I had posted some time ago thread regarding favorite filament storage solution. There was a lot of good contributions on that thread but it got very long and although there was some discussion about dryboxes and dryers, I thought the topic of dryboxes would be a good discussion point.
Please name your solutions for your drybox that you can directly feed from.
I’ve been trying to find a cost effective solution for something I can feed filament from directly. So far, the cereal box approach just hasn’t been working very well. The reason is that the boxes are tapered and all the roller solutions I tried so far, except one, just could not accommodate wide Bambu spools or large diameter spools.
Here are the list of cereal box spool rollers I’ve experimented with, and they were uneven in their performance.
This was the cereal box that I found on Amazon that was under $5 each. This particular box I’ve seen for as high as $8 under different names but the Praki box seems to be cloned all over the place.
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Hall of shame - Solutions that did not work for me or simply just were fakes(didn’t prove with a photo)
Here’s my hall of shame of solutions I wasted way too much filament printing half-assed solutions that obviously worked… that is if you only use the spool they showed in the thumbnail. But the reality is they ALL fell horribly short of being a universal solution.
This one was so over-thought it just was a waste of time. In concept it looked good but it simply was too unrealizable to feed well inside the cereal box.
This one looked promising until you actually printed it. I was drawn in by the fact that it only needed two bearings and was center mounted. It will only fit in the cereal box they showed which was a horrible choice because it’s not hermetically sealed. Sure it can accommodate a wide spool but who cares if the spool can’t stay dry.
Here’s another one where the designer just put some ■■■■ up and didn’t even bother to prove what kind of dry box it fit inside leaving me to believe it was never tested nor did it ever work.
Here’s another one that’s a fake in my view. Take a close look at the spool hole and then look at the diameter. Clearly this is a 500g spool because the roller itself was too tall. If you put it in the average cereal box the spool wouldn’t fit. Not to mention that it required way too much after market hardware driving the cost of the solution sky high.
Another one where they expected using PTFE tubes as rollers. Please, someone show me a PTFE tube that’s straight.
This one held the most promise and I printed three of these. Still, too narrow for fitting Bambu filaments and too large a roller to accommodate large diameter filaments. But a valiant effort. At least he showed the product in action.
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Honorable mention
This one looked promising but I got so burned out on failed solutions I just didn’t have the motivation to try it.
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Winner
This one is brilliant. He solves the narrow base problem by turning the cereal box upside down and then takes advantage of the wide top as the bottom. Brilliant!!!
I did modify his design to make it one piece base. I’m not sure why he chose that route, maybe so it would fit on an A1 mini build plate? I may upload my remix if I am satisfied with it. His use of labels and printing the label from the filament inside is again brilliant. I tested it with every spool I had so far and all fit. I also modified his axles for smoother rolling. His use of the round opening as a desiccant carrier was also well designed. It fit like a glove. My only criticism is that it doesn’t hold more than 50g of desiccant but I may modify the base to accommodate a desiccants box.
