It’s not sexy, but it’s useful! I needed an extension for my clothes dryer vent. The discharge vent hose/tube kept slipping off and even duct tape wasn’t working. So I took some measurements into tinkercad and a couple hours later my prototype is ready.
According to 5 seconds of research the air temp never gets higher than 70c so PLA should be ok, but I’ve got some ABS on standby just in case.
useful and self-designed are way better than “sexy”. good stuff - what’s it look like installed?
I’ll post tonight. (I wanted to wait for my laundry room to dry out…it became a sauna with dripping walls when it popped off!) I pulled it off the printer this morning then went to work. I’ll use some drywall screws and if everything works as planned I’ll run a bead of silicone on the edges so it’s airtight.
It fits, but only just barely covers up the old jagged drywall hole. So I redesigned it with larger sides and a longer tube. This time it’s for cosmetics! I’ll print it tonight and try again.
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Man, PLA ain’t gonna survive 70C unless it’s an annealing blend and you anneal it. Most PLAs will soften at 55-60C or so.
Interested to see how this will hold up.
Just finished v2. My CR-10 let’s me manually increase the print speed… So since this is still a proof of concept, I decided to Jack the speed up to 200% (250% on the first layer.). Laundry is piling up and I’m getting the “looks” from other family members… So I quickly installed v2… Test run in progress.
v2 on the left, v1 on the right (sides were too small… especially in the vertical. see next pic)
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not pretty…
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70°C for PLA is already high enough to soften it quite badly. It won’t retain its shape.
I would do an empty dryer run on high heat before loading up clothes. It MIGHT self-anneal and work ok, if you’re lucky. “It’s smarter to be lucky than it’s lucky to be smart” 
Migh as well as experiment. I guess the worst-case outcome of failure is either blowing a bunch of lint and humid air into the laundry room, or blocking the hose and popping the thermal cutoff fuse in your dryer. (Which is a pain to replace but not the end of the world.)
some pla survives higher temps than others. I print with MakerGeeks PLA, at 235C versus many other PLA resins people print with at 190-210C. it gives me an extra 10C or so before it softens (I’m not sure if the glass temp)
when in doubt I’d print with PETG though (I default to PETG these days). makergeeks PETG prints at 255C and would easily withstand 70C temps (I print on a 70C bed when printing this stuff).
even if it deforms quickly you ought to be able to get a few good runs out of it. as a prototype that’s not bad. you could likely cover the PLA with some insulating material (foam tape?) and use it permanently.
@Ryan_Carlyle I ran a test last night and another this morning with no negative outcomes. @Ryan_Carlyle I also printed an ABS version overnight, which I’ll install later. As you can see from the “not pretty” photo I could benefit from some more insulation before I permanently install it, but overall I’m happy with the results.
@Jared_Eldredge The ideal bed temp is in the “creep range” (a little below the glass point) for the plastic so residual cooling stresses can shake out a bit as the print gets taller, but the print isn’t so soft it sags under its own weight. You’ve typically got 10% or less of full mechanical strength at heatbed temp.
I suspect the air from the dryer is much, much cooler than 70C in normal use. That’s effin’ hot.
Well my PLA part is starting to show some sag. I ran a a load this AM and checked on it and could tell the room was getting moisture in the air again. So I’m going to try my ABS part tonight and order some PETG for the next iteration.
Had to iterate my design for ABS… Made the tube a bit taller and thicker. I really don’t have an ideal setup for ABS printing so it’s a crapshoot sometimes. But overall I think this latest version just might be the keeper.
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For those of you who thought PLA wouldn’t hold up to the heat…YOU WERE RIGHT! The new, much heftier ABS part is installed so let’s keep the fingers crossed
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The PETG is on the way so if the ABS fails we can go to V4… probably go with a thicker tube and wider plate dimensions since drywall holes can’t be used twice.
From a simple heat standpoint, ABS should outperform PETG. If you want better heat resistance under load than ABS you have to go with an annealable PLA or PC or some kind of carbon fiber / fiberglass composite.
