I’m printing with ABS and Support for ABS, but I’m having a miserable time, it turns out Support for ABS in my setup has almost zero tolerance for moisture. Even after drying it exactly to Bambu’s specs for 6 hrs, the next day, it was already moist enough to be completely useless (i.e. clumpy, not sticking to prints, flaky debris, not flushing properly). But the first few uses RIGHT after drying it I got PERFECT results, but the next back to completely useless. My environment is not the driest, but it’s certainly not super moist, and I have loads of desiccants in the AMS.
So here’s my situation and what I’m looking for:
I HAVE:
Bambu Lab X1C
AMS Combo
4 frequently used spools in AMS (all different materials).
I NEED:
Some sort of product or contraption to keep AT LEAST 2 perfectly dried spools at all times. This can be DIY, but I would much rather buy something that already exists.
I WANT:
The process to be as easy and automated as possible. I bought AMS for the automation, I would hate to have to actively dry spools externally and load them into AMS constantly, ruins half the point of AMS for me.
To be able to feed the filament from the dryer to the AMS unit.
Hopefully I gave enough info, I know I can’t have everything I want, but I’m looking for suggestions that at least tick most of my boxes. Currently, my most sensitive spools (ASA, ASA Aero, Support for ABS) are moistening too fast to run this setup constantly.
It will absorb moisture inside the AMS, which is mostly airtight. That way once your filament is dry inside the AMS it will stay dry. This won’t damage your machine as it is basically just silica gel inside absorbing the moisture and doesn’t involve any electronics besides an optional wireless hydrometer.
The absolute best method - put everything (printer, ams, spare spools, you, etc.) inside an ‘airtight’ enclosure and use a dehumidifier to keep that air dry. Dry everything before it goes into the enclosure (or move to a drier region). That is probably not possible, but an enclosure for the printer and ams, with a dehumidifier (with external drain) would help. Most of the cheap filament driers, sunlu, ebios, creality, etc. are pretty much useless if you are living in many regions of the world, and if you are in drier regions, you probably don’t need them.
50% is pretty high. Decissants like these will keep the humidity as low as 10%. You should probably still try them out, they pretty much the only way to dry filament in the AMS.
Desiccant at times may not be enough, since it works for humidity, which is ambient, it will take time to draw out inner moisture, so this is what I do:
I use the desiccant containers in the AMS noted above (I printed out a few extra spool inserts as well), but prior I dry my filament in a Creality Space Pi 2 Dryer and I also put the following desiccant container in my Creality:
I picked the Space Pi 2 because you can hookup 2 in tandem to dry 4 spools at once.
I store them in sealed cereal containers (4L From Amazon, still trying out this solution so I don’t have any particular recommendation) with Desiccant (though I am trying to find a good roller that I can use for more stretchy TPU since it can’t go through the AMS) but this is the one I use now that also has a built in desiccant container.
This guy made several different types of desiccant containers with rollers that can fit a few different types of cereal containers, so you should find one that fit’s in whatever container you bought.
So I dry, store, then change out the filament as needed. 1 Gallon/6lbs of desiccant was enough for me to fill about 2 AMS Systems, an extra 8 spool inserts, and 2 cereal containers worth.
I also forgot to add that if you strictly want to use the AMS without any real mods, there are prints where you can basically just vent the chamber air into the AMS and it will dry it out. I didn’t pursue that due to space issues with needing to hook up the hosing. So I don’t have the links to that.
50% humidity in AMS is terrible. It’s supposed to be basically a dry box. Are you leaving the lid open a lot? Do you forget to twist the locking tabs into place to keep a good air seal?
Your desiccant isn’t doing the job, or your AMS is not getting sealed properly. Maybe a damaged gasket?
As others have mentioned, pick one of the “AMS desiccant holders” you like and fill them with color change desiccant beads.
Also don’t leave the AMS lid open. That’s like leaving the refrigerator door open. The dry air escapes and your desiccant continuously soaks up moisture from your entire room.
Anyone with numbers that high in their AMS needs to keep an eye on the desiccant packs in the low pockets of the AMS below the filament.
The Bambu desiccant can absorb so much water it can fill up and overflow the pockets and let very corrosive salt-laden liquid drip onto circuit boards in the bottom of the AMS and ruin them.
There’s coverage on YT from cnc kitchen and others about these membranes. Only caveat - the hefty price. I’m waiting for something from BL but maybe sometime this year I’ll just spend the money. If I only didn’t have 8 AMS
I’m curious why your AMS is such high RH - Mine are all between 10 and 17% right now and the print room is a humidity nightmare - the AMS(s) appear to be if not air tight…close to it - so why is yours so high?
I have a spool of PPS in one of my AMS and after the initial dry it sits in the AMS for about a month before needing to be dried again… a month of the AMS being open and closed twice a day. PPS is probably the worst case scenario for filament and moisture and it lasts a month in my AMS.
So I’d suggest the rubber seal in your AMS is either perished or weirdly placed in the channel (is it hard to shut?). One AMS I received had a poorly fit seal and it leaked like a sieve and didn’t keep the air dry until the seal was reseated.
I am completely new to this, and I have never kept a filament dry so far. But an answer cobbled together from all the random bits of acquired knowledge rattling around my skull would be:
Vacuum. I’d start with some of those vacuum bags you can get online or even in physical stores. It keeps moisture out, but the low ambient pressure also draws out more moisture, but that moisture then has to go to a desiccant.
Speaking of…desiccants can become saturated or may just not be up to the job. Maybe consider using more of it, fresh one, or a more aggressive one. Phosphorus pentoxide is probably the most serious deiccant you can get without ending up on a list.
You can also buy others premade but I cannot remember the names. Your search engine knows.
Our home is air conditioned and I just keep it running in the print room, that naturally dries out our tropical air which would otherwise make printing difficult.
