Recycling Failed 3D Prints with a DIY Filament Extruder: Artme3D

[@CNCKitchen]

Want to get your 3D prints to the next level? Check out our Heat Set Inserts and Tools at cnckitchen.store (Free shipping worldwide starting at €100). *QUESTION* Is recycling failed 3D prints a waste of time and money?

[@bootstrappyworkshop8367]

Thank you for spotlighting this machine. I wouldn't have discovered it myself. I'm going to be doing some plastic shredding and recycling for my own channel starting with HDPE into small barstock and then doing same for failed prints as I have a bunch in PLA, PETG, and nylon. This opens up some options.

[@KainYusanagi]

If you sorted your filament waste according to material and color prior, it would get rid of the banding, too. Good job recycling filament! One of my biggest pet peeves with 3D printing has always been all the waste product discarded instead of reused.

[@captain_loeffel]

I would say it is the start of finally using recycled filament. Why just the start? The machine seems to work fine and by changing it during the development process it will for sure even get better, especially with the filter and perhaps an additional diameter checker. But as so often that's just the half of it. For a hobbyist it will be hard to nearly impossible to shred the existing fails into pieces that can be used with this machine. Existing buy able machines are far too expensive and everything else won't do the job properly without an enorm amount of time. So in the first part of your video you already answered the question, if this is a machine for the hobby of 3D printing. When it comes to the question if it is a waste of time and money to do it, I would say for sure it isn't, as long as you don't need to put in too much time and money in achieving this goal. When you sort your waste by color and type, you can make relative clean new material. If you don't sort by color, only by type, you still can make a viable and usable filament, that is good enough for prototypes or cases and other prints, where the ecstatic doesn't matter. This is a good thing as long as the money and energy you need to put into it isn't too high. When it comes to the money for sure you can say the hobby is still expensive enough and you don't want to make it even more expensive. When it comes to the energy, you still want to help your environment with it and if the use of energy is too high, that goal is endangered. All in all I would say it is a good start, but still not a solution for most of the hobbyists out there. For a few ones, where money doesn't is such a big problem and for real enthusiasts this is for sure a solution. For everyone else it is unfortunately not much more than a look what the future might bring to us.

[@nukedathlonman]

I don't think so, and in fact may save a few purchases of filament and def means less micro plastics going into the landfill/environment. Might end up costing a little more given power consumed, etc, but I think it's worth the trade off.

[@captain_loeffel]

I Think you misunderstood me. I think it is good to be able to recycle filament and it is for sure something I want to do, but this machine can make the filament, but is unable to shred the material so that it can be used and that is no small task. A task you can't fulfill at the moment without using a high amount of time or buy really expensive machinery. This is at the moment just 50% of the way.@@nukedathlonman

[@geekdomo]

I run a makerspace at a local university. I have been trying to work out a grant for the other recycler you showed. This one here is within our budget! Thanks Stefan!

[@kbee225]

I hate the markerspace in my university. They charge you $0.20 per gram of PLA. (That's the cheapest option). I end up spending $15 for a part that often costs me less than a quarter dollars in material. That aside, their machines are not fine tuned and I've gotten better or the same finish with a stock ender 3 V2. Also, they don't let me choose the print orientation and would often refuse to add supports in their slicer. They'd want me to add supports in CAD which can be a nightmare. I'm glad I don't go to them anymore.

[@jblack3761]

@@kbee225 My university had a similar situation, overpriced, poor quality, long wait time. So a couple of my friends and I started printing parts for people for about half the cost of the university doing it (still a lot of profit) and ended up doing quite a bit of printing for individuals and even various senior design teams.

[@fummy33hotmail]

​@kbee225 at that point, why even bother HAVING the space? We bought thousands of dollars worth of equipment. To use? No, to collect dust because we're too stupid to know how to properly, so you must be too

[@geekdomo]

@@kbee225 We just bought 3 Bambu Labs X1 Carbons with AMS. That kinda blew our budget for any recyling program. I honestly didnt know people charged for makerspace materials. We only ask the students to bring in their own filament if its a big project.

[@greatapex2280]

​@@kbee225that's too bad! Sorry to hear some universities still see makerspaces as a "service-facility". I run my university makerspace as a means to teach prototyping: users get advice and support, but do all the work themselves. Luckily, the faculty agrees, so none of that silly "15 dollar for a print" nonsense.

[@KielsOffroad]

I love how you have the ability to form new mesh filters as required. The original manufacturer doesn't rip you for replacement parts.

[@kamel6915]

As a manufacturer of bike suspension forks I know how the responsibility for spare part supply feels. If you are a one person company and the creative person you don't want to be in charge of that. My forks are designed not to have any parts that wear and if special features need wearing stuff I tell my customers how to get those parts without bothering me.

[@kylequinn1963]

This is a HUGE step in the right direction. I've been so confused as to why there aren't any solutions to shred and re-spool 3D printing waste that are consumer grade and priced. I'd love to buy a system to recycle my PETG and PLA waste, but it's way too expensive right now.

