It's Not You. It's Your Filament.

[@pjh432]

Another wonderful video. You do an amazing job of breaking topics down, sure appreciate what you do.

[@MakeWithTech]

I appreciate that!

[@hoggif]

I use a dry box to print from. Basically it is a plastic box with rods to hold spools of filament and lots of silica gel (sold as cat litter) on the bottom. I use a teflon tube(s) to get the filament running nicely to printer. Basically quite similar to the Ebos dryer box demonstrated but no heating and silica gel to absorb moisture. I have several tubes that allows multiple filaments to be ready for use. Every tube but the one being used loop back to the box. Having capacity of 4 (or 8) rolls makes printing multiple materials/colors a joy.

[@MakeWithTech]

Thanks for sharing.

[@robertstephens1203]

I use the small vacuum bags and suck them down with a vacuum cleaner. I can fit 3 spools of filament in a bag and they are always on sale somewhere.

[@darrennew8211]

The blue desiccant will recharge if you warm it up, like in a microwave. The plastic containing the beads is problematic for that, though, and the blue/pink chemical isn't healthy. If you have a bunch of spools you want to dry, you can buy a container of orange/green desiccant and print some silica gel holders (jars with holes, basically) that fit in the spool hole. The orange/green is much easier and safer to microwave - just pour it in a safe container (like a pyrex pie pan or something) and put a paper towel over it, and run it on defrost for a few minutes, or full power for a few minutes, until it turns nice orange again.

[@Sembazuru]

I use the orange/green beads with printed holders. I recharge them in the same food dehydrator that I use for drying out my spools of filament.

[@darrennew8211]

@@Sembazuru I bought a quart container, use printed screw-top containers, and dump them into a different bucket when they get green. When all of them are green, I spend 10 or 15 minutes recharging the whole mess, maybe once every month or two. :-)

[@WatchesTrainsAndRockets]

I got the Sunlu vacuum storage bags and they work great. I was dubious of the hand pump and planned to use my shop vac instead. Just to test it, I tried the hand pump and I was amazed at how well it worked! Just a few cycles and the bag was completely empty of air. I had never had a hand pump that worked so well.

[@lyndonfoster1090]

Excellent! thank you. I hope everyone views.

[@Billa2720]

Thanks for the information. I have thinking about getting a dryer and the warning about using too high a temperature will be very handy.

[@stonefarmer3005]

Great info. I use the original SunLu dryer that I did a fan mod on. I always use it printing directly from it. And I’ll store the dried filament in the storage box with desiccant when done. I’ve noticed a huge difference in print quality when doing this vs when I left it out in the open air.

[@traficdas]

I use a food saver vacuum sealer machine to store my filament with desiccant . No problems with my filament now.

[@oleurgast730]

One hint if you want to dry a lot of filament flying around to store it proberly: Do it in witer. The difference in relative humidity is relevant how good and fast drying works. But if you heat up air, the absolute amount of water in the air does not change. For example: at 10°C a relative humidity of 100% would be 10g of water in 1 m³ of air. If you heat up the air to 50°C, this 10g/m³ are eqal to a relative humidity of only 18%. If you start at 5°C with 80% humidity, you will end up with less than 10% humidity @50°C. Optimal for drying any filament. Maybe outside on the balcony. If you start drying your filament in summer at 35°C and 60% humidity, you would get 30% humidity @50°C. So trying to dry PLA to less than 30% humidity would be impossible. So its not all about temperature while drying, but how much water the ambient air aktually already contains before heatin. which depends a lot on the ambient temperature.

[@MakeWithTech]

Excellent comment.

[@Noxoreos]

I'm also using these bags from esun (and from competitors as well), but the hand pump from esun is not really working well. Furthermore the bags tend to break very easily because of the creases that are created. I replaced the hand pump with one that is battery powered, which was less than 10 bucks on aliexpress. And since the bags are quite expensive for how easily they break, I avoid them when I don't need the filament that often. Instead I also bought a vacuum machine for food, along with a roll of vacuum material. It needed some practice but it works better, since these bags are meant for single use only and seal by melting the ends together. Filament that I intend to use more often, I put in the "reusable" esun bags (or other brand) and filaments that I use on rare occasions I in the non-resealable food-vacuum-bags. Filaments that I use more often, I keep in my AMS or other airtight box with dessicant - maintaining a moisture level at less than 15%.

