Hey guys! I recently started a monthlong experiment where i soaked filament in a tank of water and printed with it.
24 hours
1 week
and a month
(i also might have some delayed results because i might have to refill on the spool, its running out soon.)
this might brick my printer but whatever
also for people wondering, this is like my own re-spool. i am using bambu pla matte, but since i dont wanna sacrifice an entire spool i’m gonna just spool around 250g onto it.
Update! This is the update on the 24-hour prints.
– The water turned yellow, and I have no idea why.
– Theres some bubbling and major stringing on all prints.
– Top surfaces seem okay.
Very interesting. Just one quick follow-up question:
Why?
a follow-up answer. i have no idea and just wanted to see
interesting experiment. keep me updated
Something dissolved out of the black PLA but hard to know what without a chemistry lab. It may just be pigment at very low concentration, but who knows? Definitely a change though may be negligible.
Curious if you hear any sputtering or hissing like some have mentioned.
Much will depend on features of the print for what kind or if any visible issues.
Also curious your results especially in light of the video posted in another thread about filament moisture.
thereis major hissing and popping sounds, as if frying something.
also, i think the yellow came from the cardboard in the spool, but honesty, i have no idea.
This is metaphorically equivalent to jamming a bent fork in to a wall socket to see what happens.
yep and my printer is the victim here
Wet like damp or wet like dripping water into electronics to see if a fire starts? The thermister ( if your printer is a model which has one) possibly overheating as it attempts to heat a nozzle and buildplate being cooled by water. Hope this is an outdoors experiment. History being made !
That sounds more reasonable. Bet you’re right.
I agree with you kinda, except we did just have a video of a manufacturer saying PLA didnt absorb water.
PLA definitely absorbs moisture. It gets brittle if it absorbs water, a problem many 3D printers have experienced. PLA contains “polar ester groups” in its molecular structure, and they naturally attract and absorb water molecules from the surrounding air.
Maybe that manufacturer has some “magical” PLA formulation where the laws of physics are canceled out. It’s “doped” with something else. But if it’s actually “PLA”, Polylactic Acid, I don’t see how anyone could claim it can’t absorb water…
Where can I find this manufacturer’s video?
There are plastics that do not readily absorb water, like Polyethylene and Polypropylene, both of which can be 3D printed, and Teflon which cannot (at least, not safely)… Teflon in fact is unique amongst plastics because it has basically zero moisture absorption.
And while PETG doesn’t absorb a lot of moisture, if it gets too dry it gets brittle, like PLA that’s too wet does…
i think the yellow came from the cardboard
It may have, but PLA also decomposes (slowly) in water.
It is to what extent PLA absorbs moisture from the air, or how hygroscopic it is. The question is: does PLA absorb moisture from the air (not in a bucket of water 
) to the point that it affects the printing?
Some have sworn that they have to dry it frequently or the print will be ruined. But my experience has been different. Up until recently, I stored PLA in the open on a rack and also had no desiccants in the AMS. I have never had to dry PLA and they have printed fine. It could be climate dependent, or we just have to agree to disagree
Recently I began storing PLA in a box so I don’t have to blow away the dust collected on them after some being on the rack for too long (months or a couple of years for some colors that I rarely use).
Don’t use it as a urinal.
Moist filament, that what she said.
So, just to be clear, I aint got no idea, I dont know nothin, How ever he basicly said almost the exact opposite of what you said, if it absorbs water it aint PLA.
But OP also verified the hissing and popping that indicates it did adsorb water. There is an important difference between adsorb and absorb. (Note the b vs d.) Filaments don’t appreciably absorb water but do adsorb water. The statement that PLA doesn’t absorb water is true but it is false to say PLA doesn’t adsorb water.
PLA has lots of cracks and pits in the surface of filament. Combine that with polylacticacid functional groups being exposed and water loves to stick down on the surfaces - even in cracks deep in a filament strand.
It’s kind of a definitions thing and the distinction is important. The guy in the video was correct in saying it doesn’t absorb but it was misleading if you aren’t aware of the adsorption mechanism. Both carry water into the extruder which was the whole point of that video. It’s unfortunate the guy in the video didn’t make the distinction.
Way to fly in the face of accepted wisdom…
