Aloha,

I got an Elegoo Carbon FDM coreXY printer and a roll of PLA from the same brand. I’ve read that some filament brands are better than others but I figured I’d start easy.

I’ve taken STLs to the library to print, but I’ve not done my own before. What’s all this slicer stuff? What other software and tools do I need? Thanks!

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Unless you live somewhere with a really low humidity, get something to store your filament rolls in. I like the Sterilite 54 Quart Gasket Boxes. They will hold a dozen rolls of filament. Put humidity meter and a big cloth bag of silica gel in there to keep it dry. Bake the silica gel when the humidity starts rising to regenerate it.

    The 4 liter cereal storage containers work well for storing single rolls. You can print a spool holder that will fit in them so you don’t have to take the filament out of the box to print with it.

    Get or make a filament dryer too. The filament usually comes wet even though it’s packed in a vacuum sealed bag.

      • squaresinger@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        17 hours ago

        The main issue with wet filament is that the water in the filament meets a 200+°C hotend when printing. It then quickly turns into steam, which you hear as a popping sound while printing.

        This then causes little holes in the extruded filament where the water steamed up. Looks like miniature swiss cheese. This causes all sorts of trouble. The print becomes brittle and weak, almost foam-like, and can be broken by applying little force. Layer adhesion and first layer adhesion will be much worse. It often causes lots of stringing.

        It’s usually not an issue for PLA (unless you have really high relative air humidity), but it’s a big issue for PETG, TPU and Nylon.

        If you print any of these filaments, you really should get a heated filament dryer.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        The filament absorbs moisture and that causes print quality issues. It can cause things like bubbles, stringing, poor layer adhesion and a rough finish. PLA will get brittle when it absorbs too much moisture.