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Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

I have about 1/2 a reel of UM blue filament from when I purchased my machine last october (2014), I store my filaments, samples and loose 10m etc lengths in sealed plastic bags as supplied and then in a large "Really Usefully Box" .

My UM blue is getting a bit brittle and keeps breaking as it comes off the reel.

Does anybody have a simple solution to rejuvenate the filament? I quite like the UM blue so would still like to finish the reel and not waste it so any surgestions welcome,

Cheers Izzy.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    PLA is crystalline, so you can anneal it by baking it at around 65C - 75C for a few hours. This will allow the crystalline structure to regrow, and should sort out the brittleness. There was an interesting discussion here a while ago, scroll down for some interesting references.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    I have tied the oven trick at 50deg for like an hour and it worked really well. Others put it in hot water.

    Just make sure you dont get it to hot or they can start to stick to each other.

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    Posted (edited) · Rejuvenating filament?

    Cheers  guys, I tried my reel in the oven for 2 hours at 70C garnished with a little parsley...

    When I looked before butting it in I noticed a fair bit of cracking so I'll let it settle and see if it's only a small area effected or it's a write off.

    Edited by Guest
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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    :) would be funny to have scented filament.

     

    Protopasta has coffee flavoured filament. :p it prints great, looks like slightly translucent coffee/chocolate colour and smells of coffee when you print it!

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

     

    :) would be funny to have scented filament.

     

    Protopasta has coffee flavoured filament. :Pit prints great, looks like slightly translucent coffee/chocolate colour and smells of coffee when you print it!

     

    hahaha cool

    I hope kids don't try to eat the prints.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Unfortunately it looses it's smell after it's cooled down. but at least the print quality is up to snuff.

    It does kinda look delicious.

    Woodfill smells kinda nice too...

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    I lose my sence of smell and taste nearly 3 years ago due to the Flu, I have a small amount back about 8% but very limited and I can't necessarily identify some of the scents.

    I don't know what any of the printing smells like so I have to rely on my wife to say if anything smells bad or is too much.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    bummer dude

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    I had a "new" to me roll of Colorfabb translucent green. The guy I bought my printer from threw it in the deal. It had a manufacture date of 2011, but was still vacuum sealed. It was cracking and brittle.

    I heated up a big pot of water to 70°C, took it off the heat. Placed the whole spool on a potato masher, and lowered it in the water for 30 seconds. Left it to cool and dry and it's printing fantastic.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Cheers anakin, worth a try, even if it's not perfect it can be used for testing.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Could not resit to give it a try :)

    PLAsoup.thumb.png.09706899ffebfe2956f4f69132c758a1.png

    Had some faberdasherry grey, less than a year old but very brittle.

    Used anakin's 70 degrees / 30 sec advice, think it did work, it's not brittle anymore.

    @anakin did you do anything special regarding drying the pastic? I've now left it air drying for a few hours but when I shake the spool it's still wet .... I'll leave it over night before making an attempt to print with the stuff.

    PLAsoup.thumb.png.09706899ffebfe2956f4f69132c758a1.png

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Funny how everyone says that filament absorbs moisture and goes bad. and here you are dunking it in hot water. :p

    I have a few spools that are crackly as well. You guys are doing some great science over there. :)

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Could not resit to give it a try :)

    PLAsoup.thumb.png.09706899ffebfe2956f4f69132c758a1.png

    Had some faberdasherry grey, less than a year old but very brittle.

    Used anakin's 70 degrees / 30 sec advice, think it did work, it's not brittle anymore.

    @anakin did you do anything special regarding drying the pastic? I've now left it air drying for a few hours but when I shake the spool it's still wet .... I'll leave it over night before making an attempt to print with the stuff.

     

    was this also orignal UT Filament or Colarfabb you recoment to me?

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Im tempted to put something together using a Lego Mindstorm, a motorised system that would drive a reel as the take up reel pulling the filament off of the treated reel perhaps past a hair drier set on low heat to remove the moisture without over heating the filament.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    was this also orignal UT Filament or Colarfabb you recoment to me?

     

    this was faberdasherry, really expensive to buy when your outside of the UK.... I only bought a few rolls once.

    http://www.faberdashery.co.uk/products-page/

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Im tempted to put something together using a Lego Mindstorm, a motorised system that would drive a reel as the take up reel pulling the filament off of the treated reel perhaps past a hair drier set on low heat to remove the moisture without over heating the filament.

     

    I was thinking to also reel it onto a bigger spool to get rid of the massive tension in the last part of the spool... I like the mindsstorms idea... I have one (my son has one) that's not being used for a while... But i don't have the time now, just ordered myself a shapeoko3 so I need to keep reading there forum to be prepared when the kit arrives :)
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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Could not resit to give it a try :)

    PLAsoup.thumb.png.09706899ffebfe2956f4f69132c758a1.png

    Had some faberdasherry grey, less than a year old but very brittle.

    Used anakin's 70 degrees / 30 sec advice, think it did work, it's not brittle anymore.

    @anakin did you do anything special regarding drying the pastic? I've now left it air drying for a few hours but when I shake the spool it's still wet .... I'll leave it over night before making an attempt to print with the stuff.

     

    Nope, nothing special. I only really let it dry for 20 minutes or so. I did kinda work the roll as some of the lines were gently stuck to each other.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Quite interested in your Shapoko3 Jan, you will have to start a thread and keep us informed 8)

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Quite interested in your Shapoko3 Jan, you will have to start a thread and keep us informed 8)

     

    There's a ton of information on there site & forum, but I can show it off when I get it to work of course :)

    http://www.shapeoko.com/

    By the way, my name is Arjan :)

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    Hoi Arjan, sorry about that, the shapeoko looks a great home CNC kit, I watched the construction video and it looks interesting for a 3 axis machine, I couldn't find a UK supplier for a pricing in the UK but will keep looking.

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    On uk robosavvy sells x-carve. I think it's the same as shapeoko ?

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    Posted · Rejuvenating filament?

    We're totally offtopic here....

    The x-carve and shapeoko have the same background, basically (mechanically) the x-carve is more a shapeoko2. The shapeoko3 is mechanically much heavier/sturdier.

    My machine is on on it's way for delivery next week, just paid fedex the tax... I'll start a thread in the coffee corner when I managed to put it all together...

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