Heated DryBox Banishes Filament Moisture For Underneath $20
There has been a lot of activity from [Richard Horne] recently in relation to 3D printing filaments; Most recently, he presented two useful designs for enhancing the filament storage and surveillance game. The first is for a DIY heated DryBox for 3D printing filaments. It keeps the filament dry by not only sealing it in a plastic box with some desiccant, but also by providing a mild and economical heater for reptile habitats. Desiccant is great, but a gently heated enclosure can do wonders to help drive moisture out in the right environment. The DryBox design also includes a handy little temperature and humidity sensor that shows how well things are working.
The adapter for temperature and humidity sensor (and desiccant) mounted on the spool to monitor the condition of the storage bag.
The second design is a simple spin-off that we particularly liked: a 3D printed adapter that allows one of the simple temperature and humidity sensors to be conveniently mounted on a filament spool with a desiccant package. This allows for a spool of filament to be stored in a clear plastic bag as usual, but provides a neat way to see the conditions inside the bag at a glance. The designs for everything are on Thingiverse along with the parts for the heated DryBox itself.
[Richard] Please share the magic words to search for on eBay for those looking for the key low-cost components of the build: “15 * 28CM Reptile Heating Heater Mat” and “Mini LCD Celsius Digital Thermometer Hygrometer Temperature Humidity Meter”. There are many vendors who sell essentially the same parts with minor variations.
However, since the DryBox is used for both filament dispensing and storage, a good spool mounting system is required [Richard] found that the lack of coil standardization made designing a reliable system difficult. He noted that having bobbin edges rolled on bearings is a pretty good solution, but only if you don’t intend to use cardboard side bobbins, otherwise it will create annoying cardboard lint. Finally, [Richard] went with a solid stand and 3D printable adapters for the coils themselves. He explains everything in the video embedded below.
Not so long ago we saw [Richard] Share his thoughts on how to make the packaging of 3D printer filaments more meaningful, an excellent topic that has been widely debated. And within a few hours at least one German filament company was sending bundles with zippers. That is fast.