All Metal Silica Gel Holders & 3D Printing Tips
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- In this film I share a couple of things I’ve leant in my first year of 3D printer ownership, and in particular the role silica gel can play in keeping 3D printer filament in good condition.
The gauze containers will find uses beyond 3D printing filament storage, indeed anywhere anything needs to be kept moisture free. Electronic assemblies, camera equipment, documents etc
Clearly not everyone who has a 3D printer also has a metal working workshop, but maybe you know someone willing to swap some print time for some machine tool time, maybe you have a nearby maker space, or maybe what I’m describing will plant the seed of an alternative approach that better suits the tools and materials you have to hand.
Be aware, unlike using a powered dehydrator, it can take several days for the moisture to diffuse out of the filament. But I’m a low consumption user and am not in any rush. This passive drying approach suits my needs perfectly, but may not work for everyone.
The elegant simplicity of the factory fitted reverse Bowden setup has the great advantage that it keeps the distance between the reel and extruder constant, regardless of where the print head is, so filament is only pulled through by the extruder itself.
Using the pulley arrangement means that the X Y movement of the print head carriage also tends to pull filament off the reel, sometimes in big chunks. In my experience at least, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. It may not work as well with very heavy reels or machines that have high speed movement over a large work envelope.
There are plenty of breakfast cereal storage boxes out there that will probably work well. I chose the Lock-n-Lock HPL951 as they were end of line at the local supermarket, and going for a song. If anyone would like to print their own RH meter holder (to suit this particular box), it’s available on Printables here: www.printables.com/model/8213...
I use two thermal cuts outs, a standard thermal pellet fuse and a non-resetting bimetallic trip, to increase the chances of a successful disconnection in the event of an over temperature event. The 70 Celsius temperature chosen may be too low for more exotic filaments, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Arbour, arbor or mandrel / mandril? Meh. Call it what you will.
Chapters
00:00 Chapter 1: Introduction
00:39 Chapter 2: Improving TPU prints
01:49 Chapter 3: Printer Enclosure & Safety
02:30 Chapter 4: Keeping an eye on things
03:08 Chapter 5: Clean and dry
03:51 Chapter 6: Using silica gel
06:17 Chapter 7: Gauze silica gel containers
08:17 Chapter 8: Preparing an end cap arbor
09:56 Chapter 9: Making a set of end caps
13:11 Chapter 10: Filling the tubes
13:47 Chapter 11: Reusing silica gel
15:17 Chapter 12: Room for improvement
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POST UPLOAD UPDATES:
Thanks for the suggestion of a food dehydrator. If I ever drop on a cheap one, I'll pick one up to try. Although they are available, they’re not at all that common here -I certainly don't know anyone who has one. UK kitchen gadgets like this go through phases (think the Breville sandwich toaster, the smoothy maker and more recently the air fryer). If food preservation catches on, charity shops will soon be filled with filament driers for everyone!
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I’ve had a couple of queries about the kitchen cabinet I used:
It’s an Ikea METOD 60x60x80 base cabinet.
I’d forgotten until I had a closer look just now -these come with an open top (they are supplied with two metal strips to retain the sides) so I promoted an UTRUSTA 60x60 internal shelf to be a top (secured with six large furniture screws fitted through the top edges -wouldn’t look great in the kitchen, but fine for my purposes).
The door is a 60x80 VEDDINGE.
I sealed the edges and painted the back of cupboard back board the try and make it a bit more durable in my damp workshop. As it sits on a shelf, the rectangular cuts outs at the top corners (meant for fixing it to the wall) were filled with a couple of scraps of thin plywood.
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Manually subtitled for accuracy. Click the CC box.
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Shot: HC-X920 & HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD. Nozzlecam 3840x2160 30P
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 18.6.4
Mic: NT1
Every video is honestly masterpiece. Every creator on this platform should strive to get to this level of polish.
Wow, this is seriously well presented! The shots of the color changing of the tumbling silica gel and the condensation on the mirror were so well done! I really like the tool setting function of the arbor as well. Great tips for speeding up repetitive operations.
Superb! I have printed gel holders, and I just dump the gel beads onto a baking tray when they need drying out. Your solution is far more polished, and the video a joy to watch. Great stuff!
Thank you for an elegant solution and presntation of it.
Excellent video and just the solution i was looking for.
awesome video!
i would've just printed friction fit plug out of TPU ^^
Well I didnt know about reusing silica gel! lots of handy tips for when I eventually get a 3D printer!
Awesome work 👍..learned something from you. Thanks for sharing your work❤
Excellent work!
You are the sir Attenborough of 3d print
Very nice solution.
Hi Matt
Brilliant,👍👍👍👍👍👍
i know nothing about 3d printing, but know much more theory now,
you've got this sussed down to the N'th degree, i bet it took much much much longer than the 15 min. video suggests!!
Masterclass😉😉
regards
Kev
Thanks for the encouraging words Kev 👍
Just brilliant 🤓
Have a look at a cheap air fryer in place of your final design sketch.
