this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Does anyone here have experience with this? I'm on the verge of buying the Artme3D extruder kit as it seems to be complete with extruder and spooler. Alternatives like FelFil Evo will sell you the spooler for the same price as the extruder which in my opinion is a scam for something that isn't that complicated.

The next challenge is filament degradation. Ideally you add some virgin plastic pellets to recycled plastic chunks so that there is enough plasticizer still left in there. Could you just add the plasticizer yourself? It commonly is glycerol or PEG which are pretty common and easily attainable chemicals. Does anyone here have experience with mixing additives yourself?

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 months ago

Filament extrusion is a difficult thing.

You need to keep in mind all sorts of things just to be able to get a consistent width.

Things like:

  • Plastic material type (some can only be recycled so many times)

  • A single spec of dust can clog your nozzle

  • combined multiple materials will give inconsistencies

  • if the plastic isn't ultra mega dry, the water will form bubbles because of steam

Creating homemade filament is not for the ones that get frustrated easily, they are far away from the quality and user friendliness that modern 3D printers have. But it is a nice little project to keep you busy.

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If your goal is to recycle scrap prints and support, then you might wanna watch this first from Dr. D-Flo. He talks about several things, but incoming material variance is a huge deal. He can't get consistent extrusion diameter (because inconsistent material pressure because inconsistent material size) without extruding coarse filament, then pelletizing, then extruding consistent filament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXY1EygE4R8

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=jXY1EygE4R8

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I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] mortalic@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I had not heard about this but have looked into a few other solutions over the years. Is the idea here that you manually wind it to a spool? If so, that part would suuuuuck. I have a pallette 3d (broken btw) and made manual spools and it's super tedious.

If you do get it though post back about your experience.

[–] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

This model has its own spooler that is automatic. It looks like once its properly tuned all you need to do is ensure there is enough filament shreds in the hopper.

[–] OZFive@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Is this to recover and recycle wasted filament?

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The next challenge is filament degradation. Ideally you add some virgin plastic pellets to recycled plastic chunks so that there is enough plasticizer still left in there.

Depending on the filament material, it may be stronger than you think. Brothers Make did HDPE (which is not a common printer filament, I know) recycling 30x without serious degradation. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4v2avVAFFB8

IDK if that's applicable to PLA, but it's worth noting, IMO.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago

It isn't applicable to PLA.

I believe PLA can only be recycled once before degrading.

And the test those Brothers did should be taken with a grain of salt. They took some shortcuts, so the result isn't completely consistent with reality.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=4v2avVAFFB8

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] MrSlicer@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Seems like a total waste. That buys a tremendous amount of filament. I don't think even print farms do it. There are so many filament companies out there that the margins have to be razor thin.

[–] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

Hmm. I'm not doing it for economical reasons but I'm concerned with wasting plastic. It's more ecological combined with the interest in engineering.

[–] IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am inclined to agree with you, but I'm also super curious. It looks like you could get 25 KG of say PETG pellets for $1.80/kg and I suspect true bulk pricing would be even less. Add in additives, colors, the spool itself, etc and I would be surprised if a 1 kg spool has much over $5 in material in it. I have no idea how much other overhead like packaging, handling, shipping, adds to the cost. I have a friend that works in injection molding and niavelely it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to enter the filament game.

[–] MrSlicer@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Now add in the price of the machine and you will need a way to dry the pellets if you don't use it immediately. I really want this to be a thing but I just don't see it being economical.. It might be fun however to make custom filaments.

[–] thomasfrank@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago

@wordle unlimited Instead of Artme 3D, You can use Filastruder with a bigger price tag but offers a fully enclosed system and automated features.