Drybox for filament storage

prusaprinters

First when I realized my PETG filaments are getting wet, creating all kind of problems, I decided to build a drybox for them.It is based on an 10.6 liter sized IKEA box (792.767.60) which is big enough and has a rubber sealing for better performance. First it was just the frame, but unfortunately it started to crash the silica gel beads under the frame, so later on trays has been added to contain the silica gel and keep it off under frame.It is capable of holding 2 pieces of 200mm diameter rolls, some small spools of leftover filaments can be stored at the two ends. (spool design will be uploaded soon…) It can contain about less than a half kilo of silica gel (about a pound), which is capable to keep the two spools dry for an extended period of time. Later on it can be dried in a kitchen oven around 95 degrees Celsius (should be slightly less than 100 degrees Celsius to avoid cracking the beads due to inner pressurization of the nano cavities by the boiling water content). I use a thermal probe which comes with most of the digital multimeters for proper temperature evaluation.The stand can be assembled without any screws just pushing together the pieces, it is somewhat tight, but not too much. The silica trays are held in place by small bumps on the vertical walls, which are positioned to be over the frame bars when they are positioned. They can be simply snapped in after the frame is assembled. Notice that the “mid tall” titled tray has the bumps only on one side along the longer edge which should face the frame next to it.The silica gel is better to be added when everything is fully assembled.I printed the whole project out of PETG. For the frame 2 perimeters, 4 bottom layers and 5 top layers and 10% infill is suitable. Even with that it is way stronger than necessary, however the goal was to make it reasonably stiff. For the silica trays 2 perimeter is good, 4 bottom layers but no top nor infill. First I tried with only 1 perimeter but it was too fragile. I already built 7 of them and they are capable of keeping the relative moisture level down 18-20%, even at the worst conditions (usually at humid hot summer days with storms). So it can keep for example PETG dry for at least 4-5 weeks or more, nylon for a week or more (depending on the type) before their moisture level cause printing issues.