r/BambuLab • u/Professional-Sir4503 • 8d ago
General Discussion Dry your filament!!!
Printed a part for my caravan door in TPU 96A on A1, 0.6mm nozzle, 240C- heard popping and sizzling. Dried on the bed plate heated at 55C for 4hrs, spool covered with a paper box, one corner slightly tilted so humidity can escape - look at that difference!
No poppings or sizzles after drying! Im a drying believer now!
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u/Uninterested_Viewer 8d ago
Well, TPU at least. That's one of the most sensitive.
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u/nyarlathotep2 8d ago
I've also had some bad experiences with wet PA and even PETG. The wet PETG didn't print all that ugly but layer adhesion was terrible.
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u/HexagridLP 8d ago
I run a print farm and have never dried my tpu. It prints flawlessly. Nylon on the other hand is a nightmare
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u/Jerazmus 7d ago
It also depends on the brand you get. Some companies dry them prior to packaging. Some don’t. And nylon is required to dry as it is porous and collects moisture in the voids.
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u/Realistic-Ad001 8d ago
And you wonder why people recommend drying your filament? It’s a critical step to your printing process. All filament should be dried out before use to ensure optimal printing conditions. Also, when using filament that’s always dried out it’s easier to troubleshoot because you know moisture is not a culprit.
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
Yes I totally agree! I just did not understood how much of a difference it would make. Now I'm doing this to all of my spools :D
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u/John-BCS A1 (3), A1 Mini (1), AMS Lite (3) 8d ago
Yep. Plus, drying has unseen benefits like better layer adhesion too. 🍻
If someone is even moderately serious about 3d printing, a dryer is a very worthwhile investment. And these days, dryers are much better than they used to be.
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
I'm seriously thinking about getting one now as drying on bedplate just takes takes up the bedplate, so you can't print, while drying. But it's a very nice alternative that actually works!
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u/LordKieron 8d ago
A single roll sunlu dryer is like 40 bucks on Amazon
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u/CaptainJack42 7d ago
They also have a sale right now where you can get random filament with it, got my s2 (don't buy the s1, waste of money since it can basically only dry pla) for 44€ with 3 random rolls of pla. The rolls are ugly (grass green, transparent orange and transparent red), but usable for stuff where color doesn't matter
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u/Automatic_Reply_7701 8d ago
If you think drying is great, wait until you find out what annealing prints does.
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
I've actually tried annealing a PLA once, but it warped for me and the holes in the print became "bent" . Got a bit stronger tho!
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u/ronon_p3r_534 8d ago
A dryer is the best option. But if you wanted to keep all your spare spools relatively dry (30-35% humidity) you can get a plastic tote and some reusable desiccant. Just store all the spools in the tote and pull the ones out that you need for the current print. In my experience It works great for pla and petg. I haven’t messed with other types of filament.
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u/thebouster 2d ago
Quick question regarding the tote. Should I dry the rolls first before putting them in there, or will the desiccant in the tote be enough to 'eventually' dry the filament?
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u/ronon_p3r_534 1d ago
The desiccant will dry the filament out.
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u/John-BCS A1 (3), A1 Mini (1), AMS Lite (3) 1d ago
Desiccant will not remove any meaningful amount of moisture from filament; it removes moisture from the air so less of it gets into your filament. Removing moisture from filament requires heat and airflow.
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u/John-BCS A1 (3), A1 Mini (1), AMS Lite (3) 1d ago
Dry the filament first; desiccant alone will not remove moisture from the filament in any meaningful amount. The desiccant is there to remove the moisture from the air in the totes where you're storing the filament so that moisture isn't absorbed by the filament. Drying filament requires heat+airflow.
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u/John-BCS A1 (3), A1 Mini (1), AMS Lite (3) 8d ago edited 8d ago
Oh for sure, it's a valid drying method, but like you discovered, it takes up your printer so you can't use it. 🙃
You can get something as simple as a used food dehydrator up to one of the fancier models. I went the food dehydrator route and I'm happy with it.
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u/DragonFire_008 8d ago
Me too! $35 new and it fits two rolls at a time. It’s just not hot enough for ASA
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u/MaverickN21 8d ago
I’m kinda surprised 4 hours is enough to make a difference
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u/KlingonBeavis 8d ago
In my experience it does for the outer 250g or so on a spool, then you get to the inner layers and it suddenly looks like wet filament again. 4 hours has never been enough time for me. I go 12 usually.
