Getting rid of whisps of material from 3d prints

[AlwynTurner]

I have been cursed for quite a while with 'wisps' of material om my prints and have exhausted all the suggested fixes on various youtube videos, as well as my patience. One youtuber recommended a heat gun so finally I gave up and ordered one

The results actually met my hopes and expectations
Before

after

There are still some wiskers but that's just me being impatient and not spending time waving the gun for long enough
Alwyn

[jarndice]

If you check out U-Tube you can discover how to Solder with a heat gun
And e-bay is the place for interchangeable heat gun nozzles,
Trust me these tools are more versatile than many people realise and dirt cheap.

[Will01Capri]

I also use another technique

Metal wire brushes and you can also use solvent weld. THe solvent weld dissolves really thin whisps, try it, it also has added affect of smoothing the print slightly. I have used solvent weld as a dip for some parts in the past, helps seal the surface.

[tankme]

Have one of these multi-tip heat guns with a variable heat setting and I use it for everything from soldering PE parts with liquid solder to heat shrink tube to simulating damage to fenders to straightening warped parts. My printer doesn't seem to string as much as yours does so I haven't had to use it on my 3D printed parts. I think your retraction and speed settings could be tweaked to stop most of that. Since I got my printer I've always felt that the less post processing I have to do the less frustration I have. I would rather slow it down and have it print really nice than have it print fast and need a bunch of post processing.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Metal wire brushes

I'm guessing the little ones used for suede shoes, with brass bristles.

[AlwynTurner]

Yes you can buy a set of 3 small brushes at your local bargain store with stiff bristle. steel wire and brass bristles, they seem to work ok on cleaning up the wispy stuff but don't get all of it, I now finifh off with the heat gun which works fine. It's also useful for when a PLA printed item warps, you can easily straighten it with gentle use of the heat gun (not gentle rsults in melted parts!) .

Alwyn

[whitecitadel]

I find when I get "stringing" like that sometimes the filament has absorbed some mosisture, or sometimes the print head temprature is too high and tunring it down 5c can help stop the stringing.

Technically the "retraction" setting can be tuned to pull the filament back into the hot end before moving, but I only seem to get it on certain colours/rolls of filament so it seems its the filament itself or the printing temprature that causes it (from my expereince)

[50koruny]

What kind of the material is that?
It seems that there is a lot of humidity in that plastic.
I agree with Whitecitadel in this, but rather dry the material, it is better than lowering the temperature.
Honestly, it's definitely easier to fix the stringing than to clean up the whole thing after printing.

As stated before, there are 3 main reasons for this - humidity, temperature and retractions setting (distance and speed).