Gadget

Kitchen technology at the service of 3D printing!
For high-quality printing, it is important that the filament is dry. The manufacturer seals it in a bag, adds silica gel, but as soon as you open the package, everything is in vain. After a week, you can already hear the crackling of steam bubbles when printing. My recent experiment with printing with trimmer lines (reviewed on ixbt) showed that trimmer line is 5 times cheaper than filament, but it is quite possible to print with it. The main thing is to dry well. But drying before each print is long and uneconomical.

Vacuum bags can help. Generally speaking, they are designed for product packaging. But the 30×34 size fits a standard spool of filament perfectly. I bought such a set with a hand pump in the kit and was convinced of the effectiveness. So:

10 bags, a pump and two clips, which, in theory, should help close the ziplock.

So the size of the package is related to the size of the reel:

We put the filament in the package:

We close the ziplock. Why they put plastic “clothespins” for this — I didn’t understand, with my hands everything closes perfectly. We press the pump to the valve, 10-20 piston movements and the result:

The reverse side of the package is translucent.

This is what the valve looks like up close. Unlike larger bags for clothes, you don’t need to screw anything up here, the valve holds itself.

Due to the pimply surface of the bottom layer of the bag, no isolated cavities are formed inside and the air is pumped out of the entire volume evenly. Even if the underside of the bag is pressed against the valve from below, the valve will not be blocked and air suction will not stop.

For several weeks the vacuum holds without visible loss. Didn’t try again, just didn’t need to.

Now I dry the filament only once, after purchase. And between the seals, a vacuum bag with silica gel is enough.

It is possible that such bags will also come in handy when casting with epoxy resin, so that the bubbles come out faster. And even the seller wrote about how to use it in the kitchen.

For sale here — link to the product.
The required size is XL.