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Filament shredder in your own home

Discussion in 'Printing Filament' started by tonycstech, Jul 11, 2014.

  1. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    Shred your used printed parts into chunks and then use filastruder to extrude them back into filament.
    YAY the circle of life :)
     
    #1 tonycstech, Jul 11, 2014
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  2. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    I've read that the filament, once extruded, is not to be re-extruded. It degraded and won't be as good quality anymore.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk in Canada
     
    #2 Peter Krska, Jul 11, 2014
  3. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    That's true peter, but if quality isn't a major issue you could reuse it for free(ish)
     
    #3 Mike Kelly, Jul 11, 2014
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  4. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    It only applies to PLA as far as i know.

    You can make your own filament
    using milk bottles and other plastic stuff at home so i think its worth to waste the shredder.
     
    #4 tonycstech, Jul 11, 2014
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can also buy the plastic in pellet form for about 1/10th the cost of formed/extruded filament :)

    So, yeah, if you use enough filament then a Filastruder is a good deal. No clue how many times PLA can be reused, the filastruder folks probably do.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Jul 11, 2014
  6. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    They said you gotta mix it with new pellets to keep it fresh.
    I'd say 50/50 would be a good number and just think of the savings !.
    I have printed/wasted around 8 rolls already, thats almost $300 over the year (almost) since i got the printer AND i tried to conserve.

    If i had filastruder, i would spend about $40-50 on all the filament, so after 8 rolls it would pay its self off (+ - 1 for electricity). 1 roll or 1 killo in 12hrs
    This is where savings begin. Once you it pays it self off, you not only paying 40-50 bucks (as i would) but you also cut it in half because you recycle old materials 50/50 mixing it up with new pellets.

    If you have filastruder and shredder, you only pay about 5-10% of the filament cost VS 10-15% just using filastruder.
    Shredder provides another 50% savings.

    I think in near future plastic pellets will go up the price because more and more people will have portable filament extruders, but the good news is: you dont always need buy anything. Just go to local recycle bin and pull all kinds of plastic stuff and bottles.
    Shred them separately from each other and make test filaments to see which once will print and which once wont.

    I hear milk jugs making up great filament :)
     
    #6 tonycstech, Jul 12, 2014
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  7. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    Does anybody know where to buy pellets ? Ebay doesnt seem to have anything when searching for PLA pellets. Most are ABS :(
    What would be the best PLA pellets and what are some others that have (if any) differences and what are they ?
     
    #7 tonycstech, Jul 19, 2014
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #8 mark tomlinson, Jul 19, 2014
  9. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    Filabot $7+$7 shipping
    Amazon $5+$5 shipping
    Thanks !

    Today ABS 2.2lb cost $19 free shipping on ebay and 2.2lb of ABS pellets are $10 free shipping.
    Makes me wonder if buying filament extruder is that much of a good investment since prices went down on already finished product.
    10% of the filament cost (promised by filastruder) seem to be getting further away as we speak.
    If they bring their machine down to $200, i might just buy it.
     
    #9 tonycstech, Jul 19, 2014
  10. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    Ordered filastruder kit. dont want to buy anymore filament :(
    Will post results sometimes soon, its still in shipping.
    Will also do test prints with 100% recycled PLA as well as 50/50 new pellets+shredded PLA. Not sure what to test, melting temperature or hot easy it brakes and how well it sticks to its self during print.
     
    #10 tonycstech, Jul 31, 2014
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  11. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    Can you use any plastic, such as plastic water bottles to make filament?

    What if you were to mix 2 different types of filament into one? Will it print?
     
    #11 Peter Krska, Aug 3, 2014
  12. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    I hear milk bottles are good.
    Once i get my shredder fully setup, i will try all sorts of stuff :)
    Still have a bucket full of PLA to shread and try to extrude.
     
    #12 tonycstech, Aug 3, 2014
  13. Ziggy

    Ziggy Moderator
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    Really interested to hear how you go.

    I played with a friend's filastrudder getting it set up for him. First impressions:

    - Have to run the thing for 8 hours minimum to get all the metal shavings out of it. The model I had used galvanised pipe which has a welded seam inside. The screw keeps shaving metal off that seam - hence the need to run it for at least 8 hours so that does not happen anymore. Having the odd bit of steel in your filament is a bit of a concern :(

    - Filastruder temperature is critical. Adding masterbatch color changes the temp of extrusion very significantly. The height for the filament drop and extruder temp is also critical when it comes to getting a consistent 1.75mm filament. I wasn't able to play with it long enough to get the height and temps exactly right.

    But it's a fun bit of gear and you can make filaments with a color changes built right in.
     
    #13 Ziggy, Aug 3, 2014
  14. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Just go to Starbucks and get a free water every day. They're made of PLA
     
    #14 Mike Kelly, Aug 3, 2014
  15. tonycstech

    tonycstech Active Member

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    Or get your friend's (that you dont like) car bumper and shred it/melt it/print it. (print him a car bumper preferably)
    Its made of ABS
     
    #15 tonycstech, Aug 3, 2014
  16. Tommygun

    Tommygun New Member

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    What a difference a month makes. Just checked eBay for PLA pellets & came up with a dozen listings selling pellets in bulk (2 - 50) lbs . Ranging in price from $5-$7 per lb. It's an emerging market - I wouldn't be surprised if there are 50 or even 100 dealers selling pellets in bulk on eBay this time next year. As soon as large companies start mass producing their own 3D printers & supplies for sale in the US & Europe, the factories they use to produce their goods in China & Korea will be selling their overstock with a generic label out the back door on eBay at cut-rate prices, just like they do with cell phone accessories & ink cartridges today.
     
    #16 Tommygun, Aug 17, 2014
  17. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    I am interested if you can add food colouring to it to make other colours possible. Have you tried printing with the newly created filament yet?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk in Canada
     
    #17 Peter Krska, Aug 17, 2014
  18. Jaeson Cardiff

    Jaeson Cardiff Active Member

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    I've seen a fair bit of talk about preshredding the filament. Is there any reason why you couldnt just melt the misprints in a vat and machine an extruder port near the bottom? If the vessel was sealed you could pressurize it to extract the filament from a port.

    CleanO2 Carbon Capture Tech
     
    #18 Jaeson Cardiff, Aug 17, 2014
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It would get pretty hot (and be a pretty large item). In the case of the filastruder the 'hot' section remelting the filament is not huge.
     
    #19 mark tomlinson, Aug 18, 2014
  20. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    #20 Peter Krska, Aug 18, 2014
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