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Thread: Dehydrate your filaments?
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08-07-2017, 11:05 PM #1
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..........
Last edited by number40Fan; 09-22-2017 at 03:14 PM.
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08-08-2017, 01:19 PM #2
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The best approach is prevention. Don't let it get wet in the first place. Lots of folks take a dry box approach, you might look that up on Thingiverse. Most use desiccant, but there are also some small dehumidifiers around. I think the small dehumidifiers are mostly a little heater. Cheap, easily re-sealable, air tight (mostly) containers are available at Sam's Club, Walmart, Target and others. One brand is Sterilite. (https://www.target.com/p/sterilite-1...h/-/A-15066036 ) There are many others. Also several folks on Thingi have designed clips to hold the lids on them down more tightly. Another approach is to use really big Zip Lock bags with desiccant in them as well. But be gentle as the zip lock bags will hole easily.
Be very careful not to get the temperature on your filament too high as you try to dry it. You know this stuff does melt... I have heard reports of drying filament (or keeping it in a slightly warm oven for several hours) both working, or having zero effect. I have two rolls of ABS that sounds like popcorn when I print with it. Little bubbles form as it comes out of the nozzle when ever I use it. It came from the factory that way and I have tried "drying" it in the oven but that didn't seem to do anything at all.
Good luck.
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08-08-2017, 04:59 PM #3
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That's great! Better luck than I experienced with my poppin' ABS. FYI, the "Sterilite" box claim to fame is the very compressible foam that runs around the entire lid joint. It does a substantially better job of sealing the contents from ambient air / humidity. Most of the other box varieties don't have that feature, hence the "hold down clip" interest. I've seen a similar box at Sam's Club lately, but didn't catch the brand or pricing.
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08-08-2017, 06:33 PM #4
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This is the one I saw at Sam's Club. It may be larger than desired.
https://m.samsclub.com/ip/sterilite-...x/prod21161032
The one from Target holds 4 spools of filament, however, not all filament vendors use the same size spool, so YMMV.
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08-10-2017, 06:39 PM #5
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I'm trying something new for my dry box revision 2. My initial version had a suspended shaft upon which the rolls of filament were mounted. It works great, but is a complete pain whenever you want to swap a roll out. The whole set of rolls and the shaft have to be removed from the dry box just to change one spool. Not an easy procedure at all.
So now I'm printing a slightly modified version of this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2457788 The magnets came from here: https://www.banggood.com/8pcs-N52-20...-p-977519.html I put a steel sheet I reclaimed from some old air duct materials onto the floor of the dry box. So the idea is the filament roll positions can be wherever makes sense, and I can swap out any of the rolls independently.
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08-11-2017, 06:04 AM #6
Yes moisture has an enormous effect on your filament quality. Sealing your filament in buckets with desiccant is a great solution. To get a filament good as new, put it into the oven at 60C for 4 hours.
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08-11-2017, 08:19 PM #7
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Yeah... I think that's gonna depend upon what you were cooking in the smoker. I've seen coffee flavored filament, and I could probably get behind some kind of BBQ aroma, but not so sure I could endorse fish filament.
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08-16-2017, 12:22 PM #8
Oooh, now that's something I'd never thought to do before.
cold smoke my filament !
Hot diggity that might actually be a thing lol
Wonder how it would effect prints. Might have to throw a roll in the smoker next time I cold smoke something.
As far as my filament being effected by moisture.
Hasn't happened yet. even on wet days my workshop is pretty stable: between 48-54% RH
Most filament rolls come with large sealable bags with a silicon pouch inside. But much of my filament is just stacked in the raw.
Pla is apparently relatively unaffected by it anyway.
Likewise I've not had any issues with pet-g not stored in bags either.
Stuff like nylon is always kept in bags with desiccant.
And #40fan - get yourself an excalibur dehydrator. Temperature controlled. Also great for making snackstix. :-)
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08-16-2017, 02:17 PM #9
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If you're in the UK Solent Plastics do what they call 'scuba boxes' which have hermetically sealed lids for reasonable prices.
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08-17-2017, 06:17 AM #10
I work on the principle that if I want a bit of kit - might as well get the best I can afford. The excaliburs are real nice dehydrators.
Beauty of it is I can go down to 35c for making proper biltong (which breaks all the rules of american jerky) or up to 68 for making snackstix.
Plus when i got the dehydrator you couldn't buy the cheapo flying saucer types in the uk.
Which reminds me - not tried alexa with nylon yet.
Ender 3v2 poor printing quality
10-28-2024, 09:08 AM in Tips, Tricks and Tech Help