Filament dryer

[bigone5500]

I got this on a lightning deal on Amazon for $33. I'm hoping it will be able to keep my filament from going bad too soon. I've never kept it in anything but a box with desiccant packs. The roll of filament in there right now is a brand new roll of TPU. 61% humidity. My roll of black PETG was at 51% and after drying is now 40%. So maybe now I can get better prints. We will see.

 

[Tony]

If you are having issues with popping, it could definitely help out. Might also help out with older filament getting brittle and breaking during a print. Let me know how you like it, I have been looking at these.

 

[bigone5500]

So far I don't have any good data to share. I did dry my TPU and now it is at 43%. So definitely worth it at this point.

 

[bigone5500]

As a side note. This is what I store my filament in when not in use. It has a gasket around the inside of the lid and I have strategically placed desiccant packs in the bottom.

 

[bigone5500]

Some extra photos. The one I bought has ball bearing rollers for the spool to sit on. This allows printing while drying. It has 3 holes that let you insert a section of bowden tube and run the filament out to the printer.

 

[bigone5500]

An update to the dryer:

I printed a couple items yesterday and this morning I put my TPU in the dryer to get it ready for vacuum bagging. I turned it on and the fan sounded horrible. It's as if the sleeve bearing had no oil on it. The unit uses a little fan like in a laptop. I let it run for a minute and it smoothed out. I initiated a return with amazon so I don't have to worry about the fan quitting. I have dealt with these style fans in the past with fan forced heaters that I use in my dog houses. The humidity will make the fan blade squeal so a couple drops of oil silences it. Sometimes I use dielectric grease. So I'll see how long the next one lasts before any hollerin' goes on. <---sssshhhhh!!!!

 

[Tony]

Well, that's not good. At least it's from Amazon where you can get an easy exchange.

 

[bigone5500]

I told them to just send a replacement and I'll swap them out. I wonder if the exchange period stops after the first exchange?

 

[Tony]

I doubt it. Not unless you are abusing the system, which you are not. I think if you were just exchanging things left and right just because. then they may restrict your account. But once or twice a year shouldn't be anything to raise a fuss over.

 

[Muchenter]

A 3d filament dryer is very important for 3d printing, but too many 3d printing users didn't know this.

 

[bigone5500]

After using this for a while, I can say it does do its job. I left a roll of PETG on my printer for a while and placed it into the dryer. The filament had built up about 82% humidity. I had to run about 3 drying cycles at max temp to get it down to around 45%. I then placed the roll into a vacuum bag with a desiccant pack for storage. It's a good investment. I had a small roll of white PLA that never saw a dryer. I tried to unroll it and it just crumbled.