Silica gel is starting to run out favour with clay based alternatives taking over the food industry for quite a while now.
If you print your your own containers to place in the AMS or your storage solutions you probably learned quickly that even high temp filaments can fail quickly when trying to refresh the beads in the microwave, not to mention the oven…
For those clay based beads the microwave still works but the bead can get even hotter than silica gel.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just get those beads into like a small bag ?
The clay ones already come mostly in paper bags and no surprise these bags tolerate the microwave quite well while the plastic based shrink and melt away.
So what can be used at home to prevent those beads from going everywhere when we have to refresh them ?
Tyvek is great, easy to get together with s bad sealer but also start shrinking at temps of around 85ºC and melts around 140 to 160.
Polyethylene based fabrics are literally the same thing.
Kevlar is nice, same for the fabric used in airbags but way too thick for our use.
One day it hit me, literally and the form of some vintage box of paper coffee filters while trying to get something out of the kitchen cabinet.
Hmmm…
That’s just paper and water goes right through it…
But how to seal it ???
Those crimp things to form business cards and craft paper already provide some reasonable grip if the paper is close to tearing apart but not enough to survive a lot of handling with a full load of beads.
Worse still the paper isn’t as strong as it seems, once it starts to rip it fails very quickly indeed.
I thought I found the ideal ‘paper’ in a craft shop.
A bit like filter paper in structure but with a smooth surface.
Sadly it turned out it wasn’t just paper but also plastic involved.
My current attempt is with filter sheets as used for commercial deep frying system or by those making their own bio diesel at home.
A bit too thick for my liking but very durable.
I also found a more reliable way of gluing them together.
For smaller bags a thin layer of sodium silicate, made from crystal cat litter works great.
For larger bags in excess of about 50g silicone seems to do the trick.
Bonds well with the paper fibres and has no issues with the steam temps when refreshing in the microwave.
I tried refreshing some larger clay based bags that come with my lathe but found that it is quite hard.
The steam struggles to get out in the microwave and in the oven it just takes way too long and needs far too much energy to be viable unless you have a full tray or two.
I also did some little tests to see whether or not the claims from the producers are correct.
Turns out these clay beads are really good at their job and seem to (initially) absorb moisture at a higher rate than silica beads.
But this soon flattens out and where the clay starts to struggle to keep up silica beads still keep going for a good while longer.
My meters are not sensitive enough below 10% humidity to be trusted but I would still say that fresh clay beads are able to reach lower values as silica beads.
Not that it makes any real difference in the mid range.
After all this and being happy with my results for a few months my neighbour had a little water problem and asked if I would have some of my silica gel supplies available for his needs to save some things while trying to fully dry them.
Went over there full of pride and explained what it took to get to my own paper bags that last…
He looked at me a bit like I am trying to explain how to blow up a balloon…
Then, without letting me know what he finds so amusing he called his wife.
Mid you that both are past the pension age…
“Look at this darling…
He went through weeks of trouble just to give me some beads in paper bags.
What would you say is good to hold tiny beads while being able to to survive a mircrowave while drying?”
‘Don’t know, some old sock, t-shirts, anything made from cotton really…’
“thought so.” he said and kept smiling at me after which he thanked me and said he would bring the bags in a few days…
I was thinking long and hard about sharing this but thought my total failure to apply logic might be as amusing for you as it was for my neighbour.
And well, if we can’t even take our own failures with laughing eye we might as well go six feet under right away LOL
Turns out can wander through the forest and complain all day long.
But sometimes it really isn’t those trees blocking the view of the forest, it is just narrow minded thinking…
If you enjoyed this little story than please have a good and hard laugh on my behalf.
Life just is too short to go without
There’s another, even easier solution: make silica (or clay) beads container re-fillable. When it’s time to regenerate them, just pour them out onto say porcelain plate (large surface makes it easier to dry) and once dried, put them back into containers and into AMS
Been there done that but those beads are worse than bouncy balls ROFL
For a long while I use frozen pizza boxes when refilling beads.
Whatever goes over lands in there and won’t bounce back out.
And I can still dry 500g of beads MUCH faster in the MW than in my oven…
I friend suggested using these stainless steel jugs used in hospitals for water.
Works with some cotton at the bottom to prevent the bouncing and the beads wont stick to the walls like on ceramic cups and such.
But still does not fix the issue of half blind me finding the bead when stepping on them
For the AMS I still used the double containers that go between the feeders plus two half moon shaped one either side on the lid.
All up around 800g of beads, give or take.
But I am not trying to print similar on paper walls using PC.
Fusing the plastic into the paper to get the best possible ventilation and airflow while being able to just put them in the microwave as is.
I bought a multiple lifetime supply of organza bags. Think wedding favor gift bag. I then found out two things. One, I needed to reread my microwave oven’s manual as defrost is 3 and not 7 and that organza will melt into an unrecognizable puddle in a heartbeat.
I understand the heart wants what the heart wants. I just don’t understand the desire for clay in bags desiccant. I agree the silica gell beads can be difficult to handle while being far superior to clay, especially color changing beads. My handling problems disappeared after printing custom funnels to match both bead storage container and custom printed breatheable bottle & cap to hold the silica beads. Clay beads crumble after use cycles, thus the bags contain the clay dust. However, my testing showed the bags have considerable moisture retention when drying in a microwave oven. This creates multiples longer microwave drying times and increased danger of burning skin (cannot tell bag temp by appearence) and possible burning bags (super-heated steam). My silica bead use is to pour into custom bottle with designed funnel & screw-on cap, use until color change, remove beads from bottle onto pyrex baking plate, microwave (understanding it’s a 2 process heating of removing vapor from beads and microwave), allow to cool in oven and transfer back into bead storage bottle thru different printed funnel. From there, it’s refill breatheable bottles for use. Since the microwave in my house is often used to heat water, I thoruoghly wipe the inside dry before drying the beads. Wiping the microware interior dry often prevents coating chipping away under plate rollers, where super heated water can accumulate, causing the flaking & rusting.
I print desiccant containers with nylon. They have survived several drying sessions in a 120°C oven with no damage. I do not need to empty the containers and risk spillage while emptying or filling.
I empty saturated silica gel beads into a jug and refill the boxes from a fresh supply. Using a proper funnel over a tray and with reasonable care, there is no spillage.When the “used” jug is full I get out the food desiccator and dry the silica and that is now the “fresh” supply. No need for it to be any more complicated than that.I found ovens and microwaves to be more trouble than they were worth, and no “hot” silica to deal with.
I have spilled more dropping and breaking the containers than I ever spilled filling them. I rotate stock, when the AMS needs a refresh, I empty the containers, refill with fresh, then slow dry the bead in a Dehydrator.
Rule is NEVER overheat the beads, I don’t know about clay, but beads can get damaged if they get too hot and they will not absorb moisture if they get too hot. I tried microwave, 30 second at a time on defrost, let the steam escape and kept the temps down to under burn the bugger out of my hand hot. I also had them in a plastic bin and shake the bin, can watch the steam escape, and when that no longer happens, put them in a jug for the next refill.
However a quick search found Tyvek bags with clay Desiccant available, and to dry it is recommended to be put in an over at 245* for 24 hours. Desiccant Regeneration - SorbentSystems.com
Activated Alumina has been making my lab very happy this winter. I pinch some orange silica indicator into them for my eyeballs, and just kinda burn them up in the recharge. Ill pick em out eventually
If you use this stuff, beware that it dusts and abrades itself, so hold it stationary! [aka do not put it in a spool core weight, rotation will shed dust]