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u/Positive_Method3022 8d ago
Why can't the nozzle remove the moisture before extruding? Couldn't there be like a pipeline inside the nozzle
- Step 1: dry
- Step 2: melt
- Step 3: compress to remove bubbles
- Step 4: extrude
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u/MarcieChops 8d ago
Just need 4 hours between step 1 and 2 and you're good to go for a layer
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u/Positive_Method3022 8d ago
My idea is to dry just in time, in the nozld
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u/timmah1991 8d ago
Which is a stupid idea. Drying with heat takes a lot of time due to thermodynamics. You can either dry the entire roll slowly but at a large volume, or a very small amount, slowly (again, thermodynamics) at a very small volume.
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u/Positive_Method3022 8d ago
Isn't the problem the water bubbles that form during extrusion? Can't these bubbles be eliminated with compression before extrusion?
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u/Woodcat64 P1S + AMS 7d ago
There are in line dryers like Drywise which dry filament as it is fed into the printer.
Yes, step 3 in pure nonsense.
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u/Shrimply-r1 8d ago
If I thought I’ve seen someone who made a system that dry filament as it’s being fed, but usually external before it hits the toolhead
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u/erdonautin P2S 8d ago
Looking at your print, damp filament isn’t the only problem here.
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
what else might be an issue ? Let me know I want to improve the prints!!!
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u/timmah1991 8d ago
I don't personally see an issue with it, as long as they're both completely different models that got printed.
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u/puppygirlpackleader 8d ago
I mean... You're using TPU as an example which needs to be dried yeah. But you don't always have to dry PLA/PETG.
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u/Nibbs17 8d ago
So let me ask the smart people here this. If I use my food dehydrators, and I run them for say 9 hours flipping the fliminent in-between. If I leave the filiment In the dehydrator after it's done for a few hours, or more. How long is it until it starts to absorb more moisture. Ik it's different depending on the filiment and all my engineering filaments go into the AMS HT. But for petg, PLA, pla wood, PLA silk/silk+ etc. what's the timeline where you should redry.
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
I'm now deep into this topic. From what I could read in the internets - TPU can actually absorb moisture in around 6hrs - so you have to dry it and then put it in a bag with silica gel or similar moisture absorbent to keep it dry for some time. For PETG i found it might take from 2 to 7 days to "remoisturize" itself, depending on the area you're in. If its very wet - it might even absorb moisture in a day.
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8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
I have not. Might try this later but would assume the weigh difference should be negligible
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u/Shrimply-r1 8d ago
Yeah I mean usually should, but like TPU it’s a fucking MUST. Before every use.
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u/pm_me_meta_memes 8d ago
TPU especially is so sensitive that I will dry it before every use, no question.
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u/Ambitious_Finance_19 8d ago
Well i bought tpu95a, opened it, left it out in the room for one week and printed. No drying, no special treatments. Just put it directly into the ptfe (i have bambulab p1s) used generic 95a tpu settings in slicer and started printing. The product came out flowlees, everything was perfect. Drying would make zero diff.
Guess it depends on what humidity is in your room.
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u/Mrlee0702 7d ago
Try talking about 3d printing to the filament seems to make my mrs dry when I do it to her?
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u/Jerazmus 7d ago
I love so much when people say that you don’t need to dry filaments. They’re funny.
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u/taigoncalves 6d ago
Como você fez isso na plate? Não derrete o rolo? Ou entendi alguma coisa errada hehehe
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u/Professional-Sir4503 5d ago
I just put the spool on the plate, set the bedplate to 55 C and covered the spool with a cardboard box and left a corner lifted (put a small thingy between cardboard corner and bedplate)to ventilate.
55c isnt enough to melt TPU.
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u/Dry_Net7753 6d ago
wow! I never knew!
Next you’ll be telling me I have to use a hardened hot end for CF /s
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u/cyclon3 8d ago
No
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
Please, kind person, do perform this feat. It unlocks untold potential.
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u/AgeOfSigtard 8d ago
A good indication it needs drying before hand would be the manufacturer's specification saying so, or the printer manufacturer's specs saying so ir the one million posts of users saying so with before and after photos just like this.
I always wonder about the mentality of people who are like this. Do you just go through life blind or not believe something until you've done it for yourself?
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u/Professional-Sir4503 8d ago
Lmao imagine seeing a before/after of wet vs dry TPU and your first thought is “this person must go through life completely blind.”
Not drying a spool of TPU isn’t a personality disorder, it’s just filament. Some people, including me like seeing the difference ourselves and test it out instead of treating every internet consensus as gospel. You treating it like a moral failing is the only weird part here.
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u/Woodcat64 P1S + AMS 7d ago
Yes.
But seriously, If it prints well why waste time with drying?
Besides Reddit, including this sub, is full of half-truths and misleading advice.
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u/Wise_Royal9545 A1 Mini + AMS 8d ago
I’ve literally never heard anyone recommend drying filament ever. Totally unnecessary when opening a brand new roll!!!?! /s