3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
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Are the filaments still in their original packaging and if not, how were they stored? The main thing with old filaments is how much water they've absorbed from the environment, with older filaments stored in high humidity environments causing issues for print quality.
If your filaments have been stored sealed in original packaging, they'll probably print like new. If they've been stored in an airtight container they'll probably also be pretty good. You can also just give them a shot and see if you're happy with the quality they provide.
If they've been stored open on a shelf, it isn't necessarily over for them though. Look up guides on how to dry out filament. There's a few products you can buy that do it too, but if you have a printer with an enclosure and heated bed you can use that as an oven to bake out your filament.
I've got a few filaments that have been sitting for over 6 years and after baking out they print absolutely fine.
Any advice on how to dry out old filament?
I’ve got some filament that’s been sitting out for about 2 years and it’s been clogging my hot end. I use my printer relatively infrequently and so I now have a lot of filament that’s potentially ruined.
I've not tried it, but I know some people claim that you can use your printer's heated bed to dry it out. Probably not the most energy efficient way to do it, but seems like it would work.
I have tried it and it works. It is not as good as a dedicated drier and not as energy efficient.
The worst filament was some 5 y old pla that was so brittle it snapped when unrolling from the spool, that just couldn't be fixed on the heated bed. I had to dry it at 50°C for 12h to be usable again.