I live in southern California, while not an area typically known for it’s high humidity it has been a bit higher this past month. So while I’ve been rebagging my filament between print runs I’ve not done anything special for it, but my last couple of prints with the black filament that came with the Snapmaker produced messy bird’s nests of filament rather than the miniatures I was trying to print. Switching to the white filament which I haven’t used nearly as often produced a reasonably good print. I’m wondering if it’s a likely a humidity thing fowling things up and would a filament dryer be worth purchasing?
Yes absolutely. They are great for making dried bananas, apples, and other dried fruit also.
We have a Cabela’s 10 tray ‘filament’ dehydrator
But seriously, I wouldn’t buy such a specialty piece of equipment when there’s equally good function in food dehydrators. They cost basically the same anyways. I’m also eager to hear if people disagree and think dedicated filament driers outperform food dehydrators.
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The black SM PLA seems to be especially prone to moisture. Or there are batches of it that are just crap filament and show the effects of moisture more. Unsure which. Most people if they’re having problems it turns out they go away when they ditch it.
I’ve been considering getting one - either a dehydrator or specialty. (Live in So Cal too, so haven’t felt it a necessity yet) I think one advantage to the specialty ones is that they have actual readouts to show temperature and humidity level. You can actually set the temp where the food dehydrators I’ve looked at (cheap 2nd hand on ebay) don’t have that much control.
The other advantage to some of the specialty ones is that you can actually print with the reel in them.
-S
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