PLA basically doesn’t dissolve in any (readily available consumer-grade) solvents. Your best bet is going to be to take the entire unit as far apart as you can until it is metal only components, heat it with a heatgun to make the PLA soft/melt, and brush it all off with a brass cleaning brush.

IMO having the ability to do TPU is way more versatile than going to another rigid structural filament.
ABS/ASA is just “pla but more impact resistant”.
TPU is “haha funny squishy wait this turns into a living hinge?” and opens up a TON of print opportunities.
I had a lot more fun trying out TPU (both high and low durometers) than switching to any other kind of filament. Whatever you print basically becomes shockproof l, is squishy/bendy, and you can chuck it across a room full-force with no problems. Super fun.

However, TPU is happiest with a direct drive extruder. High durometer (95a) TPU’s are fine, but not optimal, in bowden extruders, while low durometer (Ninjaflex) straight up won’t print right thru a bowden. So keep your type of printer in mind when shopping for spools of test filament.

Autodesk moment

Ehhh, I find that PLA doesn’t survive well in continuously wet environments- gets kinda cheese-y like.

Thats interesting you havent had any problems with it being wet though. ASA must be a lot more sensitive to manufacturer, because I had four complete spools of Bambu that just wouldn’t do shit without drying, and I’m about 30/80 on spools of Overture ASA that need drying vs don’t.

ASA is basically inert unless you’re dealing with weird acids or acetone so I don’t worry about the chemistry too much. PETG will generally be a little better chemically but nothing that you’d see in a sewer.

ASA is the peak material for outdoor prints with the best uv and weather resistance. It is quite a bit expensive but worth it imo if it’s not something you want to replace every 2 years. Downside is it must be dried before use every time and printed in a good enclosure printer, ideally preheated.

How big is the cap? Is it a threaded pipe clean out cap or a manhole sized cap?
There are codes regulating the loads a septic cap has to support (preventing people from falling in) as well as some need for atmospheric sealing. If you have to print in multiple sections I don’t know how tight you can make it and how strong it can really be if there is glue involved.

Ah. Well bambu ams has issues with their rollers slipping on cardboard spools unless you print a clip on ring that covers the outer edges, only because bambu uses the rollers to backdrive the spool when unloading. Not so for basic feeders

Not really any correlation. Plastic filament is plastic filament. About the only outlier would be Bambu with their rfid AMS identification system. But even then, I’ve put 5 different brands through my Bambu printer and honestly, Bambu filament has performed the worst lol (it’s more wet than most out of the box and needs drying).

Never had Overture steer me wrong. I use Overture almost exclusively for ASA and they’re reliable, don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t work for PETG too.
Their cardboard spools aren’t Bambu AMS compatible (or compatible with any filament solution that relies on spool edge rollers), so keep that in mind.

Inland is Microcenter’s in home brand and I’ve heard good things about them too.

I would just run clear PETG to see how it does, and keep the model files on hand in case they need to be replaced. PETG/s UV resistance is decent and will certainly last at least a continuous year or two in most exposure situations, and it is by far the most cost effective and easiest to print; it’s cost effective enough that even if they begin to fail after 2 years, you can print more. and at <$20/kg, it’s the cheapest to experiment with.

Polycarb will be more UV,thermal, and impact resistant but not sure it’s worth the added cost and printing difficulty for this kind of project. The one major benefit it would have is higher light transmittal vs clear PETG, but it’s really not by much, and probably not worth the $15+/kg premium over PETG.

Well, the difference here is that if they yellow out in 3 years, you can simply print replacements for a few bucks instead of junking the string.

Yeah, it’s counterintuitive but too high of a bed temp can cause less adhesion as it makes the first layer plastic underneath too soft. 95 to 100 should be all you need, unless you verify with an external thermocouple that your bed surface runs too cold vs the printer’s thermistor.

1. That bed temp is too high, past the Tg. You should be able to use 95c for both.

2. The chamber temp is likely fine, I typically get my chamber to about 45c on my x1c by throwing a blanket over it and it does abs fine. Maybe try throwing a blanket over your enclosure too to get it to that magic 50C.

3. Is the filament dry? One of the first symptoms you’ll see with bad, wet filament is really poor bed adhesion and much higher warpage, even if its not wet enough to cause the typical problems of nozzle foaming and stringing. YMMV but I’ve found maybe 80% of spools of ASA Ive opened so far end to be “wet” out of the box from multiple manufacturers. So definitely consider drying all your spools before going down any other path.

4. A smooth plate has better adhesion than a textured plate, if you have one available.

That doesn’t mean anything to a patent troll company like Stratasys. They have tons of generalized patents issued in the last few years on things the 3d printer community has been using as prior art for decades prior and they are using that as a basis to take down Bambu. Like heated beds, lmfao. They’ll make some shit up and sue anyway because they’re becoming irrelevant and are unable to compete legitimately anymore. And the Texas court well known for protecting corporate interests will hand them whatever they want.

Great feature indeed. Here before the stratasys lawsuit lands in Josef’s inbox.

smart!

the only thing I’d worry about is 3d prints not being actually sealed. the layer lines are never airtight and always allow air and thus moisture to leak past them unless a lacquer sealant is applied. so this won’t keep film very fresh for a very long time but would work great for travel and transport!

Humidity ruins PLA. It turns brittle AF once it has absorbed any major amount of moisture, and that is significantly sped up with temperature.

Are you trying to keep the spools sealed in bins with dessicant? If you’re in a moist climate, using plastic bins with some foam gasket added to the lids and a pile of dessicant is the only way to really keep filament long term without it turning into a wet bubbly mess in like two weeks. That’s somewhat unavoidable and means you can’t use many other storage methods, unless you are drying or printing from a dryer every time. Or are lucky like me and live in a desert.

At the college makerspace I used to help run, we had some shelf racking installed with rails that are parallel to the wall and about 5" apart. Spools sit perpendicular to the wall with their round faces cradled by the two rails. There’s also a standalone wood rack with similar rails that can be moved where needed. The filaments are grouped by type and each section is labelled, and then the filament itself is exposed so you can see color since it sits perpendicular to the wall. I’ll see if I can find some photos of it later.

Ok, so a vast majority of 3d printers do not connect directly to a PC these days. They have a self contained microcontroller.

The workflow is:

1. You design or download a 3D model you want to to print.
2. Open the 3D model in a slicer software. The slicer takes a 3D model and, using a profile designed for a specific printer’s nozzle size and controller, converts the solid volume of the model into G-Code, or machine readable code that is a series of coordinates and move rates. This tells the printer where and how to put plastic.
3. Export the G-code to a .gcode (or other) file. Save that file onto an SD card.
4. Put the SD card in your printer.
5. Select the file on the printer display and away you go.

Now, some printers use a network connection component, eg Bambu printers have a wifi adapter. This let’s them download firmware updates and receive print jobs from a computer remotely without needing to move SD cards. This does require the right software, e.g Bambu printers require proprietary Bambu Studio (or it’s open source fork OrcaSlicer) that has the networking module to talk to it. This doesn’t require special driver setup though.

I suppose that would work too, just solvent and then smear the outer walls of the boat. PLA is not exactly water safe though and will break down/become mechanically weak with long enough exposure. So it would be better to ideally seal the plastic entirely with a laquer