5mo ago

Using old filaments

Hello,

I put my homemade 3D printer in the garage when I moved 2 years ago, the filaments I had were maybe 2 years old and worked well.

I bulk bought them on aliexpress or maybe alibaba.

Now, the printer needs a refreshing, a bit of all kind of electrical & mechanical stuff and also figuring out how to run it from my new computer, and I wonder if I should buy some new filament so that I won't have to care about any old filament problems or what do you think? Is my filament dead or maybe ok?

Thanks!

Edit: thank you all!

I'll go with buy a new high quality one to get everything up and running, and then I'll check out the quality of the old spools. Who are stored open, but in a airtight box with a kilo of, now grey, alibaba deciccant pellets.

15 comments

Stored in vacuum bags with dessicant?
Or stored on a shelf in the open?
Either I'd buy one known good roll to calibrate your printer, then take it from there with he old stuff, see how good/bad it is.
A filament dryer might something to look into.
There's also a case to be made of not buying more filament than you can use to avoid these situations where you're stuck with old sketchy stuff.

Are the filaments still in their original packaging and if not, how were they stored? The main thing with old filaments is how much water they've absorbed from the environment, with older filaments stored in high humidity environments causing issues for print quality.
If your filaments have been stored sealed in original packaging, they'll probably print like new. If they've been stored in an airtight container they'll probably also be pretty good. You can also just give them a shot and see if you're happy with the quality they provide.
If they've been stored open on a shelf, it isn't necessarily over for them though. Look up guides on how to dry out filament. There's a few products you can buy that do it too, but if you have a printer with an enclosure and heated bed you can use that as an oven to bake out your filament.
I've got a few filaments that have been sitting for over 6 years and after baking out they print absolutely fine.
- Any advice on how to dry out old filament?
  I’ve got some filament that’s been sitting out for about 2 years and it’s been clogging my hot end. I use my printer relatively infrequently and so I now have a lot of filament that’s potentially ruined.
  
  I've not tried it, but I know some people claim that you can use your printer's heated bed to dry it out. Probably not the most energy efficient way to do it, but seems like it would work.
  
  If you're getting nozzle clogs, then it's probably not necessarily moisture but dust being an issue. Dusty and dirty filament pulls dust into the hotend, and the dust doesn't melt so the buildup clogs the nozzle. I've made rudimentary wipes by stabbing the filament through some foam (the grey stuff you find in pelican cases) so that it'll clean the filament of any surface dust as it travels through.
  For drying the filament, I set the heated bed to just below the glass transition temp of the filament, put the spool on and leave it there. There are some guides for other methods, but I haven't tried anything else so I can't comment on them.

I would say dry the shit out of those old filaments, and then send it.
You've already invested in them. The only thing you have left to waste now is your time.

Definitely go first with a new spool of well-known filament. Though I have had very good experiences with old filament, I recently had an issue with a spool of PET that would not adhere to the bed, and I tried drying it out for several hours. Mind you, this same spool had worked wonderfully in the past but I don't know what happened to it. Imagine that you tried to use a spool like that to calibrate your first layer!

I left my 1 year or so in the garage rolls in the dehydrator for two weeks and a bit (forgot about them) and they printed seemingly fine

If it's PLA or PETG it's probably still usable. PLA can get brittle if it's wet though but drying should make it usable again.
I use a cheap food dehydrator to dry filament.

Arguably speaking, even new filament can be wet, so a filament dryer would be necessary regardless of what you do.

I've had filaments sit for longer than that, and they're fine. Just loaded some up this morning in my new printer. I do keep my house' air relatively dry.

The climate I live in hasn't ever caused any issues with filament, so YMMV.
I still keep them all in a big sealed plastic box with all the baggies of desiccant I've collected over the years. I give the baggies a yearly refresher in the microwave.

i recently got back into printing. I had some PLA, some PETG, some ABS and some ASA all of which had sat for longer than that. After thorough drying in a dehydrator, a couple of rolls just didn't cooperate but most did. The troublesome ones may not have been very good to start - unbranded mystery stuff.

15 comments