All 3D printer filaments benefit from being as dry as possible, but some filaments are more sensitive to humidity than others. The best solution is a dry box; a sealed filament container, which usually contains some desiccant. But in a pinch, [Spacefan]'s fast and dirty $0 dry box solution is exciting at least in terms of simplicity.

[Spacefan]'s solution uses the packaging material of the filament roll itself and a single 3D printed part to create a sealed environment for a single roll. The roll is packed in a plastic bag (which may be the same as the plastic bag sealed in it), and the filament exits through a small hole and a 3D printed accessory that also uses some spare PTFE tubing. This box doubles as a convenient container for everything. It doesn't have as many other DIY dry box solutions, but it's certainly simple.

Although we appreciate this idea, this design will definitely bring a lot of friction to the spool itself. Pulling the filament from the spool requires a lot of extra work, which needs to be rotated in the bag, in the box, and the extra work will be done by the extruder of the 3D printer. Ideally, this part should work as little as possible of. The reuse of materials is a good idea, but in our opinion, this idea does need some improvement.

what do you think? Is it useful in a critical juncture, or does it need to be changed? Does adding a spindle to support the spool help? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

In my opinion, this design will put some pressure on the extruder and/or light ribbon. But I still want to give a thumbs up for this attempt. I hope this will not cause him any problems. I myself will use a plastic container design I saw on the Internet.

Reuse cheap hot air rework stations to build a 10-20 cm filament preheater/dryer tube before the filament enters the print head. The price of a little solid tube and a T, some flexible tubes and welding tools should not exceed $1, and they should remain functional.

The lowest temperature should be able to evaporate any water, as long as it is higher than 100C and lower than the softening temperature of the plastic. A temporary controller hack may be needed, but which website are we on?

The problem is not only to prevent the plastic from getting wet, but also to dry out the already wet plastic. Living in a swamp is terrible.

To this end, the injection molding company has a dedicated plastic dryer. These may be complicated, but the simplest ones are heaters and fans.

With additional/potential complexity, your 3D printer housing will get hot, which can improve print quality and adhesion between layers. If it is too hot, you can put the exhaust pipe and filament inlet outside the housing.

Consider discharging waste heat into the spool housing, but I am worried that it will become too hot and become a mess. The filaments should dry fast enough.

100c is suitable for many plastics that are printed to the softened area, and the water is boiled from the filament before the filament enters the printer. Such aggressiveness may destroy the print quality for the same reason as the boil in the print head...

However, this is an interesting idea and might work well for some filaments. In my opinion, the ordinary drying oven method is simpler and more reliable for all filaments, but if this method is used correctly, it may be very compact.

If the filament is heated to 100 degrees while the extruder is pulled, can it be deformed?

Unless you live in a cold place and you want heat...all wasted heat is equivalent to unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions from some power plants.

They can put a pair of such spools in the bag to roll, which should help reduce the problem of spool rotation

Overall not a bad idea IMO

It's a bit stupid, but I can only manually take out about 20-40 meters of filament at a time (usually 1-3 months of supply). So most of the rolls are placed in a large rubber box with a desiccant tank. It allows me to just hang the filament on a curved hanger and hang it on top of my printer instead of taking out a properly supported shaft to allow the 1kg filament spool to spin freely

To be honest, since I switched to easyfil pla, it doesn't seem to mind sitting in a damp basement for a long time, and I doubt that I should really think of a better way to install a whole volume. It may experience a rolling in a year and a half, so even so may push it.

This is almost useless, like any "dry box" you can print directly. There is no need to put the spool in the drying box when printing. Any dry carton that allows you to print is also useless for long-term use as a dry carton.

When not in use, just put the filament in a sealed box. If necessary, you can add some desiccant. This is all that is needed.

People will see the problems they think need to be solved when they actually don’t. 90% of the so-called "moisture" problem is usually related to a decrease in the bonding force in the filament. People threw their filament into the oven, and then it worked magically, and they thought moisture was the problem. Usually not. The oven is restoring the bond in the filament.

When not in use, simply store the filament in an airtight container. If you do this, you will never see moisture-related problems.

"There is no need to put the spool in the drying box when printing"-error-at least for some filaments, positions and prints, some filaments can start printing in just a few hours even under fairly mild humidity, Therefore, the very high humidity does not change, and it works normally. Even if you choose a more normal filament for long printing, the print quality will be greatly reduced.

