Thanks for the idea. I put ball bearings on each end of the spool rod to reduce friction as much as possible and just dumped a bunch of orange desiccant beads on the bottom of the case. That's another check on how your humidity is doing. When they turn green, it's time to replace/rejuvenate them. Humid air rises (counter intuitively) so the desiccant really should go at the top, but I couldn't think of a easy way to do it. Obviously a not-yet-existant 3D printed part is called for!
In the USA, there are bins of the brand Sterilite, available at Target and similar stores. One particular set of bins have soft seals around the lid and do a good job of closing the bin, sealing in the desired environment.
Fantastic news on manufacturers taking up your master spool idea. You never cease to amaze me Richard, great work and do keep us updated as to which companies have adopted the master spool. As for the heated box for temp sensitive filament again a great idea and extremely cost effective application of everyday products. Brilliant work just Brilliant.
Thank you Dianne, that's lovely to hear. I'll keep a list of companies interested / progressing with MasterSpool and do another update when things move along.
Just a small warning these heating mats do not have any thermal safetys or sensors. If you do this i think it would be better to wire in a thermal fuse for safety sake just make sure you get a good value and place it in the box preferably on or near the heater so it cuts out if it does somehow heat too much.
Just fantastic Richard, great stuff. I’m off today and building my Anet A8 Plus. My first printer, so much to learn! However, years and years ago in a past life I was a tech supporting injection and blow molded polymers. I learned then as a lad (British words are better and yeah I’m an American, lol) that properly dried polymers produced the best results! I’m so stoked to be taking up this journey and this is just the kind of thing that will contribute to great success! Can’t thank you enough for sharing. GREAT STUFF!
A fantastic idea. Improvements: Gel silicate bags mounted so close to the humidity sensor alter the result. It is possible that the humidity in the bag or at the filament is different from what the sensor indicates because the air that reaches the sensor is air near the silicate.
I store my filament in an 80L storage box (Wham style) with door draft excluder around opening. It contains a "Caravan Dehumidifier", which is basically a silica gel box which has a built-in heater for drying back out when not in use. I have had values as low as 10%rH. It does feature a bowden connector for feeding filament to printers, but that one I don't use anymore (has a piece of tube blocked with hot glue). I now use a seperate box for each printer (currently 3 + a spare for visiting printers (ones I'm repairing for folks)), started out at a 7L ASDA food box (I designed feet, spool holder, sensor holder & etc). And those contain 1 spool and a 100g sachet of silica gel. The single boxes will generally get damper slowly, and when they get to 40%rH I'll dry the silica back out.
great update and project - I've already priced out this method and it's great! Much better than using an old heatbed with temp control system like I had planned. I've emailed Push Plastic to encourage them into the master spool idea.
Congrats on the reactions by the filament manufacturers for the Master Spool concept. The heated dry box is a great idea as well. Keep the ideas coming....
Thank you so much about the update. You lucky one to receive a coil from "Das Filament". I've finished my Masterspool this morning. Now it's waiting to be fed with some filament. I will post a picture of the spool on Twitter. That DryBox system is a very interesting concept.
I don't have one quite yet, but hopefully soon. I will work on a way to secure both the ends of the coil and check how to make sure you can re-fit reusable tie-wraps after install.
3 long slim slots from center to edge (@120 degrees) on the reel should make reinstalling cable ties a breeze. You just need a more sturdy rim on the outer diameter of the reel. Nice concept, love to see it adopted by all manufacturers.
Perfect!!! I was looking for a "food dehydrator" but didn't feel like spending $40+ for yet another bulky thing to have to store. This idea of yours uses a storage bin I already have and is considerably less. Purchasing parts now. Thank you! :)
Great cheap idea that could easily be upsized for more spools, the only thing I would change is the hygrometer position. I used to make PID controlled egg incubators which need to be pretty precise in both temp and humidity control, those hygrometers basically use a one chip temp/humidity sensor to which air needs to have a bit of movement(notice the holes in the rear) by putting them in that closed tube filled with desiccant the hygrometer will basically give a false reading as its reading the humidity round the desiccant not what the inside the bag/box humidity is actually at. The silica also needs to have access to the air so that it can absorb moisture from it. I would maybe put the hygrometer in the same but open ended tube and put the silica in a different place, that way the hygrometer will give a better overall reading.
I really like the Master Spool concept :-) Due to your recommendations (and those from CNC Kirchen and Thomas Sanladerer), my filament now lives in a sealed box (generic DIY store brand) that I just dumped a kilogram of plain silica gel beads into. The hygrometer I put in there, constantly displays "Low Level" - I think the one that I had on hand only starts measuring at 10% humidity. My admittedly very crude test consisted of printing a couple of things from a roll of PLA I had just sitting on the shelf unprotected. Loads of issues from underextrusion due to "bubbles" forming in the filament and a few failed prints due to insufficient 1st layer adhesion. The finished prints really did not look very nice. I then tossed the spool into the drying box overnight and printed the same parts the next day. Same files, same temp settings, printer sat untouched for the entire time. The prints turned out a lot nicer with the dried filament. No stringing, layers were all consistent. Personally, I do not necessarily see myself building a heater in for my filament, but then I do not normally use any highly specialized materials.
