Airtight filament container / box

thingiverse

3d printing filament is highly hydrophilic and therefore it is important to store the filament after opening in a very low humidity environment. It is best to keep the humidity below 20%. Here in the Netherlands, the humidity is around 45-50% in house and therefore I decided to store all my filament in airtight containers together with silica gel The filament used for printing is also stored in the airtight box and is fed to the printer using a bowden tube I designed bowden connectors for the tube and a filament rol holder to be used inside the container. In this way you can leave the filament connected to the extruder and still keep the rol of filament inside the airtight 'low humidity' container. Print Settings Printer: Achatz easydelta remodeled Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: No Resolution: 0.2mm with 0.4mm nozzle Infill: 50% Post-Printing Building the box There are STL files for using a 9.5mm bowden tube fittings, or for using connectors with a 4 or 6 mm hole to simply insert the bowden tube directly into the connector. The filament holder is created using 8mm rod/threaded rod (i used 133mm length ) 2 ball bearings 22x8x7mm either a 22mm steel/aluminium tube, or a 19mm electrical pvc tube. (i used 96mm length) printed parts that holds the ball bearing and fits over the tube on both sides There is a separate STL file for the 22mm tube parts Predrill the holes in the box and screw the parts to the box using small woodscrews. Silica Gel Do not just throw in a couple of silica gel bags as they do soak up the moisture, but in return when saturated these bags will make the air more humid again. Therefore the silica gel must be replaced in time. It is best to use silica gel with indicators. The color of the silica gel will change when they are saturated and need to be replaced. I dry my silica gel in a oven at 130C for a couple of hours and it is amazing to see how much water is contained. Be careful when using a oven, ensure the temperature is not above the 120-130C and ensure the silica gel is able to handle this This is the moisture indicating silica gel I use: http://www.xtrack.nl/product/silica-gel-orange-gel-500-gram-blik/ the website also contains instructions on drying the silica gel in a oven Airtight box I bought a couple of 44L sealed box which stores about 8 filament boxes/10 rolls each, i bought mine from http://www.goedkopeopbergbox.nl/opbergbox-luchtdicht-44-ltr but these boxes are common for sale in many other countries and places. Just google for 44L or 44 liter airtight box / sealed box / weathertight box / ...