Spool Box - Filament Dryer, Feeder and Storage by Schild0r

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

For a long time I considered getting a filament drying solution but unfortunately the purpose made solutions by various manufacturers (at least in the somewhat affordable price bracket) always had some drawbacks like not fitting 1kg or even 2kg spools, not having much power, not being able to maintain temps over 50°C and still being sold for 70€ or more. I also considered getting a food dehydrator for that purpose which have more than enough power and all but the problem with these is always that you would have to cut the trays out which made them useless for dehydrating food if you would want to do that too.
But then I recently stumbled accross geit_de 's "Cheap Filament Dryer/Feeder for less than 40 Euro (Customizable)"*https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4578549
The idea of using a cake tray lid on top of the dehydrator is really ingenious but I just could not find the cake tray he used or a cake tray that would fit the dehydrator and be big enough to hold my 2kg spools (which actually hold 2,6kg of PLA).
Until I visited IKEA to get my new couch: There I saw a cake tray for 5€ that said something of 36cm and I thought that it might fit. It is called KRISPIG: https://www.ikea.com/de/de/p/krispig-tortentraeger-20336407/
It was a little too big but it fits my 2kg spools and I made it work as you can see in the pictures.
For using it the way I do you will need the bottom part as well which has the benefit that you can take the whole tray with the filament spool inside and use it as storage or feeding solution by itself.
Instructions and BOM:
Besides the cake tray (see link above) and the dehydrator (https://www.lidl.de/de/silvercrest-doerrautomat-sda-350-a2-350-w-fuer-bis-zu-48-std-dauerbetrieb/p348647) you will need
One 6204 Bearing (47ODx20IDx14T) yes I know that this is not the correct load case for this bearing since it is a radial bearing and we are loading it axially but this bearing is kind of overkill and will stand the abuse
One pneumatic fitting for the filament pass trough and a short piece of bowden tube to go through it (I chose one fitting with a flange and M10x1 thread and created the nut for this fitting but I guess you can modify the thread or create your own nut if you only have other fittings laying around)
The printed parts (four spacers and one of every other part)
Print the parts
Drill holes for air intake and exhaust in the bottom and the lid of the cake tray (I drilled 2x8mm holes for exhaust in the lid and 4x6mm holes for intake in the bottom for a bit of positive pressure)
Drill one 10mm (or whatever fits your thread) hole in the side of the lid for the fitting approx. 65mm from the bottom
Superglue the spacers to the bottom part as per the pictures so the bottom part can sit centered and not tilted on the dehydrator.
Seat the bearing in its housing
Turn the bottom of the cake tray upside down and place the bearing housing in the inner ring in the middle of the bottom part
Insert the cylindrical part of the shaft in the bearing
Place the spool holder (core) on top with the hex slot on the shaft
Place the spool on the core (fits spools from 52mm center bore to 30mm center bore)
Feed filament through the fitting/bowden and close the lid (the lid can also be closed and locked to the bottom if the bottom is upside down)
The core and the shaft are a two part design because 1: you won't need supports and 2: the hexagonal part of the shaft sits on the inner ring of the bearing and the bottom of the core will clear the outer ring of the bearing to spin freely (i.e. the hex part of the shaft won't sit flush with the bottom of the core by design!)
You can then place whole cake tray on the dehydrator and start drying your filament and print with said filament at the same time.
-
-
-
*@geit_de I wanted to attribute your design as remix source but at the time of creating this thing the function was broken. If you happen to visit Aachen one time, contact me and I will buy you a coffee or beer.