I got this weather station in my living room with wireless sensors, shows 3 external sensor readings on screen. One was unused, so just stuffed that in my drybox which is in a storage room :) Reads temp and humidity.
LIked-Subscribed-Notified. Very nice project. I'm getting more serious about my 3D printing hobby-wanting better print quality, faster print times, more consistent results. I am upgrading/modding my printers. Thank You for answering many questions on your Blog page.
Great Idea. I were looking for a dyi that is a clean look and do what it says. I even took a roll of PLA to the oven for remove the moisture until the filament be soft, like 5m. Note: the roll were on a Pyrex Glass. And work for a couple days it was great but the moisture get in again. I live near the sea and the weather moisture is 70% to 90%, not counting the days that rains. Good video do yourself and for 20$ is a good price and I was looking for bags for the filament thanks for the tip. Stay true to yourself.
The problem I see right away is that this system just heats an enclosed box with supposedly wet filament. And heating something wet in an enclosed system does not rid the system of the moisture level. It just allows the air within the system to be able to carry more moisture per volume of air. You need to circulate fresh air into the box to then be heated to carry the moisture then be blow out of the box. However, you'd then want to seal the air inlet and outlet when you're not using the box to prevent moisture from building up inside again. This is inconvenient and would require more "engineering". That's why it's enough to just build a dry box. Where you pre-heat dry the filament before you put it in said dry box. You only do this once for every filament until that filament is all used up.
I’m no drum banging environmentalist but I see the value of your idea. Print or buy a few master spools and filament manufacturers can sell their filament for less without a spool, plus it would save a lot of trash plastic.
Richard, hi! Saw your canal on UA-cam and with pleasure subscribed. You are a good fellow, your videos are very useful to beginners as I. I from Russia, badly know English, however a lot of things are clear. I will be glad to see your next videos.
I'm beginner in 3d printing and I thought the filament should be in a temperature about 70°c but in this box it's only about 10°c over the room temperature 🤔 now I'm really confused. 🤔
Any chance one could mod these 7w thingies to heat to something like 45ºc? To actually remove humidity from PLA for example. There's a 14w version (double the width) which I'm not sure if can get to the 45ºc due to its circuitry.
Richard that is Fantastic news! please link or make a video of the manufactures that will be processing un-spooled filaments, Hopefully the north American manufactures will fallow ! Bravo its a great step forward ! I see a you as father trying to leave his daughter a cleaner less polluted planet ! Which was the original idea of Adrian Bowyer, father of the reprap's, goal of less manufacturing waste by products.
I wonder if a fan inside the drybox might help with circulating the air. As long as you're sticking a 7w heater in there, you might as well pop in a 1w fan as well.
Hi, I was wondering if you could advise the minimum dimensions of the plastic container so I can get something similar. I tried at the local store but all the small 10-15l ones are very shallow. Thanks for your awesome idea.
This is great info. Thanks for sharing it. Just put a printer together and am interested in spending more time tuning that up and working out the kinks than putting the effort and time into designing a and thinking out a system to maintain filament. The links for those pieces still show up on EBay. Took a guess with the plastic box but I’s sure it will be close. Thanks also for sharing the files for the printed components. Very helpful! Cheers!
Great video. I was wondering if anyone has tried using those vacuum sealed storage bags together with desiccant. Pumping the air out might be helpful as well.
Masterspool is great idea! But they are needed to made out of polycarbonate to withstand drying heat. Like abs or pc 60 to 70 C pla would deform on those temperatures
Master Spool, Great Idea!!! but here is a Couple thoughts ... Companies might have different center diameters of there coils, Maybe have interchangeable center circles or Have multiple arms that slide in and out in center to adjust to different Diameters. Also maybe a slot on side to hold Paper to show brand, ABS, temps or what ever info
i was thinking of using a humitity and temp combo controller (27eur) and an old ender3 pro power supply and heated bed to heat up the dryer box tho im making my dryer box from aluminium i have laying around
I don't understand, heat will warm the filament however you need to vent so that moisture will condensate in the cooler air. Otherwise the moisture stays in the 📦
Do you know how warm/hot it gets with a reptile heater? Should I get a thermostat to avoid it getting too hot or is this not an issue with this type of heating?
Good update! Very happy for you! It would be great to implement some indicator of remaining length / weight on the master spool. Only very few manufacturers do, unfortunately.
