DIY Altoids Tin Camera Case Desiccant Pack

This is a simple camera case desiccant pack from things I had lying around the house.  I keep my DSLR in a pelican case all the time so I don't have to worry about banging it into things, the weather, floods, running it over with my car etc...but I've noticed that sometimes when it's humid outside, or if I come inside from being outdoors on a cold day, the camera case can build up moisture inside of it.  To prevent this, here's how to make a desiccant pack from stuff you've maybe already got on hand.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

It doesn't get much more basic than this folks.  

Materials:

1. Desiccant pack - those little paper or plastic pouches filled with silica gel that come in new pairs of shoes, electronics equipment and lots of other stuff that's at risk for being damaged by moisture.
2. Altoids tin - I'm using the mini tin because I don't have a very big camera case, but if yours is bigger think about using a full size tin. 

Tool:

1. Drill and a small bit. 

Comments

[wnordmann]

I think there is a problem with your understanding of desiccant.
Point points about desiccant:
1 - Desiccant absorbs moisture from the air, true.
2 - Desiccant quits absorbing once they have absorbed all the moisture they can absorb.

The problem is that the desiccant will absorb it's maximum amount of moisture by the time you find them 2nd hand in your new shoes. And if you think about it how do you expect desiccant to keep absorbing moisture indefinitely? It has to be kept in a sealed container and get all the moisture out of the container.

Also you can eat it if you want, they are just little silica rocks, not much fun to eat, but won't kill you.

[Munchys]

He said sometimes it gets humid so im guessing it could absorb some of the moisture on a humid day and on a drier day they can dry out then repeat?

[wnordmann]

I don't think this type of desiccant will do that. These are disposable packets that are added to shoe boxes before they are shipped (likely by a boat) from manufacturing (China) to sales (American). There are cheap desiccant. There are products like Damp Rid that would be better suited for this application.
I really feel that this is a placebo.

[AspireBlack]

He could try baking for ~3 hours at 300F, but remove the plastic baggies.