[@oyuyuy]

It'd have to cost at most $100 in order to make any sense in my opinion, including the shredder - and even then I'd question what the goal is. It doesn't really make sense neither economically nor environmentally

[@kbee225]

Yeah, in a hobby space and even in commercial manufacturing 3D printing is but a fraction. And often with plastic, extruding them over and over causes thermal degradation and you'd need to add additives to keep them from becoming worse. It might just be a better idea to use PLA more and create accessible industrial composters. And maybe something like plasma gassification for petg and some.other products.

[@Obot1121]

I use a ninja blender Ninja BL455, powerful enough, but you need to let the dust settle.

[@kbee225]

@@Obot1121 be wary of the microplastics you're being exposed to. Many polymers in a microscopic scale are endocrine disruptors.

[@formes2388]

@@oyuyuy Um... what? Lets say your spool costs you 20$, you waste about 20% between failed prints and support material. Every 5 spools you go through, this saves you the cost of a spool - and whiel you won't want to continue recycling pure recycled PLA etc, you can easily funnel this into becoming internal fill material etc with very little in the way of lost strength etc. So you go collect a pile of stuff, recycle it down, turn it into supports, then use it as filler material - or just use it for solid blocks, bases, and such that don't need to be as sturdy. I'd wager you can pay the cost back in under a year if you are big into printing. And from an environmental stand point: In winter you use energy to heat your home anyways, so that's minor. But overall you are shipping less spools of plastic, you are sending less direct to landfill, and you are recovering the material for secondary use. As long as you were already going to print the damn item in the first place, you aren't generating any additional waste. And considering spools of plastic can be attained at like 20$, it's not like the cost of these spools is prohibitive - it's more the cost of the printer that stops people from getting into the hobby, and even that is pretty damn achievable by doing something like bottle picking for a week if you have literally no extra money... which turns out you can even turn pop bottles into filament so, hey look: Secondary use. If you on the other hand go through a spool or two a year, ok: This won't really make sense for you. But someone like me: It absolutely does.

[@SandersChicken]

Things to try: - Print and recycle the same plastic a few times to see if it degrades - Make filament from non 3d printed sources - find a way to upgrade it or improvements for it after you use it for a bit.

[@user-qn6kb7gr1d]

1. It does. Polymers are getting shorter and shorter each time on a molecular level. 2. You can make PET filament from plastic bottles, and it's relatively easy and simple as it doesn't require a real plastic shredder. 3. One way to improve is simply mix in some additives to have a custom filament of your own

[@rodiculous9464]

​@@user-qn6kb7gr1dgood to know, I don't really print PET very often but it would be cool to recycle my own bottle since plastic recycling is a scam in most places. Also @sanders you can print from weed whacker line just fyi

[@rodiculous9464]

You can print with weed trimmer filament too fyi

[@MrOnlyXeno]

@@user-qn6kb7gr1d not all Plastic degree. That far i know you can remold ABS infinite of time. But the temp of this maschine isn't high enough

[@jamakosus]

@@MrOnlyXenoIt might be. The ABS I have melts at 230C, and this thing can go up to 260C (what I print at). So it could work. I’m might just be bad for your lungs.

[@VacFink]

I’d love to see an experiment showing how repeated recycling affects strength and printability.

[@CNCKitchen]

I'll definitely dive into that!

[@tyeth]

While you're at it @CNCKitchen , can you try to re-join long chain polymers from old water-damaged filament (where the chains have been broken and interspersed with water/o/h molecules). It seems like under the right conditions that would be reversable, but also surely happens to very old filament that will be recycled. Also please use an equivalent to the UK climate (generally higher humidity with lower temperatures, i.e. summer = muggy if still, winter = moldy)

[@NoMoreBsPlease]

​@@CNCKitchen You should do a video on how much the ratio of fresh and recycled plastic affects strength. So many people think you can recycle plastic, just like aluminum or steel.

[@DreamsVoid]

BrothersMake recently did a video on multiple times recycled plastics. They found pretty much nothing changes

[@zombieregime]

Well......in the big boy molding, and fabrication world we would cast the 3d printed part to make a tools that we would use to make molds containing many of the thing we wanted to make many of, then cast 5, 10, 20, 50, etc at a time using well documented, repeatable, reliable, known strength, etc final materials to get our finished parts. The bonus of which is if you spend the time FINISHING the RAPIDLY PROTOTYPED piece the first time, like people should be doing instead of chasing unrealistic smoothness and fiddly settings that change with the phase of the moon and are never the same between them, youll end up with molds of perfectly smooth and clean parts that you just have to whip up some AB urethane epoxy, cast it, and wait for it to harden. I really dont know why the maker scene hasnt clued on to this yet.......

