Filament Enclosure and Desiccator

thingiverse

**EDIT: I am currently waiting on PTFE Tubing, which should be here by the end of the week. I'm going to swap out the rubber grommets, which cause a little bit of drag on the filament, with the PTFE, which should be much better. I'll update with the results. I've wanted a filament enclosure for a long time. I live in a humid area, so I can only imagine how much moisture my filament is absorbing. I finally found a good box for it, and I thought I would share. Not counting shopping and printing time, the project took me about an hour and a half. 30 minutes of that was just waiting for the silicone caulking to dry. I bought everything from stores near me, but the components can easily be found online as well. I designed everything in Inventor. The dowel mounts, the grommet caps to seal the unused holes, and the dowel clips to put on either side of each spool to keep them from sliding around in the box. Check out the Imgur album for a short rundown of the whole process. http://imgur.com/a/ifo0S I bought the box from Wal-Mart for about $10, as well as a 3/8" dowel for less than $2. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Iris-Portable-File-Box-with-Organizer-Top/22374211 The rubber grommets are from my local Ace Hardware. I just asked one of the guys there who showed me their selection. I chose the smallest they had, which have a 3mm inner diameter. Something similar can also be found on Amazon, though I'd recommend checking out a hardware store first. I got mine for 23¢ each, for a total of $1.25 (including tax) https://www.amazon.com/Grooved-Blanking-Grommet-Firewall-Bushing/dp/B00P3FLVS2/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1501004596&sr=1-3&keywords=3mm+grommet I used some silicone caulking I had laying around. Fortunately I had some left over from another project because it barely took any to line the top edge of the case. This is the kind that I had, but pretty much any silicone caulking will work: https://www.amazon.com/08641-Clear-Silicone-Sealant-9-8-Ounce/dp/B000BD0QAK/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1501004814&sr=1-1&keywords=silicone+caulk I also designed the dowel mounts with holes for M4*5 set screws to hold the dowel in place. I just borrowed some from the spare extrusion hardware I had lying around, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Degree-Hidden-Bracket-Aluminum-Extrusion/dp/B01LWY99IT/ref=pd_sbs_60_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=H9KQSKWA9MVM8AYVPMF2 I bought a 450g silica gel packet from a Scheels store near me, but they can also be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hydrosorbent-450-Gram-Silica-Cubic/dp/B0001EJIXU/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501005537&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=450g+silica+gel+pouch