One question heater inside will dry but where will moisture or water vapour will go they will just stick to container ,so there should be intake exhaust fan with heater exhaust will push out moisture
I am building my own dry-box from two refrigerator vegtable draws , using oven lamps and a fan as heating and a digital temperature control as wel as serveral printed parts, total price will stay under 16 euro's. It wil hold 2 rolls of 1 kilo.
how hot does this thing get? I ordered from Aliepxress 2x 12v, 20W silicon heating mats for - 2.5$ each. 1x PSU 10A 12V - 11$ 1x1x Incubator relay with thermo sensor and control - 9$ Yeah, more expensive than the 6$ reptile warmer but I can expand it to several boxes by paralel connecting the pads to the psu. However its yet to be yester. but I have a feeling 40W might be too much for my PP container. I hope it doesnt melt or give in. Was hoping to set temp to 50°C for the nylon spool, so i dont have to bake it on the oven over night.
Has anyone had difficulty scaling these to the correct size for their spool - especially the Drybag sensor holder? - Every time I scale and save gcode - it reverts back to original dimensions when printing
The % shown on the hygrometer is relative to temperature, so it's not the most ideal indication as we are also using a heater inside the enclosure. You will actually see the percentage rise up after switching on the heater, this is quite normal and to be expected. What you are looking for is stability of the system - so for me that's around a display of 30 degrees C and a percentage of also around 30% If you use the same sensor in a sealed bag with silica gel, and the temperature drops, and the silica gel takes moisture out of the internal atmosphere, you will see readings of room temperature and percentages of around 10% to 25% if you just leave the same sensor out on the shelf, you will see much higher readings depending on where you live and the ambient conditions. Short answer is that the heated drybox is to keep things warm, dry and stable. so a reading of 30 degrees and 30% is really good, and it's all working well. An even lower percentage is even better, but it's more important to keep things consistent, this way every time you use the material you should get the same quality print results. I hope that helps, and sorry for the delay, I have been away.
@@RichRap3D I am new to all this and really appreciate your willingness to share such knowledge... From what I understand then -- over time the silica or whatever moisture-absorbing materials being used - may need to be replaced? Would seem -- may take years -- ;)
On the subject of RichRapSpool ( to be confirmed by Richard ) the most obvious concerns would be the possibility of deformation of the filament by the " holders " of all kinds during the mass production, packaging, shipping etc. IMHO, I highly recommend the use of wide, softer than filament strips of material to hold the filament in place.
I agree, it needs a secure, but not damaging tie. Nylon zip ties seem to work well, but I also like seeing reusable ties so we get less waste. It really only needs a simple but strong tie because when an outer bag is vacuum sealed that holds the coil perfectly well during shipping.
@@RichRap3D FYI, I have seen a few 3D-Printing suppliers adopting the idea. Although I have not experimented with their " Spool-less " filaments, Here is my local source: filaments.ca/products/econofil-1kg-refill-coil-abs-filament-grey-1-75mm?variant=7739153383477&
Hey, eSun has done it! I use their filament. It's great. So, what if the little tube the filament comes wrapped around had connectors so you could snap the outer plates on? That would still save packaging, plus the master spool would just be identical outer plates that clip onto the tube the filament is wrapped around. How about that being made an industry-wide standard?
I honestly wish more companies would offer filament without the spool, It feels so wasteful to throw away plastic spools. Some companies are using cardboard spools and I feel less bad about throwing those out.
This is amazing stuf. I plan on putting it on top of my diy enclosure (from PRUSA) where the filaments go. I was thinking of adding another LACK table on top of it, enclose the sides with acrylic, then put 1 or 2 of these heating mats on the sides. Would 2 14w mats be too much? Currently there are 2 filaments on it but I want to put all my filaments there.
Here i foud it in Aliexpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/32664302015.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.433713e3ZjMzle&algo_pvid=0f187d1e-3c71-40d8-9885-5b8d4a556735&algo_expid=0f187d1e-3c71-40d8-9885-5b8d4a556735-10&btsid=08b42328-13f4-4339-9bf4-740af3ab7ca6&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_52
Target has a nice water/air proof tote EZY Water proof Storage Tote. One taget I went to only had 18L/19qt size. Its doable BUT you have to lower height of spool supports a bit and also the sides to get this toteto work I know I srunk the height and it fits now.
You might need to be careful on the "environment-friendly" aspect. When you consider the energy & material used to print the master spool ! Esun have supplied spools that are bolted together for a good few years now and i wish they would supply filament "only" options. I guess their production is geared up to maintain "on-spool" supply and only a market shift will encourage them to change. The master spool is a good start
The metal lined bags work great, but I once tried pure plastic vacuum bags with dried pellets - I found the pellets were wet again when I came back to use them. Finally I realized, the bags were plastic, plastic absorbs moisture, so given time, why wouldn't the moisture migrate into the inside of the bag? The bags were still under vacuum - so moisture was finding it's way in, but air wasn't.
I am building something similar with a heat and dessicant element, however I plan on getting the temperature a little closer (not much) to the glass transition level to dehydrate it better. The thing I'm worried about is it being too warm for the descicant to absorb anything or it releasing any moisture it has gained right back into the filament.
Dang, the master spool, so this is where Bambulab got the idea for there spools. Kind of crazy, this is litterly an exact copy of what bambu made. Or rather, bambulab copyed this exactly. Hope they gave you some compensation for that.
