Filament storage

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Diddums

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
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26,509
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Yer nan's knickers
What's everyone storing filament in? I've seen everything from £10 IKEA tubs to £1k+ dedicated cabinets. Not really sure what to get.
 
I’ve just got a couple of big plastic tubs, fits about 8-10 spools in it and I’ve got the packets of silica that come with them and some the wife sourced from her work for me. They sit in the wardrobe.

I’m likely to just stick with that for the time being and will pick up a filament drier when I move beyond PLA.
 
I haven't had any issues with PLA just stored open. In the kitchen as well, where cooking is probably responsible for a lot of moisture.

I seal PETG and TPU in vacuum bags and dry before use though. Get very audible popping and stringing when printing otherwise.
 
wouldn't mind a 3d printer but house has high humidity so I'd be drying out filament all the time, messing with dry boxes etc. Instead of just leaving them out, and they're fine and dry enough in a house that is dry
 
simo182 said:
I’ve just got a couple of big plastic tubs, fits about 8-10 spools in it and I’ve got the packets of silica that come with them and some the wife sourced from her work for me. They sit in the wardrobe.

I’m likely to just stick with that for the time being and will pick up a filament drier when I move beyond PLA.
Click to expand...

After a while you have to replace or dry out the dessicant.
 
PLA is not that much of an issue.
ASA/ABS/PETG etc are. I've had to dry my ASA before each print and even then it's not 100% dry even after 36 (!!!!!) hours.
 
Had wet PLA filament issues with some spools I've had a month or so, always been stored in old sweet/chocolate tubs with silica gel sachets. Clearly they weren't good enough, dried the filament in a filament dryer for 2 hours at 60c and now store them in the same tubs but in vacuum sealed bags (usb air vacuum to extract the air).
 
Sunlu comes with a resealable bag now so I keep our filament in the bags with the silica gel stuff, seems to work well.

Hadn't been near the printers for a few weeks, I left a reel on one printer and it had actually snapped into hundreds of pieces, possibly the cold weather?
 
PLA not much of an issue with me...if it goes brittle I just chop a length of it off from the real just past the brittle point.

Only outlier to above is a real of PLA+ which seems intent on going brittle over the course of a couple of days.

Keep meaning to store it in a better place but never get round to it.

Matt
 
depends a lot what is your house overall humidity..
i keep my PETG abs asa in a big plastic box with some desicant.
PLA not much of an issue like people say.
 
I've only just got my printer, i've been trying to store in bags with silica pouches (as above Sunlu comes in resealable bags) and then in a box - I keep looking at the drying boxes but i'm not sure i need one
 
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