Better Rolling Cereal Dry Box Filament Base

Original

https://www.printables.com/model/952313-filament-dry-box-with-rollers

He has a good YouTube video showing assembly, I ended up assembling completely differently, everything I used is on this remix. (see assembly below)

If you already printed original you can get better rolling by simply cutting the tabs off the rollers.. see video below for comparison before/after tabs vs mine.

TLDR; Just Print Filament Dryer Base Plated as its everything needed all nicely plated.

What's Here?

• Filament Base - this is the main part the filament rolls on

• Hygrometer clip - for square hygrometer that attaches to to the filament base rather than placing it at the top.

• Roller with no Tab - The tabs make the bearing at a slight angle and are not needed… if you already have rollers with tabs just use a knife to cut the tabs off(see video)

• 3mm shorter desiccant container - I ended up having to fix the base to allow for more space under it for the original desiccant holder but I had already printed 6 bases before I noticed.. so this is shorter.(base is now fixed for original height)

This now has all needed parts, see original for amazon links for bins, hygrometers, couplers etc.

Why?

This mainly exists to add clearance around the bearings for them to be able to move slightly. The bearings are still captive and tight just not so tight they cant self align.

The original didn't allow the bearing to self align as such they didn't roll very smoothly due to if an axle had a slight(SLIGHT!) bend in it, it would bind while rolling. (I believe the original had negative clearance).

Other Benefits

• Once piece base - not sure why the original was in two pieces as this fits on a 220mm bed as a single piece.

• Placed rollers further apart allowing for smaller rolls and a lower CG(see dec 2nd edit for full explanation)

• Prints nicer especially in ABS as there is less of a sudden transition to the roller platform which was causing shrinkage.

Assembly (tips)

• Be sure the Rollers are not to tight against the bearings.(should be touching them just not hard) this will cause things not to roll nicely due to misalignment of the two bearings.

• I mounted my spools so they exit from the low end of the container

  • so the filament pulls down on the spool slightly

  • will avoid having the spool lift as it gets lighter.

  • makes it easier to put a new roll in

  • has the benefit of not needing the GIANT filament guide as the filament stays on the roll when pushed back in due to it going past the rollers first.

• Since the design uses pass through Bowden tube adapters..

  • I simply used a small piece of ptfe Bowden tube (4mmOD, 2mm ID) instead of using a plug etc.. the filament itself plugs it just fine(see photo)

• If you use a 11/32 drill bit, you can thread the Bowden tube passthrough directly to the container without a nut etc just tighten carefully and it will cut its own thread

  • I placed mine at the 100oz marker (see photo)

• I ended up not using most of the extras from original, I simply printed the base, rollers, axles and desiccant bin/lid. 

  • Didn't need 

    • the Nut to hold the bowden tube adapter as I threaded it directly to container.

    • The GIANT Filament guide/humidity holder (it uses 38g of filament alone)

Printing

• Material

  • Choose whatever material you like, I used ABS as I may attach this directly to a filament dryer in the future.

• Supports

  • Filament Dryer Base only

  • nothing else needs supports

  • if you use the provided Filament Dryer Base Plated 3MF it should already be setup correctly, however I only tested in orca slicer. (its a generic 3MF so doesn't include printer, filament etc)

Video Showing mine rolling vs original

At 1:25 I cut the tabs off and compare both again. Original rolls almost as good with tabs removed from rollers. (I also uploaded a roller with no tab)

Edits

• March 23rd - 2026

  • Added Plated Base for A1 Mini and added Split Base STL

• Dec 3rd - 2024

  • Added Clip on for Square shaped Hygrometer, clips onto the rolling area(see photo) and only uses 0.7g of filament to hold the hygrometer which also means its a quick 5min print.

• Dec 2nd - 2024

  • To clear desiccant better I Raised area where bearings sit by 1mm

  • Moved the area bearings sit further apart by 6mm total in the long direction so the spool has a lower center of gravity… no real reason other than it made sense.

  • Lowered center bar(which is there for strength) to only 3mm tall, this allows the smallest spool size to be 162mm (200mm is a standard spool), the design this is remixed from could have a spool size no smaller than 172mm