Has anybody used one of these mini "dehumidifiers" to dry out filament as a substitute for buying a bunch of the desiccant beads? My filament seems OK, but I could do better to keep it dry.
FYI AFAIK desiccants don’t actually dry out the filament, they just prevent it from getting any wetter. To truly dry it, you could get a filament dehydrator or use a modified food dehydrator (among other options).
With that said, you might be able to use those, personally I’d just recommend collecting those “do not eat” packets that come with things and throwing those into your drybox.
They’re usually just little cloth packages of desiccant beads.
Personally, I store my filament in ziplock bags with a couple of those packets and it seems to work well for the most part. I also have a dehydrator (modified food dehydrator) though, which I use on filaments that were left out.
Yup, it’s fantastic.
On a related question, is "desiccant refresher" a thing, as in a reasonably small device that will heat a small quantity of those beads to something like 120ºC while keeping a slow air flow?
I had good results with microwaving a bunch of beads in a microwave safe non-plastic bowl on mid-low.
It drives out the moisture, and you can see the bead colour indicators change.
But be careful, they’re hot!
Also if you're using blue indicating silica gel, NPS recommends that you wear gloves, lab coat, safety goggles and respirator with HEPA when handling it. I'm guessing they'e talking about larger quantities, but you probably want to minimise any amount of cobalt chloride you inhale or get in contact with your skin.
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