Filament dehydrator and ultimaker

All,

I brought a food dehydrator in. I used this model when I did forensics work just after my bachelors degree. It is primarily needed for Nylon filaments if they get really wet. You can also dehydrate saturated ABS and other filaments susceptible to water absorption with it. It will live in fab lab. Please respect it. If filament is stored properly (with a desiccation packet) and used within a reasonable time frame from purchase, it’s generally fine. However, this will dry out really wet filament in much less time. My Nylon was so wet that the nozzle was steaming like a tea kettle! I’ve noticed that some of our old ABS that’s been sitting around pops and fizzles with moisture as well. Feel free to use it if you need to. Don’t go crazy, though. It’s for restoration — it’s not needed for fresh filament, PLA, or air tight filament stored with desiccant.

You can also use it to dry out crafts, small wooden things, flowers, etc — that’s great fun. I also use it primarily to restore fidelity to old cassette and reel to reel tapes, and fix up water damaged art work & photos / film (a big use in forensics and restoration). It is not food safe. Seriously, I don’t recommend dried fruit with ABS fumes in it.

Ultimaker is temporarily down. I will fix it. My authorized students were using it and it got the very common feeder grinding / bowden lifting issue. I’ll unclog and contact them with the trouble shooting info today. Not a big deal. This happens with ultimaker, and here is the key to keeping it healthy:

IF YOU HERE RHYTHMIC CLICKING OR CLUNKING NOISES FROM THE FEEDER IN BACK, ABORT THE PRINT IMMEDIATELY. These are easy to deal with, but much much easier if they are stopped sooner rather than later.

I am adding some additional “tests” to ultimaker certification, including print an eNable hand. This will help us serve the community as well as get you REALLY familiar with ultimaker. I can even introduce you to the use of nylon, HIPS, and PETG in this project. Does that sound reasonable?

Lorin

That sounds like a great idea! (printing E-nable hands)

Keep kicking ass man

All,

I brought a food dehydrator in. I used this model when I did forensics work just after my bachelors degree. It is primarily needed for Nylon filaments if they get really wet. You can also dehydrate saturated ABS and other filaments susceptible to water absorption with it. It will live in fab lab. Please respect it. If filament is stored properly (with a desiccation packet) and used within a reasonable time frame from purchase, it’s generally fine. However, this will dry out really wet filament in much less time. My Nylon was so wet that the nozzle was steaming like a tea kettle! I’ve noticed that some of our old ABS that’s been sitting around pops and fizzles with moisture as well. Feel free to use it if you need to. Don’t go crazy, though. It’s for restoration — it’s not needed for fresh filament, PLA, or air tight filament stored with desiccant.

You can also use it to dry out crafts, small wooden things, flowers, etc — that’s great fun. I also use it primarily to restore fidelity to old cassette and reel to reel tapes, and fix up water damaged art work & photos / film (a big use in forensics and restoration). It is not food safe. Seriously, I don’t recommend dried fruit with ABS fumes in it.

Ultimaker is temporarily down. I will fix it. My authorized students were using it and it got the very common feeder grinding / bowden lifting issue. I’ll unclog and contact them with the trouble shooting info today. Not a big deal. This happens with ultimaker, and here is the key to keeping it healthy:

IF YOU HERE RHYTHMIC CLICKING OR CLUNKING NOISES FROM THE FEEDER IN BACK, ABORT THE PRINT IMMEDIATELY. These are easy to deal with, but much much easier if they are stopped sooner rather than later.

I am adding some additional “tests” to ultimaker certification, including print an eNable hand. This will help us serve the community as well as get you REALLY familiar with ultimaker. I can even introduce you to the use of nylon, HIPS, and PETG in this project. Does that sound reasonable?

Lorin

The Ultimaker 2 is back online. It’s printing freshly dehydrated Nylon now!

Pretty normal glitch. Filament broke off in Bowden. Feeder can’t push broken filament (too much pressure needed). So the feeder ground on the filament. Thus, the machine can’t feed forward, or backward.

This is simple to deal with. If the ultimaker cannot feed forward or back and / or you hear clicking sounds from feeder, STOP. This needs to be fixed manually, and the nozzle needs to be cleaned.

I will teach my students how to do these maneuvers in class on Monday. They can then teach the rest of the hive!

Oh, and thank you will for sending me a message, also Kevin. To all my students, please do the same if you have trouble with this machine or anything. If you don’t report it, it can’t be fixed.

My Printrbot is less happy. Looks like the head crashed and dragged pretty hard. There is a pretty deep new gouge in the bed.

I’m going to order a new tip, as the hot end seems okay otherwise.

Taking it back home for now.