I think they would tick most of your boxes, and I've had great results with my little unit. There are more elaborate units out there that incorporate a rotisserie, but I'm a cheapskate.
Thanks for the tip 👍 🇬🇧
Nice mass production process
I keep my reels of PLA etc in re-sealable vacuum bags.
I've been looking for a product like this for years to reuse the silica gel packets I get in my pills. I've resigned myself to sewing some mesh bags out of copper wire and aluminum screen.
I dry my gel in a food dehydrator for a few hours, seems to do the job and it doesn't get nearly hot enough to damage the indicator color. I imagine if you lived in a very moist climate it wouldn't work as well (I live in a desert).
Very nice. I'll be buying some of those cereal containers for sure. What model of Ikea cabinet did you use for the printer enclosure? Thanks for such great content.
I've added a note to the video description. Thanks for watching 👍
I was thinking if was possible on this container to put a ballbearing and use the filament from the box direct to the 3dprinter. But I dont know if have space to roll
Stopping a print by killing the power leaves the cold-end of your printhead uncooled and hence heat can creep up from the hotend and melt the filament in places where it should remain cold and solid. In short: don't stop a print in that way. Of course, if it is your only way to stop a disaster, it's better than nothing, but decent remote control of Klipper or OctoPrint (or Bambu) is much better!
I wholeheartedly agree. A controlled shut down is always preferable. Killing the power is a blunt tool, but an unequivocal one. I know for certain everything is rendered safe until I can get look at it first hand. Fortunatly it's not something I've had to do very often.
Kilpper and OctoPrint don't really fall under 'as it came out the box' but are something I hope to explore at some point. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍
I wonder if you could use a filament dryer to dry out the silica gel
Have you thought about a filament dryer which you can leave a roll in while running the printer? I bought one for about £35, I use it to dry a roll of filament if I’ve not used it for a while because I don’t store in containers
Excellent project/s, good tips, well detailed, real world feedback and well put together as usual, thank you. Especially helpful as I've been trying to work through much the same issues 🙄 It would be great if you'd be kind enough to share a pointer to those fish tank strainers. The gauge holder is neat, much better than my double sided tape, did you design it yourself?
If you head over to AliExpress and do a search on 'Stainless Steel Filter Inlet Case' they'll come up from an assortment of sellers (no affiliation).
Yes, the gauge holder is of my own design (more info in video description).
Thanks for watching!
Thank you 😊
I use some plug in dehumidifier things with blue/pink silica inside, clearly the ban on the blue stuff doesn't extend to dodgy ebay purchases!😂
Great work. I’m a sub. But you could just print the cross bars. Dump the silica into a tray to refresh and refill?
I wanted to avoid moving the loose beads as much as possible as they tend to escape and go everywhere. But absolutely yes, the end closure could be made in any number of ways. I tend to think in terms of the facilities I have available to me (any excuse to use the lathe and mill!). As @ChriFux suggests a printed bung made from TPU might hold up just fine (if the drying temperature wasn't excessive). Thanks for watching 👍
Are those hpl951 containers wide enough to fit filament rollers, and print with roll enclosed?
It would be a squeeze. Something ultra low profile might fit, or something that extended through the sides, but that would make it a bit more complicated. Thanks for watching 👍
I keep a fire extinguisher in the same room as my 3D printer. Never had to use it. But it's a good precaution.
Wouldn't it be easier to simply use a small rectangular bar of the right length and the single penny washer? If it needs to be centered then using a slightly smaller penny washer in between would do that as well. Then you only have to cut, drill, and thread 1 small piece instead. Heck since these don't have to be torqued down very hard, epoxying (if it will withstand the heat) or tack welding a nut to a piece of pipe strap would be even easier maybe.
Some types of bicycle handlebar end caps might also work as well, they use a rubber insert that expands when a screw is tightened.
There are absolutely other ways to achieve the same goal. I tend to think in terms of the tools and materials I have on hand though. If my hobbies included carpentry, my solution would probably have involved wood. When I’m in the workshop it’s about the journey, not the destination. I enjoy my time in there. Sometimes quicker, easier or cheaper is preferable, but more often that not I just let the project take me where it will. Thanks for watching.
@@TheRecreationalMachinist Thank you for the reply! My approach I guess is more of the "as long as it looks square, it is square" type due to all my dabbling in different things (and my main focus is artistic, which is really not precise at all - Bob Ross happy accidents and all).
Couldn't use use PEEK, PEKK, PEEK-CF or even ASA or ABS and print them?
Hi! Which IKEA cabinet exactly are you using? Is it a floor-standing Metod with a countertop?
I've added a note to the video description. Thanks for watching 👍
What's the thickness of cigarette paper? I always used notebook paper and assumed it was 3 thousandths.
They appear to be 0.025mm. 1 thou seems like a nice round number if you were setting a thickness on your paper mill. Thanks for watching 👍 🇬🇧