Every printer and consumable will not be a problem for everyone, but if you spend several days to control the humidity of the consumable feed on a single print, it is just a simple common sense, it will eliminate another cause of printing failure, there is enough There are too many things you can’t easily eliminate... and it’s easy to print so long, even when fine surface treatment is performed on a small batch printer, because the filament is prone to troubles related to moisture . Many materials are-you don't have to throw them into the oven, just a room temperature dehumidifier long enough to recover some filaments-has nothing to do with heat)

In the United Kingdom, it is often humid, but the humidity is usually not high. I am indeed quite lax in filament care. When I am not using the filament, I just put it in a sealed box filled with silica and print it open when not in use. , This has made me bite a few times, just not often-so I plan to place a suitable dry box store at some point, but maybe only when I build a new printer, because this is what I need to do no matter How soon at some point-build them all into a compact unit from scratch, instead of finding a place to put a dry box to use the filament.

Some filaments absorb water very quickly. As we all know, once PA-6 nylon is exposed to a low humidity environment, it cannot be used within a few hours.

This is a trick worthy of HackADay. For a very "sensitive" spool I own, I don't want to buy or manufacture something that is too expensive or too complicated.

The only disadvantage is friction. But this is a problem that can be solved quickly. I personally don't use this delicate plastic often. But sometimes it is necessary.

It depends on where you live and the type of filament you use. If you live in a very dry place and never print nylon, I would agree with you.

If you are printing nylon, you need to do something like this (or use spools in less than a week). As for the "so-called moisture" problem, when your hot end sounds like a tiny and unstable steam engine, you can judge that your filament has moisture problems, and your prints have changed from the moisture in the filament The steam is in place of potting and pits, causing a tiny explosion.

I personally avoid printing nylon because it absorbs water too quickly...

There is some industrial desiccant in the handbag I use to store the filament. So far, it works in a high humidity environment.

I have a 65 liter plastic box with 16 coils of PLA filament on the roller bearing shaft, each coil has its own feedthrough, and is equipped with a PTF conduit. There is also a large bag of desiccant in my box, so there is no printing problem.

Basically my method is also. I use an IKEA food container, which can be fitted with two spools hanging side by side on a rolling shaft. The filament goes into the PTFE connector and tubing, and then screwed into my housing, which has another connector. Connecting and disconnecting is easy and good, I don't have to think about it.

To be honest, you don't need a drying oven. You may need a vacuum box. There are many off-the-shelf plastic box solutions with valves for vacuuming (for food storage). One can easily put a cylinder into it and drill a hole for the airtight connector of the filament. Before printing, you must open the box, push the filament into the connector, close the box and use a hand pump to vacuum. The vacuum will remain for several days (if not, you can pump it once a day to restore it). No air contact means no water pollution. There is no need for a heating box, no PID, no electricity, and low technical content.

Interesting idea, thinking it might be more difficult to maintain enough vacuum to provide you any benefit and pull the filament out of the "air-tight" hole in it, instead of just filling the box with silica, it may end up running most of the time Although the pump is leaking to maintain the vacuum, just filling a box with desiccant is very simple, it will only work until the desiccant is full, at this time you can replace/recycle it.

I also want to know what effect this environment will have on these plastics. Most plastics have very bad exhaust emissions in vacuum, so long-term storage under low pressure is likely to damage the filament. In any case, all plasticizers will penetrate into the atmosphere. middle……

This is a good idea, here are some cheap improvement ideas:

-Pass the spindle or fork through the middle (hung in the cardboard), make the roll run on the spindle instead of dragging on the bag, stick the puncture point to the box with tape so that it will not rotate in the box and jam

Or, put a bag around the box with ordinary bearings or spindles, etc.

Regarding the strain of the extruder;

I remember seeing the design of an extruder auxiliary device. I remember it was a very simple printing stand with a simple DC motor and a switch on it, the ones with levers, the same types that are usually used as limit switches. (This name will appear in front of me immediately after I click on the post (I should really go for morning tea)). The motor shaft has a hobbing gear, just like an extruder.

In any case, whenever the extruder pulls the filament tight, it will tighten against the switch, which will turn on the DC motor and then help pull the filament out of the coil. Everything is so simple, just a switch, no brain, no connection to other parts of the printer except the DC power supply, but it "knows" when to pull and when to stop.

I thought I saw this on Thingiverse a few years ago, but when I went back to look for it, either I couldn't think of the correct search term to find it again, or it was deleted.

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