[@johnwatrous3058]

I use the SUNLU S1 Plus Filament Dryer for $39.99. It dries up to 55c. It also has a timer that can go up to 24 hours. Works ok for me.

[@GlennBrockett]

I only noticed the other day that my newer Prusament spools don't fit in my current dry boxes that fit everything else. I can dry it in my Sovol dual filament dryer, but I cannot feed from it. It is a shame, because I love their lipstick red PET-G for some logo projects I am working on. I am going to need a dedicated drybox (passive drying modified cereal box) that will fit the wider spools. For real drying, I use a thrift store food dehydrator and it will dry out my TPU wonderfully, I will toss my desiccant packs in there at the same time to renew it.

[@Enjoymentboy]

When I first started 3d printing in Dec 2022 I had too many issues that were all traced back to moisture. It really shocked me just how much "wet" filament can bugger up a print. But there was NO way I was going to shell out $100 or so for a filament dryer or storage boxes. I also found that storage bags don't really keep the moisture out over time. I'm also very cheap so I wanted to spend as little as possible and use whatever parts I already had on hand. I came up with a great filament dryer and storage system that cost me under $25 and works fantastic. So good in fact that I am perfectly comfortable printing nice smooth and glossy TPU at any time. I used a 5 gallon and a 2.5 gallon home depot bucket, an old pentium 4 heatsink and fan, a 10w (60x60mm) 12v silicone heating pad and a 120°C thermostat control (W1209 I think). The heating pad gets the 5 gallon bucket up to, and maintains, a solid 45°C and holds 2 rolls. Technically I could get 3 but I use calcium chloride packs as a desiccant and they're as tall as a spool is wide. I printed off a ducting system that pulls air down over the desiccant, through the centre in a tube to the heat sink and then it can circulate back up around the, and through, the rolls. I can leave the rolls in the bucket pretty much full time but usually I leave it for 48hrs and then I take it out and put it in the 2.5 gallon bucket with another calcium desiccant pack. It stores like that permanently with no problems. I left a couple rolls like that for 2 months and when I pulled them out they printed off perfectly.

[@pizzablender]

I use the big silica gel packs that we can get as a car dehumidifier to prevent fogged windows. Leave a few in a steel drum with the filament. Keeps the humidity below 10% for more than a year.

[@darrennew8211]

Another tool that works is the heaters used in reptile aquariums. They're cheap, they're the right heat, they're designed to run indefinitely without fiddling with them.

[@ABCJohn-e3c]

Hello Sir, We are always grateful to your videos. Kindly clarify ASAP. Can we use the Chrome for sending the G codes to a 2 D plotter based working with raspberry pi.

[@Derek_C]

Hi Irv, helpful as always. I've tried several 'bag' solutions, all of them work, some are (much) better than others. The esun bag you demo'd keeps the moisture level very low but as you said, the electric vacuum pump takes a couple of minutes to get most of the air out. Using the manual pump takes at least as long - but that's pumping furiously. It's hilarious to watch someone using this method - but it's very hard work! However eSun also supply a batch of replacement stick on valves that you push the pump onto, they do wear out quite quickly. SUNLU's offering is a slightly smaller bag that seals in the same way but I prefer their bags because: It is roomy but a slightly smaller size, making storage on a shelf, rack etc much easier & tidier. Best of all Sunlu bags have a *real valve & a screw on cap* which makes pumping out the air child's play - once you put the filament inside, seal the bag and eleven pumping actions and virtually all the air is out. I could pump more times but noticed that as the bag reaches vacuum status it can pull down the edge of the filament reel. Very similar price and a good time (and energy) saver. Keep up the good work Irv, learning together with you leading the way is a joy 😊

[@Sembazuru]