[@levistrauss4217]

I worked in a plastic recycling facility for 8 years. We did profile extrusion as well as compounding pellets. A water tank to cool the fillament after leaving the barrel and die would allow for you to drag the mix from the extruder at higher speed and keep tension on it as well instead of using gravity. This is if the setup can melt the plastic faster and not back up the barrel.

[@MafiaEindhoven-g9r]

60W, unfortunately, isn't much for melting (and heating the screw as well)

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

TeachingTech just released a filament shredder/chopper, which would be really useful for you to re-pelletize some first stage filament! That should give you uniform pellets that work much better for your filament extruder.

[@CNCKitchen]

On my list! I already tried it out a little in my last video.

[@KORUPTable]

@@Splarkszter Simp

[@rascallhunter]

⁠@@SplarkszterWu’s contribution to that video was the insert installer that was used, not the shredder design.

[@Flying--T]

​@@Splarkszter No, its not. Did you even watch the video?

[@exmirt6232]

@@Splarkszter No, they are separate topics. Please watch the video before referencing it.

[@retrohipster1060]

I think a big reason why I'm excited about this project is that I feel like a lot of these parts can be sourced cheap or can be sourced from old machines. Like if you had an old ender 3 floating around, you probably already have a lot of stuff for this project. This project seems like the best shot a determined maker has at making a recycling machine cheaply..

[@rafaelguida2317]

The amount of detail they put while keeping it low price is honestly impressive. From a mechanical intermittent reversing winder to the mixer, angle measurement in a clever way, wow! Im amazed

[@frozenepsilon5295]

How is $600 a low price? I agree it’s a great design but the parts aren’t exactly top of the line and a bunch have to be printed separately.

[@hazonku]

I came cuz Angus told us in his annual predictions for the next year video to check this out. Was not disappointed. This thing really is amazing. Maybe not something for us hobbyists but I could see the average Etsy print farmer who has consistent business paying for one in about a year or two and then even saving money not long after.

[@williamsnapp2615]

I’m super impressed with this kit. I’m an engineer who used to work in bulk plastic production, so many features of a professional small scale plastic extruded are present in this inexpensive kit

[@nutritious3250]

do you know how small the pieces of shredded parts need to be?

[@williamsnapp2615]

@@nutritious3250I have no experience doing this with 3D printed parts, the extruders I used occasionally ran small bits of plastic, but usually ran the chemical powders used to makeup different blends of plastic. They controlled particle size based on different plastics due to it changing the nucleation time, which affected some characteristics of the plastic(I’m not a chemical engineer, so I’m not sure what makes this happen). Generally when we ran pre-extruded plastic we did about 1-2mm diameter pieces, but these machines were several stories tall and much different than what is shown here

[@Ranc0r007]

I had previously extensively researched recycling 3d printing material around 2 years ago. It was a flunk. The machines were too expensive and you would never ROI your investment into one of them. Very happy things have changed, and thank you for this video.

[@olafmarzocchi6194]

If coupled with a Hall filament width sensor (see link in klipper documentation) you could use a feedback on the filament diameter and both avoid the tricky sensor at the bottom and also improve a lot the accuracy. In fact, a video about filament dimeter compensation during printing would be interesting.

[@danielpolders4154]

Sounds like a collab with Thomas Sanladerer is in order!

[@joshwallenberg337]

It's only $600, but also needs a vacuum chamber, professional grade shredder, drying chamber, and a few other odds and ends. I'm hopeful the more options will be available in the future.

[@zweiRGBist]

You could try the FIXstruder mini

[@bradbozz6807]

My thoughts exactly! xD

[@chazlabreck]

Design a cheaper version..

[@MarcusKeeler]

@@chazlabreck Just because the process isn't viable at any level, there's no need to be rude. My take-away from this video is that recycling ISN'T worthwhile yet and not likely to be at a DiY level

[@jonathanneill6107]

You can get a lab extruder at auction for less than that (they often go dirt cheap) and at that point only have to worry about a die winder and sensors.

[@MinecrafterPiano]

Regarding Teflon-tape temperature (6:25), some Teflon tapes are rated for 260C/500F while others are 288C/550F. So you can bump the temperature to ~280C if you use the right tape; it's basically the same price too!

[@daliasprints9798]

That's great news, because you need something like 265-280 for PET, which is the most desirable material to use with such a machine. But getting it to do well with PET probably requires tweaking the post extrusion process for rapid cooling...

[@SerialChillerBH]

@@daliasprints9798doesnt PET crystalizes and be basically ineffective when heated?

[@daliasprints9798]

@@SerialChillerBH PET only crystallizes if you're too slow cooling it. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on what you want. It has bonkers high thermal resistance if you crystallize it, but it's more rigid and therefore brittle too (still way stronger than PLA though). When filament manufacturers talk about crystallization as a bad thing, they mean it's a difficulty for them.manufacturing filament, not for you printing.

[@FryedWater]

Wrong, most teflon's advertise melting temp rather than a temp where you'll get sick due to the fumes. On any 3d printer with a PTFE hotend I always recommend 230c as the max since thats the temp fumes start to get really bad.

