I’m thinking of making a dry box for my printer, however I have some questions:

  1. Will using PVC pipe as a “roller” (if that’s the right word) that I’ll place my filament spools on be good enough? Or do the spools need to go on something more concave? Maybe I can cut some grooves for the spools to sit in? I know there are dry boxes that use like holders that you screw in, but I want to limit the amount of holes in the box.

  2. Does filament have to be spaced or can I put the spools in the box to where there is no gaps but they can still move freely?

  3. Does it matter if I use M6 or M10 pneumatic couplers to feed the filmanet through or is it just personal preference?

  • @bigredgiraffeEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    You can use PVC, if you are planning to hang it vs using the PVC as rollers then you will need larger diameter and maybe schedule 80 or it will be two flexible and sag in the middle. When I tested it I could get about 4 rolls on a 1.5” diameter piece of PVC before it started sagging. You might want to look at using EMT conduit for that, that’s what I switched to using for shelves and it works better.

    Does not have to be spaced but any friction can cause drag if you are printing from the drybox which can be a problem depending on your extruder and how much drag.

    Fitting thread size doesn’t matter if you are just screwing them into the drybox, what matters is the tube size it supports, M4 or M10 would only matter if you were using them on something that was pre threaded. For what it’s worth I just standardized on the PC4-M10 ones because there was a huge pack on Amazon that was cheap hah.

    I use these bins and I want to try this roller print (not my model) because it looks real simple, I don’t print from the boxes very often though so I haven’t bothered.

    Hope that helps!

    • @chrischryseOPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      For my first dry box I’m currently using a 1.5 diameter PVC with 8 spools I haven’t noticed any sagging (should I upgrade to a bigger PVC pipe though just in case?)

      I just don’t trust it as much as I thought and don’t want as many holes which is why I was wondering if I could place the filament for muy second dry box on like two PVC pipes and have them be used as a roller

      • @bigredgiraffeEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        I mean if it’s working then it’s probably fine, two tubes would be interesting, I would think that would be a hassle when you have to take it in and out to change the filament. I ended up switching to using rollers on the bottom because of that anyway. I was going to try that one I linked before but I started designing my own similar one that used 1/2” EMT and bearings as rollers, I should finish that hah.

          • @bigredgiraffeEnglish
            2•1 year ago

            Yeah that is similar to what I was thinking but 4 individual sets of rollers, one for each spool. This version would be annoying in a drybox because all of the filament spools will probably spin at the same time which will make them all unspool since you will probably have them fed into 4 couplers and not clipped like on a shelf. Might work though if you don’t plan on having one output for each box and switching the “active” spool but I try to not open my dry boxes in general to keep air moisture out.

            • @chrischryseOPEnglish
              1•1 year ago

              Ah thanks for the input…I didn’t think about all spools spinning the samed until you mentioned it so I just decided to print the individual rings that I would put the bearings in then I’m gonna put them on a metal rod.

              Also not sure you would know, would i be fine printing the bearings to use or should I get metal ones

              • @bigredgiraffeEnglish
                1•1 year ago

                I have never tried it but I am real curious for low speed things like that, I think it would come down to your printer being able to print something small enough. There are a bunch of print in place bearing designs on printables that I have run across too.

                I usually use 608 bearings for that kind of thing because they are really cheap on Amazon as well since those are used in roller skates and skateboards and stuff. I am definitely curious though so you should reply if you try it out :D