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Ambient printing temp

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Dan, May 10, 2013.

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  1. Dan

    Dan Guest

    Hey guys,

    I just ordered The Printer yesterday. i'm really excited. Of course now I have to learn more than I know about 3d printing right now which is 'wow that YouTube video was cool'

    So, now that this printer is coming I need a place to put it. I realize it's a small footprint but I was hoping to print in my garage for a number of different reasons. The problem is I live in Phoenix and in the summer the garage will routinely be 115F and in the winter it will get down to 40F.

    Is printing in either of these extremes going to cause me or the printer more hassle than it's worth?

    Thanks in advance
     
    #1 Dan, May 10, 2013
  2. CAMBO3D

    CAMBO3D New Member

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    why dont you keep it indoors? I print indoors all the time.

    If your printing in the cold weather could effect your prints somewhat, depending on what material your using.
     
    #2 CAMBO3D, May 11, 2013
  3. bradnemeth

    bradnemeth New Member

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    Ive found that even an ambient 10 degree temp change makes a difference, especially when printing a part large enough so that the previous layer cools before the nozzle makes its round. Ive been making fairly complex shapes at varying wall thicknesses. Ive found that every part design has its own printing nuances that requires settings tweak. Ill be building an enclosed case/ cover for mine when it arrives to provide at least one printing constant. ; D
     
    #3 bradnemeth, Jun 1, 2013
  4. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    You'll probably find that ABS prints great in the summer, PLA horribly, then the reverse for winter (unless you have a heated enclosure). In Phoenix, I wouldn't be surprised if your garage gets even hotter than 115 in the summer. Run ABS in the garage, PLA in the house :)
    You also have an advantage over most of us due to the low humidity.
     
    #4 Printed Solid, Jun 1, 2013
  5. Ben Lindstrom

    Ben Lindstrom Active Member

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    Right now any place has a better humidity level than Minnesota. It has been raining almost every day since it stopped snowing here at the end of April. =)

    The next question is how hot is too how for PLA? And how cold is too cold for ABS? Because up here we swing from 102F in the summer to -20F in the winter (unadjusted for windchill, etc), and I doubt my garage is much cooler/warmer. And in general how bad would it be for a printer sit in those extremes in a garage.
     
    #5 Ben Lindstrom, Jun 1, 2013
  6. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Not speaking from experience from printing but from living in MN myself for a while and understanding the cold and heat you are going to be having multiple issues unless you get into a more regulated area the layers that these printers print in are so small that even in the mildests of winters you will be having trouble as they have to be able to accept the next layer of molten material from the print head and in the extremes of MN winters this will be very unlikely. ABS is difficult enough at the 70-100 temp and is usually in need of having some additional type of adhesion being in place to have prints not lift from the print bed because of temp changes. PLA is more forgiving but I believe you will find it will be difficult to work with during the winter months there as well. Another thing about the non-winter times is the humidity. which is a killer for most filament. Most filament tends to absorb moisture and begin to cause issues when printing unless kept fair dry but with 100 degree heat and 100% humidity that will be an issue as well. There are several people who know how to print in the humid conditions so they can answer as to how they dealt with excess humidity.
    Extreme cold temperatures and humidity are things you definitely will be having to deal with.

    By the way where at in MN I used to live on Lake Minnetonka, West of the cities.
     
    #6 tesseract, Jun 1, 2013
  7. Ben Lindstrom

    Ben Lindstrom Active Member

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    My original intent is to keep it indoors. Just don't have a home for it yet. As in truth I wasn't considering the garage since I don't tolerate those shifts of temperatures either. =) Indoors I can at least keep it between 65 - 75.

    Eagan, just south of St Paul. I'm up in the Minnetonka area every other weekend to hang out with folks I know over by 169 and co 7 (well, closer to 17th Ave N then 169 =).
     
    #7 Ben Lindstrom, Jun 1, 2013
  8. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Indoors will probably be best and as far as the filament goes store it in tightly closed bags when ever you are not using it and I would never leave an open spool on the printer unless you are actively printing. Done printing take it off and back in the plastic bag that way you keep absorption minimized and any printing will be more uniform.

    Lived in Coon Rapids when I was little and then moved between CA and MN several times as an adult I chose CA. Last time I lived there was on North Arm Bay on Minnetonka very nice. Miss the lake but not the Winters my coldest was -40F with 20MPH wind brought it down to -100F windchill for about three days nobody went to work or school unless you were related to emergency services. I still am a Vikings fan though, have to be until they win a Superbowl
     
    #8 tesseract, Jun 1, 2013
  9. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    I actually built a climate controlled insulated 10'X10' area in my garage for printing so that I could have a climate controlled area and keep fumes away from my young kids. I chose to do that based on experience with other plastics processing technologies.

