Hot take: that 'perfect' 3D print I posted last week was already cracking

Printed a helmet display stand on my Ender 3 v2 for a client's cosplay piece. Looked flawless for 12 hours, then I heard a snap at 3 AM. Found 4 hairline cracks along the layer lines near the base. The filament was PLA from a batch I stored in a damp basement here in Seattle over the winter. I ended up reprinting it with PETG after drying the spool for 6 hours at 55C. Has anyone else had a print fail hours after it looked perfect, or was this just my moisture mistake?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseyfox8d ago

Oh man, that 3 AM snap is the worst sound in printing. I gotta gently push back on the PETG drying though - 55C for 6 hours is actually a bit hot for PETG, you're right at the edge of softening the spool itself. Most guides say 50-60C is safe but I've had spools warp at 55C if they hung too long. I usually do 50C for 8 hours for PETG and never had issues. Moisture was definitely the culprit on that PLA though, Seattle basements are brutal for filament.

carter.hugo7d ago

Wait, you actually had a spool WARP at 55C? @caseyfox I gotta hear more about that because I run my PETG at 55C all the time and never saw any melting. Dude I left a spool of eSun PETG in my car last August here in Texas and it came out like a Salvador Dali painting after just an hour in the sun. That inner spool hole was completely oval shaped and the filament tangled so bad I had to toss the whole thing. I guess my dryer setup has good airflow keeping things stable but now I'm paranoid about my next batch.