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Make your own filament

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Geof, Nov 26, 2015.

  1. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    #1 Geof, Nov 26, 2015
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Nice.
    Fun stuff, but if you are doing it then it is likely NOT for economic reasons...

    Even the Filastruder (at roughly $700) was too expensive to make it worth the bother unless you rip through a LOT of filament frequently.
    Do the math :)

    (PLA is, for example really cheap...and getting more so)

    I use a lot of filament and even I don't use enough to justify that since my pay-back time would be almost 2 years.
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Nov 26, 2015
  3. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Yeah the differential between cheap filament and raw stock is pretty small. You'd need to be printing a LOT to justify the cost, and even then the time it takes to make the filament undoubtably defeats any purpose.
     
    #3 Mike Kelly, Nov 26, 2015
  4. reemaj3D

    reemaj3D New Member

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    Thanks for sharing :)
     
    #4 reemaj3D, Dec 24, 2015
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I had not even considered that. Good point.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Dec 24, 2015
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    And think about having to spool all that filament now on your floor! :eek:
     
    #6 WheresWaldo, Dec 24, 2015
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  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There are some spooler designs out there so I sort-of had thought about that :)
    Still, that is another facet of this that you DO need to remember.
     
    #7 mark tomlinson, Dec 24, 2015
  8. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Sorry for losing track of this. The holidays and all :-D. Economical? Nah... Cool as all get out... Most defianently. I'll be keeping an eye on its progress.... I imagine the price will drop considerably over time to where for the neat factor I'll buy one :-D. This all started when my 6 year old niece said the printer is cool but how do you make your plastic.... She seemed baffled that I didn't make it lol. Kids are way smarter than me I think I would have been amazed at her age watching it.... Not much caring where or from who the supplies came hAha
     
    #8 Geof, Dec 25, 2015
  9. WorkableRobo3dR1Plus

    WorkableRobo3dR1Plus New Member

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    An awesome concept, but as other members in this thread pointed out it is a little on the expensive side, but if you printed a lot it would justify the cost. I just have one question, can you use the PLA scraps from failed prints to make more of the filament from the waste material?
     
    #9 WorkableRobo3dR1Plus, Jan 7, 2016
  10. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hmm..... I have no idea but I'll poke around and see if I can find out(if so everyone needs to save me their scraps over the next year so that next year when I but one I can use it haha!)
     
    #10 Geof, Jan 7, 2016
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  11. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Yes, but still not cost effective, unless you have so many failed prints, and different colors means it has different additives in it, you would just never know exactly how to print it or what colors you would end up with.
     
    #11 WheresWaldo, Jan 8, 2016
  12. WorkableRobo3dR1Plus

    WorkableRobo3dR1Plus New Member

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    True, the different additives would lead to some really wonky prints.
     
    #12 WorkableRobo3dR1Plus, Jan 8, 2016
  13. WorkableRobo3dR1Plus

    WorkableRobo3dR1Plus New Member

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    Well unless you could secure free waste filament from someone the DIY filament from scraps would be pretty useles.
     
    #13 WorkableRobo3dR1Plus, Jan 8, 2016
  14. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I'm still sticking with the cool factor :-D lol
     
    #14 Geof, Jan 8, 2016

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