With the Bowden filament system on the X2D, is humidity not a concern for that exterior filament reel, it must be?
I think my intended use for that part of the printer is going to be for support filament, I am getting the AMS Pro with it. So for the exterior spool I will either use the specific support filament from bamboo, or possibly like some do which is just use PLA for PETG and PETG support for PLA.
In any case, it’s obvious those filamnets will be exposed to the humidity in the air. Maybe I’m overthinking it and it’s not a concern for the purpose of the support material? But then if you were to put it into to AMS you would either want to dry it out with a dedicated filament dryer, or dry it in the AMS.
Maybe the dedicated support filament is the best choice then and the humidity in the air is not as much of a concern for it, as it’s just being used for the connection points right?, and the actual support is still made from the PLA or PETG which is dry in the AMS.
Water uptake depends on the filament and ambient temperature and humidity but is still not a terribly fast process. And it takes a while for the water to work its way deep into the filament. That more surface water will also leave easier as the filament heats going into the extruder.
You can have a spool in open air for a while and not see water issues. It is picking up water, though. I wouldn’t leave a spool in open air longer than necessary.
I don’t have a good feel for how long you have but I’d guess hours is pretty easy in general but you may need to touch it back up in a dryer after depending on the filament.
Easy way to get a better handle is take a dried spool and weigh it carefully then set it out. Weigh it each hour or half hour for as long as you typically have prints go and see how much water it actually picks up. Somebody here may have already done this. Maybe someone else knows?
When I was weighing filaments I’d see losses around 3-4g on PLA IIRC. Others probably have better data on typical losses when drying. Anyway, it gives an idea of how much water weight gain starts getting to be too much.
What’s the exterior humidity like (have you measured it?)
I have my printer in my garage, which in my area has been sitting around 35-40% humidity for the last few weeks.
Ive had no issues with PETG filaments sitting on my external spool holder for a few days (72+ hours) after giving them a good 6-8 hours dry time in my filament dryer.
when we were having a bunch of “rain” with a humidity of ~55-60%, I could start to notice some stringing w/ PETG coming up after about 24-36hours.
i don’t think I’ve ever seen issues with PLA, at these humidity levels… but I do store the PLA in dry boxes w/ sufficient desiccant to keep humidity under 20% if they aren’t gonna get used for a few weeks.
Edit… if you are worried, you can make a drybox that you can print from directly for very little effort at the cost of a few PTFE tubes and connectors, along with filament to print a few adapters. Multiple systems are available on Makerworld.
The AMS-HT or any other dryer that can print while the spool is in it [various sunlu types,etc] can help. You technically dont need the motor drive of the AMSHT, the external bowden extruder motor can pluck from the dryer just fine.
My office inside humidity always is more than 40% here in Florida. For that reason I run a dedicated AMS-HT for the right nozzle. I load that with PLA support material, but only use it for the interface.
I liked the HT so much I bought two more HTs and a 4-way splitter to run to the left nozzle along with the AMS 2 Pro that came with the printer.
The two HTs contain engineering filaments and the AMS 2 Pro has PLA. Best of all worlds and I can dry just about anything at the same time if I need to.
If the HT is out of your budget, a dry box is a good alternative.
After reading your posts here and educating myself a little more on the HT last night, yeah the AMS HT is almost a no brainer for me so I ordered one this morning.
I was likely going to get a filament dyer too anyway at some point, but also a very good chance I run some higher temp filament as I gain more experience. Although not overly humid here, it can be at times. Also prefer the Bambu eco system compatibility and functionality benefits. Timing is good too as it’s on sale plus I have a coupon. Thanks everybody.