I was getting fantastic ABS and PLA prints, and then things started acting funny again.
On the ABS, I couldn't push filament through the bowden tube, and checking everything, I found my filament is 1.9mm. It wasn't that big at the start of the roll. A bit of checking shows ABS does absorb water (though PLA is worse) and when it does, the filament can swell (how much depends on the grade). Our humidity has been up to nearly 90% (yes, it's terrible). I tried baking the filament, but that did nothing to reduce the size. I'm still not sure if it's a matter of manufacturing, humidity or both, but it looks like I have at least a pound of useless filament.
I do keep the filament in ziplocks with silica gel, but that does nothing while I'm using it. I heard of at least one person built a semi-airtight chamber for his rolls, with only a small hole for the filament to exit just before entering the extruder, I may do that along with buying some better filament and building a fume extractor.
The PLA, was great last night, I was actually starting to see why people like it, I got two really nice rod ends from it, then went to bed. Today, I go to make more, and nothing works. Nothing changed, and yet it refuses to push filament through the nozzle. I cranked up temps, and extruder pressure, still no luck. I just don't see how it works one minute and a few hours later, simply refuses to work despite nothing changing (and yes, I checked the filament diameter). I can get it hot enough to be drooling out the nozzle, tell it to print and it dries up in just a few minutes. Like I said it worked great last night. Now I get nothing.
I could strangle this thing sometimes.