3D Printer Filament Dry Box - Keep Humidity Low

[Nifty]

store all my unused filament in a controlled heated box

Wait, you'd move from desiccant to a constantly heated box? Seems like once you dry the filament (or start with it dry), a proper amount of desiccant in a air-tight container would be the best way to go, no?

 

[The Hat]

you'd move from desiccant to a constantly heated box?

I intend to only use desiccant in my filament box when printing, but I also have 6 or 7 rolls of filament that are seriously compromised with moisture and they are the ones I’ll be storing in the heated box till they dry out...

Her indoors would not be very happy to find the kitchen oven full of drying filament reels, beside I’d probably forget to take them out and they might all merge into one big mess, I’ve got some great ideas but also tend to get easily distracted and forgetful...

 

[Nifty]

Ok, an update on my desiccant experiment:

My 1/2 teaspoon desiccant lowered the humidity to 15%. I opened it up and flushed out the air with new 50% humidity air, closed it back up.

The same desiccant got the humidity down to 18% overnight.

I then opened it back up and put in a full teaspoon of desiccant. This dropped the humidity down to 11%.

So, here's my guess: Desiccant works on an asymptotic curve towards zero... which basically means: The beads work great at really high-levels of humidity, but it gets harder and harder for them to wick moisture out of the air as the air becomes less saturated.

That would mean that the issue isn't my sensors, but the amount of (new) desiccant relative to the space.

Maybe I'll dump a BUNCH of desiccant in the test container just to see how low I can get it...

 

[The Hat]

I got 500 gm. of desiccant in my paint bucket and everything is working perfectly, and I’ve no idea how low the humidity is in there, and the bucket being opaque makes a Hygrometer in situ useless, so I’m anxious to rectify that situation...

 

[Nifty]

My white filament snapped in half right as it was exiting my box... it's happened a few times outside of the box lately. I think mostly because this spool is really old, and it's at the end of the spool where it's wound more tightly, so when it's unraveling then going straight, there's a lot of tension on it.

So I had to open it up to push the filament back through the exit port. The box was open for just a minute, but it was obviously enough to let some moist air in because more of my beads changed color. Fortunately the beads are still working fine because I'm back below 10% in the box.

If it keeps happening, maybe I'll take it out and put it in my Modified Dehydrator

 

[Nifty]

I just got this box for $10 and am just using it to store filament without holes, etc. for piping through to the printer:
https://www.target.com/p/dog-feeding-storage-10-lb-boots-barkley-153/-/A-14493878

It holds 2 spools easily and I'm hoping maybe one more sideways at the top.

I think I'll be keeping a white and black spool (my two most used colors) in my main box for quick access, then my other less-often-used colors (like my new color change) in smaller boxes like this one.

New box on the left (color change & red) and my new box (black / white) and their two outlets.

Each box has color-change silica desiccant beads and a hygrometer.

(You can also see a glimpse of my side-mounted spool holder for when I want to mount the other colors quickly.)

 

[The Hat]

My white filament snapped in half right as it was exiting my box...

Both my Dry boxes don’t get down as low in humidity as yours, I use a small electric Dehydrator in each box and I’m getting a constant 42% humidity in each and it seems to work, none of my filament ever breaks, just wondering maybe your humidity might be to low...

 

[Nifty]

Both my Dry boxes don’t get down as low in humidity as your

I can't get them below 10%... I'm guessing that's a function of the desiccant I'm using.

just wondering maybe your humidity might be to low

I've wondered that too, but I've never read a situation where that is the case. All the suppliers ship them completely void of air + desiccant packs, so I bet those have even less humidity.

Also, I'm watching all these videos of popular 3D printers (including Jo Prusa himself) where they have rolls and rolls of filament out on racks in the wide open air. I don't understand it.

 

[stratman]

Fun Facts Time

10% is pretty darn low. That much less that Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Average relative humidity (%) for the least humid US cities
City Humidity
Las Vegas, Nevada 30.3
Phoenix, Arizona 36.6
Denver, Colorado 52.0
Salt Lake City, Utah 55.3

If you want the lowest humidity city on the planet then move to Iran -- 0.36% relative humidity!

 

[The Hat]

10% is pretty darn low. That much less that Las Vegas or Phoenix.

I once got a reel of filament that was broken in several place as I used it, at the time I just taught it was just sloppiness on the part of the operator to break the filament and carry on and say nothing, but I’ve had second taught about it.

Was it caused by the filament be produced in to dry conditions and it hadn’t got a chance to absorb enough moisture before it was vacuum packed, there’s more to this Humidity lark than we know about..
To much and we know that’s bad, but to little ? ?, well...