Drying desiccant  

RE: Drying desiccant

I'm about to start needing to dry my dessicant, and will be drying it loose. What I'm thinking of using is a flat (or nearly flat, not the conical type) fine mesh kitchen strainer that I can remove the long handle from to fit inside my food dehydrator (I have one of the round ones similar to the PrintDry base but with regular food trays that I've cut to fit spools). Maybe an inexpensive strainer with a plastic body like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Chef-Craft-21389-Stainless-Strainer/dp/B001WYPGZ2/

Just my untested thoughts.

RE: Drying desiccant

Heh. Got a PrintDry for Christmas. I just dump the desiccant packets in the top tray while I dry filament in the bottom. Nothing fancy.

RE: Drying desiccant

If you're dealing with loose desiccant pellets, you might try using a small nylon bag.  I've used ones I get from a local homebrew supply store with are about 6" x 8".  They're very fine mesh, and are designed for holding brewing ingredients during boiling and fermentation, so they can take the heat.

RE: Drying desiccant

Posted by: Catfood

If you're dealing with loose desiccant pellets [...]

Must confess, I assumed packets. Didn't even think about the loose pellets. Good tip.

RE: Drying desiccant

Stuff I get in Germany. Put it into bags, see pic .. and into containers with filament..

Dry in the over when required .. change of color to dark .. and then repeat .. Been using the same container for almost 2 years

https://www.amazon.de/KnePo-Kunststofftechnik-regenerierbar-Trockenmittel-Indikator/dp/B07DY2WMPG/

RE: Drying desiccant

Containers ..

RE: Drying desiccant

Happy, safe, and dry

RE: Drying desiccant

Posted by: Catfood

If you're dealing with loose desiccant pellets, you might try using a small nylon bag.  I've used ones I get from a local homebrew supply store with are about 6" x 8".  They're very fine mesh, and are designed for holding brewing ingredients during boiling and fermentation, so they can take the heat.

Yeah, I think this may be what I'm looking for. I'll try looking for "nylon strainer bag" or similar. If I could get a big enough bag that would hold about a quart of desiccant pellets, or two bags that would hold half that, I think I'd be good.

I should have mentioned that I'm perfectly happy with my solution for holding desiccant along with the filament. I use "inside spool desiccant container" on Thingiverse. It's just when it comes time to recharge the desiccant that I need a good solution.

RE: Drying desiccant

And just remember nylon sucks up moisture like nothing else - so be sure to dry it out before you use it for holding desiccant ... lol. 

As for containers, these have water tight seals and aren't too expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/IRIS-USA-Inc-WeatherShield-Storage/dp/B07BMHVTC8

RE: Drying desiccant

Posted by: scott.b47

Posted by: Catfood

If you're dealing with loose desiccant pellets, you might try using a small nylon bag.  I've used ones I get from a local homebrew supply store with are about 6" x 8".  They're very fine mesh, and are designed for holding brewing ingredients during boiling and fermentation, so they can take the heat.

Yeah, I think this may be what I'm looking for. I'll try looking for "nylon strainer bag" or similar. If I could get a big enough bag that would hold about a quart of desiccant pellets, or two bags that would hold half that, I think I'd be good.

I should have mentioned that I'm perfectly happy with my solution for holding desiccant along with the filament. I use "inside spool desiccant container" on Thingiverse. It's just when it comes time to recharge the desiccant that I need a good solution.

 

 

I use the same desiccant containers from Thingiverse. 😀 To follow up with my post above about using a strainer and cutting off the handle to fit the dehydrator, I think I may have found a better solution surfing around in Amazon... A flour sieve that doesn't have handles. This is a 6" with a 40 mesh for 11USD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBB5RS4/ref=psdc_289726_t1_B0173ASBV4

The advantage that I conceptualize (so I may be way off) is an open topped container allows you to monitor the color of the desiccant indicators while drying (a mesh bag is harder to see through) and makes it easy to stir the beads while cooking drying. Could probably go as large as 18 mesh for the silica beads that I have (mesh to particle size chart), but I'm not sure how much more looking I feel like doing...

I just put one on order and if I remember about this thread I'll report back on my results once I've used it.

RE: Drying desiccant

Oh I like the idea of those. I do think 6" diameter may be a little on the small side though. The ones I printed myself were approximately 4" by 6" and they don't hold much desiccant at all.