Congratulations on the success of #Masterspool. Now, I understand the reason for wanting a low humidity environment for your filament but what is the reason for it being heated? The concerns I have with the design of the box is that the heating element is only heating one side of the spool at any given time so wouldn't that create some warping as it expands and contracts possibly bring the filament out of tolerance? Then too the filament is feeding off the top so aren't you losing any advantage to preheating your spools as its cooling while moving away from heat source? And since it's feeding through those long tubes wouldn't the filament essentially be room temperature by the time it reaches the print head? If you wanted an all over ambient temperature I would think moving the heating element to a more open spot and using a small fan to distribute the air would be more effective like a convection oven. This would also help the silica do its job and you would avoid any humidity condensing on cooler surfaces like the lid. But if you just wanted warm filament to feed into your printer winding it from the bottom might be better as its at its warmest in that position.
Hi Fern. The heater gently heats the air inside the box, that translates to the entire spool and everything else inside the box including the silica gel etc. It's only a small, gentle heater, just keeping the inside around 32 degrees C - this really just helps drive out the moisture from everything inside. when in use the coil is turning, but it's all around the same temperature, and I have not seen any negative issues for the materials. Only improved print quality and less brittle materials. Hope that helps.
At the beginning you say you dont need the seal... then a few minutes later you're showing the seal you printed for it. So is the seal actually needed or not?
As I listened to the section a few times (12:45) (I'm not the fastest and taking in a new concept)... Seemed to say it's a good idea, not that if it isn't sealed it won't help == but sealing it will be better...
Hello Richard, nice dry box but does the heating reduce the amount of water in the box or just the relative humidity? If you look at a point on a psychrometric chart, for example, 25C and 50% relative humidity. Heating this air to 45C will move the point to below 20% relative humidity but the amount of water does not change. When I build mine, I will do a test to see if the heat actually removes water. Best regards
@@nategoodwin3329Since I am building a dry box for my new Ender 5 Plus, I was able to take some measurements: at room temp 22C I had 47% relative humidity, the absolute humidity was 9.1 g/m3 . I heated up the box with a thermal pad up to 43C, the relative humidity went down to 15% but the absolute humidity was 8.9 g/m3, practically the same (at 43.5C it would be the same). I have tested freezing the water in the air with a Peltier module and I can get 19% relative humidity at 22C or 3.7g/m3. That is 2.5 times less water vapor. Keep in mind that inexpensive temperature and humidity sensor are only 3 to 5% accurate. I use a bin with a soft seal from Walmart. Best regards
+1 respect for adding in a time to skip to the build
Thanks for the idea. I put ball bearings on each end of the spool rod to reduce friction as much as possible and just dumped a bunch of orange desiccant beads on the bottom of the case. That's another check on how your humidity is doing. When they turn green, it's time to replace/rejuvenate them. Humid air rises (counter intuitively) so the desiccant really should go at the top, but I couldn't think of a easy way to do it. Obviously a not-yet-existant 3D printed part is called for!
In the USA, there are bins of the brand Sterilite, available at Target and similar stores. One particular set of bins have soft seals around the lid and do a good job of closing the bin, sealing in the desired environment.
I purchased my tote from target. It has a seal and nice clips to close lid down
I just ordered one from Walmart to go pickup. Gasket and everything. I had experience with them before (to keep food away from roaches...).
Fantastic news on manufacturers taking up your master spool idea. You never cease to amaze me Richard, great work and do keep us updated as to which companies have adopted the master spool. As for the heated box for temp sensitive filament again a great idea and extremely cost effective application of everyday products. Brilliant work just Brilliant.
Thank you Dianne, that's lovely to hear. I'll keep a list of companies interested / progressing with MasterSpool and do another update when things move along.
Just a small warning these heating mats do not have any thermal safetys or sensors.
If you do this i think it would be better to wire in a thermal fuse for safety sake just make sure you get a good value and place it in the box preferably on or near the heater so it cuts out if it does somehow heat too much.
im actually more amazed by the humidity in a bag, great simple idea
Just fantastic Richard, great stuff. I’m off today and building my Anet A8 Plus. My first printer, so much to learn! However, years and years ago in a past life I was a tech supporting injection and blow molded polymers. I learned then as a lad (British words are better and yeah I’m an American, lol) that properly dried polymers produced the best results! I’m so stoked to be taking up this journey and this is just the kind of thing that will contribute to great success! Can’t thank you enough for sharing. GREAT STUFF!
A fantastic idea.