[@daliasprints9798]

@@FryedWater Yes, that sounded sus. Guess you just have to do without the tape.

[@xtremehelinl]

This is marvelous. I've read a lot of comments here.I think that everyone who makes the choice of making plastic products and thus in our case contributes to plastic waste by fail prints, also has the responsibility not to contribute in global waist. Doesn't matter if you are a big company or a hobbyist. We live in a throw-away society where less and less people take responsibility for their own actions. A hobby always costs money. I've printed a few architectural 3D models last year. To get 1 model right, it sometimes cost me 2 models to have the right setup. I saved all of the fail prints to recycling them one day. I couldn't imagine to just throw it into the garbage bin. This machine seems like a good and for the hobby affordable choice.

[@ziggy_shpakovsky]

taking responsibility - it's important. for shure. but we must remember that recycling process is not end in itself. we must be shure that recycling process realy help for nature more than harm nature. we must be shure that model droped into garbage is more harmfull for nature than harmfull from making manufacturing all mechanism necessary (shreder, dryer, extruder) and energy for its working. energy not came from air... for energy nature paid in other place before. will this energy waste with helpfull? I don't appeal to droping failed models into garbage. Industrial recycling makes sense. But I asking: can home recyclyng be such effectiv? can this provide the same effecitncy as industrial recyclyng? or its just for fun. for salfe-satisfaction. for self-deception. and, in the end, for greater consumerism and enrichment of those who produce and sell these machines. we need to see a techno-economic comparison. and than we will can make findings

[@elongated_musket6353]

@@ziggy_shpakovsky Very interesting take. I agree on alot of your points, but i feel that in order to make recycling 3d prints economically viable and efficient at home, more development and experimentation is required before they become something useable and i believe it is still worth pursuing. For example, you save cost and energy from sending and shipping your prints to the industrial plant to get it recycled, or overseas where companies turn your prints into new recycled filament. There are so much more smaller factors that go into the process that all add up to cost and energy expenditure and by doing it at home, you eliminate most of them. But currently, it is too expensive. Cost of printers are already a primary barrier to people who want to get into the hobby, and with 650 euros you could buy multiple printers and spools (not even including a shredder). Unless you are a diehard hobbyist, educator at a school or an engineer doing mass prototyping, you won't save any money. But with how capitalism works, and if more people are interested with recycling old prints, then companies could see an incentive to produce and sell cheaper, energy efficient, all-in-one filament recycling kits targeted towards the average person, rather than $6000 extruders for businesses.

[@ziggy_shpakovsky]

@@elongated_musket6353 in turn, I agree with much of what you said. in any case I'm not ageinst the recycling. I am just for a sober look at the issue. without empty exaltation. any serious conversation on this topic must be supported by calculations. calculations that include all the little things and circumstances that you mentioned (as well as the harmful fumes that the author mentioned in the video).

[@fjrevoredo]

mmm no, thank.

[@drewmiller9036]

I could see this as a great option for local 3D printing groups. If ten people got together to purchase one it could be really beneficial.

[@isthisagoodyoutubehandle]

To correct the hot filament falling off the roller, you can just print or purchase an inverted double cone shaped roller (like the ones where a cross section is two arrows pointing at each other) and the filament shouldn't fall off anymore. Might have to play around with the angle to make sure it doesn't bind or alter the shape of the filament. Might be best to just create one where it curves with the same radius as the filament so it can't physically deform the filament at all actually.

[@josephmoloney6925]

To be honest the best way I see this working is in groups of makers such as myself and a friend rather than me purchasing one for me alone

[@yoramlavee]

Hi Stefan! Love your channel! As far as recycle material goes, the main problem is the low volumetric weight. If pellets have 500-650 kg/m3, regrind material is 300-400 kg/m3 only. As extruder is practically a volumetric pump, you get around 30% less material pushed out by the extruder. This is why one of the reasons that on the "real world" regrind material is used up to 30-40% of the total mixture in normal machine. There are special extruder for 100% recycle but they will be normally as twin screw in order to be able to push out more volume.

[@petterr1996]

Hey Stefan, just wanted to mention: Thomas Sanladerer designed/built a filament dimension measuring device about a year ago. As far as I recall, he archieved quite a good measuring precision. This would make a nice addition for closing the loop further on filament dimension.

[@DoubsGaming]

I thought the same exsact thing, with his sensor and this. Together and a bit more cost cutting I bet it could really be a cost effective method. Also super great for the planet.

[@teji_teji_]

I was kind of loosing hope on being sustainable with 3d printing. So I'm so happy about this.

[@rcarter]

Most promising filament recycling option for consumers. Also, that blue that you got out of the first batch was so NICE looking.

[@AlbertoMartinez765]

Not really you need an entire other machine system for it to even work..still in the Only for a Company Business University level for most people.

