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My first ABS print
- Thread starter 1_rick
- Start date
What's the use case for asa? I only use abs for functional prints that need to survive outside. Is asa for stuff like that? Less smelly than abs?
I really want to like petg, but the moisture struggles keep me going back to pla for it's ease to print/store for trinkets and kids toys.
I really want to like petg, but the moisture struggles keep me going back to pla for it's ease to print/store for trinkets and kids toys.
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2000
- Messages
- 5,341
I've lost rolls of PLA due to moisture. I use PETG alot. I buy 3kg and 5kg rolls of it.
ASA VS ABS, In short, UV resistant is far better.
https://all3dp.com/2/asa-vs-abs-differences/
ABS degrades under exposure to UV light, but ASA doesn't. And it's less smelly, but I solve that for ABS with an enclosed printer running a hepa and charcoal filter (Bento Box).
I get you with PETG vs PLA, and I mostly print in the latter. But I bought a filament dryer because my apartment tends to be too humid, and I recently started using a storage system based on 4 liter cereal containers. Custom top that snaps on, rubber gasket to make a seal, integrated dessicant box that's pretty large, and a TPU pass-through. I took some ASA that was dried thoroughly to under 20% (I don't remember exactly), and put it in one of those and the humidity inside dropped very quickly to 10%, which is as low as cheap hygrometers go. I'll post a picture--I'm planning on expanding the system some--right now the filament is out in the open for about 6 inches before it feeds into a PTFE tube, but I have a print that will take a 4mm OD PTFE tube and put it through a couple of gentle bends that will lead to just about zero exposure to atmosphere.
I get you with PETG vs PLA, and I mostly print in the latter. But I bought a filament dryer because my apartment tends to be too humid, and I recently started using a storage system based on 4 liter cereal containers. Custom top that snaps on, rubber gasket to make a seal, integrated dessicant box that's pretty large, and a TPU pass-through. I took some ASA that was dried thoroughly to under 20% (I don't remember exactly), and put it in one of those and the humidity inside dropped very quickly to 10%, which is as low as cheap hygrometers go. I'll post a picture--I'm planning on expanding the system some--right now the filament is out in the open for about 6 inches before it feeds into a PTFE tube, but I have a print that will take a 4mm OD PTFE tube and put it through a couple of gentle bends that will lead to just about zero exposure to atmosphere.
Yeah. My apartment was 60% humidity until I talked to the office, who said it was a known issue and had the maintenance guy come out and tweak it. Now it runs 50-52%, which seems OK for PLA, but is still a bit high for PETG, but as I said in my last post I'm building up a storage system to protect PETG.
I'm using this, including some remixes specific to my printer: https://www.printables.com/model/1606655-filament-storage-2026
That makes sense I guess. I had some unbagged pla in a basement for a year and had about 50/50 luck with them. Once it's trash, it's trash vs petg. The latter is easier to save by drying, but in ga, I basically have to print from the dryer or it's a stringy mess.
Makerworld has lots of "4l cereal box filament storage" recipes--they hold one spool, a small dessicant chamber, and a cheap hygrometer. I bought a Polydryer and found a y-splitter funnel attachment that lets me set the dryer upside down on top of a container. Run that & keep your filament in there, take it out when you want to print. You can use PLA or PETG to print them. It's not super-efficient if you have to redry filament a lot but if you can print TPU you can also add a filament port so you don't have to keep taking the roll out. Later--if you want--you can move to something like the one I mentioned above and just keep your filament nice and dry all the time (hopefully; I'll admit I've only got 2 containers modded so far and it's only been a couple of weeks. But it seems to work quite well so far. The only drawback I've seen is the default version of it doesn't let you attach a dryer, so I dry in a regular container like I mentioned above (or the Polydryer's container) and then put it in one of these FS2026 units.That makes sense I guess. I had some unbagged pla in a basement for a year and had about 50/50 luck with them. Once it's trash, it's trash vs petg. The latter is easier to save by drying, but in ga, I basically have to print from the dryer or it's a stringy mess.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2000
- Messages
- 9,459
I store each of my filament spools in a vacuum sealed bag, or at least in a 1 gallon zip lock bag with a packet of silica gel. Bagging each spool does become a pain in the butt, though, but there's a reason why all spools of filament come packaged in a vacuum sealed bag! Some Filaments like Nylon have to be dried for 24 hours before you even start printing.
Rebagging spools is annoying. I've printed a few more of the containers I showed in post 7. Some more details: put the roll in the container on a mini stand with a small dessicant pack & a hygrometer, dry it to the dryer's specs, then take the top of the container off and everything out, put the roll on the middle part, which has bearings in it to make it roll smoothly, feed it into the TPU tip, and put the printed lid (which has a gasket in it), close it up. The lid has a clip for a snap-in container with an insane amount of activated alumina beads. It'll pull ASA and ABS down to 10% RH very quickly and hold it there for months. The same guy who designed the storage system designed a top for the Polydryer that the dessicant cartridge fits neatly in. Works great. A little finicky to set up but you can leave the roll in the container until you've used the whole thing up. One other finicky detail is getting the tension on the hub right--once you have it set, it will rewind the filament as it gets pushed back in. there are about 100 remixes of it, too, including adapters for different brands of filaments' spools, which have different diameters, and (for example) several mods for my Snapmaker U1, that will let you stack two bins on top of each other, top to top, and route a PTFE tube right into the feeder, so no filement gets exposed. I haven't done that last bit yet, but I'm printing something in PETG right this minute using one of these spools, and (with something to set the bin on so the filament path is more or less straight, I've used another one with PETG in it in my Sovol SV08.