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What to do with those 2 foot filament scraps

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by WheresWaldo, Dec 1, 2017.

  1. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    So with the R2 you end up with rather short (about 2 feet) pieces of filament when you come to the end of the roll. I was thinking that maybe a 3D Printing Pen might be a good way to use up those leftover pieces.

    I am curious how other people are using or not using those small filament remains.
     
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I donate them to local kiddos that have 3D printing pens or use them in mine on the rare occasion I do.

    If I am doing a presentation I use those random bits of extras (r2 and other "left over" amounts) and run them through one of my other machines and do a filament change as needed. Most times printing some little file over and over again for the presentation as hand outs.

    Most times I end up with a box of them and just keep cramming until someone reminds me I have a box of them :D
     
  3. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    I throw them in the trash because it literally costs more in time and effort to find a use for them than to just move on.
     
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  4. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    That's why I think the 3D pen might be a cool toy to play with.
     
  5. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    mark tomlinson likes this.
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have one exactly like that :)
     
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  7. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Works great, cheap, prime lol. I dig the little scraper it came with :D
     
  8. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Yeah, I was thinking that the pen could allow me in some cases to fix a failing print. In theory, you could pause the job, apply a thin layer of the same color in a failed area and then start the job back up.

    I've also thought about re-usable support structures. Imagine if you had some typical cylindrical columns printed up with a known height. You could use the pen to then pause the job at the moment of truth, use the pen to "glue" the column in the right spot and then continue the job.
     
  9. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Still haven't bought a 3D Printing Pen, just waiting for one to come up on Amazon Gold Box deals, or maybe I'll just order from Banggood or Aliexpress.
     
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  10. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    only use mine a few times a year, handy for 30.00 but not more. I feed the scraps through small build printers lol
     
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  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, we use ours about every .. never :) Nice tool to have in a pinch I guess or for doodling.
     
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  12. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    With a bowden drive, you can chop them into short pieces (1") and load up the tube to get some really cool effects. Retractions work better than you might suspect since you're still relieving the pressure off that last little bit.
     
  13. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Thanks. Now I want to stuff that 6' bowdon on the delta with random chunks of left over filament just to see what happens.
     
  14. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    This was one of the things I found fairly early on thingiverse that really got my imagination spinning. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25612

    I haven't done anything that cool, but I had some fun with it when I was trying to figure out how the @#$#$% to print ninja flex on a bowden. I thought sandwiching it between more rigid chunks would make a good result. Not so much, but still pretty neat.
    0712142209.jpg
     
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