Store filament in and print from a zipper bag. Inspired by churls Filament Spool Drybox and Feeder.
Cereal boxes are a great idea for filament storage, but I am cheap and have way too many opened spools of filament. In theory you can place a properly dried spool into a zipper bag and never have to open it again. It should stay dry (hopefully under 10% humidity thanks to the desiccant) until you've expended the entire spool.
- Screw a PC4-M10 bowden coupler or PC4-M6 bowden coupler into the top of the guide.
- Insert a short length of 4mm OD ptfe tubing through the coupler and desiccant storage chamber.
- Attach turntable top and bottom with a 608 skateboard bearing.
- Load some desiccant or molecular sieve into the storage chamber and screw the lid on.
- Cut a small hole in the corner of a zipper bag, a little smaller than the ridged part of the guide.
- Insert the ridged side of the guide through the hole in the bag.
- Remove the built in support from the clamp and then clamp it around the bag and guide.
- Feed properly dried filament through the tube from the inside of the bag.
- Put the filament in the bag and seal it. Ensure the bag has enough air in it that the spool can spin freely.
- Place the bag on its side with the spool sitting on the turntable.
- Feed the filament into your printer and print!
Update: I've added a version with a spool guide as I found spools that have cutouts in the walls (most spools) had a tendency to catch on the desiccant chamber when a sufficient amount of filament had been used.
The bagged spools should fit fairly well into most existing filament storage (eg. reprack), and seem to sit nicely on top of enclosed printers as long as the top panel doesn't melt the bag.
If you have any comments/suggestions you can contact me on discord.