[@rcarter]

@@AlbertoMartinez765negative Nelly, I don’t care about your opinion. Go be a grouch elsewhere. I said most promising, not “this is the one for consumer”. Kick rocks.

[@TheAechBomb]

​@@AlbertoMartinez765you just need to shred and dry the filament, which you can do with second-hand blenders and toaster ovens

[@NosyVoldemort]

"only" 600 bucks, I'm happy you started the video with this disclaimer

[@jamesanderson2381]

This looks awesome. Being open source I'm sure someone smart will figure out how to add a feedback loop. Very useful for recycling old prints but also a cost effective option for making filament from pellets which are much cheaper. Thanks for sharing this useful information!

[@Kerwin-q1x]

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

[@unfies]

This is exciting. Relatively inexpensive. Seems to work. Your past experience with prep (shred and dry) definitely makes a huge difference. For prototyping / engineering iterations - this seems to be a solid way to go.

[@MasterOfBaiter]

The key thing that makes this kind of machine amazing is that energy consumption is less of a problem than plastic waste. It may not save much money compared to just throwing it away and buying new one but it does seem like a nice sustainability function

[@eugene3d875]

Beautiful photography in this review! Outstanding quality of the resulting filament, and thank you for outlining all the steps you took to prepare!

[@CNCKitchen]

My pleasure!

[@bzqp2]

That filter forming was really something else!!! :o Amazing what creativity 3D printing enables in people.

[@Ivke-zm7uz]

Nice vid! Really good explained. One remark: You should include the needed Watt hours for the whole process. So include the shredder, drying oven, etc..

[@AdrianLopez-sb7eo]

Also include the initial purchase cost of the grinder and drying oven. You can get a dehydrator oven for something like $150, but I'm betting that grinder is pretty expensive. I'd like to be able to recycle my prototypes and failed prints because I hate plastic waste, but I'm thinking it's still too much money.

[@802Garage]

I'm sure all of your prep work really counts, but wow I'm impressed how well the machine works! Awesome results.

[@mrrooter601]

Considering that besides the feed tube, this thing is basically a 3d printer, I can see these reaching the insane low prices we are seeing in printers now. Huge step in the right direction. Its probably still too expensive for the average home user, but I could see power users or people who sell prints getting one of these. My only concern is how much other hardware you need to make this work. If you need to go spend another 400+ on a vacuum chamber and shredder, that is a lot less viable. I hope the industry can take note that people want something like this, and we eventually get an all in one solution that can make recycling at home viable. I will be saving and sorting all my waste for when that day comes.

[@lawrencenenninger1607]

I have three tubs of waste I am keeping until I find a good use for it. This, although looks like a fun project, will not be it. I can buy a LOT of filament for what the cost of all the necessary equipment would be. A LOT. Plus, i do not have that amount of funds to throw at a project. What a wonderful machine you built tho!!

[@DeltaCodex]

Stefan, if ever lagging something with fibreglass/rock wool, then give it a quick spray with water. Stops dry fibres getting everywhere, helps keep its final shape, and will dry out once heated anyway.

[@nachoiz333]

You can adapt a dial indicator before the fan and run some test with different levels of air flow. There are some models with usb, they transfer a log of measures directly to your pc. Great video !

[@lancenig]

In a few years we'll hopefully all have one if these in home... Could become a real plastic recycling solution.

[@C-M-E]

That looks a fantastic piece of kit for heavy printers and up. I could see David getting overwhelmed it purchases in the near future. On the melt tube insulation, kaowool or even a carvable section of firebrick would be a nice alternative. In place of a teflon tape, while I've never tried it, a good quality Kapton tape has a higher service temperature and should seal relatively well. I would also look into a dedicated v-shaped pulley on the gravity end section, maybe a delrin material that's naturally 'slippery' that can also act as an impromptu sizing die of sorts.

[@TheNewBloodDan]

FINALLY the ball is rolling for at home filament generation/ recycling!

[@3DPFactory1]

Thanks so much for posting this as I'm looking at making one myself. Great timing 👍

[@CNCKitchen]

Glad I could help!

[@pangrac1]

Zero waste and recycling is on top of my list about 3D printing. To se your waste turning in printed product is very satisfying. 👍

[@RoseKindred]

This was informative. I don't need it to the level of reusing for the printer, but to be able to get it back into a string format to chop up for other projects (like mold baking) is really helpful.

[@Videounikum]

it's awesome how much effort you has to put in for recycling!

[@geauxracerx]

Compared to other options this is ridiculously affordable. Small/medium print farms and maker spaces could likely benefit from it.

[@Carlos-ce2gn]

To be honest this has seemed to be the most successful filament rycle video and its amazing that its from the DIY solution

[@drakhavik]

It'd be interesting to see extruding from pellets as they can be more cost effective than normal filament. That'd be a great way to pay it off if you don't need to order pre-produced spools as often

[@troncooo409]

This and knowing how to color. This would open up a variety of other colors

[@MrAgreeandDisagree]

What's the difference per kg of filament vs pellets?

