Filament dryer extension for SilverCrest dehydrator

This is an extension piece for SilverCrest food dehydrator (SDA 350 A2) bought from Lidl Finland in 2019. Apparently this also works with a similar looking 2020 dehydrator model from Aldi Süd (Germany) according to a comment.

I made this so that I don't need to break the trays that were included with the unit to be able to fit a filament spool inside.

This extends the vertical space available in the dehydrator for about 9.5 cm which should be enough space for even the widest 1 kg spools that I've seen. These should be stackable (but I've printed only one so far). The total Z height of the piece is 101 mm.

The extension consists of 4 identical pieces that slide together. This is my own design but the connection mechanism was inspired by https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3027142 ("Filament Dryer Dehydrator Extension - Easy Print" by alexwhittemore).

With my settings based on Pretty PLA v3 (https://prusaslicerprofiles.com/pretty-pla/) profile with small adjustments, one piece takes less than 4 hours to print on a MK3S with 0.4 mm nozzle using a layer height of 0.3 mm so it takes maybe 15-16 hours in total to print all 4 pieces. I printed them one by one to minimize risk but I didn't have any issues and you could fit all of the pieces at once on the build plate of MK3/MK3S.

The model is designed to print upside down without any supports needed.

Usage

Recommendations for drying times and temperatures for different materials can be found for example here: https://www.printdry.com/how-to-dry-filaments/

I'm not sure how reliable the temperature selection on the dryer actually is. When I used a digital battery operated oven thermometer inside the dryer I found that the temperature sensor read something like 5-10℃ less than what was the set temperature on the dryer (even after being on for an hour) so you might need to set the dryer temperature selection a bit higher to actually get the temperature you want, but if you do so, please check is using a thermometer that can handle those high temperatures so you don't accidentally ruin your filament by heating it too hot.

Updates

2023-10-28 Added a test piece and main extension mesh files (3MF exported from Fusion 360) with increased clearance of 0.3mm so try these if you have trouble fitting the original parts together. See the files with _0.3-clearance in the name.

Print instructions

I would recommend printing with a brim (I used 9 mm) since otherwise the touch area to the bed is very small and might not stick well enough.

Please first print 2 of the test pieces (small model) to check that the connection mechanism is not too tight so you can slide the pieces together. Otherwise you might waste a lot of time and filament if you can't fit the big pieces together after printing. I can upload variations with bigger clearance in the connection mechanism if somebody needs it.

Here are the most relevant PrusaSlicer settings that I used:

• Layer height: 0.3 mm
• First layer height: 0.2 mm
• Perimeters: 3
• Solid layers top: 6
• Solid layers bottom: 3
• Detect thin walls: enabled
• Fill density: 10%
• Fill pattern: Gyroid
• Skirt loops: 0
• Brim width: 9 mm
• Supports: no
• Extrusion width: 0.42 mm (all)

Speeds:

• Perimeters: 80
• Small perimeters: 20
• External perimeters: 40
• Infill: 100
• Solid infill: 79
• Top solid infill: 40
• Gap fill: 49
• Travel: 120
• First layer speed: 20