You have given me some great ideas to look for though. If I could find a 10" or 12" diameter in the right mesh size, I might just see about ordering one.

RE: Drying desiccant

BTW, I just found these at IKEA:
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S79276760/

$9.99 and perfect for most spools and the MMU rollers.

Just pop a festo or 3d printed bowden coupler on there and you are good to go. Even fits the wide prusament spools.

Will also hold 2 regular spools or one wide and one regular without the rollers for storage.

Pros over IRIS containers: better size and shape, stands up the right way for feeding filament.
Con: the latches may not last as long.

RE: Drying desiccant

Posted the drying trays I designed, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3733030/files , the ones that came out too small (4" by 6") and didn't hold enough desiccant to be particularly useful, just in case they turn out to be useful to someone.

RE: Drying desiccant

• I like what you did with the outing spout there!

RE: Drying desiccant

I got my flour sieve today. Here it is in the dehydrator (the sieve is 6" in diameter):

I poured two "inside spool desiccant container"s worth of desiccant into it and it just covered the bottom. (The first container was definately saturated, but the second container was only partially saturated. That's why the dark blue/green beads are on the bottom.)

Here it is with the dehydrator closed up just after I turned it on. (The wires going into the dehydrator are thermocouples because I don't trust the stability and accuracy of the temperature control yet. I just happened to have an Arduino setup with 4 thermocouples and a display for each that was left over as a demonstration circuit for a SPI multiplexer that I designed.) The temperature was set to 65°C based on the chart that I printed from some filament vendor's website (I forget which one).

After a couple hours I checked on it to make sure the temperatures were good (they were, good little El-Cheapo brand dehydrator), and I saw that the silica beads were back to their amber "thirsty" state. But I didn't have time then to take pictures, shut things down, and put the desiccant away. Much later (about 5hrs 12minutes from the start) I returned again and took pictures. The timer is the highlighted line on my watch:

(Drat. Sorry the picture is sideways... Apparently this forum ignores the rotation meta data in images...)

My conclusion: For loose desiccant beads these all-metal flour sifter rings are great. Many that I found on Amazon were stupidly expensive ($50USD and up), but this one (linked in my message above) was only about $11USD. I estimate I could proabably put a good dozen of the "inside spool desiccant container"s worth of desiccant in it without problem and not get desiccant beads down inside my dehydrator.

RE: Drying desiccant

I use airtight lock&lock containers.  I put a small aluminum pan in the bottom and fill it with color indicating Dry-Dry (Amazon). I sit a piece of suspended ceiling egg crate light grid on the pan.  Holds two spools of filament. They stack nicely and allow you to see color of filament and color of desiccant.

Drying Filament -- Was Drying desiccant

All,

Interesting conversation.  I like the idea of using a 2 spool dehydrator for spools and then putting them into dry boxes with desiccant.  The Matter Hackers one seems like overkill.  I would need too many for the MMU2S to use them as dry boxes.

I already have some Ikea Samla boxes which hold 3 to 4 spools each depending on spool size, (to which I sealed and added locking clips and covered desiccant trays.  See picture 1).  I also got some 3 spool Sterlite boxes (that already have seals and locks, pictures 2 and 3), to contain my 9 auto rewinders for the MMU2S.  My question is which dehydrator will work out the best?

RAH

FYI...

Matter Hackers drying recommendations (picture 4):

RE: Drying desiccant

Posted by: Sembazuru

I use the same desiccant containers from Thingiverse. 😀 To follow up with my post above about using a strainer and cutting off the handle to fit the dehydrator, I think I may have found a better solution surfing around in Amazon... A flour sieve that doesn't have handles. This is a 6" with a 40 mesh for 11USD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBB5RS4/ref=psdc_289726_t1_B0173ASBV4

The advantage that I conceptualize (so I may be way off) is an open topped container allows you to monitor the color of the desiccant indicators while drying (a mesh bag is harder to see through) and makes it easy to stir the beads while cooking drying. Could probably go as large as 18 mesh for the silica beads that I have (mesh to particle size chart), but I'm not sure how much more looking I feel like doing...

I just put one on order and if I remember about this thread I'll report back on my results once I've used it.

Sembazuru,

I like the round flour strainers as a desiccant drying holder.  I would only fill them to about one layer deep to dry out desiccant.  They would dry so much faster.

RAH

RE: Drying desiccant

All,

My question is which dehydrator would you recommend? Or at least which features are important for a dehydrator?

Thanks,

RAH