Improvements: Gel silicate bags mounted so close to the humidity sensor alter the result. It is possible that the humidity in the bag or at the filament is different from what the sensor indicates because the air that reaches the sensor is air near the silicate.
this masterspool concept is so cool!! I can't believe I've never seen it before
I store my filament in an 80L storage box (Wham style) with door draft excluder around opening. It contains a "Caravan Dehumidifier", which is basically a silica gel box which has a built-in heater for drying back out when not in use. I have had values as low as 10%rH. It does feature a bowden connector for feeding filament to printers, but that one I don't use anymore (has a piece of tube blocked with hot glue). I now use a seperate box for each printer (currently 3 + a spare for visiting printers (ones I'm repairing for folks)), started out at a 7L ASDA food box (I designed feet, spool holder, sensor holder & etc). And those contain 1 spool and a 100g sachet of silica gel. The single boxes will generally get damper slowly, and when they get to 40%rH I'll dry the silica back out.
great update and project - I've already priced out this method and it's great! Much better than using an old heatbed with temp control system like I had planned. I've emailed Push Plastic to encourage them into the master spool idea.
Thanks Dean. Let me know how you get on with the build.
Congrats on the reactions by the filament manufacturers for the Master Spool concept. The heated dry box is a great idea as well. Keep the ideas coming....
Thanks, and will do - plenty more in the pipeline :)
Thank you so much about the update. You lucky one to receive a coil from "Das Filament". I've finished my Masterspool this morning. Now it's waiting to be fed with some filament. I will post a picture of the spool on Twitter. That DryBox system is a very interesting concept.
I don't have one quite yet, but hopefully soon. I will work on a way to secure both the ends of the coil and check how to make sure you can re-fit reusable tie-wraps after install.
3 long slim slots from center to edge (@120 degrees) on the reel should make reinstalling cable ties a breeze. You just need a more sturdy rim on the outer diameter of the reel. Nice concept, love to see it adopted by all manufacturers.
Perfect!!!
I was looking for a "food dehydrator" but didn't feel like spending $40+ for yet another bulky thing to have to store. This idea of yours uses a storage bin I already have and is considerably less.
Purchasing parts now. Thank you! :)
Great cheap idea that could easily be upsized for more spools, the only thing I would change is the hygrometer position. I used to make PID controlled egg incubators which need to be pretty precise in both temp and humidity control, those hygrometers basically use a one chip temp/humidity sensor to which air needs to have a bit of movement(notice the holes in the rear) by putting them in that closed tube filled with desiccant the hygrometer will basically give a false reading as its reading the humidity round the desiccant not what the inside the bag/box humidity is actually at. The silica also needs to have access to the air so that it can absorb moisture from it. I would maybe put the hygrometer in the same but open ended tube and put the silica in a different place, that way the hygrometer will give a better overall reading.
Now that is awesome. I especially like the use of the flexible heater. This is got to be one of the best DIY dry box designs I've seen yet.
I really like the Master Spool concept :-)
Due to your recommendations (and those from CNC Kirchen and Thomas Sanladerer), my filament now lives in a sealed box (generic DIY store brand) that I just dumped a kilogram of plain silica gel beads into. The hygrometer I put in there, constantly displays "Low Level" - I think the one that I had on hand only starts measuring at 10% humidity. My admittedly very crude test consisted of printing a couple of things from a roll of PLA I had just sitting on the shelf unprotected. Loads of issues from underextrusion due to "bubbles" forming in the filament and a few failed prints due to insufficient 1st layer adhesion. The finished prints really did not look very nice.
I then tossed the spool into the drying box overnight and printed the same parts the next day. Same files, same temp settings, printer sat untouched for the entire time. The prints turned out a lot nicer with the dried filament. No stringing, layers were all consistent. Personally, I do not necessarily see myself building a heater in for my filament, but then I do not normally use any highly specialized materials.
I got this weather station in my living room with wireless sensors, shows 3 external sensor readings on screen. One was unused, so just stuffed that in my drybox which is in a storage room :) Reads temp and humidity.
This so handy.
I ended up switch to PETG because I was tired of the filament breaking.
This is one of the better designs I’ve seen. Good job and thank you for sharing 👍😎🇦🇺
Your idea of using a "master spool" is brilliant. Looking forward to it gaining traction.
LIked-Subscribed-Notified. Very nice project. I'm getting more serious about my 3D printing hobby-wanting better print quality, faster print times, more consistent results. I am upgrading/modding my printers. Thank You for answering many questions on your Blog page.
Great Idea.
I were looking for a dyi that is a clean look and do what it says.
I even took a roll of PLA to the oven for remove the moisture until the filament be soft, like 5m.
Note: the roll were on a Pyrex Glass.
And work for a couple days it was great but the moisture get in again.
I live near the sea and the weather moisture is 70% to 90%, not counting the days that rains.
Good video do yourself and for 20$ is a good price and I was looking for bags for the filament thanks for the tip.
Stay true to yourself.
Thank you, I'm glad this was helpful. Let me know if you make one.
Brilliantly done, good sir. I think this will be a near-future project for me!!!
Really nice job. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us 3D printer folk.
For safety you could use a thermal fuse at what ever temp you not want it to go over for. It will blow if it gets too hot.
The problem I see right away is that this system just heats an enclosed box with supposedly wet filament. And heating something wet in an enclosed system does not rid the system of the moisture level. It just allows the air within the system to be able to carry more moisture per volume of air.
