what´s up everyone Tom here and I think 3D printing particularly the low-end
consumer 3D printing we're doing here is in a great spot right now we're seeing
more new materials that have special properties beads you know being super
strong or being flexible or anything in between and we're also seeing more
machines that really implement dual extrusion well which means you can use
either two materials with different properties mix them and create parts
that have flexible and stiff parts for example or use a water soluble support
material there's a downside to these new nylon based materials and to the PVA
based support materials they are super hygroscopic and require a lot of
diligence when it comes to handling and storing them so the best way to keep
your material from going to waste is to simply store it dry and cool most people
don't have a room that is air-conditioned then add a controlled
humidity so today we're going to build a dry box from some standard components
that you can use not only to store your filament but to use as a spool holder
and directly print from so the parts you are going to need here are the following
first off obviously a box the most important thing with this box is that it
fits your particular filament spools these are the old Taulman spools in this
box is pretty much perfectly sized for that if you have newer spools that have
the standard diameter this box is too small so get a box that really fits your
type of filament also if you're looking at the box and its lid it's sort of
important that both of these have a smooth surface where they meet so you
want to avoid a lid that has a lot of these little steps in here and also one
that angles up away from the ceiling surface that's where we're going to add
a seal later on you're also going to need a sealing material in this case
we're going to use a door or window gasket you can get this on Amazon or an
any home improvement store then to actually keep the inside of the box dry
we're going to use a desiccant so in this case a one-kilogram bag of silica gel
you can easily buy this on Amazon or anywhere else on the internet as well
it's not that expensive and a one-kilogram bag should easily be enough
to keep four spools dry you're also going to need
something to hinge the film in so the actual filament spool holder mechanic
I'm just going to use an 8 millimeter smooth rod with two 3D printed holders
these are going to stick to the side of the box and just keep the filament
suspended in here but for the part where the filament actually exits the spool
we've got two options either we can use a piece of old bike tube to create a
flexible seal or we can use one of these trimatic couplers and attach a Bowden
tube to it that way it's not 100% airtight but it's good enough and
the fialment in the Bowden tube is going to create a seal that works well enough
tool wise you're going to need some basic stuff a knife some scissors a drill and
some drill bits to go along with that alright let's get into it so first off
we want to start out with applying the seal to the lid of the box start by
checking where the lower section of the box and the lid meet up and that's we're
going to have to place the seal now this lid has two little steps where it shoves
closed so that's where we're going to start you could just go ahead and tape
this entire thing in one go have it I think that would leave some gaps at
these steps so I'm going to cut it and reinstall it there
once everything compresses down that is still going to create a watertight and
airtight seal of course this seal is very soft so it's
going to compress as needed so depending on the exact type of see we have you
might just be able to work it around the corners my seal is a bit too stiff for
that so we're going to split that up into sections as well again don't worry
about getting these super tight as we start because they are going to compress
and create a good seal nonetheless all right so let's so last bit on the seal
so once you're happy with the sealing surface you've created give it a quick
test fit on the box you will notice that the locks are much tighter now and
actually the sides over here might start bulging up because this is such a soft
weatherstripping seal is still going to seal up pretty well if you're not
comfortable with how much it bulges up just know 3d printer clip and clip that
on here all right next up hot glue so we want to place these spools inside the
box at a height where we can still fill in some silica gel but where they're not
going to be interfering with the lid so good height typically is and around half
an inch or a centimeter below the top surface I'm just going to go in
here hold it up and mark the center of the spool opening right there as far as
the positioning in the other direction goes of course you do want to keep this
as far over towards the end of the box so that you have as much space for
another spool over here and we're also just going to mark that out right there
so again the idea is to have two spools next to each other and then another set
of spools over here now ideally you want to get the mounting points identical
between all the individual bits you're going to glue in here so I'm just going
to go ahead and measure these out roughly all right there is one there is two
again this doesn't need to be super exact the most important thing is that
the opposing markers aren't at the same height so you're not tilting like your