[@JW-452]

The part about this the absolutely amazes me is this is the first iteration that we are seeing. That means give it a year or two and this thing's going to be smooth. Especially with it being open source so people can mix and match and find a better ways. It'll be hilarious to see an actual full recycling system for probably about $1,000 in the next couple years. And if we get good enough open source ones then we can start getting professionally created ones. It is so cool just to watch the changes that happen 3D printing.

[@techdiyer5290]

@CNCKitchen Have you heard of the INFiDEL by Thomas Sanlander? Its an inline filament sensor, and if the designer of this actually added the sensor to this project, it would be more autonomous. It is capable of feedback, and He said that if someone wanted to, it could be used to have a variable extrusion rate during printing, based on the filament diameter. that basically means your filament tolerance doesn't need to be as good. Here is the video Title: Make your own inline filament diameter sensor (under $5)!

[@GreySectoid]

This is a very nice machine, I hope they will become as affordable as printers.

[@spedi6721]

This machine looks promising. As you mentioned it would be nice to have a feedback loop for regulation of the diameter. But I don't think that will take long from now. Would love to have such a machine, but the biggest problem is still the shredder

[@Exstaz]

Can get pellets from add north.

[@spedi6721]

@@Exstaz it's about recycling old prints, not just make new filament.

[@clockworkvanhellsing372]

An esp32 cam would make a damn good sensor.

[@spedi6721]

@@clockworkvanhellsing372 if you know how, then please contribute to the project

[@TwiggyMC]

Teaching them elements at that young of an age in that way is an amazing idea

[@yukit119]

2:38 Wait i need a 3D Printer to assemble the DIY Filament Extruder? 😆

[@KombiGnome]

I like hearing that we're inching closer to viable, consumer accessible systems. That said, this is still rather expensive as far as a kit goes when it all adds up. And the fact that you probably do need a decent shredder, drying oven, and other tools in addition to this means the total cost is still far north of 1,000 currency units.

[@hanspeter9636]

Imagine paying 650$ and not getting gummy bears.

[@CNCKitchen]

Dude, I almost cried and this is a German kit as well!

[@HTBToys]

This was a great and informative video. Not sure I'm ready to jump into this but the price point for the DIY filament maker is really good and I can see it used widely by schools with maker spaces here in the US. I have a colleague here on ASU campus that runs a Precious Plastics business on campus that will love this video. I will share it. He already has all the rest of what's truly needed to make this work.

[@Zig285]

Every one of these filament recycling videos reminds me that I don't want to recycle my own filament

[@rambokd]

Maybe add a Bowden tube down stream from the melt to ensure the diameter and reduce the need for constant measuring. I love the idea of this but maybe better for a recycling center that can accumulate a larger amount of filament and recoup expenses by selling. I like the option to create your own colors by mixing. Thanks for the time you took making the video.

[@speedracer9132]

I’ve been begging Joseph Prusa to design this, big missed opportunity for them

[@nos9510]

That's Amazing. I wanted to get back to plane models and I knew I would need a 3d printer at some point. Found the bambu lab a1 mini but I also wanted to find a way to recycle my waste. This looks great! Since the last time I owned a printer (10 years ago) I'm so happy to see that the field have improved so much!

[@eggbag4182]

You lost me at “only 600 bucks”

[@katzmikehd]

Sameeee

[@emenesu]

Yeah get out of here with that price

[@overengineer7691]

Yeah im not really going to attempt recycling unless its less than $100

[@lieutenantcoloneltanyavond8273]

Would take me two years to make it back. And you also need a shredder, I doubt that would be cheap.

[@hot_wheelz]

No, none of this is cheap and realistically only those who print enough to have this make financial sense should even consider pursuing such options. That said, and the real point of all this, as more of the big players in the 3d printing community for whom in house recycling is viable, those businesses and maker spaces may then in time open that filament recycling service upto those in their local community which would then provide an opportunity for the rest of us to recycle our filament without needing to make an investment that is simply unrealistic for most people who are in the home / hobbyist 3d printing space.

[@Damjanhd]

YES filament recycling is the right thing and it should be more afordable for everyone with schreeding machine.

[@Felicia-s4m]

There's probably enough glass in my cupboard to build an undersea aquarium.

[@Boog8302]

This is great!!! I like the direction this is going. I have been wondering about a solution for failed prints and such. Glad to see someone is creating said solution.

[@spassantechnik]

Not to be used by 99% of people. For example, who has such a good shredder at home? And who wants to invest so much time to get a few rolls of recycled filament? I think for most people it doesn't make sense and it's easier and cheaper to just buy new filament. Nevertheless, I think the idea is basically a good one.

[@Zoronii]

I was like "wait those soldering iron tip cases look familiar" and realized I've been eyeing your threaded heat set inserts for like a week now 😂

[@koalazbanzai2075]

I love seeing recycled 3d print videos but could we get another recycled plastic bottle vid, maybe with this same filament extruder? Keep up the good work! :D

[@CNCKitchen]

Extruding PET is unfortunately really tricky and messy why I so far tried to stay away from it.

