3D Printers

[g8ina]

How about storing the filament in a plastic bag with a few bags of silica gel ? That should help

[DanceswithUnix]

Some filament turns up from the factory with water in it. You can hear the stuff crackle while it prints.

When I looked a few years ago, filament dryers were horribly overpriced. For drying out I use this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KB9494S/

That's a cheap unbranded dessicator that came direct from China, you used find the same thing with a brand name printed on it for an extra tenner
Some dessicators you have to chop the trays out, but that one has easily removable trays so just take a few out and you get two levels so you can dry out two spools at a time.

You can also just put the filament in a pre heated fan oven for a few hours at low temperature if your oven can go low enough. I did that once, and the wife complained that the oven smelled afterwards. The filament was nice and dry but I had to transfer it to an old spool

I store my filament in these, with a bunch of silica gel bags thrown in the bottom:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001CMUOBK/

You can get about 4 spools in one of those, depending on spool width.

[[GSV]Trig]

How about storing the filament in a plastic bag with a few bags of silica gel ? That should help

This is what I do tbh

[Jonatron]

You can also get vacuum bags from poundland for £1.50

[Jonj1611]

Many thanks, some great ideas of which I will adopt. I think if I was printing a lot I wouldn't have the need for such things but it seems to be once in a blue moon these days and like I said spools aren't exactly cheap. Going to try a combination of vacuum bags and plastic bags with silica. Will see how I get on, if no joy will give the dehydrator a go

[Jonatron]

The cheapest dryer is your printer's heated bed and a cardboard box

[DanceswithUnix]

I've had filament turn up from the factory in vacuum sealed bags with silica gel packets inside, and it needed drying before it would print well. I guess the stuff was made in a humid factory. But that makes me believe that silica gel won't ever get moisture out once it's in. Hence I bought the dehydrator.

To dry PLA you only need to heat it to 50C, which is quite low for an oven but not hard to get generally.

List of temperatures are on here: https://www.wevolver.com/article/how-to-dry-filament

[Jonj1611]

I am mainly using PLA, have some PETG around as well. It's my own fault for not storing it properly. (On top of a load of spools in the same room as the heat pump tumble dryer!)

[DanceswithUnix]

The cheapest dryer is your printer's heated bed and a cardboard box

It's an interesting thought, from my past printer upgrades I have an old Prusa 12V heatbed kicking around somewhere. A stand alone heater could probably be made by adding an arduino, ATX PSU and a power FET.

I think my printer would time out the heatbed being on long before the filament dried, but people do seem to have used their printer as a dryer:

https://hackaday.com/2021/11/09/most...a-little-help/

[Saracen999]

I am mainly using PLA, have some PETG around as well. It's my own fault for not storing it properly. (On top of a load of spools in the same room as the heat pump tumble dryer!)

Well, at least the humidifier wasn't turned on.


/Sorry. Couldn't resist.