At my place RH is between 55% and 65%, relating on the floor I am measuring (65% in the basement, where I do printing and storing my filaments)
I have an X1C with AMS, so the Filament “in print” is stored dry in the AMS (with lots of desiccant).
The unused filament waits in so called SAMLA boxes from IKEA. I use 45l size, which is enough for up to 8 rolls of filament and additional desiccant bags (I fill net bags with desiccant, they last longer before they need to be re-dried).
(the 39% in the box in the picture were in a freshly started new box, before drying the filament. The picture was for advertising my shelf-label system )
I have sealed the boxes with 12x3mm sealing rubber (https://amzn.eu/d/1ryBWHU), and i clip the lids with 6 of those clips (Printables) each.
I dry every roll of new filament directly in a food-dehydrator (2 rolls at a time plus little or bigger desiccant bags, that fit in the spare places), before I put it in the storage boxes. The RH in the boxes stays at 10% (or lower, but not shown) for weeks.
All of that became a workflow, that takes nearly no additional time to be handled. It goes “by the way”…
I used to use those vacuum dry-bags, but they have a to high failure rate due to handling. They get holes where they bend, e.g. when you put them in a shelf, or on the workbench, a.s.o. So I stopped storing in sealed vacuum bags. It was also to much of handling getting rolls out, back in again, vacuuming, yada yada… With a box that is much easier, faster, and more reliable.
I noticed a vacuum bag failure rate also when we used the machine to process certain dry foods that had sharp edges for longer term storage. The vacuum would pull the bag so tight that the edges would nick the bag ever so slightly to make it appear everything was OK, but in a short while, the bag would inflate through the tiny hole.
That’s why my preference is individual airtight food storage containers, no bags of any kind, drying then storing with lots of desiccant.
I ordered the containers linked in his original post, I guess I should paid attention to the measurements as the containers are to small to hold a 1Kg spool.
Hello Everybody, interesting discussion here. I will also start with 3d printing with one of those printers. So I am in the same struggle to not exactly know which one to go for A1 or X1C/P1S because of the question wich Filament i will use and how to keep the Filament dry enough especially with the open AMS on the A1 (and a lot more questions about the Printing size etc.). At the moment now i think that when getting useed to printing and knowing more the first printer wont be the last, and therefore i think i will decide to go with the A1 mini to get start and just start with PLA and PETG and PETG-CF to learn more about this filaments. And then when i am more in the whole process with this filaments, than i start with ABS or ASA or just ASA, maybe i start with the A1 (self enclosed in some way) or then imediatly get an X1C or when a knew Printer comes with the newer one (maybe bigger or just newer with more improvements Bambnu will make). For the problem to keep PETG dry on the open AMS light i will try to build something around it like the Samla Box from Ikea and hope that this will solve the Problem that the PETG will get moistured. @MakerMike which food -dehydrator do you use to get 2 Rolls in it? And thanks for the whole informations shared here, for a beginner who just whatches youtube or read about 3d printing interesting points in special about filaments.
400 watts to dry filament? That unit doesn’t appear to have much insulation from the Amazon pictures. Have you ever put a power meter on the unit to see how much power (read money) it consumes for a filament load? I ask because although the unit may be inexpensive, the cost to run it may make a purpose built filament dryer a cheaper option long term.
I used a heating element inside a purpose built insulated chamber and I regulated power to it with a thermostat when it reached 70C to make black garlic. The garlic was inside a vacuum bag, so no smell.
I used only one of the two 110V heating elements. I had a Kill-A-Watt meter on it for the month it takes to make the garlic and it cost a few dollars of electricity.
I plan on using the same unit to cook the moisture out of filament in hours for a few cents.
No I have never looked to see the total power consumption. I heat press shirts half the day. That’s a waste of energy but it pays the bills. But your thoughts on wasted energy gives me a thought for a blanket of some type. I will have to think about it.
I bought a A1 combo unit and just bought one of these I was thinking about buying two more and setting the entire AMS Lite unit on top of these so I have a heated dry box
Well, I’ve been busy on this topic. I’ve looked at what I can buy and wasn’t impressed.
I decided to build my own filament dryer using an ESP32 microcontroller, solid state relays, etc.
The ESP32 is running a web server where I can control and monitor the operation from any Web browser on my network. The gadget itself will have no buttons or control points physically, just a 2 line LCD display with temperature and humidity readings. The electronics and software are done.
I’m waiting for rainy season to quit on the island so I can get the metal work built. Once it’s an actual working prototype, I’ll order the X1C to print what can be plastic.
just a common 50kg rice bucket, i am sure there are plenty choose on amazon, i mean, aside from the need to heat it, all you need is a sealed environment. There should be no need for complex setup.
@zxpchinadh I watched several videos of the major dryer brands always mentioned. They all had condensation flowing down the inside of the smoke plastic heating chamber and none of them was insulated, meaning lots of wasted energy over an extended period of time. The wattage levels on some were ridiculously high. As an EE, I just didn’t like the brute force approach plus lots of buttons for the person to be the control point with a clock the major deciding factor for how long the drying process takes.
My idea was to specify only one variable, temperature, which is filament type dependent and let the software and sensors decide when the chamber has reached its lowest humidity level, regardless of time.
One of the relays will control a tiny aquarium air pump that will pump relatively dry air into the chamber from a desiccant gadget that I’ll eventually 3D print. I have the design in my head. For prototype work, I’ll figure something out to be the source of desiccant dry air. The aim is to pump humid air out while pumping dry air in to absorb moisture faster.
The humidity and temperature sensors will be read to realize when temp targets have been reached and when the humidity has plateaued high. The air pump will pump out a quantity of air again allowing the software to see when the humidity has plateaued at some bottom figure to turn the pump off. Repeat the process till the difference between top humidity and bottom humidity is within some tolerable range so as not to chase fractions. That’s the fine tuning yet to be done at the software level.
This should reduce the time required and I’m planning to use less than 50 watts worth of heating capacity to gently raise the temperature to not roast the outside of the spool while the inside is still relatively cold. I also wanted a way for me to monitor the chamber statistics from my desk, so a web interface was the obvious choice since I’m a software developer. The plan is to build a 2 spool chamber but a 4 or more version would just be adding more relays, heaters, aquarium air pumps and sensor.
Where I live, ambient temperature is 70-105F year round with humidity 70% during the ‘dry’ season and near 100% during ‘rainy’ season that lasts months. I decided to build this before getting a printer because of my environment.
since i lived in a relatively dry area. I been always wondering, what a sealed environment and some dehydrater does to protect filament in a wet environemnt. does it do anything, or it just not enough since the water will find a way end up in the seal or something.
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