Filament snapped above extruder gear???

[Quark]

Wham! An idea strikes! I'll just tie them up in an old sock! It's nukeable!

hmm...Are hosiery nukeable? you know, nylon kine?
I have a bunch from a past project....to hold aquarium filter media.

[Jules]

Thought about that - but decided to err on the side of caution. I had a little packet of cheap cotton kiddie socks from Wallmart (for another project) and I just filled them with the beads and tied off the top with heavy cotton twine.

And into the buckets they go.

[Quark]

Just a quick update, I've completely used up this roll, and have had continuous issues with it snapping. Bizarre thing is that when it snaps, the adjacent areas are also brittle, however, the further away from the snap, the softer the filament. On my more recent prints, as I got near the end of the spool, it snaps before entering the filament guide, probably due to the filament having more stress due to the tighter coil memory near the end of the spool. Thankfully, I haven't had one snap mid print, only after the print is done and it sits for a few hours. I read the single Amazon review and the person also had a similar experience. I think its possible that this particular Pine Green PLA from eSun is either flawed, or extremely sensitive to moisture in certain areas of the filament. Just for reference, my batch is 20141024-4, Received from Amazon on Nov 25, 2015.

[Matt_Sharkey]

Have you tried baking the filament? i know that recommendation was thrown around a year ago, people seemed more inclined to bake than wait on desiccant. but considering PLA's low glass point, you would have to bake at like 150 or less.

your description of random brittle spots mixed with soft filament sounds like a manufacturing defect. Humidity issues would definitely be uniform effecting the outside of the spool first.

[Jules]

Have you tried baking the filament? i know that recommendation was thrown around a year ago, people seemed more inclined to bake than wait on desiccant. but considering PLA's low glass point, you would have to bake at like 150 or less.

your description of random brittle spots mixed with soft filament sounds like a manufacturing defect. Humidity issues would definitely be uniform effecting the outside of the spool first.

I had actually considered sticking it in a dehydrator. I've got one from NESCO American Harvest that tops out at 70°C, and it's large enough to put a spool in. I have to either come up with some rings to hold the top up over the spool though, or cut the mesh out of three of the trays, and I've hestitated to do that because I use the trays to dehydrate fruit during harvest time.

Once i pick up a few spares I'll sacrifice a couple of trays and see if it works.

[Quark]

Have you tried baking the filament? i know that recommendation was thrown around a year ago, people seemed more inclined to bake than wait on desiccant. but considering PLA's low glass point, you would have to bake at like 150 or less.

your description of random brittle spots mixed with soft filament sounds like a manufacturing defect. Humidity issues would definitely be uniform effecting the outside of the spool first.

Haven't tried it, didn't really have time, can't do it anymore, no more filament.

It was very random spots though, I've sent an email to esun, not sure I'll get a response, but just wanted to give them a heads up. For me, I think though I'm going to look elsewhere if I need that same color. Wondering if I should start a new thread for this specific filament and see if anyone else had similar issues?