    I'm not really sure what 'too hot' or 'too cold' is f0r 3D printing. It will probably work, but work differently, across your whole temperature range. Plastic manufacturing processes in general benefit from consistent environmental conditions. Things might work at the hot summer temperatures for both materials, but you'll have to adjust your settings. By the time you get everything dialed in, you'll have different conditions and will have to figure out new settings.
     
    #9 Printed Solid, Jun 2, 2013
  10. collin

    collin New Member

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    I stuffed my printer into an existing cabinet added a Plexiglas window and stuck an old computer fan 90 mm fan underneath pointed right at the ramps.
     
    #10 collin, Aug 5, 2014
  11. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Can you share pictures with me on how you did this? I want to climate control my printing region since my garage has very poor insulation

    Too cold is around 10C. That's when you get warping with PLA with no heated bed.

    Too hot is basically as long as the stepper motors stay below 80C. I believe those are the most temp critical besides the ramps board
     
    #11 Mike Kelly, Aug 5, 2014
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  12. collin

    collin New Member

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    I second this, matt show us where you live( not creepy)... ( a little creepy)
     
    #12 collin, Aug 5, 2014
  13. Technidyne

    Technidyne Active Member

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    ......hehehehe!
    No cold weather for me, I'm in the Caribbean 85-95*F year round and pretty humid as we're an island. My printer is setup in the Office / Electronics Lab of my workshop the A/C keeps things at around 75*F but sometimes I print when the A/C is off and so far I have not had any issues regarding ambient conditions.:cool:

    BTW when I wired-up my LED lighting, I also installed a small fan to blow against the RAMPS board just for giggles.
     
    #13 Technidyne, Aug 5, 2014
  14. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    haha. that's a 100% accurate. It's just a room in my house. There's really nothing fancy to show. I built a wall across my garage and insulated the heck out of the walls in that section. The garage isn't part of my HVAC system so no fumes are circulated through the house. I run a space heater and wall unit air conditioner for climate control.

    It just looks like a (admittedly very messy) room.

    My daughters do call it the factory.
     
    #14 Printed Solid, Aug 5, 2014
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  15. collin

    collin New Member

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    "the factory"
    i lol'd
     
    #15 collin, Aug 5, 2014
  16. gstercken

    gstercken Member

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    Interesting, same here: In the Philippines, with tropical climate. My extruder and bed temperature usually read around 36°C (96.8°F) when the printer is off. Down to 24°C (75.2°F) with A/C on. Humidity levels are always around 80%. I never had any of the known humidity-related issues with print quality, in spite of storing my filament spools out in the open (no special containers, plastic bags or dehumidifiers). I really wonder why that is.
     
    #16 gstercken, Aug 6, 2014
  17. collin

    collin New Member

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    could be that you are just awesome opossum or you are using abs
     
    #17 collin, Aug 7, 2014
  18. gstercken

    gstercken Member

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    Nope... As much as I would love to use ABS (that's why I bought the ABS+PLA model), I can't, since my heated bed is having trouble since day one, and still awaiting resolution. So, for now, I print only PLA, and some other materials (like Flex Eco-PLA, Flex PolyEster) that work well on an unheated surface, with great results.

    Must be the opossum thingy then... ;)

    But seriously, I honestly wonder about all the humidity-related concerns, like people storing their filaments in specific containers, or having to dehumidify them in the oven before printing. I have never run into any of those problems. Whenever my prints failed, it was due to some mechanichal issues (like the Z-axis not moving freely, or the sloppy, dangling wiring of the R1 jamming one of the axes). Of course, we all have to experiment with temperature, cooling, first-layer-adhesion and all that stuff. But humidity? No, not ever.
     
    #18 gstercken, Aug 7, 2014
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Only certain filaments I have used (bridge nylon and carbon fiber for sure) are seriously humidity sensitive. Those I keep in bags with desiccants. Regular PLA can suffer a lot of humidity and still print OK. With an oiler attached you can pretty much ignore that.
    If you do want you can bake it out (a pain, time consuming, but doable).
     
    #19 mark tomlinson, Aug 7, 2014
  20. collin

    collin New Member

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    that makes me happy :)
     
    #20 collin, Aug 7, 2014
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