Managing brittle reel of PLA

terrypin · Monday at 09:27

I ran my Ender 3 V2 yesterday after a gap of a year or so, using an almost full reel of black PLA (1.75mm, RoHS). I'd stored that in a plastic bag with a couple of 20 gm bags of silica gel,. I understand that's recommended rather than leaving it on the printer here in my 'home office'. I could see it was very brittle/springy, but went ahead with this small job. It finished OK , taking 1h 18m and using about 4.5 m.

Satisfied, I repeated the same job, leaving it to run unaccompanied after a few minutes. But on returning I saw it had failed after about 15 mins. The PLA had broken, and I could see the reason was that one or more turns had been trapped below others. Presumably due to the springiness &/or inflexibility.

I then removed the PLA remaining in the printer, cut just over 5m from the troublesome reel, fed that in, and let it lie on the floor while running the job successfuly. Am I right that I have no other option than this method, using Cura's estimate of lengrh required? Any other advice from more experienced uses would be appreciated please.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Haze · Monday at 10:17

Yes, I do what you do and remove X amount and try again, if that fails the whole thing gets binned

terrypin · Monday at 11:41

Haze said:
Yes, I do what you do and remove X amount and try again, if that fails the whole thing gets binned

Thanks, appreciate the fast response.

Anyone know if that brittleness and loss of flexibilty is inevitable? Roughly how long before it occurs? Any tips on how best to store it? Or any brands noted for their superiority/longevity?

--------------------

P.S. Do I have any option over choice of my avatar? At least gender.

Hotwired · Monday at 12:46

terrypin said:
P.S. Do I have any option over choice of my avatar? At least gender.

Yes, as you post there's a fixed progression of gangster avatars.

So to change it just post more

wafflecart · Monday at 15:39

Ideal thing to do would be to dry it in a filament dryer if you have one it will revitalise it and get rid of the brittleness. Once dried you could resolve the tangle, unravel the spool up to that point then reroll it. It’s not as hard and tedious as it sounds it’s like rolling wire onto a spool and will take 15mins. It’s impossible to tangle it while respooling as long as you don’t let it go.

Unfortunately pla filament will eventually go brittle unless you vacuum seal it in an airtight bag with desiccant. Leaving a roll out unsealed for a few days in my experience is enough to have the first few layers become brittle.

terrypin · Tuesday at 22:20

wafflecart said:
Ideal thing to do would be to dry it in a filament dryer if you have one it will revitalise it and get rid of the brittleness. Once dried you could resolve the tangle, unravel the spool up to that point then reroll it. It’s not as hard and tedious as it sounds it’s like rolling wire onto a spool and will take 15mins. It’s impossible to tangle it while respooling as long as you don’t let it go.

Unfortunately pla filament will eventually go brittle unless you vacuum seal it in an airtight bag with desiccant. Leaving a roll out unsealed for a few days in my experience is enough to have the first few layers become brittle.

Thanks. I used our kitchen oven at roughy 40C for 5 hours. Back in a plastic bin bag for now but intend to rewind following your suggestions.