making your own filament

[pete...@gmail.com]

Filament is cheap to make, and may also be made from recycled materials.
It could be an option for the club to make / buy an extruder, else individuals.
Listed below are some options, from cheap $100 + upwards
One factor in price is speed of extrusion.
I also thin it would be good to discuss what works well in recycling.


http://hackaday.com/2013/11/01/low-cost-filament-extruder/  $100. Not recommend.

filastruder $300. I like this kitset as an entry level unit, but slow. 12 hours per kg

http://makezine.com/review/guide-to-3d-printing-2014/review-filament-extruders/
fileabotwee $799. 5 hours per kg

http://www.noztek.com/product/the-noztek-pro-abs-and-pla-filament-extruder-for-3d-printers/  $1400   3 to 4 hours per kg
Nice unit fully assembled.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:212894
lyman extruder now up to version 4.
https://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2d/61/e8/78/a0/LYMAN_FILAMENT_EXTRUDER_V4.1_MANUAL.pdf
the older versions are cheaper. Think version 4 was $1000 mark.
5 hours per kg
Lyman won a $40,000 prize for making an extruder. hes 80 years + so well done to him.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Kc3ahYDXI  high speed unit, but not sure its finished.

Peter Zwag

[tubular]

I started building a Lyman extruder for the space, but decided we probably have better things to do with our time.   I do have some samsung abs granules if we want to fire up that project again.   

I think it would make sense to prove on virgin material, before trying to introduce a recycled %.   

I'm not sure what kind of tolerance we'd get on the output, though we have the skills to make a sensor and measure it to close a feedback loop if required

[peter zwag]

How far on the project get? What version of lyman was it?
thanks
Peter Zwag

[tubular]

Peter, just checked the pdf and looks like it was a version 2 (circa August last year).   We made the easy stuff (brackets, flanges, mounts, baseboards) and stopped short of ordering the bits from McMaster Carr. 

Version 4 looks quite different and I don't think many of my parts will be much use, but I can check in more detail later.  

v2 was relatively compact; v4 looks a whole lot bigger 

[PandPP]

There was one featured on Instructables earlier this week (from memory): http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-own-3d-printing-filament-factory-Filame

No idea whether the build is decent or too back yardish.

[pete...@gmail.com]

Hi PandPP
http://makezine.com/review/guide-to-3d-printing-2014/review-filament-extruders/
This looks to be a well documented project and under $200 price.
It claims to do 1kg in about an hour. This speed surprised me as at a quick look, its similar to other entry level projects.
Anyone got any comments on this?

[pete...@gmail.com]

I provided the wrong url to this comment.
This is the correct one.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-own-3d-printing-filament-factory-Filame/?ALLSTEPS

Note there are some mistakes that are corrected in the comments.
Speed to extrude seems to vary a lot with material used, so Im not sure how to compare apples for apples.