This topic contains 16 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
BHudson 5 months, 2 weeks ago.
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Hey all,
Has anyone tried designing a closure/door for the filament compartment? This is the service of reducing the moisture uptake of filament. Is this a reasonable idea? I would prefer not having to eject filament all the time.
Alternatively I guess I could switch to Colorfabb…
If air can get in it, so will moisture, though it might reduce it. a nice pvc window with rubber seal could look good.
Dual printed with transparent material + ninjafex? Probably not - size might be the issue, plus printing does not ensure airtightness, but at least was good daydream! 🙂
But, like Jack is saying, it would create a different environment. It’s like closing the door when you shower (in reverse). Maybe build in a compartment for a dessicant pack.
The goal is to reduce moisture, not long term storage. I just wondered if anyone had tried it. It seems to fit with the design - though the dual material capability makes it harder to make.
Putting the spools in another container would be okay if there was an extension of the chip reader.
Making an extension to the reel eeprom should be that hard.
Something along the lines of:
(I bet there’s a better choice)
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and
and some other custom 3d printing + soldering…
As click says, making a replica eeprom connector should not be too hard. The PCBs would be very cheap from oshpark or dirtypcb. I have never used pogo pins before, but i bet digikey has billions to choose from.
That said for the filaments currently availiable on smartreels (abs,pla,hips and pet) it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle. Unless you have them out for weeks or months or live in a sauna. For stuff like PVA or Nylon its definatly the way to go, but as you cant get these on smart reels its a bit irrelivent.
@click right you are.
I’m using mostly PLA right now. I suppose I’m not totally clear about filament shelf life in open air. The design of the printer just seems to lend itself to having a door.
This is an interesting point and honestly, I don’t know the extent of how moisture is effecting my filament. Is there a measurement tool that can check what’s happening? All my filament reels are re-sealed in their plastic bags and I have now bought 10g sized packs of Silica Gel for each to increase the drying capacity. I think that maybe the Silica Gel packs have to be replaced after a certain length of time, which I’m not doing yet but will do in the future. Maybe the reels should be double-wrapped in storage?
However I don’t remove the reel from the Robox between prints - except when changing the colour. I’m usually printing continuously so that I start another print once one has finished. I have been printing in PLA only, but I as become more aware of the chemistry (is moisture chemistry or physics?) of the different filaments, I realise the maintenance aspects.
So I’m starting afresh with a more observant procedure. I have a brand new unused print head to take the Robox back to its start state (plus the design enhancements over time). I will not be printing in PLA, instead I am changing to ColoFabb nGen. I haven’t decided what to do with all my reels of PLA but as the quality of the prints my Robox is currently producing are very good, this change of filament type might eliminate nozzle blockages, or make them very rare.
My Colorfabb xt definitely degraded about 6 months being left out. It bubbles and prints are much lower toughness
I suppose extracting all the air is another option when packing the reels away in their individual bags, but that’s getting too complicated. I can’t see any degrading of any of my filament reels, but they generally get used up between one and three months. My only problem is the sudden nozzle blockage which I’m trying to eliminate. At first I thought I noticed a difference in the colour making a difference, but that can’t really be true. Recently the purge routine has not always worked as smoothly as it has done in the past.
So my procedure for now will be never leave a reel of filament on the Robox, but eject it if I’m noting in a continuous printing mode. Use larger Silica-Gel packs for each reel pack and double-wrap each reel in two plastic press-seal bags. Apart from using fresh Silica-Gel after a set period, I can’t do much else. I’ll see how ColoFabb nGen before moving, if necessary, to trying a different filament for regular work.
@paulsroom @jack-strong @saiken
EvaDry E-333 Rechargeable Drier unit:Iris Weathertight Storage Box - Medium - Holds up to 14 SmartReelsThis is what I use, only I use a larger size of the box. I have three of these boxes with the desiccant units and a smaller one for filaments I don’t use often. I don’t have problems with moisture absorption in PLA or in nylon. I have not seen moisture absorption issues with XT or nGen but I am not in a humid area. I also don’t generally have material sitting around long enough to degrade.I operate two Betas and one Production Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/ben
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