In-spool dessicant container with hygrometer - stronger weave, vented lid

The original basket weave design by psychprod is ingenious, but being me, as soon as I printed it I knew I would like to tweak a few things, and, again being me, the best way to do so would be to remodel the whole thing from scratch... anyway, I digress.

Biggest change is a modified basket weave pattern. It's still one smooth curve along the wall, but instead of walls crossing only at single points when changing weave layer, now they are always aligned through a section of the path, which should make the weave much stronger (it is noticeably stiffer, but I did not test to destruction - original came out pretty solid for me anyway). It also looks better when printed in my humble opinion due to less sag (or at least, more uniform sag).

I tweaked the lid, too - now it has a row of ventilation holes below the hygrometer, and has a retaining lip for inserting a ⌀41,5mm paper liner between hygrometer and desiccant chamber. Taken together, this should make air at the hygrometer inlet take longer to equalize, making the measure somewhat more exact compared to the rest of container or bag (but still, it's probably best to wait for a couple of hours before trusting the readout; proximity is proximity, and diffusion can only work so fast, all things considered). One more benefit is preventing any small bits of desiccant from getting inside the hygrometer.

Additionally, I changed the knurling to something more ergonomic (in my opinion), and added slots for the hygrometer retaining tabs, as the fit was extremely tight in the original design, making removal (e.g. for battery replacement) a hassle.

Extra-wide filling funnel included as a bonus, print that one in spiral vase mode if you like it.

STEP and original FreeCAD files attached to make remixing easier, if anyone is so inclined.

Please note: as I remodeled this from scratch, the thread is slightly different and the lids are not interchangeable with the original.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer: 

Ender-3 V3 KE

**Rafts:**

No

Supports: 

No

**Resolution:**

0,2mm

Infill: 

20% gyroid

**Filament:** Creality Hyper PLA PLA+ White 
 

Notes: 

Print the lid upside down, as with the original (this is the default orientation in the files). For the threads, it's best to set seam alignment to random as advised by the original creator, and additionally, make sure your wall printing order is set to Inner/Outer, and outer wall printing speed is not too fast, something like 50mm/s works well (threads are essentially a lot of shifting overhangs so making them stick cleanly is critical).

Some other suggested tweaks for printing is to make the first layer sitting on top of weave and also lid vent row consist of walls only (e.g. only concentric paths) - this comes out cleaner than letting the slicer make its usual bridge structures. Additionally, if seams are set to random because of threads, then for the weave it's better to paint the seam across one of the unbroken vertical sections, otherwise the weave might have an occasional ugly artifact (seams across a single wall suspended in air won't work very well as you can imagine, and a couple of them will always be like that if just left to random placement).

On my Ender 3v3 KE full set (container + lid) takes 1h45min to print, you could probably shave off additional couple of minutes, as I like to always use 3 walls and higher infill density (not much sparse infill on this model, but still).

Category: 3D Printer Accessories