3DPrinting

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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.

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Using old filaments (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Valmond@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

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Hello,

I put my homemade 3D printer in the garage when I moved 2 years ago, the filaments I had were maybe 2 years old and worked well.

I bulk bought them on aliexpress or maybe alibaba.

Now, the printer needs a refreshing, a bit of all kind of electrical & mechanical stuff and also figuring out how to run it from my new computer, and I wonder if I should buy some new filament so that I won't have to care about any old filament problems or what do you think? Is my filament dead or maybe ok?

Thanks!

Edit: thank you all!

I'll go with buy a new high quality one to get everything up and running, and then I'll check out the quality of the old spools. Who are stored open, but in a airtight box with a kilo of, now grey, alibaba deciccant pellets.

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[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Klajan@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

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.