[@printing3d722]

This would be awesome with an attachment to splice together partial rolls of filament into full rolls. Would also be great to make custom rolls of rainbow filament.

[@drsnova7313]

Sadly, this is still well beyond affordable for me. You can get A LOT of filament for 650 + whatever a proper shredder costs + the energy cost of the recycling process. I estimate the amount of scrap I produce in a year is around 2kgs. That would mean DIY recycling would pay off for me in around...30-35 years. I still collect them, as we do have a recycling company that gives discounts for bringing in filament bits by the kilo - but I know that recycling it myself is never going to happen. And of course - PLA is a plant-based anyway, so it's not like throwing the remains away is doing away with irreplaceable resources. Producing PLA has an energy cost of around 16 kWh/kg. While I don't know how much you ended up printing on that first spool, let's say a full spool would be 6 hours, at, say, 60 watts, which is ballpark incandescent lightbulb, which would be 0.360kWh/kg (plus whatever energy the shredder needed). So recycling is definitely energy-saving.

[@samuelfellows6923]

As you had masked yourself with a respirator while using it and said it was “inadvertently” producing non-visible fumes = it needs a extractor fan kit to vent to a external wall/window, a fan + carbon filter to be mounted next to the filament/in the stream of the cooling fan or use it in a thoroughly ventilated room - open window/door

[@joebraa]

"only 600 bucks"...

[@000Heramy000]

Only 600 bucks, a shredding machine, a drying oven...

[@Czapsonn]

​@@000Heramy000 imagine its almost 1month minimal wage in poland xD

[@birdcrossing]

@@000Heramy000thats what lost me

[@chrrybm8]

40 rolls of filament at $15/roll

[@RutPL]

​@@chrrybm8plus cost of that big shredding machine

[@OfficialViper]

The recycled filament looks gorgeous in my opinion

[@laserbuddha]

Would you get a better result if you grind it to even smaller particles by using e.g. a coffee grinder?

[@CNCKitchen]

There is an optimal size and too small isn't necessarily better. You rather pelletize a first crude filament and then extrude these pellets again.

[@CanOfPotatoWater]

when 600 bucks is more expensive than your printer 💀

[@elHippieSupremo]

This together with precious plastic's open source recycling hardware and the dream of the reprap project will finally be realized!

[@elHippieSupremo]

Precious plastic has a great open source shredder

[@Freddy...Krueger]

So, once you factor in _ALL_ of the components used, all the 'spare' printer parts, the oven, the vacuum chamber, the shredder, et cetera, what approximate price, fully inclusive, would one be looking at? 🤔

[@mrrooter601]

Yeah... Id love to see this exact same process done for a little as possible. No vacuum chamber, cheapest shredder. Just a food dehydrator, as most people who 3d print should have one.

[@t_c5266]

Biggest cost looks like that shredder. I wouldn't guess under a few thousand

[@kakwa]

Some variant of "too much". Plus the process still looks really finicky. It's interesting, and possibly a fun project if you like 3d printing for itself. But as an individual user, if you simply see 3d printing as a tool, it's probably not worth the effort and money to be honest. In more collective settings (farm, fablabs, etc), it might be more relevant however.

[@jetblackstar]

This is amazing and finally within a much more reasonable budget. Id love to see this using petg from household recycling? That's been my dream for a few years to make things from all the disposable plastic waste we get everyday. Thank you for persisting with this project.🎉

[@86abaile]

A good idea for maker spaces, but probably not worth it for home gamers.

[@MACDcreations]

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to set the Artme3D up, was wondering how it works. Will look into it as a future side hustle project. Tschüss

[@Todestelzer]

600€. 20€ for 1kg = I can buy 30 Spools. Maybe this is interesting for people running a print farm professionally but I don’t think it’s reasonable for hobby users. Oh and you need a good shredder. Another 1000€?

[@patrickyork2975]

This is very promising for the recycling side of the hobbyist. I personally do not do enough printing to generate enough waste yet, but I constantly keep my eye on this side.

[@xksander]

It`s good, but 600 euros? Just imagine how much plastic you can buy with this money!

[@Havoc7991s]

This is really cool. I used to work at a company that extruded plastic film. We had a machine that would take rolls of film, chop it up, and feed the choppings into an extruder that would then filter through a magnet screen, then run through a pack (a filter cartridge with 30×15×5 micron screens), then through a plate with holes (that looked like it was for spaghetti) and chopped off with a spinning blade to make pallets so we could run that through our machines again. We could recoup up to 10% recycled into good plastic without having too much carbon buildup in the hated barrel. Make sure to write down your SOCs for the different plastic types you have. Typically, we had the adjust temp, or screw speed to get desired results, but it's nice to have a starting reference. I could see preheating the plastic chips too around ±90 C would help with lengthing the extruder life before you have to clean barrel and screw. When cleaning them, use heat and a citrus type cleaner with copper choreboys to scrap the melted plastic and carbon off both surfaces and use a rated silicone to treat the surfaces of the barrel and screw.