You need to circulate fresh air into the box to then be heated to carry the moisture then be blow out of the box. However, you'd then want to seal the air inlet and outlet when you're not using the box to prevent moisture from building up inside again. This is inconvenient and would require more "engineering". That's why it's enough to just build a dry box. Where you pre-heat dry the filament before you put it in said dry box. You only do this once for every filament until that filament is all used up.
I’m no drum banging environmentalist but I see the value of your idea. Print or buy a few master spools and filament manufacturers can sell their filament for less without a spool, plus it would save a lot of trash plastic.
Master spool is a fantastic idea. There is so much waste inherent in our hobby!
Richard, hi! Saw your canal on UA-cam and with pleasure subscribed. You are a good fellow, your videos are very useful to beginners as I. I from Russia, badly know English, however a lot of things are clear. I will be glad to see your next videos.
Can i use clothe heat pad?
You're fantastic.. This was I'm looking for an Adjstable heater ... for Pets !! AWESOME Idea.
Love that idea on the #MasterSpool! When i get my printer ill have to get some printed up!
I'm beginner in 3d printing and I thought the filament should be in a temperature about 70°c but in this box it's only about 10°c over the room temperature 🤔 now I'm really confused. 🤔
What is the maximum temperature in the box with the 7W heater? I'm concerned that it would not work for anything but PLA.
Any chance one could mod these 7w thingies to heat to something like 45ºc? To actually remove humidity from PLA for example. There's a 14w version (double the width) which I'm not sure if can get to the 45ºc due to its circuitry.
I was really enthusiastic about master spools when I heard about it but It works out more expensive than the filament I usually use
Richard that is Fantastic news! please link or make a video of the manufactures that will be processing un-spooled filaments, Hopefully the north American manufactures will fallow ! Bravo its a great step forward ! I see a you as father trying to leave his daughter a cleaner less polluted planet ! Which was the original idea of Adrian Bowyer, father of the reprap's, goal of less manufacturing waste by products.
Thank you. That's a good idea, may help encourage others and show what progress is being made - I'll also list problems and any issues etc.
I wonder if a fan inside the drybox might help with circulating the air. As long as you're sticking a 7w heater in there, you might as well pop in a 1w fan as well.
That is a very good idea and very well executed! Congratulations :)
Very slick dry box. Nicely done.
Hi,
I was wondering if you could advise the minimum dimensions of the plastic container so I can get something similar.
I tried at the local store but all the small 10-15l ones are very shallow.
Thanks for your awesome idea.
This is great info. Thanks for sharing it. Just put a printer together and am interested in spending more time tuning that up and working out the kinks than putting the effort and time into designing a and thinking out a system to maintain filament. The links for those pieces still show up on EBay. Took a guess with the plastic box but I’s sure it will be close. Thanks also for sharing the files for the printed components. Very helpful! Cheers!
Very Nice ! I have a system of dry boxes with dessicant but I am just getting into Nylon and love the heater and moisture meter ideas. Thanks
Great video. I was wondering if anyone has tried using those vacuum sealed storage bags together with desiccant. Pumping the air out might be helpful as well.
can anyone tell me the total height of the build with the spool on it ? so i can find a proper box for the whole thing ?
Masterspool is great idea! But they are needed to made out of polycarbonate to withstand drying heat. Like abs or pc 60 to 70 C pla would deform on those temperatures
Master Spool, Great Idea!!! but here is a Couple thoughts ... Companies might have different center diameters of there coils, Maybe have interchangeable center circles or Have multiple arms that slide in and out in center to adjust to different Diameters. Also maybe a slot on side to hold Paper to show brand, ABS, temps or what ever info
In USA we could get boxes very similar at WalMart. Sterlite is the manufacturer's name.
i was thinking of using a humitity and temp combo controller (27eur) and an old ender3 pro power supply and heated bed to heat up the dryer box tho im making my dryer box from aluminium i have laying around
Plastics absorb noticeable amounts of moisture in as little as 2 hours after being removed from a industrial dehumidifier dryer.
Great job Rich, thanks for sharing
Thank you Steve.
Would be cool to print a scale on the inside of the spool that gives an estimate of the amount of filament left on the spool.
Im curious how your drybox can achive 18% humidity. my 40W homemade drybox can reach 45°C but only get humidity to around 35% (normally 50%).
Would you please post the inside dimensions of the storage box used for this project?
Could I just put my sunlu in a airtight box if I already got one?
Very nice, thank you friend . . .
Excellent video Rich, awesome
I don't understand, heat will warm the filament however you need to vent so that moisture will condensate in the cooler air.
Otherwise the moisture stays in the 📦
"The printed spool holder uses a section of M8 threaded rod and two M8 nuts."
What is the length of the threaded rod used please?
You can get a cheap 1m m8 Rod and just use a metal saw
Late to the party, but that’s a really cool dry box design 👍
Do you know how warm/hot it gets with a reptile heater? Should I get a thermostat to avoid it getting too hot or is this not an issue with this type of heating?
