I dried all of my new filament from Bambu and a couple of other brands and recorded how much water was lost. The first value is the hours from the start of drying and the second is the total grams lost by that time. So the last number is the total grams lost.
I bought a lot of filament when I got the printer, it took me so long to dry it all. I have two dryers so they were running non-stop for many days.
I bought a little suction vacuum from Amazon and those zip-lock style bags with the vacuum connection on the side. I realized that I needed to get a proper vacuum sealer because the bags I got are failing left and right. They are a big waste of money. Also, the first vacuum pump I got was junk, but the second one was good.
I just ordered a proper vacuum/heat sealer using air miles, hopefully it doesn’t take too long to come.
That desiccant wedge is a cool idea. I’ve been thinking along the lines of designing something that will also hold the moisture cards in place so that they are kept far enough away from the back liner yet stay upright so they can be seen through the bag. It’s kind of tricky.
On the subject of vacuum bags. I tried out Amolen bags and so far the one’s I’ve used have kept their seal over the last four months. I got the one with a manual pump. Pain in the ass but I wasn’t sure if I would use it at all. So far, none of the bags have failed me after repeated use. I still have some that have only been used once and held their vacuum over the last four months. I just realized, I should somehow mark the bags to indicate each use to see if they wear out over time.
Their moisture cards are defective though. After a month, one of the cards I left in the open never changed color. So I tested them in a steam bath and they were in fact defectvie. I complained and they sent me another complete box of bags with again, defective moisture cards. Dumbasses!! But they way I look at it, I bought them on sale and then they gave me a duplicate set of bags and another pump so I really can’t complain. I ended up buying moisture cards separately.
Well, it may be that I have some experience with those bags. They are the exact same technology I used when I was a frequent flyer and had to compress my clothing, just smaller. And I must say that it was a bitch to gain enough practice to get the seal to press close on the larger bags but once you get the knack, it goes much easier. So the smaller bags were not terribly difficult to use. They do give you a tool to seal it but I never had much luck with it.
One use of the data is it could reveal which companies sufficiently pre-dry their filament, so you could have confidence that you don’t need to dry it when it’s new.
For example, it looks like gizmo dorks and Flash forge might sufficiently dry their filament, not there is not enough data yet to make that conclusion.
You can never have this confidence. What you get in one bag is not a good indication of what you’ll get in the next. Too many variables that the filament manufacturer doesn’t control. The bags are sealed, but they’re not hermetic, humidity still gets in. If your filament sat in an un-airconditioned warehouse in a humid climate, it’s going to be wetter than filament that ships direct to you.
My rule is - take it from the bag and give it a shot. You can tell right away if it’s too wet because the extruder will ooze. Oozy filament goes in to the dryer for 24 hours, after which I try again.
That’s a fair question. As a practical matter, I wouldn’t expect to see filament makers publish the water saturation of their filaments. But nevertheless, wouldn’t that in and of itself be a useful thing to know? I mean let’s say we gather statistically significant measurements from a large group of people and learn that supplier XYZ let’s say, has consistently high or consistently low H2O percentage. It could allow us to not only make informed buying decision but it would also give us a heads up that cheapo supplier XYZ is a good buy if you can accept that you will dry every spool while supplier ABC that costs smidge more, consistently requires no drying.
Again, I don’t see this as practical to expect the filament makers to publish this due to the many variables and of course that many of them have been caught “exaggerating” their product.
I received the vacuum sealer the next day. It is so much better. Also, even with the extra length I left to be able to reseal it several times, the bag cost is significantly less than the zipper bags. It is even a better deal when you get the off brand bags.
The 11" width bags just barely fits the spools, but they do fit.
WARNING - Don’t use the automatic vacuum and seal option, it is too strong and will bend the sides of the spool. Press and hold the vacuum pulse button until it is just tight enough, then press the seal button to seal it.
I tape the end of the filament to the inside of spool when I store it, I made sure to put that part on one of the tight sides of the bag because those parts of the bag won’t get sucked into the spool when the vacuum is applied, so it reduces the chance of puncturing the bag with the end of the filament.
It was just a Cuisinart sealer I got with air miles points from their points website. I think most of the sealers are basically the same and have a standard size, so just look for one on sale. Costco often has deals on them.
Dumbasses!! But they way I look at it, I bought them on sale and then they gave me a duplicate set of bags and another pump so I really can’t complain. I ended up buying 