Perhaps, but have you actually tested this for yourself?
PLA is extruded at 220C in my Prusa beastie. Once the filament is slapped on the model, I probably want it to to fuse to the previous layer really well and then cool really fast and become stable.
We need to provide working and results rather than “I think that”. My printer is quite close to a very large double doors to outside, which open and shut as required.
It’s complicated but PLA is bio-degradable … eventually. Not months but years. That’s much better than the horrors you see on Blue Planet II.
Plus humidity is bad for your filament.
I keep on hearing this but it does not check out for me.
I have a Prusa 3S+, self assembled. I do not do a great deal of printing and go through phases. I did a flurry of prints during the pandemic and then it rested idle in our rather cold and slightly damp study for a couple of years. When I bought it, it came with a spool of silver Prusament which worked nicely. I then bought a spool of “Sunlu” filament (Chinese firm off of Amazon) and then a box of 10 colours of the stuff.
I recently got the printer out and updated the firmware, re-calibrated it and so on. I’ve done several prints with filament that has been open to the environment for at least two or three years and its fine. I have done a print using some transparent filament which was unopened and that was fine too. The unopened stuff was vacuum shrunk wrapped so could not possibly be damp. The opened filament was stored in the original cardboard box in a slightly damp and unheated room.
For me the main issues for a decent print are:
I will try repeating a challenging print with filament that is way older now and see what happens. I printed a couple of tank models in red around four years ago. Both involved their turrets with the barrel facing upwards - that’s a lumpy cylinder about 4cm long and 2mm wide.
I have seen some notes about PLA being hydrophylic (absorbs water) on the Prusa website’s official advice but I don’t personally think it is an issue and people are probably missing another factor or factors that is fucking up their prints. I think the filament dampness meme is “cargo culting”.
PLA is heated to around 220C whilst being extruded so any water will steam off very quickly as water vapour - which is not even “wet”, well before worrying a print job.
PLA is touted as bio-degradable and it is … eventually. It is extremely stable, despite being derived from corn starch. It really doesn’t seem to care about a bit of water hanging around. That’s why I can print new hinges for a plastic garden storage thing to replace the original ones and they last through winters and summers in the UK.
So, if you think moisture is an issue for PLA filament used for 3D printing, why not do some experiments and then decide for yourself.
I’m happy to be proved wrong.
That is superb. Sadly my eyes degrade faster than the frames wear out!
I see you are on the John Lennon specials which makes it a bit easier to model. I haven’t worn circular specs since college (~1990) My current Tesco specials only have lens frame from the nasal bridge clips, over the top to about 5mm below the temple joints.
Just a thought but you might like to investigate using spring steel for the arms and PLA just for the frames. You could create a jig for joining and heat the ends of the arms up with a brazing torch (kitchen supplies) and sink them into a suitable cylinder close to the temple joint. If you go all in you can make the straight part of the arm rigid and the over ear part flexible with careful heating and cooling and whacking with a hammer!
Now, that metal work will be comfortable but might be a bit chilly. What about PLA tips over ear instead of steel?
Anyway, great job. I’m very impressed.
Good skills Sir! Advice noted and I will re-evaluate how I do specs.
Thank you.