I got a bunch of bags from Eibos when they ran their kickstarter. The USB powered pump that they came with screws onto the bag so I can set it up to pull air out of the bag and my hands are free to do other things (like unbag the next spool and get the printer setup). Once done, I unscrew the pump and put the protective cap that came with the bag back over the vacuum port. The only thing that I don't like about these bags is the placement of the vacuum port. Eibos put it in the center of the bag so it sits proud of the spool. This means that for the spools that I have that came in boxes, the spool doesn't fit nicely back in the box anymore. (I prefer to use boxes during storage as protection for the plastic bags. I have a sample from the spool taped to the outside of the box so I can see what the color is at a glance.)

[@1937Brett]

Do you have any retraction videos for silk fillement? My direct drive seems to chew mine alot at the top of my fillement and stops printing altogether

[@MakeWithTech]

I have never noticed that I need difference settings for silk vs regular PLA. I would make sure the tension on your extruder is set correctly. If the spring that presses the gears together is too tight it will eat up your filament. If the pressure is too low it will under extrude.

[@1937Brett]

@@MakeWithTech I'm not able to loosen it it prints perfect for 3 hours then cuts off

[@RocktCityTim]

If you can, ask the #Sovol3d Team for their 2 spool drier. It is a great solution and uses a seal around the container that retains the humidity for longer periods. They also provide the storage bags, desiccant packs, and pump.

[@tseckwr3783]

Add a small fan to move the air around if your drier doesnt have one ... that is how air fryers provide a consistent temperature in the cooking compartment.

[@johnbrewer318]

Now I understand why moisture causes problems with filament!

[@YoSpiff]

Is this pump and bag setup compatible with the ones used for food storage?

[@macsoutdoor]

Hi, I have the Sunlu print drier and I e had some trouble with the drier tipping over if the filament isn't perfectly wound. How do you overcome this issue?

[@Digital-Dan]

dess ick ant, please! Where did the dis come from?

[@Ray-mg6si]

Are you currently using Freecad 0.21 and if so how does it compare with 0.19?

[@logicalfundy]

I've found that the eSun bags are pretty unreliable, even with the sealing tool. Often end up with air leakage. I just dry my difficult filaments before using them.

[@Shinobubu]

Zoffset was a confusing topic. It really means Z-offset relative to your Z's endstops.

[@MakeWithTech]

My understanding is that z-offset is the distance from the end of your ABL sensor to the end of the nozzle.

[@audio-play]

As usual, a very substantive video - thank you. I also had huge problems with wet filament. I'm currently waiting for my Fixdry NT1 dryer from Amazon. I previously had Fixdry NT3 (kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3i1fWaeirlsarc) which works very well but unfortunately it does not accommodate spools wider than 70mm.

[@WG5Xradio]

I enjoy your videos. I hate to be petty, but it is DESiccant not DISiccant. The dis was making my head hurt. :)

[@Digital-Dan]

I don't know how one goes about talking while smiling. Or what the smiling means most of the time. But that's just me.

[@mordantly]

Or purge the container with inert gas and zip her closed...

[@WestZephyr1017]

I discovered something about dryers. 45 celcius for 6hrs max. I got this figure on google. I believe it is to be valid. I had a print from a good brand that came out looking like it had layer lines that were different colors or shifted in sections about 1/4 high alternating through out the print. I know the heat can be the cause of errors in the print. I had a 60g sample spool of white that comes with the Ender 3 S1 pro. I printed one part that came out perfect then put filament in dryer for too long on too high of temp and to my surprise the part came out with what looked like shifted layer lines about 1/4" high alternating, making it look like stacked leather rings on a knife handle. I think too much heat can damage your filament. My dryer had no recommendations. It's the Sunlu brand that takes two spools. This was my experience, maybe I'm wrong but all is good since I lowered the temp to 45 c for 6hrs max.

[@WestZephyr1017]

The vacuum bags are great. I got the same package from Amolen. Same looking box, same colors on logo. Same manufacturer. But I paid around $20 for it on Amazon.