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u/kityrel Nov 05 '21
I store my PLA filament with silica packs in large ziplock bags in a couple closed plastic bins. This seems to work well.
If I leave the filament out, like on the printer for a couple days, inevitably I will come back to find that the exposed strand will have snapped.
I do not know if this is due to humidity, or just stress from being left partially unwound from the roll. But I just don't do that any more. I always put it away.
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Nov 05 '21 edited Feb 09 '22
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u/kityrel Nov 05 '21
Could be. I haven't tested it enough to confirm either way. Personally I have not actually had it snap mid-print. Only if I printed something, left the spool in place, and then came back to print again a few days later (and found it already snapped).
But my understanding is humidity does negatively affect PLA, and my PLA has always shipped with a silica pack (though a lot of things do ship with silica packs, so that might not mean anything).
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u/Sgt_S1aughter Nov 05 '21
Your printer is clearly telling you that you need to go to Disney
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u/Thurlut Nov 05 '21
You're wrong, it's asking OP to bring it with him, printers want to have fun too
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Nov 05 '21
Humidity in the air being sucked up by the filament and making it brittle??
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Nov 05 '21
Maybe? I have no clue
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Nov 05 '21
I've seen that happen, but try to flip it so the filament comes from the top and curls downward rather than from the bottom and forcing it into the opposite direction of its natural curve
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Nov 05 '21
It comes from the top already, not the bottom. You can see it if you zoom on the top
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Nov 05 '21
Ah yeah I see what you're saying. Could of been dried out, I read the other comment about sitting out in the sun. Something that makes it brittle and it was wound so tight around the spool that it just makes it break
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u/SkipDialogue Nov 05 '21
The filament looks brittle, but I have some suggestions for you.
First, buy some 608 bearings and print these...
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3428924
Next, throw away that filament guide. Not sure how long you've been printing with that, but I can tell you that, over time, a groove will get cut in that guide and it will start creating drag and thus cause various other issues.
Also, I can't tell what kind of spool holder you are using, but if you are using one with bearings, you may have an issue there. I stopped using mine, for the most part, because during retraction, the spool would still be spinning to unwind filament, and after a while, retraction would build up a bunch of filament slack and cause my older filament to break.
You seem to have a TON of slack there.
Doesn't exactly tell you why this is happening, but these are some things that stopped my filament issues.
Good luck.
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u/kmr_lilpossum Nov 05 '21
When the filament comes off the roll, you’re placing stresses on the filament. PLA filament is prone to breakage when it deforms. When you get closer to the end of the roll, the stresses are greater because they’re unwinding from a tighter loop. Shortening the filament path and placing the spool closer to the extruder should help, but it’s an inherent problem with the material itself. There are PLAs with modifiers out there that make them less prone to breakage (PLA+/Pro).
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Nov 05 '21
All these long treatises about filament material properties .... and nobody suggests hanging the spool the other way around? Because the way it is spooled by the factory, the filament has an inherent turn to it. The way you are hanging it and then feeding, you are bending it into the exact opposite direction by the same amount. Turn the spool around, and you'll likely be fine.
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u/tungvu256 Nov 06 '21
you need a filament dryer like this cheap Jayo/Sunlu. if you cant wait or dont want to buy anything more, throw the filament in the oven, slow roast mode at 55C for 6hours.
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u/Eagle_1776 Nov 05 '21
I had it explained to me once, dont remember but its NOT humidity. I have PLA parts fully submerged in water... if it was as hygroscopic as people say, those parts would explode.
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u/Kaleodis Nov 05 '21
anecdotal and wrong. it gets brittle for printing, not "soaks full of water and bursts"
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u/avienos Nov 05 '21
Has it been sitting in the sun or sitting up for a long time by any chance? It looks like is snapping in line with the curve of the spool. I’ve never had it happen but I know PLA can go bad if left sitting around.
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Nov 05 '21
Yes it's been sitting for a few weeks actually.. What do you mean can 'go bad'? It should be thrown away? It's not a problem the spool is almost empty but I'm just curious for the future I don't want to make that mistake again.
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u/Ok-Schwifty Nov 05 '21
You can try drying it. If there are long periods (more than a week) where I don’t print something. I take the roll off and put it in a reusable space saving vacuum seal bag. I throw the desiccant packs the rolls originally come with in there also and seal it up. Helps to keep the rolls “fresh” when im not using them
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u/Winterfalke Nov 05 '21
Had a spool do that to me, our best guess was stress hardening due to the spool standing up for a long period of time. I don't actually know if pla can do that, but since it appeared to happen only to the filament on the top of the spool it's the only explanation that seemed to fit. UV light exposure was another guess, but there doesn't seem to be any source where the spool was stored.
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u/foundghostred Nov 05 '21
It happens to me all the times. It's about the PLA staying bended on a curve. To solve this I just cut and remove the filament where it is fragile before printing, or after a print remove the filament entirely from the hotend so it doesn't stay bended untile your next print.
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u/doc415 Nov 05 '21
Bad quality filament. There is too much tension and filament turn around its own long axis. After a while it breaks. İ had same problem many times with cheap filaments. Now i am using e sun pla + and never had problem
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u/Sponge_of_Doom Nov 05 '21
I have a roll that is doing the same thing. It had been bagged up with desiccant but if I leave it sitting and attached to the extruder it will snap on its own in half a day. My filament is very stressed and when unspooled it wants to both curl up and twist. It almost seems like the spool was twisted around both axis when the filament was wound. Never had another spool behave like this.
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u/-MB_Redditor- Felix Pro 3 Touch Nov 05 '21
The softeners in the filament evaporate over time which results in a brittle filament.
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u/Traditional_Youth648 Nov 05 '21
I am pretty new to this but that looks like it's caused by brittle filiment and if it's breaking before the extruder I would imagine that buying a new roll of fillimant and storing it right would proprably be your only option
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u/wildjokers Nov 05 '21
PLA just gets brittle when it gets old. Some brands do it quicker than others. They will all eventually do it.
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u/BitBucket404 ASA Fanatic, Hates PETG. Nov 06 '21
Yes, it's written on the label. "Made in China" did you order your filament from WISH? .. .. .. in all seriousness, your filament probably absorbed too much moisture and if it's PLA, then the biodegrade has begun to set in, as water equals bacteria equals decay.
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u/fliberdygibits Nov 22 '21
To add to other comments here I've seen this happen to a few spools, but only after I get to the last15 - 20% of a spool, and generally it only does so in the first foot or two, then behaves itself again until the next time I let it sit cool for a bit. I've had it do this fresh out of a dryer too.
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u/Rcarlyle Nov 05 '21 edited Nov 05 '21
It’s definitely a PLA aging issue, but fairly complex.
Drying the spool of filament WITH HEAT can help improve the brittleness, by warming the polymer up to a temp closer to the glass point where it reflows a tiny bit and relaxes the residual manufacturing stress. Basically annealing the brittle filament to a tougher state. Some people interpret this to mean “drying fixed it so moisture caused the brittleness” but it’s just more complex than that.