Rainbow filament

While getting back in to 3D printing, I broke out one of the oldest filaments I have, a rainbow filament. I bought the filament over a year or 3 ago to mix things up a bit. I encountered some issues, some of which you may face yourself.

First off, the filament is silk PLA. This is different to normal PLA as it seems to simulaneously string and have no layer adhension. To fix the later, I have tried printing at 220 degrees. For the string, I have attempted to fix my string issues however... When I printed a temp tower (the one built in to cura), the tower failed. Why did the tower fail? Bad layer adhension. Basically, the tower fell over. Not really the best of starts...

Despite both these issues, I have been able to print quite a lot of things. To compensate for the layer adhesion, I'd suggest the higher temperatures and possibly thicker walls. As for the retraction settings, either live with it and use an air gun or hair dryer afterwards or keep tuning away.

The items I have printed have almost exclusively been part of Gridfinity. The items are great for organising your stuff. Not for hiding it away, but putting it in line of sight to help you finish more projects.

The last issue I had with the filament was winding. I have never had a filament that was wound this badly that I literally had a print fail. Throughout most of these prints, I would hear a clicking sound. This sound filled me with dread, as I have had heat creep issues which ended with blocked nozzles and the extruder skipping (hence the clicking). (Un)Fortunately, this wasn't that. This was that the filament was wound in such a way that it was very tight on the spool. In addition, somewhere along the line a tangle got in to the mix.

I have yet to resolve the tangling issue (partly because I only have less than 100g of filament left on the roll) but partly because I am considering options. Currently, I am considering printing out a filament winding station. This page has more details on what I am thinking of doing. As I am lazy, I'd probably want something automatic.

The last thing I read about while printing (but haven't actually done anything about) was drying the filament. I have a filament dryer, but not finished the modification to the enclosure to allow the filament through. Yes, it is a hole and I have actually made that. However, if needs a fastener around it to stop it getting bigger and prevent wear and tear. I do need to fit the fastener, but that is probably going to involve moving stuff around again. As my current winder sits inside the enclosure, this isn't an issue.