New Printer PVA Question

[Bobr 0]

First the Ultimaker is far the best printer around... Just got the Ultimaker 3 yesterday... and with out having to do anything but put in the filament and plug in in.... WOW and now it is finishing a 22 hour print... unbelievable.

My question is after it has stop printing... what to do?

Should I remove the PVA filament ... I will not print again for 2-3 day. I understand that the PVA will degrade if left out.

Kind regards

Bobr

[fbrc8-erin 298]

Hi, Bobr,

Generally speaking, your PVA should be okay if left in for a couple of days (for example if you left printing on Friday, and came back on Monday). However, as a general rule of thumb, I'd recommend storing the PVA in a bag or plastic container with some silica packs to help keep the moisture out, especially if you live in a humid region.

If you know you're not going to use the BB Core for quite a while, you might also consider doing a cleaning, such as is described here when you take the filament out, though generally the printer is pretty good about pulling most of the filament out when you eject the material: https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/23132-maintaining-the-bb-print-core

[nullroute 0]

How long is "quite a while" (for PVA or PLA)? I have some PLA that's been sitting out a couple weeks... oops.

[fbrc8-erin 298]

PLA isn't hugely humidity sensitive. It's a good practice to put it in a container with a couple of silica packs, but it's not going to go bad in the span of a few weeks or even a few months unless it's getting exposed to extreme heat/humidity. I have some filaments that are a few years old that I still use occasionally from colors that were discontinued.

PVA is more humidity sensitive, so I'd recommend sealing the filament up if you think you won't use it for a week or more. Because it dissolves on contact with water, you really want to be careful not to let moisture get into it. If you're in a really humid environment, I'd be more cautious.