Good update! Very happy for you! It would be great to implement some indicator of remaining length / weight on the master spool. Only very few manufacturers do, unfortunately.
One question heater inside will dry but where will moisture or water vapour will go they will just stick to container ,so there should be intake exhaust fan with heater exhaust will push out moisture
I am building my own dry-box from two refrigerator vegtable draws , using oven lamps and a fan as heating and a digital temperature control as wel as serveral printed parts, total price will stay under 16 euro's.
It wil hold 2 rolls of 1 kilo.
Just one comment. If it doesn't have to be sealed, ie. you have 4 holes in the lid, then why did you make a seal?
how hot does this thing get?
I ordered from Aliepxress
2x 12v, 20W silicon heating mats for - 2.5$ each.
1x PSU 10A 12V - 11$
1x1x Incubator relay with thermo sensor and control - 9$
Yeah, more expensive than the 6$ reptile warmer but I can expand it to several boxes by paralel connecting the pads to the psu.
However its yet to be yester. but I have a feeling 40W might be too much for my PP container. I hope it doesnt melt or give in.
Was hoping to set temp to 50°C for the nylon spool, so i dont have to bake it on the oven over night.
Has anyone had difficulty scaling these to the correct size for their spool - especially the Drybag sensor holder? - Every time I scale and save gcode - it reverts back to original dimensions when printing
Great idea.
What would be a good % of moisture to look for on the hygrometer?
I'd be reluctant to sign up for your course when you you do not take the time to answer questions here.
The % shown on the hygrometer is relative to temperature, so it's not the most ideal indication as we are also using a heater inside the enclosure. You will actually see the percentage rise up after switching on the heater, this is quite normal and to be expected.
What you are looking for is stability of the system - so for me that's around a display of 30 degrees C and a percentage of also around 30%
If you use the same sensor in a sealed bag with silica gel, and the temperature drops, and the silica gel takes moisture out of the internal atmosphere, you will see readings of room temperature and percentages of around 10% to 25% if you just leave the same sensor out on the shelf, you will see much higher readings depending on where you live and the ambient conditions.
Short answer is that the heated drybox is to keep things warm, dry and stable. so a reading of 30 degrees and 30% is really good, and it's all working well. An even lower percentage is even better, but it's more important to keep things consistent, this way every time you use the material you should get the same quality print results.
I hope that helps, and sorry for the delay, I have been away.
Thank you for the reply.
@@RichRap3D I am new to all this and really appreciate your willingness to share such knowledge... From what I understand then -- over time the silica or whatever moisture-absorbing materials being used - may need to be replaced? Would seem -- may take years -- ;)
@Russell White This seems a strange comment. You answed my question 3 years ago and i thanked you for your answer.
So what should the readout on those humidity devices actually read for the filament to be good?
What is the ideal humidity of a filament before storing or printing, like pla and petg? 🤔
Hello, do you have the ebay link to the shop for the plastic box, ther are many similar ones that are brittle. 😕
On the subject of RichRapSpool ( to be confirmed by Richard ) the most obvious concerns would be the possibility of deformation of the filament by the " holders " of all kinds during the mass production, packaging, shipping etc. IMHO, I highly recommend the use of wide, softer than filament strips of material to hold the filament in place.
I agree, it needs a secure, but not damaging tie. Nylon zip ties seem to work well, but I also like seeing reusable ties so we get less waste. It really only needs a simple but strong tie because when an outer bag is vacuum sealed that holds the coil perfectly well during shipping.
@@RichRap3D FYI, I have seen a few 3D-Printing suppliers adopting the idea. Although I have not experimented with their " Spool-less " filaments, Here is my local source:
filaments.ca/products/econofil-1kg-refill-coil-abs-filament-grey-1-75mm?variant=7739153383477&
Unfortunately cant find that heating element. Can you post a link please?
Hey, eSun has done it! I use their filament. It's great.
So, what if the little tube the filament comes wrapped around had connectors so you could snap the outer plates on? That would still save packaging, plus the master spool would just be identical outer plates that clip onto the tube the filament is wrapped around.
How about that being made an industry-wide standard?
A better name would be a RichRap Spool :)
Very cool!
Will this really drive down the price of filament?
I honestly wish more companies would offer filament without the spool, It feels so wasteful to throw away plastic spools. Some companies are using cardboard spools and I feel less bad about throwing those out.
Do you have specifics on the tubing and fittings used?
Some large radius fillets should make the spool way stronger. Probably room to make it of less material too.
This is amazing stuf. I plan on putting it on top of my diy enclosure (from PRUSA) where the filaments go. I was thinking of adding another LACK table on top of it, enclose the sides with acrylic, then put 1 or 2 of these heating mats on the sides. Would 2 14w mats be too much? Currently there are 2 filaments on it but I want to put all my filaments there.
engeneer at work.. everything is cool as usual..!
Can we get links to all the stuff u used like the heating pad and the thermostat/Hygrometer thing?