smooth rod so that the spools slide over to one side so I've printed off these
two rod holders you can find the files in the video description below and I'm
just going to hot glue these to the positions over here now that's hot
enough not letting the hot glue heat up to its full temperature here because it
don't want to melt either the 3d printed part or the box itself which is also
sort of temperature sensitive right there's one that's good enough and
there's two I can grab our smooth or threaded rod and get it get a rough idea
for its length worker it off right there
okay and there we go it's a bit too long but these boxes are flexible so you
don't have to be super precise there you go and just to try this out let's pop
some spools on here sweet so next up we're going to add the outlet for the
actual filament so the part that seals the exit hole where the filament
actually leaves the box now in this case this is going to be a classic over slung
or under slung questionnaire up just like with toilet paper do you want your
film in to roll off from the top or from the bottom in this case the
surface down here is much better suited to add either the trimatic coupling or a
bit of pike tube then the one up top because there's the ledge here so I'm
going to go with underslung which is weird for toilet paper but works pretty
well for filament so I think I'm actually going to scoot both of these
spools over here at the genetic coupler here and the bike tube over here so
let's just quickly mark that out so right about here so let's start with the
trimatic coupler over here this is an m5 thread and as you can see I've got an
m5 nut on the coupler as well and we're just going to thread that onto the
plastic right there now obviously m5 needs a five millimeter drill bit so
that's what I've got in the drill and let's just get in here perfect obviously
you should deburr this hole as well with a deburring tool or a drill bit that's
just a slight bit larger than the hole you just made there we go and all we
have to do is grab the trimatici coupler this one already has this rubber washer
on here thread it in add the nut from the back
thread everything together and there you go there's a perfect filament outlet now
ideally you do want to add a bit of Bowden tube to this and just feed that
up to your 3D printers extruder as far as possible just the sheer length of
this is going to make sure that there's not a lot of air passing through and
moisture getting in these couples actually seem a pretty watertight as
well it's actually more solid than I thought now the bike tube we're actually
going to glue in so if you've got any sort of old bike tube grab a slice of
that one and a half or one and a half inches or 4x4 centimeters you will
notice that there's this white stuff talcum powder on the inside and you can
easily clean that out for some alcohol just to give you a clean surface for
your glue to adhere to the inside of the bike tubes is typically a lot smoother
than the outside which has these ridges that's going to seal up a lot better
than the other side thankfully bike tube is pretty flexible so all you have to do
to create a proper sealing surface for your filament is to grab a small drill
bit or a needle or something else and just poke a hole through the centre and
this will widen up far enough to let your film and slide in and out extremely
easily alright so again we're going to have to drill a centre hole through the
ball I'm just going to use the same five
millimeter drill bit again and here's what not to do
whoops so obviously when drilling through these thin plastic parts be very
careful use as little pressure as possible we're going to end up cracking
the box like that thankfully my piece of bike tube just covers the entire area
that's just cracked so yeah got lucky there now for this we're going
to use a contact cement and the way contact cement is supposed to be applied
is to apply to both surfaces first give it a second to dry off and then press
the parts together and that's exactly what we're going to do all right this is
actually going to take about five minutes to completely dry off it's been
a few minutes these are dry to the touch so now we can press them together just
like that and you can actually see from the back how well was just sealing up
there you go oh yeah look at that alright lastly we're going to need the
silica gel which we're just going to dump into the bottom of the box right I
don't want to open up a new bag I've already opened up one before now ideally
you don't want the silica gel to actually touch your spools but since
this is such a coarse silica gel it's not going to have any dust that
contaminates the filament plus if you using the bike tube seal as well that's
also going to act as a wiper and wipe off any dust or contamination off of
your filament before it leaves the box and there you have it a simple effective
and cheap way of storing your moisture sensitive filaments nylons PVAs or PTGs
even now if you want to make a similar setup links to all these
specialty parts used here are in the video description below and if you liked
the video if you thought it was helpful leave it a thumbs up share it maybe get
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general maybe consider supporting me directly on patreon alright that's it
thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one