Dry Dock for Filament Dryer Desiccant

prusaprinters

If you use a filament dryer, adding desiccant can make it more effective. If it uses rollers to support the filament reel, as most do, you can use the center hole of the reel to hold desiccant. A holder keeps the desiccant packets in place.There are several 3D printable holder designs, including one of my own, but after a few months of usage I've become frustrated with them.At one point my desiccant holder slipped out and fell onto the dryer heater, which deformed the plastic. That was not good. On many occasions the holder fell out while I was trying to insert the reel into the dryer. That was not good.So I modified my original design by adding triangular spokes to the main cylinder and to the friction-fit lid. Insert the holder with dessicant, secure the lid and it's locked in place. Now the desiccant holder won't fall out.Sadly there is no standard for filament reels. Diameter, thickness and center hole come in myriad sizes. So I've designed four heights to accommodate differences in reel thickness: 70mm, 80mm, 90mm and 100mm. Diameter of the triangular spokes is about 88mm. Even if the hole in your reel of filament is bigger than 88mm these will work. All use the same lid. BONUS: I added a Dyer Holder Collar which tightly hugs the main cylinder. You can print one of these to adjust the fit of the Dry Dock in the center hole of the filament reel. I’ve also added three friction-fit extensions — 20mm, 30mm and 40mm — which you can use to extend the length of the desiccant holder (effective extension length is about 5mm less than the over-all length).I can squish two 20-gram packs of silica gel in the 70mm holder. The vendor says 10 grams of silica gel is adequate for a 5-gallon bucket. Roughly calculating, my filament dryer is about 2 gallons capacity, so this setup delivers spectacular drying power.Print in PETG, PLA, ABS. No supports, no brim, no fancy settings The 70mm base and lid print in a bit more than three hours.