

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Re: Humid Filament

Got it from Amazon but the Company is called Zen Toolworks. (Guessing it's Chinese with a name like that.)

Was pretty cheap and free shipping. Guess I got what I paid for... Not totally disappointed with it though... It works...

http://www.amazon.com/Printer-1-75mm-Tr … s+filament

6 Reply by cmetzel

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Re: Humid Filament

MeshMoth wrote:

Got it from Amazon but the Company is called Zen Toolworks. (Guessing it's Chinese with a name like that.)

Was pretty cheap and free shipping. Guess I got what I paid for... Not totally disappointed with it though... It works...

http://www.amazon.com/Printer-1-75mm-Tr … s+filament

Zen Toolworks is in Walnut Creek, CA
They make hobby CNC engravers

7 Reply by jefferysanders

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Re: Humid Filament

You could try drying it out it the oven.

8 Reply by Stoney

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Re: Humid Filament

I can not smell mine printing unless I am sitting right in front of it, thats printing at 190 or 195, I may start running a little hotter though.
It can hit you with a waft of fumes when opening the door, but I am no longer concerned about the smell. should I be ?

9 Reply by MeshMoth

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Re: Humid Filament

cmetzel wrote:

Zen Toolworks is in Walnut Creek, CA
They make hobby CNC engravers

Ahhh, well I stand corrected... Crap comes from America too... lol. Maybe I just had a bad spool or it was a bad batch... I have no idea. I just know the stuff that shipped with the printer was much harder and didn't bubble. Thought it might have been a Chinese company since its name had an Asian theme to it.

jefferysanders wrote:

You could try drying it out it the oven.

Is that safe? At what temps and how long? Ill try cutting off a few feet and laying it on the heated bed for a while maybe it will work as well. I don't want to ruin my $300 oven for a $34 roll of filament.

Stoney wrote:

I can not smell mine printing unless I am sitting right in front of it, thats printing at 190 or 195, I may start running a little hotter though.
It can hit you with a waft of fumes when opening the door, but I am no longer concerned about the smell. should I be ?

lol... so ur name is Stoney eh?

I notice a layer of yellow oil/wax/sticky-stuff around the nozzle after I print a good size piece. I'm guessing that's what we are breathing in when we are around it too much. That can't be healthy at all. Since mine doesn't have a case, I try not to stand directly above it when it's on and stand to the sides where it's not so bad. 3D prints aren't worth the hospital bills. The smell fills up my entire living room and it's not a small living room either. I'll figure something out. Maybe store the filament in a tub of desiccant silica gel...

10 Reply by Stoney

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Re: Humid Filament

stoneys nuffin to do with stoner buddy, drug free me, quite boring in fact smile

there are articles on reprap forums somewhere about drying filament, it was fairly warm oven like 160C for a few hours to dry filament fully. I store mine in a sealed container with a tub of dessicant crystals but leave a roll on the printer all the time and since its generally 80% humidity here I figured it would be needed eventually.

I would be very careful with an IR oven as radiant heat could well exceed melting point, probably preheat oven, place on a tray and cover top with foil to reflect IR away..
gas oven would likely add more water than it removed as water vapour is part of the exhaust.

11 Reply by MeshMoth (edited by MeshMoth 2012-11-19 14:25:10)

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Re: Humid Filament

Stoney wrote:

stoneys nuffin to do with stoner buddy, drug free me, quite boring in fact smile

there are articles on reprap forums somewhere about drying filament, it was fairly warm oven like 160C for a few hours to dry filament fully. I store mine in a sealed container with a tub of dessicant crystals but leave a roll on the printer all the time and since its generally 80% humidity here I figured it would be needed eventually.

I would be very careful with an IR oven as radiant heat could well exceed melting point, probably preheat oven, place on a tray and cover top with foil to reflect IR away..
gas oven would likely add more water than it removed as water vapour is part of the exhaust.

smile Hey stony, I was just joking...

But, Zenworks actually replied to my review and said that the clear filament is more sensitive to humidity compared to the pigmented ones. So woulda' been nice to know since I live in FL... Oh well. They also said the same thing about drying it out with an oven or hair dryer... Kinda pain in the butt to do every time, so ill just be lazy and deal with it. lol

12 Reply by danny

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Re: Humid Filament

get a cheap chinese food dehydrator.


works like a charm smile

13 Reply by RGargus (edited by RGargus 2012-11-28 19:19:11)

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Re: Humid Filament

Here is how I store mine, but since I still do not have a printer, cannot attest to how effective it is.

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14 Reply by Diecrusher (edited by Diecrusher 2012-11-28 19:18:08)

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Re: Humid Filament

I've had good success with get a desiccant pack made for gun safes picked up from a sporting good store.

It will dry up to 3cuft and can be recharged by placing in a oven.  $10.... not bad.

