I got to ask this question while visiting Push Plastic's factory a bit ago!
Here's the view from the plant manager!
To dry - Or not to dry
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Country_Bubba
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Re: To dry - Or not to dry
I viewed the video and my take on the story is that it appears to help my PETG prints.
Last month, I built a couple of dry boxes that I could print from for my system. I generally print with one of two colors so that is why two boxes.
My humidity has been typically in the 55 to 60% region and putting a fresh out of the package roll in the box has dropped the humidity to the 30% region and I noticed an improvement particularly in the lack of stringing and surface finish. So for me I think this was worth it.
In addition I was finally able to get Orca slicer to talk nicely to Octolapse and have switched to it as my slicer and this may be part of my perceived improvements?
Bottom line for me is I think drying helps PETG.
Last month, I built a couple of dry boxes that I could print from for my system. I generally print with one of two colors so that is why two boxes.
My humidity has been typically in the 55 to 60% region and putting a fresh out of the package roll in the box has dropped the humidity to the 30% region and I noticed an improvement particularly in the lack of stringing and surface finish. So for me I think this was worth it.
In addition I was finally able to get Orca slicer to talk nicely to Octolapse and have switched to it as my slicer and this may be part of my perceived improvements?
Bottom line for me is I think drying helps PETG.
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LePaul
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- Joined: February 7th, 2016, 10:26 pm
- Location: Bangor, Maine USA
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Re: To dry - Or not to dry
I agree with you.
For the materials Push Plastic is making, I fully agree with what Josh is saying.
To test that out, I have a 10 kg spool of Push Plastic PLA a coworker dropped off during the pandemic for some prints. I didn't have any sort of spool holder for something that big, so it sat unused for about 3 years.
I did add an in-line filter to catch any dust - basically a clip with a piece of sponge on each side.
They sent over a spool holder for that giant roll and I loaded it up into the Centari Carbon. Sure enough, it spun freely enough that the machine could feed the material just fine.
And the prints look amazing.
So definitely see his point with their PLA.
At home, I still run other materials through the dryer. Maybe it does nothing? But I have seen stringy prints from some brand PLAs if they have been out a while. Definitely with some PETGs and other materials. Big time to Nylon.
For the materials Push Plastic is making, I fully agree with what Josh is saying.
To test that out, I have a 10 kg spool of Push Plastic PLA a coworker dropped off during the pandemic for some prints. I didn't have any sort of spool holder for something that big, so it sat unused for about 3 years.
I did add an in-line filter to catch any dust - basically a clip with a piece of sponge on each side.
They sent over a spool holder for that giant roll and I loaded it up into the Centari Carbon. Sure enough, it spun freely enough that the machine could feed the material just fine.
And the prints look amazing.
So definitely see his point with their PLA.
At home, I still run other materials through the dryer. Maybe it does nothing? But I have seen stringy prints from some brand PLAs if they have been out a while. Definitely with some PETGs and other materials. Big time to Nylon.