Vacuum sealing your unused filament  

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

I have done this since I started 2 years ago.  It seems to work.  

I have had one sitting idle so I have used it.  It was reserved for vacuum curing rocket motors.  Now it will be used for filament.  

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

I bought mine for the kitchen, I tried it one day to see if it would work and I never looked back, the condition you store them in is the condition they come out, another Plus as many may already know water molecules will release from your filament faster in a vacuum, the sealer is capable of 25 inches of mercury, I don't seal mine at that vacuum level because it crushes the spool, however I have done experiments where I have placed the sealed filament and desiccant pack in the sun or hot car and dried them, it works. obviously if you have a filament dryer there's no real point, you dry the filament before storing it, but its another way to get the job done.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@swiss_cheese

I'm curious...  About how long would you leave a reel of filament out before sealing them up?  I know different filaments absorb moisture at different rates, but lets say that you finish with a roll of PLA or PETG and won't use it again for a couple of days.  Would you vacuum seal it or just put it back in it's resealable bag?  We keep the humidity in our house between 30 and 35%.

DavidMil  

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

I use these containers: https://www.printdry.com/product/vacuum-sealed-filament-container/

They work really well, but I guess that the foodSaver technique is much more cost effective. I will give it a try for filament that I am not planning to use for a long time.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@lvet

I have tested the vacuum vs non vacuum containers.  I do nto see much a difference.  I recommend the lower cost non-vacuum containers.  

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@cwbullet,

I live in an extremely humid environment (100m from the seafront, in a normal sunny day I have around 60% humidity).

In my experience there is a clear benefit in storing the filament in vacuum, but I agree that outside extreme conditions it's not really necessary.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Posted by: @swiss_cheese

I made this post In another Thread, however it's buried 12 pages Deep and probably won't see much exposure, I think some folks might benefit from it so I started a new topic.

A habit I have that I'd like to convey the idea of here, is that I re-vacuum seal my filaments, the ones that I know I'm not going to be using for a time. In my work I often have to buy product that ends up not being what I hoped it would be, or a better way to say this is, it ends up not having the right properties for the product or part being developed. but you can't know till you get it and test it, unfortunately the filament industry is a lot like the nutrition industry, theirs A LOT of disinformation out there. But I digress, my point is I've tested them now I know their properties and may need them again at a later time, so I re-vacuum seal.  I do this fairly inexpensively with a foodSaver. (FoodSaver Link)  They have an 11" bag that fits almost every spool I've come across, with a few acceptations. I normally make my bags 17 to 18" long so I can open and reseal them several times if needed and if I use the entire spool next time I open it, I just save the bag for another spool, I bought mine 4 yrs ago and it was $129US at Costco for the starter kit, and a new box of large 11" rolls is still $30 today. I think the FoodSaver website has the machine @ $200US and they have different models. BTW it also dose a real nice job with my steaks. :  ) 

I resealed this one awhile ago, I have some that have been sealed for about 3yrs now. the bags are not as though as what you maybe used to from the manufacture but as long as your not going to play football with it you shouldn't have a problem.

Maybe someone will find this information useful, I've never seen other mention of folks using these for this purpose.

Enjoy

This great news for me! My wife has been wanting to buy one of the these FOODSAVER thingy from Costco but we(more me) just did not find any justification to get one (our steaks do not stay that long lol). 

she'll be surprised id be getting it for her birthday... lol

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

I'd be curious to know what percentage of the benefit comes from the vacuum storage as opposed to just the hermetic sealing in an equally high quality bag with a desiccant sachet thrown in.  I'm not arguing against doing the vacuum (good on you if you're geared up for that), but just wondering to what degree it matters.

When I seal my filaments in a hermetic box with lots of desicant, the RH in the box reads (10%), but it may actually be lower because that's the lowest number that the RH meter inside the box can register.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@dimprov

I live in humid GA and did not see any.  

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@cwbullet

Ah, good to know.  Sorry that I saw only your first post above and missed the second one.

Well, in that case, the OP loses nothing by stopping short of pulling a spool crushing vacuum.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Posted by: @lvet

I use these containers: https://www.printdry.com/product/vacuum-sealed-filament-container/

They work really well, but I guess that the foodSaver technique is much more cost effective. I will give it a try for filament that I am not planning to use for a long time.

 

 

Thanks for the link.  It has an interesting chart that shows an RH of about 6-7% under whatever vacuum it manages to pull. 

Not a bad drop if the ambient RH was 65% prior to pumping (and assuming the container they measured was empty except for the RH sensor).

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@davidmil

I tend to re-spool 200 or 300 grams (sometimes more) of filament I want to use, then I vacuum seal the remainder of the new spools and put them back in the box, I use a combination of a filament dryer and resealable bags with a desiccant pack in each for the filament to keep it fresh as I'm working with it, as an example of this, I'm currently working on a project that needs 4 different PETG's 6 different TPU's and an ASA. the reality of this is I have 11 open filaments that are hygroscopic to varying degrees, however the remainder of that material is cataloged stored neatly and safely vacuum sealed in its original box on the shelf for next time, so to answer your question I do it as soon as I've taken what I need from the spool, it's not a burden to open it again if I misjudged and need more, as I mentioned I leave my bags a bit long and can reopen and seal them again several times. I used to use dry boxes but they were taking up to much room and after I realized I could keep 20 rolls in the same amount of space that used to fit 7 I ditched them they have holiday decorations in them now, and I save a small fortune on desiccant and the labor of drying so much desiccant, I don't have to watch a hygrometer or make sure the the desiccant is still fresh.

