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  1. #1

    Making your own filaments

    Hi guys, having a quick browse around this forum.
    Been trying to find people who extrude/make their own filaments. Regardless of any material.

    Let's go like this
    1) What are you extruding?
    2) What temperature are you extruding it at?
    3) How's the 3D print quality?

    Been wanting to extrude my own filaments but would like to find experts and gurus to refer to when I get into a hiccup.

  2. #2
    Staff Engineer LambdaFF's Avatar
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    I'd have gadly answered your question but Strooder is over a year late in delivery ;-)

    They seem to do it quite fine though, you should ask them.

    What they say : ABS, PLA, PP, HDPE, LDPE and PET can be recycled and printed.

    What I think I read somewhere : for LDPE/HDPE and PP, the end quality seems to be doubtful.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by LambdaFF View Post
    I'd have gadly answered your question but Strooder is over a year late in delivery ;-)

    They seem to do it quite fine though, you should ask them.

    What they say : ABS, PLA, PP, HDPE, LDPE and PET can be recycled and printed.

    What I think I read somewhere : for LDPE/HDPE and PP, the end quality seems to be doubtful.

    Have you got any chance to use other extruders though? Otherwise, where did you find information that they mentioned ABS being recycled?

  4. #4
    Technician postmahomeson's Avatar
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    your probably looking for a recycle bot for example the filabot

  5. #5
    Nah, not really. I actually do want to produce my own filaments. Not recycled ones but getting granules from actual suppliers and producing them into filaments

  6. #6
    Staff Engineer LambdaFF's Avatar
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    It's basically the same machines.

  7. #7
    Technologist Kingoddball's Avatar
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    I have never done my own filament but always wanted to out of water/coke bottles (PET IIRC).

    I was looking at using something like;
    http://www.filabot.com/
    (plus some on thingiverse)

    But in the end I didn't buy and wanted to build something (reprap style!) but laziness beat me and I stopped

    On a different but related note; Pellets/RM! (Raw Materials)
    Have you looked at this?
    http://richrap.blogspot.com.au/2014/...universal.html

    Rich has built an extruder which uses raw pellets.

    Printing in RM will require similar heat to filament, but its a very different printing medium (method?) and for me I'd be worried about extruding air bubbles.
    Last edited by Kingoddball; 11-18-2015 at 02:59 AM. Reason: spelling

  8. #8
    Staff Engineer LambdaFF's Avatar
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    Richard's work is nice. I wouldn't use it myself : this excludes the possibility to do bi color or dissolvable supports.

    Another reason is : it makes the printhead VERY heavy, you go from 200 grams to over a kilo : expect vibration artifacts.

  9. #9
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    the strooder is a neat bit of kit - seen one working.
    If I were to get one now - that's the one I'd get.

    Given the high price of extruders and the low price of filament - also that many filament makers will happily do custom filaments - I just don't see the need for home filament making.
    It's not currently particularly cost effective.
    Also most of the really good filaments are not pure pla or abs or pet etc. They do have modifiers that make them stronger, bendier etc.

    Give it a few years and it'll probably be worth doing - but currently, I don't really see the point :-)

  10. #10
    Student crizzler's Avatar
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    Hi damienbaring, i can recommend you my blog in this case if you want to learn some basic stuff about extruders and the extrusion process.

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