Hello all, fairly new to this 3D lark so please bear with me. Bought a Sunlu S4 and put some filament in to dry, one of the spools was one of the printable Bambu reusable from Makerworld.I printed this using eSun grey PLA+ but when I took out the dryer it was warped from where it sat over the fan, only put it in for an hour as I was just trying the dryer out.
Is there a better material I should be using to print the spools if I intend to put them in a dryer?
Anyway enough rambling.
Thanks
Plastic goes soft once the temps is too high.
So if you print them in PLA and set the heater to 55 degrees or more it WILL go soft.
Use a higher temp filament with a higher softening temp 
Or collect some normal spools for the refill packs…
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Thanks for the reply - I assume then the reusable spools you get Bambu filament on would warp too?
On mine it reads temp limit 70 degrees Celsius, so anything below that should be fine.
If you need to dry a filament at a higher temp it should come on a spool able to handle this.
If in doubt use the plastic spools for printing and cardboard ones for drying.
Good cardboard spools are quite sturdy, to prevent them from slipping in the AMS I smear a bit of silicone caulk around the running edge.
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Almost everything I’ve printed for my dryers has been in PETG.
I did a few silica containers in ASA because I have a habit of setting them on the heaters when not in use.
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I print PLA spools in PLA and haven’t had any issue in the s4 as long as you keep it at 55.
Everything is is either ABS or PETG, depending.
My s4 works as storage as well as a dryer, so I can often mix materials. The only one I never mix with others is PLA. Rarely have to dry that though.
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I don’t think they will. They seem to be made of a sturdier material. And I have used many OEM spools in the various dryers and none of them have melted. As other’s have said, I believe it is just the PLA material which will soften. I have had items made of PLA warp in an auto.
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ROFL
That reminds me of my great idea to NOT wait for the PETG to arrive and to print my phone holder in PLA.
Worked great on the way to work…
When I wanted to get home I only had some weird thing on my dashboard.
Picked it up and it was pliable like wet clay ROFL
PLA is very strong, very easy and very great - for indoor applications, below 40 degrees Celsius and kept mostly dry…
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My reusable Bambu spools have survived 66-68 ºC for 5 hours just fine, without warping. But they sure got very hot to handle, so thanks my wife for oven mittens
Spectrum and Tecbears spools also survive just fine at 66-68 ºC, whereas the highest temp I’ve used with filament from Anycubic and Kingroon was 55 ºC.
Tecbears was a surprise, since it’s cardboard - and yeah the spool darkened in color, but was rigid and working just fine afterwards (I don’t have AMS and print directly from a SunLu S2).
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I hade an ebios (sp?) dryer, that sent the hot air through the centre of the spool. It melted the glue in a cardboard spool, it took a while respooling that. Afaik, most plastic spools (the black ones) are abs.
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I have seen several sources (don’t remember exactly whether Youtube reviews, elsewhere or on the forum) but the S4 appears to blow air into the case that close to the exhaust area can be some 10 degrees (Celsius?) hotter than the set drying temperature. Further, hotspots are created on the spools because the exhaust fans blow directly against the spools while the spools don’t turn. This may be an issue in your case too.
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It will create a hot spot on the bottom. If you use a spool made of PLA it will be warped in that exact area.
I’m experimenting now. I have a hydromerter on the bottom of the S4 and one opposite at the top to discover what the difference is. Oddly the bottom left shows a much different reading than the right top. Right top shows around 25% while the bottom shows 44%.
It is in maintanence mode atm, I’m behind in testing things.
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Here’s an IR image of the outside of my Sunlu S2+ that has a fan in the bottom of it. The base is 3D printed and not the stock base. Not a super even temperature distribution.
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Thanks for all the replies - I imagine a metal plate or something like that over the fans might help with heat distribution and stop it blasting in one spot.
I put one PLA printed spool in my hydrator, it had slight warpage @ 120°. Noticed it when in my AMS, it’s relegated to external spool holder now.
OEM Bambu spools have been fine as well as my PETG Basic spools.
Just FYI, print the spool locks in PETG or better too.
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