Is Filastruder worth backing?

Filastruder is a filament extruder designed by a UF engnering student and I'm wondering what you guys thought of the product?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/833191773/filastruder-a-robust-inexpensive-filament-extruder

I have heard there are issues with these machines (in the past) creating consistent diameter and having air bubbles in the filament. I also am wondering if you calculate the electricity used and the time and labor is it worth the investment?

The main appeal to me is to save money on filament and to be able to reuse wasted filament from bad prints. What do you guys think?

 

I sent their team the following questions..

"Hello Filastruder Creators.... I have a few questions.
1) Will the Filastruer make 1.75mm filament.
2) What is the diameter consistency when extruding 1.75mm filament?
3) Have you experienced air bubbles in the filament that is created by Filastruder?
4) Where would you rate the quality of filament compared to "store bought filament"? equivalent quality? Lower quality?
5) What is the Quality of PLA filament made?
6) what is the average electricity usage/costs to extrude alb of filament?"

I will post their response when I get it...

 

Justin my main quandary was how much of a real cost savings it would incur. As there is no grinder to create filament with just their extruder you would need to buy the pellets; so once you have paid for the pellets paid for the shipping are you saving enough to justify the cost of the machine and the time to produce? Also I am wondering the quality of the filament. Ultimately I think this is the perfect setup, have your own filament extruder, your own 3d printer and never worry about running out of filament (keep a few pounds of pellets on hand at all times). But if it is only saving pennies (less than $10) not sure if it is going to be worth it for me yet.

 

I agree with you Michael... If it saves money and makes decent filament I'm in...
I know there are plans for shredders out there but I'm not sure if they are easy enough to build. I would like to be able to recycle old prints too.

 

Shredder plans
http://grabcad.com/library/mini-shredder--1

I don't have the tools to build one of these.

 

Search ABS pellets on ebay. 10 lbs of ABS pellets $35-$45 depending on color.
They also have ABS Polycarbinate blend and pure polycarbonite among other materials. And color concentrate/color dye beads.

 

I keep going back and forth in my head about this. What are the colorants that they refer to? I have seen the abs pellets but yet to find the colorants. Can you elaborate PS. Also are they going to sell these after the kickstarter? I know some of these sort of things after the kickstarter don't really stay as a "start up"

 

The colourants are coloured plastic pellets that you mix in to change the colour of the filament.
You can see them here http://store.osprintingllc.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ABS_Color

 

One of the beta testers is a member of the 3D printer group I attend monthly, and I've seen it at work.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fr...hio-reprap-and-makerbot-operators/NBmWuZMPhpk

 

So I just bit the bullet and pledged $300 for the fully assembled. For 100$ there is no way I could pass up the enclosure, the fact that it is 100% assembled and "tested" and the drilled nozzle. I was going to also add in $50 to get more pellets but it is actually CHEAPER to get the pellets through their website and at this point I don't think that less $50 will hurt them.

So I will be happy to be a tester as well once it arrives (hopefully in July) for people here. Now to find colorants!

 

If only I had an extra $200-300, I would be all over this.

Think about it like paper:
For everyday printing, I use the stuff you can buy fairly inexpensive. I even use a strip shredder to turn my junk printing into packing materials.

For my resumes and presentations, I use much better paper most of the time. Costs a bit more but comes out worth it.

Special items like fold-out cards and photos require even more specialized materials.

But 95% of what I print with is the basic stuff. If I could make it myself within a 95+ percent reproducible quality product, I would.

This would let me do that with filament.

 

That is exactly how I decided this was worth it Spyker. I thought about what I will most likely be printing and after looking around at bulk pellets (10lbs or so say) realized that the price would be a considerable amount.

Now I have a question regarding the colorants, can you adjust the color the filament by adding more or less, or even mixing colorants? If so I see this as a HUGE perk as now I can create a custom color that could match a color. I could see this even getting into producing and selling small quantities of custom color. Say you need a color that matches your business' color, send me a sample of the color and for the right price I make you a filament that closely matches.

Again this is going off the idea that you can really control the color. Or is it pretty much hey I have red colorant and the result is red filament?

 

I just really hope that OSPrinting stocks more colorants for ABS. Right now only 3 and NON for their PLA pellets is a little upsetting. I haven't found much as far as colorants AT ALL else where. I have found some great deals for ABS pellets on ebay.

PS- I could totally see coming up with different colors and recording the mixture amounts. I think that could be really useful in getting certain colors say you need 50 parts blue to 100 parts red to create a certain shade purple for example. Now you print a little sample of it and keep it in a drawer somewhere and you have a breakdown of the "recipe" for reference down the line when you need that color for something.

I like the idea of creating colored filament because as of right now I have no clue if I need 2lbs of bright green ,or red filament but if I suddenly have something I want to print in blue I can spend a day making some blue filament and print with it the next day versus spending ~$40 and waiting a week or so for it to arrive.

 

they show hdpe colorant. Now they also sell HDPE pellets so I beg the question, what is HDPE and can we 3d print with it?

 

I pulled the trigger on the kit. Figure it will give me a project to work on. Didn't know I had to drill the nozzle but I have a drill press so it shouldn't be to hard. I've seen a lot of colorant on eBay. I guess we will have to find a good supplier for pellets. I will start looking and let you know what I find.

http://www.alibaba.com is a good source for suppliers but you need a business license to get a user account.