I want to know what the name of the coupler things he used.
Here i foud it in Aliexpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/32664302015.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.433713e3ZjMzle&algo_pvid=0f187d1e-3c71-40d8-9885-5b8d4a556735&algo_expid=0f187d1e-3c71-40d8-9885-5b8d4a556735-10&btsid=08b42328-13f4-4339-9bf4-740af3ab7ca6&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_52
I am having a really hard time finding the box. Does anyone have a link?
Target has a nice water/air proof tote EZY Water proof Storage Tote. One taget I went to only had 18L/19qt size. Its doable BUT you have to lower height of spool supports a bit and also the sides to get this toteto work I know I srunk the height and it fits now.
Hey Rich, have you found that you need to recharge the desiccant inside your dry boxes? Wondering how effective the heating element really is.
Can I install the same temp/humid sensor thru the case/tote the heater assenbly is installed in???
PS I have a water tight tote from target
You might need to be careful on the "environment-friendly" aspect. When you consider the energy & material used to print the master spool ! Esun have supplied spools that are bolted together for a good few years now and i wish they would supply filament "only" options. I guess their production is geared up to maintain "on-spool" supply and only a market shift will encourage them to change. The master spool is a good start
10w filament bulb should also work for heater right if you can still get those kind.
Thank you for sharing this Sir 🙇
Do you or can you point me to a link on amazon for the bin? Because theirs many out there in many different sizes....
What heater is that...!?
Hello. Do you keep the heater on 24/7?
The metal lined bags work great, but I once tried pure plastic vacuum bags with dried pellets - I found the pellets were wet again when I came back to use them. Finally I realized, the bags were plastic, plastic absorbs moisture, so given time, why wouldn't the moisture migrate into the inside of the bag? The bags were still under vacuum - so moisture was finding it's way in, but air wasn't.
That will happen if the bags are Nylon based or any type that's significantly hydroscopic.
what is the ideal humidity for PLA spools?
Don't you find the box have a lot of heat loss?
I am building something similar with a heat and dessicant element, however I plan on getting the temperature a little closer (not much) to the glass transition level to dehydrate it better.
The thing I'm worried about is it being too warm for the descicant to absorb anything or it releasing any moisture it has gained right back into the filament.
Dang, the master spool, so this is where Bambulab got the idea for there spools. Kind of crazy, this is litterly an exact copy of what bambu made. Or rather, bambulab copyed this exactly. Hope they gave you some compensation for that.
Congratulations on the success of #Masterspool. Now, I understand the reason for wanting a low humidity environment for your filament but what is the reason for it being heated? The concerns I have with the design of the box is that the heating element is only heating one side of the spool at any given time so wouldn't that create some warping as it expands and contracts possibly bring the filament out of tolerance? Then too the filament is feeding off the top so aren't you losing any advantage to preheating your spools as its cooling while moving away from heat source? And since it's feeding through those long tubes wouldn't the filament essentially be room temperature by the time it reaches the print head? If you wanted an all over ambient temperature I would think moving the heating element to a more open spot and using a small fan to distribute the air would be more effective like a convection oven. This would also help the silica do its job and you would avoid any humidity condensing on cooler surfaces like the lid. But if you just wanted warm filament to feed into your printer winding it from the bottom might be better as its at its warmest in that position.
Hi Fern. The heater gently heats the air inside the box, that translates to the entire spool and everything else inside the box including the silica gel etc. It's only a small, gentle heater, just keeping the inside around 32 degrees C - this really just helps drive out the moisture from everything inside. when in use the coil is turning, but it's all around the same temperature, and I have not seen any negative issues for the materials. Only improved print quality and less brittle materials. Hope that helps.
At the beginning you say you dont need the seal... then a few minutes later you're showing the seal you printed for it. So is the seal actually needed or not?
As I listened to the section a few times (12:45) (I'm not the fastest and taking in a new concept)... Seemed to say it's a good idea, not that if it isn't sealed it won't help == but sealing it will be better...
Hello Richard, nice dry box but does the heating reduce the amount of water in the box or just the relative humidity? If you look at a point on a psychrometric chart, for example, 25C and 50% relative humidity. Heating this air to 45C will move the point to below 20% relative humidity but the amount of water does not change. When I build mine, I will do a test to see if the heat actually removes water. Best regards
Results?
@@nategoodwin3329Since I am building a dry box for my new Ender 5 Plus, I was able to take some measurements: at room temp 22C I had 47% relative humidity, the absolute humidity was 9.1 g/m3 . I heated up the box with a thermal pad up to 43C, the relative humidity went down to 15% but the absolute humidity was 8.9 g/m3, practically the same (at 43.5C it would be the same). I have tested freezing the water in the air with a Peltier module and I can get 19% relative humidity at 22C or 3.7g/m3. That is 2.5 times less water vapor. Keep in mind that inexpensive temperature and humidity sensor are only 3 to 5% accurate. I use a bin with a soft seal from Walmart. Best regards