drying filament without a dryer

[BrokenBiker]

havent ordered a dryer yet as im conflicted between buying a single spool dryer that i can probably fit somewhere in the shed but being limited to 1 spool, or buying a larger one that probably wont fit easilly but will dry a few at a time...

anyway, have some prints coming up in PETG that need to be relatively strong and look good and im fairly certain there will be moisture in the filament,s o what the best course of action?

no enclosure on the printer so cant use the bed to do it

am i ok in the oven? i have a thermocouple to monitor temp with but will the moisture from the gas negate any benefit?

 

[Anguz]

i have a suitcase sized peli case that i keep my filament in. bit of desiccant and one of those cheap humidity lcd displays. it keeps it around 25% seems to work

 

[BrokenBiker]

i have a suitcase sized peli case that i keep my filament in. bit of desiccant and one of those cheap humidity lcd displays. it keeps it around 25% seems to work

i have a sealed box with dessicant that all my filament is currently in, but my cheap hygrometer is saying 40% humidity in there and 74% outside the box, so i need to dry them anyway, they werent necesarrily dry when they went in and i doubt there is enough dessicant in there currently for the amount of filament in there, im still waiting for my kilo bucket to arrive that i ordered 2 weeks ago

 

[Dr.Al]

I've never tried a gas oven, but for a long time I just used the electric oven as a dehumidifier for PETG and it worked really well. I'm not sure what the impact of the gas flame would be.

 

[Kram]

For kitchen electric fan oven, I've done that for my ABS, put it on 80c with the fan on for a couple hours and rotate/flip it often.

Gas oven is possibly too hot, or less even heating. Let it warm up first before you put spool in. Test it with a nearly finished spool first, the temperature contol on them is not too acurate.

Silica gel dessicant is not that good at low humidities. If you only use a small amount, it wont be better than 20% or so.

For TPU etc which absorbs moisture quickly, and is very noticable, I use a lot of silica and that gets the humidity below 5%, I've had it as low as 1%.

These are good for storage

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0DGFKQWK4

I also use Esun vacuum bags.

 

[Bladevane]

@BrokenBiker - you might want to look at food driers and see if one could be used as is or modified to fit spools. I bought a cheapo one a couple of years ago and use it for drying filament and making yogurt. Although not at the same time.

 

[iNf]

Do you have an airfryer with a dehydrate setting?

 

[BrokenBiker]

Do you have an airfryer with a dehydrate setting?

Dont think so, just temp and time

 

[m_c]

no enclosure on the printer so cant use the bed to do it

You can put a box/cover over the filament to help keep the heat in, but just sitting the reel on the bed at 80deg is enough to get it to dry.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

My friend keeps his on a shelf in his airing cupboard. About 2 feet above the hot water tank.

 

[BrokenBiker]

You can put a box/cover over the filament to help keep the heat in, but just sitting the reel on the bed at 80deg is enough to get it to dry.

Hadnt thought about that...I will be buying an enclosure soon but not got round to it yet. Will also be buying a dryer at some point

 

[JOEPRO]

Lots of driers cheap on amazon etc id buy a proper one.

 

[m_c]

I've got the original Sunlu drier, but I don't use it that much now.

My usual process is new rolls either go in the Sunlu drier (only runs for 4hrs before having to be turned on again), or stuck on the Bambu bed using their drying routine (runs for 12hrs), then reels either go in the AMS, or into Lock'n'Lock boxes (HSM952 fit most single 1kg reels, and HPL889 fit 4 ) with reusable desiccant and a cheap moisture metre to give an indication of when the desiccant needs a trip to the microwave.

 

[skotl]

Do you have an airfryer with a dehydrate setting?

That’s what I use. Five hours at 40C

 

[Anguz]

my desiccant i redry at work. its the stuff that is orange but goes green when wet.. also gets heavier and its quite surprising by how much with the added water.
we have an ozone generator at one of the sites i go to... use the dried air for that to dry my desiccant.