Hey guys, I work at a lab that has a small print farm. We recently had to get a supply of 2.5kg ESD filament as our vendor didn’t have the usual 1kg spools in stock. The problem is these new spools are massive, and our filament dryers are nowhere near big enough to accommodate them.

I have this Cosori food dehydrator at home (picture below) that I’ve repurposed for filament drying, and I brought in one of its segments to see if the spool would fit inside; but the spool was still too large.

The spool dimensions are 3.875"H and a diameter of 11.75". Does anyone know of any food dehydrators that would be large enough to accommodate a spool of this size?

I’m currently doing research to see if I can find a large enough dehydrator, but all of the manufacturers I’ve so far looked at seem to only give external dimensions, not internal. If anyone knows of a good dehydrator, it would really help out!

  • NoneYa@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    Can you respool the bigger spool into smaller spools for use with your filament dryer?

    I have done this in the past because my FDM printer uses specialized cartridges that have a smaller spool inside of them. So if I wanted to use those cartridges from a bigger spool I bought elsewhere, I had a part 3D printed to fit the smaller spool and attach it to a drill and then when I turn the drill, the spool starts to wind itself.

    My 3D printed part for the drill is specific to my printer’s cartridge spools, though. But I’m sure others exist online that would fit yours or you could modify one to fit.

    I can’t find the exact one I used but here is one like mine to give you a visual idea of what I’m talking about https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:423515

    • Lordran_Hollow@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      My boss and I discussed that, he’d rather not have to pay the labor to have us respool the filament when we could just drop it into a dryer.

      But I’ll show this to him, he may be open to the idea if it speeds up the process. Only potential problem is this ESD PLA filament is pretty brittle, I don’t know how it will enjoy respooling.

      • NoneYa@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Oof, good point I didn’t consider about the brittle nature.

        Well hopefully something works out for you!

        • Lordran_Hollow@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          Yeah, this stuff is already pretty brittle to start with, but once it’s been out in the air for a day or two it becomes even more brittle. You can easily snap it with the slightest effort.

          It’s pretty tedious to work with, but we have to use it.