3D Printer Upgrades

The Bambu AMS serves double duty by feeding the printer the right color at the right time and keeping all the filament dry and away from the outside air. Quite a bit of solutions have been designed by the community to prevent moisture damage to 3D printing filament, but ultimately having a sealed container with desiccant is the best first step. The following projects can be found on MakerWorld to address this issue:

• High Air Flow Desiccant Holder for Spools
• Pro AMS Drybox System v1.0

So I printed some up, filled them with desiccant, and will hopefully watch how the moisture levels slowly decrease. Whether or not they have a significant effect over time remains to be seen.

Why Moisture Matters

If you’ve ever used old filament and have it easily snap apart on you, you’ll understand the pain of moisture damage. Filament, especially “hygroscopic” ones like PETG, can absorb water from the air. Not only does this cause filament to become brittle, but water can also boil in the hotend, leading to failed prints and potential clogs.

The desiccant spool holder above allows for lots of air circulation in a design that isn’t difficult to install or print. The AMS is designed to be airtight and spool-friendly, so these designs fit our needs without too much fartin' around. If you want to print some of these yourself, grab the following from Amazon to complete the project:

• Moisture Indicating Silica Gel Desiccant
• 2-Pack Mini Hygrometer

We’ll find out how much effect this has in time, but at least we have two quick and easy solutions to play around with.