I would have no issue with leaving a roll of PLA or PETG even ABS out in the air that I'm using for a few days, if it did need to be freshened up I'd throw it in the filament dryer for a time. TPU's, PA's <-nylons and PC need more attention as they will get stale very quickly even in a low humidity environments.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Posted by: @dimprov

I'd be curious to know what percentage of the benefit comes from the vacuum storage as opposed to just the hermetic sealing in an equally high quality bag with a desiccant sachet thrown in.  I'm not arguing against doing the vacuum (good on you if you're geared up for that), but just wondering to what degree it matters.

When I seal my filaments in a hermetic box with lots of desicant, the RH in the box reads (10%), but it may actually be lower because that's the lowest number that the RH meter inside the box can register.

@dimprov

I'm not advocating spending a bunch of money, or using this method for filament you use daily, I don't sell these I just use one. in fact I see a savings, not just in $money, but with my time. I have many many rolls of filament as I imagine, many of the folks here are the same. Over time I found that storing all this filament in resealable bags for extended periods wasn't keeping my filament as fresh as I would like, I like for my filament to come out of the bag ready to use, like new. I also noticed that the resealable bags tend to puff up for some reason after a time, I never felt like that was good. especially for nylons and alike. I do put a desiccant pack in each and many of them are color change, although I rarely see that they have changed color because the filament was dry when it was vacuumed sealed end of story. it's back in the box it came in, label facing out, I can pull it off the shelf like a book from the library, and never have to give another thought as to its condition.

In a dry box or resealable bag, you have this on going process of checking your hygrometer, checking the color of you desiccant if you use that type, drying the desiccant, cleaning the dust from the desiccant out of the dry box, removing and replacing the spools to do all this, and if your picky about your filaments condition you might think, if my desiccant changed color that means it probably wasn't protecting my filament during that time so your going to want to dry it again then back in the box till next time.

I'm all for dry boxes used actively to keep filaments your working with in the now, but not as storage for filaments to be used later. if your the kind of person that only has 10 rolls of filament total at any given time and you don't already have a FoodSaver or something like it or have another use for one, then I'd say don't bother it's pointless save your money. If you have 10 - 20+ rolls in your collection and growing, I'm saying this has been great. I have many more rolls then that, they all get used at some point or another.

Lets look at some of the costs:

The machine is about $200 US if you don't already have it, you can get it for that price as a starter kit and it has bags. and it has many uses not just resealing your filament.

11"Bags (that's the biggest my model will take) I paid $30 US for 4 16'/4.87m rolls before Covid. now they are $44 for the Foodsaver brand, you don't have to use the Foodsaver brand, you can buy generic, I have tried them, they work, but I prefer the Foodsaver bags. I get 44 bags at 17" and they can be resealed, if I'm careful cutting them open, 3 to 4 times (YMMV).

Desiccant Packs: well, what can I say here, they're widely available you know the costs. Once you vacuum the pack in the bag with the filament you probably won't have to do anything with it again until the next roll you use it with, if then. I find I can just put mine in with the next roll as long as I don't leave them sitting out in between rolls, it doesn't seem to change or do much in the vacuum, but I throw one in gratuitously, the environment in the vacuum is what it was when you sealed it, and I only seal mine in dry. Where you would need to regularly recharge your desiccant or desiccant packs when only using a resealable bag or dry box, it's few and far between when vacuum sealed.

You may also experience a savings from not having to run a filament dryer (for some that's the oven), near as much.

I'll bet there's more from both sides of the coin but that's all I can think of right now. I hope that helps answer your question.

Enjoy

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Posted by: @swiss_cheese

They have an 11" bag that fits almost every spool I've come across, with a few acceptations. I normally make my bags 17 to 18" long so I can open and reseal them several times if needed

Thanks for posting that!  My wife and I are shopping for one now, to be used for this and other purposes.  The width is the key discriminator in narrowing down which ones to consider.

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Food savers are great for filament!

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Sam's Club is currently running a sale of $50 off their "multi-use" food saver that works with 11" wide rolls (see swiss_cheese comment above).   It's the same model as Costco has.  Sale ends December 31.  No, this isn't spam.  I'm not affiliated with either sam's club or Costco, except as a customer.  Just thought I'd try to save my fellow 3d printer friends a few bucks. 

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

Have you ever tried the resealable vacuum bags sold by food saver?  They are just short of 11” x 11”.

https://www.foodsaver.ca/en_CA/bags-and-rolls/foodsaver-freshsaver-gallon-size-zipper-vacuum-sealer-bags-12-count/FSFRBZ0316-33R.html#start=2

RE: Vacuum sealing your unused filament

@robin-2

I have tried and used the smaller ones, for cheese and such, but you need to be able to press the accessory vacuumer tight against the bag, usually this means pressing it firm to the countertop, and while that works fine for cheese, after looking at the link you posted I'm not so sure how it might workout for a bag stuffed with filament.

(Circled in red, that flap needs to be presses against the counter.)

The Prusament spools are among the largest 1KG spools I use they are about the same size as the NinjaFlex spools.

The Prusament bags are 11 3/4" that 3/4" goes a long way, they do fit in the 11" FoodSaver bags though.

I happened to be sealing one up, so I took a couple photos to give you an idea of fit and seal.

In case anyone was wondering.

The bags stretch a little bit after first use and the spools fit like a glove the second time around.

Regards

Swiss_Cheese

RE:

Ok I have a Print Dry dryer.  Printed all my spools and put into vacuum bags i got from AliExpress (obviously not a good idea) Aliexpress bag.  Desicant and humidity indicators after 2 months are now showing humid, but vacuum is still good.   How is this possible?  Is there some osmosis happening?  

I don't want to use seal-able bags, I need resealable....any recommendations?

I live in Toronto, Canada. Its about 50% humid in summer, and 20% in winter.     Everything is in my basement.  The picture below shows a desicant outside the bag, vs a spool I just opened.