Transcript:
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 lets 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 lets. 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 4×4 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 subscribed. And if you really like what? I’m doing on this channel here in General. Maybe consider supporting me directly on Patreon. Alright, that’s it, thanks for watching and Ill. See you in the next one.