Does anyone know if there is an extruder in the Halifax Area?

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Jamie Saunders

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Jul 25, 2015, 10:05:38 PM7/25/15
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Hello, 

  I am new to 3d Printing and have been trying to make some 3d lego pieces but have yet to really match the color. I am wondering if anyone in the area has one of the extruders that takes plastic scraps and converts it back into filament? What i would like to do is take some Lego pieces in the color I want, shred them, make filament in the color i want and then print a custom piece in that color. Also it would be nice to reuse some of my waste plastic rather than through it in the trash.

Shawn Wilson

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Jul 27, 2015, 10:20:51 AM7/27/15
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Never heard of one locally, but there are a couple recent leads below, assuming they're not you.  12 days left to fund a Halifax-based filastruder, but it looks like they're only offering natural abs color.  You might see if they'd want to make a deal, but no funders yet.

Jamie Saunders

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Jul 27, 2015, 10:56:22 AM7/27/15
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Thanks,
 
  Unfortunately both of them look like they are dealing with 1.75mm filament and I use 2.85mm. I will keep looking. I was aware I will need a lot of bricks 430 Lego 2x4 Bricks = 1Kg it will workout to like ~ $80 a Kg in bricks but If I want a specific color it may be worth it. I have friends who are obsessed with Lego.

Nathan Ryan

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Jul 28, 2015, 7:12:51 AM7/28/15
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I'm curious what sort of filament you have tried?  What colours were you looking for?  In my experience PLA has fairly anemic colour, and even ABS can often be wonky.  (I ordered some "Red" ABS once and it was pink, and they had even claimed a Pantone colour value!)

You may be better served finding a good filament dealer, rather than the roll-your-own method.  Where have you tried ordering from?

Cheers,
Nathan

Jamie Saunders

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Jul 28, 2015, 10:01:03 AM7/28/15
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I have solely used PLA up to this point. However I have a TAZ 4 and can use almost anything that comes in 2.85mm diameter.

The three brands i used so far are: 
  - MG Chemicals from Jentronics  (Bulk of my printing. DO NOT Buy 0.25kg spools it may be tempting but they are wound too tight and cause the filament to snap)
. - eSUN from Lulzbot   (Have had no problems with yet but still early)
  -JET from Amazon.    (Bad Layer Adheasion)

So far I have designed 3 Lego compatible parts in red, yellow, and tan. Red and yellow were off enough to notice. tan was horribly off (JET PLA). 

My intention was to ask if anyone had one so I could borrow/pay/use/beg/share because I cannot justify buying one for the low volumes I would use it for.

Shawn Wilson

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Jul 28, 2015, 10:30:02 AM7/28/15
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I don't know much about 3D printing, but even if you were able to turn bricks into filament, and not alter the colour in the process, would it print the same colour, or do printed parts come out whiter than the original filament colour due to air inclusions?  

I saw an Instructable not long ago on DIY injection moulding.  Unfortunately, though an injection moulder looked pretty easy, making the moulds for it seemed much less doable.



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Shawn Wilson
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Jordan Vallis

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Jul 28, 2015, 12:03:24 PM7/28/15
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Maybe build an extruder? That way you could custom the size of the extrusion.


Also, Voxel Factory in Montreal has a great amount of different colours for 2.85mm (many on clearance) that you may find useful. http://www.voxelfactory.com/
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