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I dried my filament, and it printed a lot better (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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If only there was some way I could have known to try this sooner! /s

Story: I wanted to try printing with petg, since I've read how much easier it is. But with a new roll I just had a really hard time. Lots of stringing, poor adhesion, and it just seemed like no amount of my usual fiddling would really make it better.

Somewhere I read that even new filament can benefit from drying, because maybe it wasn't stored in the best way, or maybe it's older than you think. I also read about putting the roll on the print bed, heating it up and covering it for a long time, since I don't have a filament dryer. I did that for about half a day, and then sealed the roll in a ziptop bag with a silica packet because I needed a break from it. A week later and, it seems much better!?

Either the drying, the break, or something else seems to have helped a lot! Happy printing everyone.

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[–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

PETG is truly a pain!! You'd think with a plastic used in water bottles, it would do better with moisture. I recommend the brand CC3D if you want something reliable (and ultra cheap!) Also remember that PETG needs more room between the nozzle and the build plate (higher z offset) so that the filament doesn't stick to the nozzle and make a mess :)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Think about what happens to water if it's heated above 100C... it turns into steam! The more water there is in the plastic the more steam there will be, causing the various issues like bubbling. The release of steam also means some of the heat is not being absorbed by the filament, leading to temperature issues as it exits the nozzle

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    • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    You're starting to make me think that my own PETG issues may be due to more than my laziness about fine-tuning after all. Time to break out the dryer (which I've previously only used with PVB, another one of those highly hygroscopic materials).

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