So... I have a filament rack i designed to go above my printer.

So… I have a filament rack i designed to go above my printer. Ive heard that pla will absorb water and become hard to print. Is this true? How long does it normally take to “ruin or dampen” a roll of filament? Oh and by the way… Davinci printers are a beast. Other than changing a connector, i have had 500 hours of printing and just now had to replace the hotend. I have it all tuned up and the quality is comparable to a makerbot

What hotend did you replace it with and were you able to print PLA with the stock one? 1.0 or 1.0a?

1.0. I used pla but it sometimes got jammed. The new factory hotend looks different and should print pla better. I’ll see when it gets here Monday

Nice. I have a 1.0 also flashed with repetier and have been really happy with it. I just ordered some parts for upgrading the extruder and hotend with printrbot aluminum extruder and makerfarm hexagon hotend: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:746692

I cant flash the firmware thats just too scary for me. I can use slic3r and convert the code though

Re plastic absorbing water, it does and depends on your humidity. This is one nice feature of the stock cartridges. They’re sealed and include dessicant to keep the plastic dry. another way to deal with it is to put it in a oven on low or build a box with light bulbs to heat it up gently but repeated cycles can damage the plastic.

I had a few times where two pieces of filament were fused together in the cartridge to make one continuous strand… They weren’t fused vwry well and got jammed coming out of the cartridge. That locked up the printer and if i wasnt home all of the steppera would have been toast

There are some elegant ways how to fight with moisture like http://makezine.com/2015/05/29/keep-pla-filament-airtight/

Just get an e3d. Never breaks, handles everything perfectly. Replace nozzle every 500 to 1000. Having to get a new hot end every 500 is crazy

I used a 5Ltr cake storage box for some time now, keeps the moisture away nicely.

I have 696 hours on my 1.0, no print problems at all. Well, none that weren’t my fault. Haven’t been brave enough to try PLA yet.

@Nathan_Walkner while your statement is true, i meant when the makerbots were actually good.

Im actually trying to get print quality below 100 microns now. Not sure if the firmware supports it

Did you bypass the filament restriction? Otherwise gross

I reset a cartridge so it thinks its full. I then use slicer for the gcode and convert it. Temps are included in the gcode