Bucket desiccant holder

For bulk storage of filament, I find that buckets with screw-on airtight lids work really well and can be stacked for very dense storage.  I made this desiccant holder to fit into filament spool hubs on their sides. It is 3 parts, the basket, the ring that the basket slips into, and a lid. There is an optional larger ring for spools with larger holes. Either print the small ring or the large one, not both.

This model is very thin and delicate on purpose. This is so that air can more freely move around the desiccant beads. I use Activated Alumina desiccant (the blue and orange silica beads are quite toxic so I don’t use them). Alumina is non-toxic, works better, can be recharged, and lasts forever. It is also cheap.

25g of Alumina desiccant is recommended for 5 gal, which is about 50 ml. This holder holds 88ml. You can fill it a bit over half way if you are storing already dry filament. My filament isn’t always already dry so I made the holder larger. You can also use multiple holders in one bucket (5 gal buckets hold 5 spools).

You can get the 5 gallon buckets on Amazon from ePackageSupply for around $15 each depending on how many you order. They come in many colors.

I printed the model in the pictures with Matterhackers MH Build translucent PLA with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.2mm layers. All the parts for one assembly print in about 2 hours on my Prusa Mk3.5.