OK, so the U1 is my first experience with PETG, and I’ve just had my first experience of what I presume to be damp filament.
Symptoms: First layer (directly on the bed) printed OK, but the second layer had break-away on the inside of curved surfaces (where there was a slight overhang, so there wasn’t much for the printed line to bond to), and the layer fill showed a lot of irregularity. I wish I had taken a photo now.
With only my domestic oven or the U1 itself to do the drying, I decided to try the U1. I put some cardboard over the open top to hold the heat in, put the reel on blocks to keep it off the bed, and manually set the bed temperature to 80ºC. Then I monitored the chamber temperature. My limited reading suggests 55ºC for 6 hours is recommended.
The trouble is, after only 10 minutes or so, the printer times out the bed heating and cools off. Any tips how I can set it to 80ºC and have it not time out?
I tried the print again and it was nowhere near as bad as the first time, but still defective. I would have blamed the model or the slicing if it wasn’t a reprint of a previously successful file, and the time the filament has been stored in the open air seems like the obvious culprit.
Its printing then, monitoring itself - when you manually heat the bed its expecting you to baby sit it in case of issues, How many are going to do that?
Considering the wasted electricity doing this can I politely suggest a couple of alternatives?
a. If you don’t want to buy an actual dryer as long as you aren’t printing full height I /beleive/ (check for yourself) that you can put a spool on the printer floor whilst printing as it will dry from the chamber heat
b. If you need to dry nothing more than PLA/PETG then I can highly reccomend the Sunlu S1 PLUS - I think I paid just over £20 as its always on offer on their site/amazon
make sure its the PLUS version though! Its whisper quiet and not much bigger than a reel, idea for the odd drying
I can’t imagine using the heated bed to set up a 55ºC chamber temperature will be an issue, considering other people are intent on the likes of Panda Breath!
Sure, and I will consider buying a drier in due course, but right now I think running the U1 might be more economical than running my oven! Using the ‘undercroft’ (my coinage – undercroft refers to the vaults in a church, so I’m using it for the volume below the build plate) as a heated space while printing is all very well, but (1) you need to be printing, and (2) what happens when the print finishes? The plate descends to the bottom, that’s what!
I fought PETG adhesion issues for months this summer, and it turned out 99% the times the PEI plate wasn’t clean. I spent days drying the filament, using glue/hairspray and chasing print speeds and temps. Finally I started washing my plates and scrubbing with Dawn dish soap (plain, no aloe or hand conditioner in the soap), letting the soap soak on the surface for several minutes, using the hottest tap water and being very diligent not touching the clean plate with my hands. Latex surgical gloves are not a bad idea also. That cured almost all of my bed adhesion issues to this day. I can’t emphasize that enough.
Anytime I have issues like that I immediately wash the plate again, drying with paper towels and watching for dust from those as well as ensuring no part of my hand ever touches the printing surface of the plate. Also watch for oils/grease from lubricating your machine. Especially for anyone using a spray-on oil.
Took me a long time to admit it was me but now that I’ve accepted it and get very careful I very seldom have issues with adhesion.
SO they might be, but they still stick to the first layer & if thats not stuck to the bed properly you are gonna have issues…
The oven is the worst of a bad bunch, plenty of pictures of people melting reels - I don’t beleive the build plate goes all the way down, stops about 4" up or so?
If the budget is tight could also consider a food dehumidifier (used from Goodwill) or an air fryer (used or cheap). Though you can buy a filament dehydrator from Amazon for just over $30.
I’ve printed literally dozens of things in this PETG (multiple rolls), no issues, no bed cleaning. It’s only after the roll has been sitting there for a good few days in 50% humidity that I got the crap first few layers (not photographed, unfortunately).
I can tolerate a little stringing, but the problems were more than that. The outline of those inner D shapes actually pulled away into straight chords (the edge is slightly filleted, so not supported on the second layer), and there was bad rippling in the solid area (second layer).
I’m sure the problem was the damp filament. Perhaps those who have blamed plate contamination or temperatures should re-examine their issues with that in mind (although, obviously, you don’t want a contaminated plate).
Hello, I don’t know if this will help, but here’s my solution.
To dry my silica beads, I used the U1’s 100° heating plate this summer. I did it twice—the first time was very successful and quick, and the second time wasn’t quite as good, despite heating them for 3 hours. 100° is not ideal and be able to set 120° would have fix this variability;
To dry the silica balls, I had placed two sheets of aluminum foil on the bed and poured the beads into a sort of tray made out of the foil. I hadn’t kept the PEI sheet on. The first time I ran into the 5-minute timer issue, of course.
So here is what I have done and that you can copy : I started the simplest print possible (one head, no option, …)
Paused the print as soon as I could,
Manually set the bed to my T° (the T° max for me but 55° or 60° for you)
Open a little the top to be sure H2O can go outside
then stopped the print after it had dried.
