Prline is 5% super hard blend is 1%
Can I ask what speeds you print at? 3d sourced recommend 60mm/s max and the default āoptimalā process speed is 200! Iāve only just realised that the default speeds dont change when you change material!
I have an X1E
just an update i reduced speeds to 100 outer and 200 inner and the result was perfect
When I work professionally, I have one or even several filament dryers that always create the same drying conditions. Calibrate the filament manually, not automatically. Save the value and also write it down (in case you need it again later). If you have the manual calibration, including the K-Value, switch off the automatic system before printing.
The other point, the inspection of the first layer: If you always produce the same thing, always use the same type of print plate and the same type of nozzle. You also make sure that the nozzle is at least clean on the outside before each print. So why do you need to inspect the first layer every time? If you have created the right printing conditions, you donāt need to. I have switched it off on the X1C. If Iām not sure about the filament, I switch it on again.
Just as a note: Some suppliers check their filaments for moisture before they deliver them. If it doesnāt meet the requirements, the filament goes back into the drying process.
Best regards!
do we know how they check? is there a check we can do at home to know if filament is dry without actually trying to print something?
The only real check we have as users is to try drying the filament with weighing before and after to know how much water was removed during drying.
Complicating that is most filament dryers out there donāt do a great job by themselves drying filament. Ambient humidity can slow or stop drying prematurely and leave you with āwetā filament even after drying for hours.
Itās my belief (and testing supports this) that to truly dry filament you have to supply dry air to the filament dryer. That takes ambient humidity out of the equation and allows drying to pretty much whatever water content you want. (Then you can wonder about how dry is too dry, or just dry enough, etc 
)
If you are having water issues, you might consider a good scale that has a capacity of 2+ kg and a resolution of 0.1 or 0.01g. That will let you diagnose issues to a fair extent.
If you decide you need dry air, thereās a thread here - āFilament Drying preliminary resultsā that details all the things I tried and saw. You can put an air dryer together pretty cheaply (an aquarium air pump blowing air through silica gel beads) but will need to modify your filament dryer to admit the dry air. But with about $40 you can test the advantages of drying with dry air.
Yes that aquarium pump setup looks interesting and the concept makes sense too. Itās now on my ālist of things to doā.
I was aware of the weighing method - I guess thatās the only way for home users. My scale isnāt accurate enough, so I just dry stuff before printing if I need to be sure.
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One thing about drying under fairly fixed conditions is you have a different handle on the drying process and donāt really need a scale to tell you āitās doneā.
With dry air (and thatās qualified because itās not totally dry) you know the process of drying will continue until the filament dryer humidity starts approaching that of the dry air. I was seeing very consistent results in weight loss just drying to a specific filament dryer humidity. Not identical (wouldnāt expect identical) but close with the differences mostly coming into play if spools were fresh from the bag or not. My storage method wasnāt as good as I had thought.
The model I did is nice for building it all into a single purpose-built unit, but you can try out dry air easy-peasy. All you really need is an aquarium pump with a fair but not excessive flow (the one I specified in the build has an electronic throttle to adjust flow) and a container of fresh desiccant.
Not knowing your experience level, donāt use desiccant packs or desiccant you already have unless you know itās dry or know how to regenerate it. It has to be āactiveā desiccant. Desiccant packs will also limit air contact with the beads.
You need to add fittings to the desiccant container to add air at the top or bottom and remove air from the opposite end. I used a straw to collect air after it had passed through the desiccant bed. Or rig up some other container. It just needs to be air tight ā Aquarium pumps donāt have a whole lot of excess capacity. Plumb the exit air into your dryer and have a go.
As long as everything is working correctly what youāll see is humidity in the chamber initially drop as it starts heating, then a big spike as the filament starts heating and releasing water. The dry air is the little engine that could, though. At first the heating and water releasing overwhelms the dry air, but the dry air eventually wins and humidity in the chamber will drop and keep dropping until the water being carried out by the dry air is less than is being released new from the filament. Thatās when youāll see the drying rate fall off and it turns into a waiting game to get to whatever chamber RH you choose to dry to.
So for the cost of a container of filament, an aquarium pump, and some cheap fittings you can test it all out. It would be nice to have a scale to see the difference but what you will see is your filament dryer able to hit humidities it possibly never has before.
As to print quality, I noticed it here. Definite improvements. But this is new. As others have said, you only need to dry enough to get good prints. How dry is that? What I think will happen is people will find RHs to dry to for each filament type. That will wrap up a lot of things into a single number but it will give a better handle on proper drying. Itās all been feeling around largely in the dark using ambient air. That floor ambient air imposes is variable and I donāt know how many took it into account.
this is a great reply, thank you.
Iāll try out the āArid Airā drier connected to my sunlu drier with a bit of bowden.
it seems the model isnt available at the mo.
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Yeah, I pulled it for a bit to fix a fiddly part of the assembly to make it easier to build. Itāll be back this weekend.
Sorry about that but the model will be better for it and it will be easier to build.
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