How to preserve the filaments?  

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Sigh - the Gourmia arrived this morning.... 🙁 

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

We will take comfort in knowing that the $25 difference will easily be swamped out by the value of filament spools we keep in good condition.

There is one problem with having a food dehydrator for my filaments --- I'm constantly tempted to make jerky!

Maybe I DO need another one for food.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

BTW, don't forget to set temperature appropriately for your type of filament.  For PETG and polycarbonate, I just put it at 140F overnight.

That will ruin PLA  which needs about 120F. 

Also, I checked the Gourmia's temp accuracy with my dual probe digital thermocouples - It was within a couple F, good enough that I don't worry about it needing a thermometer. 

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Thanks for this reminder - I had no idea which temps to use.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: john.h68

Posted by: Tim

Posted by: holmes4

The card says to read between pink and blue dots. The cards I have include five dots making it easier. I would say that you're somewhere in the 20% range, which is ok.

Thanks - I was being a bit sarcastic with the post.  Being colorblind (color deficient, really) I often have issues with products that depend on users being perfect color normals.  The design philosophy that 12% of American men are excluded from using such things as intended just seems like a bad idea.

Now you need a camera for each spool and a stream back to your computer so you can colour  pick the tab with pixelmator 🙂

Or you could use something like this with an Arduino, a red LED and a green LED:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1334

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: holmes4

Thanks for this reminder - I had no idea which temps to use.

I printed a table from the PrintDry web page that has temperatures for lots of filament types, and glued the table to my dehydrator. I just tried to find the page again and the PrintDry webpage is forwarding to a wordpress install page... But I found the page with the table on the Wayback Machine:

http://www.printdry.com/dr y"> https://web.archive.org/web/20180830232042/http://www.printdry.com/dry

Actually what I did was copy-pasted the table into LibreOffice Calc (Excel will also work here) and then sorted alphabetically on the plastic type. Attached is my spreadsheet file if you want to print it out, reorganize it, correct it, etc. The temperatures are copied from the PrintDry website without any informed knowledge on my part (because I don't have any) to check the correctness of the temperatures.

FilamentDehydratorTemperatures

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: Sembazuru

Posted by: john.h68

Posted by: Tim

Posted by: holmes4

The card says to read between pink and blue dots. The cards I have include five dots making it easier. I would say that you're somewhere in the 20% range, which is ok.

Thanks - I was being a bit sarcastic with the post.  Being colorblind (color deficient, really) I often have issues with products that depend on users being perfect color normals.  The design philosophy that 12% of American men are excluded from using such things as intended just seems like a bad idea.

Now you need a camera for each spool and a stream back to your computer so you can colour  pick the tab with pixelmator 🙂

Or you could use something like this with an Arduino, a red LED and a green LED:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1334

 

Or a hydrometer 

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07SYB7NWM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

This actually looks appealing ... I think they are cheaper than the desiccant packs ... lmao.  Still need the packs, but the displays are a lot easier for me to read.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NTWV1N1

... and cheaper yet:

https://www.amazon.com/TAIWEI-Electronic-Temperature-Thermometer-Hygrometer/dp/B07MCGDN5C

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: Tim

This actually looks appealing ...

and cheaper yet:

https://www.amazon.com/TAIWEI-Electronic-Temperature-Thermometer-Hygrometer/dp/B07MCGDN5C

M

 

Set of 12 for $3.99 wow

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

I am using lock & lock containers from Snapware.  I place a small aluminum pan in bottom and fill with Dry-Dry ( Amazon) color indicating desiccant .  I then place a piece of suspended ceiling light egg crate grid on the pan.  The container holds two spools and they stack nicely.  Being clear it is easy to see the contents and check the condition of the desiccant 

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

I too use one of the Cheap Dehydrators, and with slight modification it works great as a 5 x Spool Print Box & Filament Buffer for my MMU2s.  I also store all my filament in an Industrial Dry Cabinet (but these are expensive) but do keep 0%RH and holds over 40 spools.  This combo works great but it is not a soln for all filament issues.  I just received a roll of eSun Bronze that was so brittle (out of the pack) that it would not even feed without snapping (the supplier is going to replace it) and no amount of "drying" would regenerate it.  In speaking with the supplier some of these filaments will degrade over time and the only option is to replace them.

Anyway - here are some pics of my setup.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: Tim

I use 1.5 gallon zip lock bags and large desiccant packets normally sold for large storage containers (to 50 gallon). Overkill, but they have been known to suck moisture out of spools of filament, and can be recharged.  I use general purpose storage zip locks, and avoid anti-stat bags that have moisture absorbing coatings. Metal foil anti-stat is ok, some filament comes in them, but the ones with coatings, maybe not so good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZZWGU4

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V3CHKA

 

 

Given that each filament comes with a zip lock bag, do I still need the bag in the first link?

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

If your filament comes with a recloseable bag, sure, use it. I find that many don't.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

I am a bit confused. I see some links to small meters on this thread. What is the point of using a meter?

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

The meter is handy if you are using storage containers rather than individual bags.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

Posted by: holmes4

The meter is handy if you are using storage containers rather than individual bags.

Why do we need a meter if we are using storage containers? I think it just shows us the temp or humidity. It does not seem to do anything to the filament.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

It doesn't do anything to the filament. It does tell you if you need to recharge the desiccant.

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

I  use a professional food vacuum sealer. Bags can be reused about three times before a new one is needed. Included in each bag is a colour-changing (orange to green) desiccant in a printed desiccant box and humidity strip to indicate when the desiccant needs replacing. I also store frequently used filament in a storage box with desiccant lining the bottom with a humidistat. Keeps humidity at about 10%. Storage box has ability to house spool holder and a connector with long PFTE tube to run to printer when using nylon filament ( Idea adapted from CNC Kitchen video).

Desiccant can be recharged in microwave for ten minutes whereupon it returns to its bright orange colour.

Has worked great preserving the filaments integrity.

Great ideas everyone!

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

The best way to preserve the filament is by turning it into 3D printed objects! 😆

RE: How to preserve the filaments?

My simple and elegant solution to the problem is at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4531208 . I like the paper boxes that filaments come in. And still keep them in ziploc bags.