Filament Drying
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Hey Everyone,
Was just wondering what people are using for drying their filament and storing while printing? I am doing more and more nylons and printing is ok, but by the end of a long print, you can see it is getting affected by moisture.
Cheers
SamCustom Core-XY
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@samlogan87 I'm using my esun ebox lite to maintaining my filament dry while I'm printing!
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@samlogan87 In my "booth", (which housed both the printer and stored filament), I used open top containers containing calcium chloride, held on a kind of grid with a reservoir underneath and fans blowing the air over the surface. Calcium Chloride will absorb roughly 7 times more water than Silica Gel but it dissolves and turn the water into a kind of brine (hence the reservoir). So it cannot be regenerated the way that Silica Gel can. But it will absorb moisture at low RH levels where Silica Gel might not. I used an ESP 32 and humidity sensor to monitor the humidity (absolute not relative and expressed as gms H2O / Kg dry air) and control the fans. I managed to get it down to around 5gms/Kg which equates to somewhere around 20%RH depending on temperature (RH is inversely proportional to temperature whereas absolute humidity does not vary).
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@deckingman @samlogan87 Actually, if you want, you can regenerate calcium chloride in your oven. However, the energy cost probably makes it a dumb idea. It is very cheap in the first place, and the brine is fairly environmentally harmless, so putting it down the drain isn't a problem. Note that CaCl2 doesn't get to as low humidity as silica gel, but it is plenty low for filament drying. It can absorb a HUGE amount of water compared to silica gel, which is nice for keeping a big box of filament dry. As long as there is any solid CaCl2 left in the brine, it is keeping the RH somewhere in the 10% range near room temperature.
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I just use large zip bags to store each open reel, with a fabric bag of silica gel sealed in with the reel.
I also use a Sunlu dryer as the filament feed while printing.
(one of these types -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUNLU-Filament-Printing-Dimensional-Accuracy/dp/B081ZLG6KR ) -
@samlogan87 My oven has a dehydrate mode where I can control the temp all the way down to 38C
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@deckingman Thanks for the Ian. I might look into getting some and giving it a go to store it in and might get a filament dryer to print out of. @ctilley79 yeah so does my oven, its the wife is getting sick of me using it for that all the time
@rjenkinsgb do you like the Sunlu unit?
Cheers
Sam -
This post is deleted! -
Storing Filaments:
About 5-6 spools of filament are stored in a vacuum bag which also contains some silica gel drying bags and a hydrometer that is clearly visible.
About 12 filament rolls with nylon and ABS are stored in a large plastic box in which about 2kg of silica gel are scattered at the bottom and are covered with a plastic fly screen so that no silica gel beads get into the filament rolls.Filament during printing:
When I print, the filament roll is placed in a drying oven lying flat. In this drying oven I installed a ball-bearing mounted thread roll in which the filament roll is clamped.
The filament is guided from the drying oven to the print head in a transparent PTFE tube so that it is never exposed to humidity and dust in the room air.The drying oven is insulated inside with 19mm insulating foam (Armaflex) and there are about 15 of these silica gel bags in the bottom of the oven, which keep the humidity low for a long time, so that a filament roll can be stored there for 2-3 days between the prints
In the lid of the drying oven I made the exhaust air openings variably adjustable and used a hydrometer.
The dehydrator can heat up to 70°C but I run it on the lowest setting so that it reaches around 45°C.Humidity is at best 18% to 25%. If it rises above 35% in the vacuum bags or in the large box, I remove the silica gel and dry it in a dry air fryer, into which a large sieve fits exactly, in which about 1kg of silica gel fits.
I mostly print ABS and Nylon. Next comes PETG and PLA is last for me.
Photos of the dehydrator:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8Google Translate
--- Original Text ---Filamente Aufbewahren:
Etwa 5-6 Filamentrollen lagern in einem Vakuumbeutel in dem auch einige Silika-Gel Trocknungsbeutel und ein gut sichtbarer Hydrometer liegen.
Etwa 12 Filamentrollen mit Nylon und ABS lagern in einer großen Kunststoffbox in der unten etwa 2kg Silika-Gel ausgestreut sind und mit einem Fliegengitter aus Kunststoff abgedeckt sind so dass keine Kügelchen des Silika-Gel in die Filamentrollen gelangen.Filament während des Druckens:
Wenn ich drucke, dann kommt die Filamentrolle liegend in einen Dörrofen. In diesem Dörrofen habe ich eine kugelgelagerte Gewinderolle eingebaut in der die Filamentrolle eingespannt wird.
Das Filament wird aus dem Dörrofen bis zum Druckkopf in einem durchsichtigen PTFE Schlauch geführt so dass es zu keiner Zeit der Luftfeuchtigkeit und dem Staub der Zimmerluft ausgesetzt ist.Der Dörrofen ist innen mit 19mm Dämm-Schaumstoff (Armaflex) isoliert und es liegen etwa 15 dieser Silik-Gel Beutel unten im Ofen die die Luftfeuchtigkeit über eine längere Zeit niedrig halten, so dass dort eine Filamentrolle auch mal 2-3 Tage lagert zwischen den Prints.
Im Deckel des Dörrofen habe ich die Abluftöffnungen variabel einstellbar gemacht und ein Hydrometer eingesetzt.
Der Dörrofen kann bis 70°C heizen aber ich betreibe ihn auf der niedrigsten Stufe so dass in etwa 45°C erreicht wird.Die Luftfeuchtigkeit liegt im besten Fall bei 18% bis 25%. Steigt sie in den Vakuumbeuteln oder in der großen Box über 35% dann entnehme ich das Silika-Gel und trockne es in einer Trockenluftfriteuse wo exakt ein großes Sieb hinein passt in dem etwa 1kg Silika-Gel passt.
Ich drucke zum größten Teil ABS und Nylon. Danach kommt PETG und PLA liegt bei mir auf dem letzten Platz.
