What did the dictionary suggest as the ‘correct’ spelling? ??
I sprayed some isipropyl alcohol all over the plastic on a reel that would clog my extruder everty five minutes and my machine has been printing beautifully for 2 hours and 31 minutes now. I think I may make a habit of doing that even when I have my dryer.
I know that it is isopropyl cause google says so I couldn’t get a spelling suggestion from the forum spell check. My bottle says isopropylique because I’m in Montreal. Actually it says isopropyl too. Everything is in two languages in Canada.
I turned my back on my printer and it suddenly was printing nothing way up in the air doing a test print. I guess I should give the reel a shot every once in a while because the alcohol doesn’t penetrate enough. I shall try it again and give it a shot every hour or so and see if that works.
Time for a Home Depot bucket, and maybe a couple of pounds of indicator silica gel?
I think the silica gel has the same penetration problem.
This is what my filament looks like when it plugs.
It looks like a fancy drill bit.
I don’t understand. What does “penetration problem” mean?
The filament is wrapped on in layers and the outer layers inhibit the inner layers from receiving the drying. Like a rain coat.
I get it now. And it makes perfect sense. The one difference, I think, is that a bucket with a couple pounds of silica gel can be used over the long haul, meaning days and weeks at a time, so the “penetration problem” should become moot.
People that I follow as gurus in 3d printing say that desicant doesn’t really penetrate. My experience with isopropyl is the same. But It makes me wonder about creating a contrivance to treat filament just before it enters the extruder or the bowden with tiny bits of alcohol all encased so that it doesn’t just evaporate and then after humidity can come in again. It could be really good for hygroscopic filaments. I don’t think it would be that hard to make. We have the machines to make them and test them.
I am spraying on a little alcohol every once in a while now and everything is good, but I am quite sure I am wasting alcoholand who wants to always stand over their prints?
I haven’t heard about those issues with desiccant. Can you point me to some of the articles/videos that talk about it? On the pure logic side, it would seem that having a spool in a sealed container, with enough desiccant, for at least a week would have to get even the deep down moisture out. After all, that’s basically what’s happening when they vacuum pack the spools for shipment. I would love to dig into this more.
I thought I’d pass on something I figured out today. We have a FoodSaver unit that’s normally used to vacuum seal food for the freezer. I thought it could be pressed into service to store filament spools. I checked, and the widest bags available are indeed just wide enough for a typical 1 Kg spool. The next thing I considered is the cost of sealing, and re-sealing filament spools. I thought to myself, “This could get expensive.” Imagine opening a sealed spool and then having to throw away the vacuum bag because it’s now too small for the spool. That’s when it hit me. Why not use way more sealer bag from the roll than is strictly needed for 1 spool of filament. That way I can cut off and inch of the bag to open it, and then use it again to seal up another spool. If I make the bag a foot or more too long, I can reuse the bag 10 to 15 times. And it would only cost the price of an inch of sealer bag each time, like so:
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The FoodSaver itself is at the back, a roll of sealer bag material in front of it, and then a sealed spool of filament. As you can see, the bag holding the spool is about 1.5 feet longer than needed, so I should be able to reuse it quite a few times.
Here is a video that mentions this. Does Sunlu's FilaDryer S1 Filament Drying Unit really work? - YouTube
Thanks for this. I had not seen this guy before, so it’s good to have another source. I was disappointed to see that, while he does say that “others” claim desiccant doesn’t remove any moisture at all, he doesn’t offer any evidence, so I’m still undecided on the question. It still seems logical that a sealed box with fresh desiccant will, over time, absorb even the inner-most moisture from a spool. Mother nature abhors inequalities like this and will work hard to even things out, meaning the moisture from the spool will migrate to the air over time, where it will also get absorbed by the desiccant. I will continue to research to verify or refute this logic.
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The SunLu FilaDryer is an interesting appliance. My only complaint about it is that it only takes 1 spool. If I want to keep a number of spools dry it would take up a lot of table/counter space. It would be nice to be able to stack spools on top of each other to save that space. Still, it seems like a good unit.
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Again, thanks.
It seems a little expensive to me especially as you say it only holds one roll.
I was thinking much the same. I just watched a video by CNC Kitchen where he made a silica gel dry box using an Ikea plastic tub. He says it’s working great for him, even with nylon: [U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEFtUKGAd7k[/U]
This seems an even better idea: a DIY heated filament storage/feeder box, really inexpensively: [U]DIY Heated DryBox for 3D Printing filament - under $20 & MasterSpool Update - YouTube. The guy really seems to know his stuff too.