Rollerless IKEA Dry Box

prusaprinters

Keep your filament dry while printing.We all know how important it is to keep our filament dry but it's a pain taking it in and out of Ziplock bags all the time. What's more, while you're printing, your filament is exposed to the air. Nylon and PVA can start deteriorating within hours of exposure.This spool holder system fits neatly into an IKEA SAMLA box and uses PTFE (Teflon) tubing as Glide Rails that the spools slide on, rather than individual rollers. With a bit of weather stripping to make it airtight, you can print with filament directly out of the dry box and use the box as the retraction space when using a Multi-Material Unit (MMU3).  You can use spools of any width and as many as you like (up to 300mm total). This is particularly useful for those expensive filaments that come in narrow 500g rolls and for the wide 2Kg spools.I set my dryboxes on a shelf above my printers and feed directly into the extruder. Yes, it works on a Prusa XL too (no more feeding through a tube from spools hung on the side).In addition to the printed items, you'll need:IKEA box (SAMLA 39x28x28mm #694.408.22) and lid1.3m foam weather stripping600mm PTFE 6mm OD tubing (2x300mm)PTFE 4mm or 6mm OD tubing (length depends on your needs)Colour indicating silica desiccantHygrometer (optional) Print the main frame either as one piece (you'll need a 340x230mm printbed) or two halves (MK3) or four quarters (Mini). There's no need to glue the pieces together, they'll sit neatly in the Ikea box.Cut two lengths of 6mm OD PTFE tubing and them lay it in the glide rail groves.  Be sure to go through the holes at the ends so your spool doesn't slip off the edge and bind.Dividers: Optionally, print dividers.  These aren't absolutely necessary, but they will help keep the spools aligned and prevent them from catching on one another.  Also, spools can fall over when they are nearly empty and light, especially with TPU, old filament, or other sticky plastics.  The full height dividers (you'll need a big printer) will allow you to connect the box directly to your MMU and use it as retraction space.  Note that the frame and dividers are not symetrical, there's more space at the front so filament feeds smoothly from full spools and there's room to put desiccant where you can see it (to see the colour change).PTFE Feed Tubes: Drill 8mm holes in the IKEA box near the top (or in the lid depending on your setup).  How many is up to you, but the box will fit four standard Prusament spools (or more of the small 500g spools).  Use the Screw and Nut pieces and insert at least a small length of 4mm OD PTFE tubing to reduce the moisture entering the box and guide the filament.  I use 600mm lengths to feed filament smoothly from boxes on a shelf above my printers.  If you have two unused holes, just connect a piece of PTFE from one to the other to seal the box.  If you use 4MM OD, make sure it has 2mm ID, not 1.85mm ID.  The smaller ID tubing is for Bowden tube printers and is deliberately tight (and will have more resistance).You may want to use 6mmOD (4mm ID) PTFE tubing as there's a little less resistance when drawing filament at the expense of a little more air gap and moisture penetration.  I've included mounts for that, drill 10mm holes instead of 8mm.  Another option is to use just 100mm of 6mmOD PTFE as strain relief and insert a longer length of 4mmOD PTFE into it. Use a hygrometer to let you know when it's time to dry out your desiccant. (I dry mine on a rack in the clothes dryer.)  There are slots for both the round and rectangular hygrometers.If you'd prefer dry boxes with rollers, check out these:https://www.printables.com/model/8018-ikea-dry-box-4-prusament-spool-rollerhttps://www.printables.com/model/4326-ikea-dry-box-rollers-3-spoolIf you'd prefer to print your own dry box without the Ikea storage container, try:https://www.printables.com/model/973513-1-piece-dry-box