15 Reply by cmetzel

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Re: Humid Filament

I'm either the luckiest guy in the world or you are all over reacting.  I have my printer about 4 inches from my sliding glass doors out to the backyard in Chicago burbs.  It gets below freezing overnight and due to poorly insulated doors I have condensation on the inside glass from time to time.  I have had zero problems with the 3 rolls that I've been through and the current one which gets stored in an open box under the table. 

What am I missing or what kind of environments are you in that are worse than mine?

16 Reply by Gordym

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Re: Humid Filament

I keep mine in the basement on my spool holder. I have 10 rolls that I can switch out at any time and haven't had any moisture issues so far.

SD2
E3D V6
MK5 V6

17 Reply by Stoney

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Re: Humid Filament

yeh, i am just storing info for future reference, i have no intention of cooking filaments noess its absolutely necessary, even then, it causes tiny bubbles on the print is the worst i can see, i could probably live with that.
so. i have a couple of rolls that are stored in a plastic tub with dessicant, i got a few more yesterday and just return them to the foil bag they came in, might chuck a little dessicant pack in with them when i find some locally.
there is always a spool on the machine, will just have to see how it goes .. seems like a non issue to my unprofessional eye currently.

18 Reply by MeshMoth (edited by MeshMoth 2012-11-29 07:25:41)

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Re: Humid Filament

cmetzel wrote:

What am I missing or what kind of environments are you in that are worse than mine?

I'm guessing its more about the type of filament than anything else. I've been noticing that it's mostly the clear that has problems with humidity.

I think I will go with natural colored ABS next time I buy a roll. I figure it's the strongest and purest ABS since there's no pigment or other types of particles mixed in?? I'm not sure, so ill have to read up on that. I would figure it's also the most resilient to the environment for the same reasons.

As crappy as I thought this clear filament was when I first got it, I'm starting to get used to it and starting to like it.

Here are some .1mm prints that I've done with it. It's really clear and pretty strong when the settings are perfected. So far it's been my best prints... Not too shabby I think.

Edit: How do I post pictures to the thread instead of download links for the pictures? I'm sure no one wants to download them...

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19 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Humid Filament

Is that 100% fill? What did you have to tweak to get the consistent finish?

20 Reply by cmetzel

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Re: Humid Filament

Wow, I think they look great, where was the clear purchased from?

21 Reply by MeshMoth

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Re: Humid Filament

IanJohnson wrote:

Is that 100% fill? What did you have to tweak to get the consistent finish?

This is actually set to 30% infill and infill every 3 layers in Slic3r. I am actually trying to get it 100% filled but there are tiny little air pockets still. I haven't tested it by changing the infill settings because the parts were printing so nicely, and I was afraid of screwing things up. It's definitely not 30% in reality but like I said, I am going for 100% infill.

I've been tweaking the flow rate and temperatures since they are easiest for me to understand.

These are all from the default firmware as well. I haven't changed the firmware because I simply don't know how yet.


cmetzel wrote:

Wow, I think they look great, where was the clear purchased from?

Thanks, I've been messing around with the filament for over 3 weeks now so I'm pretty happy it's turned out so well. I got the filament from Amazon/ZenToolworks. I gave them a not so great rating for the filament because it was so bubble when I first got it, but I might change it now that Ive gotten used to it.

http://www.amazon.com/Printer-1-75mm-Tr … s+filament


...so maybe humidity isn't such a huge issue as I first thought. It seems like it's more about the temperatures and settings to compensate for the higher humidity and needs to be calibrated for the filament as well. At least that's what it looks like from the little experience I've got so far.

22 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Humid Filament

What are you using for slicing, and what flow and temperature have you settled on?  How consistent is the diameter?

23 Reply by cmetzel

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Re: Humid Filament

IanJohnson wrote:

What are you using for slicing, and what flow and temperature have you settled on?  How consistent is the diameter?

The student becomes the teacher.  wink

24 Reply by MeshMoth

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Re: Humid Filament

cmetzel wrote:

The student becomes the teacher.  wink

LOL, definitely not true. I'm not anywhere near Ian's godly Solidoodle status. But, I am glad to contribute to the community anyway I can.

IanJohnson wrote:

What are you using for slicing, and what flow and temperature have you settled on?  How consistent is the diameter?

Ive just been using Slic3r 0.9.5 (just updated to 0.9.7 today). I've been using 175 for the nozzle and 90 for the bed. Ive also been sticking with the stock aluminum/kapton bed. I haven't had the guts to try out the glass/hairspray method yet. My Extrusion Multiplier setting is .65.

I think the diameter is pretty much the same throughout, but I haven't printed anything that is 1 shell thick either to test it. The thing is my printer hasn't been calibrated for backlash for the y and z axis' (axises? axes? axi?) I've just got that X coupler/nut thing that lawsey made and it's bade a big difference for the X. I still have a tiny wobble but it's much better than without. I wanted to learn how to fix all the backlash and stuff before I start measuring the thickness of the walls that it's printing so that it's more accurate. So, sorry Ian, I cannot accurately say how consistent the diameter is.

25 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Humid Filament

I meant the diameter of the filament itself.  The one I have from Repraper varies from something like 1.58 to 1.69.