Interesting idea. But can I still make delicious dried apple rings with it? (Preferably micro plastic free 
)
It’s curious that for storage he didn’t mention vacuum sealing using any method other than a chamber.
What does everybody else here use for drying and storage?
I dry with an Excalibur 9 tray food dehydrator then seal using a Foodsaver vacuum sealer with a few desiccant packs thrown into their large size bags.
When I open the roll again I just trim the bag right below where it heat sealed and I can keep resealing the same bag over and over until it gets too short at some point.
For me it was the cheapest solution since it gives me an extra use case for two appliances I already had in the kitchen.
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Locking container with a rubber seal, and a big bag o’ desiccant for storage, and a 5 gallon pail with an old hair dryer!
Crafty. I like it
How is the temperature with the hair dryer? Does it stay fairly stable?
It was… Apparently it doesn’t like 100% duty cycle though. . . So that smoked out…
But this did work well, stabilized at 55C with the bed at 100C
How critical is the drying temperature? Most of the videos I have seen, generally European, suggest putting the filament in the house oven at 60C but I haven’t seen one on this side of the pond that will go that low. There is a warming feature but the temp is about 10C to low.
How long does the drying take.
From what I understand, as air temperature rises, it’s ability to hold moisture increases, so take any parcel of air, raise its temp by any amount and it’ll take moisture from it’s surroundings. Higher temp will just be quicker. My boot dryer puts out air at 30C and seems to work for that application anyway.
I did a spool over night at 50 maybe 55C for 7ish hours, haven’t printed yet, but it feels crunchier
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These are Joe Mike Terranella’s temps, from his video here,
UPDATED TEMPS AND TIME: To dry the most common FDM Plastics: (all times are a MINIMUM. Feel free to go past)
PLA 45°C (113°F) 4h
ABS 60°C (140°F) 2h
PETG 65°C (149°F) 2h
Nylon 70°C (158°F) 12h
PVA 45°C (113°F) 4h
TPU/TPE 50°C (122°F) 4h
ASA 60°C (140°F) 4h
PP 55°C (131°F) 6h
And you can re-dry your desiccant packs as well
Dessicant 65°C (149°F) 3h
Interesting, I use 55 C for everything. @mobiobi is correct the saturation vapor density (how much water vapor the air will support) increases with temp. At 55c it is 100gms of water. I keep my filament in sealed bags with silica gel. I have never had one gain more than 50 gm so to my mind 55 will suffice.
It is like turning a thermostat up to 100 because it heats faster. It doesn’t it just fails to stop at comfortable.
I don’t see the need of variable temps just variable times.
Yeah, that sounds like a good way to understand it…I like it…
That simplifies it. I have only ever used mine around 50-55*C but that is mostly because I just don’t bother changing it from whatever the last food item was dehydrated at.
If it’s good enough for my camping meals it’s good enough for my TPU I figure 🤷
So the lowest temp our oven will put out is about 55-60C or around 140 Farfrometric. that seems a bit on the high side for PLA. Will it damage the filament.
I tried my oven once. Destroyed 4 rolls of filament. Our oven is not PID, so when I set 60C or whatever, it would actually Bang-Bang a lot higher - fatally so.
I did a second roll last night, did a bit more insulating first on my 230mm Carboard Cube, got a stable 73C with my bed temp set at 100C.
Filament roll set on a tin can with both ends cut out, bunch of 3/8" holes near the bottom of the can to let air circulate up the middle, and 12 pencil sized holes in the cardboard, 3 low & 3 high, on two of the sides, to set up a natural air circulation, letting moisture out. Seems to work well so far, no fan required.
customer told me one time he used a toaster oven, Personally I would be a little scared to try it. but what about an air fryer? guess it would depend if it goes that low either?
you mean like the Big Boss? Maybe if the temp was in the right range and didn’t fluctuate too much…I see these at the thrift store sometimes.
exactly what I was thinking
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I use a filament dryer. I think i paid 65$ on sale. I have a dehydrator too but I like my beef jerky too much to sacrifice it.
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Sacrifice it because it couldn’t fit rolls of filament without modifying it or because you don’t want to put plastics in something you prep food in?
Both actually. I couldn’t fit rolls in it unless I cut the trays. I also don’t like the notion of industrial materials in a food contact area.
The third thing for mine is the trays are 20$ each and I’d need four to fit a roll of filament. More than a filament dryer full price. Also my dehydrator uses almost three time the power.
I don’t personally see the point in a hack to replace a bespoke product. When it costs more and costs more to run. Unless it is better but I know mine works so better turns into different.
Which filament dryer and how good a job does it do.