Hi everyone, I’m quite new to this world, and maybe my question doesn’t make sense, but I was wondering if it’s possible to dry the reusable silica gel using the Dry Filament function of the printer?
If it’s possible I’d prefer to avoid using the oven where I cook, or using the microwave as I read that it could break if there is not enough water to warm.
If you think it can be done, what kind of container should I use for the silica gel?
I was thinking of a sock or something similar in cotton, does that make sense?
I use the microwave myself at 600W for larger lots. Or my little filament dryer for smaller batches. Keeps the printer free to print.
In my experience, the little silica pearls react to heat as a consequence of overly aggressive or prolonged heating in the microwave rather than anything else. So nothing much should happen to dry pearls. For wet pearls, once you start hearing pops, you know that you are overheating them
Wisedry silica satchels (such as Amazon ASIN B0781BN1BZ) actually come with microwave instructions on them. Just keep in mind that the microwave only heats them so they are still quite green when hot. They’ll loose additional moisture while cooling down in the open.
Hi Eno,
yes, I got exactly the Wisedry silica satchels, I opened them and put them into containers in the the AMS.
I just realised that the Dry Filament takes 12 hours!!! I think I’ll use the microwave then!
Slight addendum: I printed my containers from PETG for higher temp compatibility. I tried drying the filament directly in them. That was not such a good idea as they deformed both in my dryer and the microwave.
I failed to read the manual for my microwave and assumed that power level 5 was defrost. After melting several bags and burning about half of my desiccant, I read the manual. Power level 3 is defrost on my microwave and even then, it still gets a bit too hot.
Good to know, but I have a question now, the dryer is supposed to dry efficiently the filament without deforming it obviously… but if we print a container and dry it, it would deform it then?!
Dry & Dry orange indicating silica gel wants 200°F to 250°F or 93°C to 121°C for 0.5-2.0 hours. To dry it in a printed container at those temps would require a heat resistant filament. After 10 minutes on defrost with a 5 minute rest, it was still hot enough to make a thin walled PLA holder meant for the AMS to droop rather quickly. You might be able to dry it at a lower temperature but it will take longer.
After my user errors, I nowadays always take my desiccant out of the containers for drying to avoid overheating the containers.
In the microwave, I tend to just give it a 1,5-2,5 Min (depending on quantity and saturation) 600W “blast” before taking the hot dish out to dry out fully on the shelf. With occasional stirring for the heck of it If that turns out to still not be enough, I repeat that.
In my filament dryer, I do not have a nicely uniform temperature. So placing them too close to the heating element at the bottom, my containers saw more temp than they could handle and ended up looking like a lightbulb.
My filaments are fine with that as they have a bit more clearance to the hot parts of the dryer and do not sustain weight or loads while in there.
and using the wheel design mentioned above, to dry some silica pearls and one spool at the same time… at low temperature maybe during the night.
am I thinking right?
I only have an Enisinia, so I can not really comment on the dryer itself. I can only caution about your use case. Those tiny pearls store a lot (!) of water. Even with very minor moisture in my Wisedry 50g packs, just drying two of them in my dryer results in humidity of 95% in the dryer and major internal condensation.
So I can only recommend to dry either desiccant or filament but not both together at the same time.
That will probably work but you should verify the inside width of the dryer to make sure the carousel will fit. My eibos easdry is about 71mm inside width. The desiccant holder I printed will not fit as it’s 75mm wide. If the Sovol is too narrow, it won’t turn or you won’t be able to fit the spools in at all. You could design something where the holders fit like spokes as long as the width of the ends of the holders isn’t too wide.
As for how to tell when it’s actually dry, the only accurate way is to weigh it before and then every so often until the weight stops decreasing.
@EnoTheThracian has a point, they can hold a lot of water. We use desiccant wheels of about a meter in diameter by half a meter wide to dry air before putting it in flour silos. Imagine a huge sheet of cardboard half a meter wide rolled up in a cylinder. The air travels through the corrugations so that the desiccant can pick up the water. The wheel turns about 4 revolutions an hour. One third is being regenerated by ~150°F air, the other two thirds are in the process air stream. If the drying air heaters shut off, the wheel can get so wet that when the heaters come back on, it will blow liquid water out of the regen vent. It can happen in less than half an hour.
Do NOT get the Sovol dryer, it’s terrible. I own one and I know. Look at getting a Sunlu S2 version 2 (with a fan) or a food dehydrator. There are better dryers too but they cost even more.
The Sovol dryer is very weak and very slow to get up to temp. The stock fan can also be very loud (I had to replace mine)
On that note, do NOT get an eSun eBox lite either (it’s the one in the pictures of the model). You would assume that a filament manufacturer knows how to make a filament dryer but you would be wrong. It is better than the Sovol one but still doesn’t get hot enough to dry nylon and it will take a long time to dry desiccant. I have one at home and one at work and we have wasted so much time with them.
I think I’ll use the microwave to “recharge” the silica pearls, it also takes so much less time! I’ll try it later today, my pearls are already green!
Can I use a standard ceramic plate? it should be fine, right?
If that turns out to still not be enough, I repeat that.