[@fletcherluders415]

Great to see the progress of DIY filament recyclers. If the version 3 of this model has a thickness sessor, that would certainly go a long way into ease of dialing in the feed rates.

[@TheLukemcdaniel]

wait ... the power supply is left out for "legal reasons" ? wtf kinda legal reasons would stop THAT?

[@AARONLT25]

Reselling one if they don't make their own power supply

[@TheLukemcdaniel]

@@AARONLT25 Did you have a stroke? That doesn't make sense...

[@AARONLT25]

@@TheLukemcdaniel most products can't be resold because of trademarks unless sold directly from the company that made the part

[@TheLukemcdaniel]

@@AARONLT25 In the us, there's this thing called the right to first sale. You can control how you sell it to someone, but once it's sold to them, they are free to sell it to whoever they want. You still have to respect trademarks and such. You can't pass it off as though you made it(w/o permission), but the idea that something can never be resold is batshit fucking crazy.

[@AARONLT25]

@@TheLukemcdaniel you can't resell stuff even if the person writes it to you because it violates copyright rules

[@ncasey9853]

That's pretty cool. I'm just starting to get into 3d printing. One of the things holding me back over the years is the nagging feeling of guilt from the sheer quantity of waste, both from failed prints, and the fact that most things printed are just trinkets that accumulate. Even if this operated just at breakeven, or even a slight loss, it would go a long way.

[@vicgraves1313]

I'm sorry, I want to like this so much. but, I can't. You say "Inexpensive" SEVERAL times. And in the same breath say $600 (Plus the cost of a good shredder which is at least another few hundred minimum)... Expensive vs inexpensive is relative. Least expensive, Cheapest, Less expensive. Maybe, but not inexpensive. It took me quite a while to save up for a $200 printer, a few cheap mods, and some filament. I'll never afford this on what my government disability pays me a month. I got very hopeful over the word inexpensive... And you all can hate on me all you want for saying this and say what you like, but I won't bite that hook - in fact, I'll ignore it completely. Just stating my mind.

[@RDUBTutorial]

Great video and description. I’m Only a few months into 3d printing but already thinking about how to recycle fails and scrap. I wish there was a local place I could take my scrap and get 50/50 per gram credit for handing it over to be turned into filament. Then I could pay the difference for recycled filament.

[@vell0cet517]

Awesome video. I hope you keep using this thing and post an update in 6-12 months to see if it's still working well for you.

[@ChrisOsberg]

Definitely cool. I hope it gets even more affordable in the future.

[@gunsmoke132]

I'm not a super green, eco nerd but I HATE throwing away big failed prints. This is definitely something on my radar.

[@ghostshadow1]

That blue turned out amazing! Love the color mix you got out of it!

[@nicholasbering8789]

I've been saving all my failed prints and scrap filament since I first started 3D-printing for hobby projects, 4 years ago now. I still don't have enough waste saved-up to break even on a setup like this, but this is exactly why I've been saving them! I'd rather have a pile of waste in my basement waiting to process when the hardware is available cheaply enough to do it, than have it all go to landfill. This is VERY promising for the future of recycling 3D-printer waste. I'd be willing to invest in this machine, even at a personal loss, if there were a similarly reasonably-priced shredder to pair with it.

[@MrPDawes]

Love this machine. Have been thinking about making my own to make filament from other waste plastic.

[@BenGoldNYC]

I don’t even own a 3D printer yet, but that kit looked super satisfying to put together

[@printmeister]

This is awesome, I’ve been looking for something just like this!

[@wyzedfz1495]

14:30 "The winding wasn't perfect". My lord. I have purchased filament from manufacturers with similar looking. As you said, for a 3D printed DIY solution this is more than enough.

[@SpottedHares]

Theirs something called a wire roller. Two wheels that have a half circle grove cut into it that creates a die of the desired diameter when these two rollers are placed 3 each other. If you can find cheap ones then you can have the slightly larger filament go through the desired roller to make sure it is pressed down to the correct diameter while also acting as a bit of cooling if the rollers absorb enough heat. It would remove the need of the loop and hook to ensure correct diameter.

[@The-Anathema]

Well, once I can justify a $600-700 expense to myself I'll finally find a use for that giant cardboard box of failed prints, printer poop, supports, obsolete prototypes etc. Very good. I actually dig the idea of 'random' PLA where I dump different colours of PLA in as it goes to create a multicolour spool, though I suppose it'll be mostly white and black since those are my most common print colours.

[@bbdj2779]

Excellent review. I’m really excited to see something that actually works come in at this price. Hopefully printer manufacturers are paying attention and will release commercial versions of this to get the price down to that of the cheaper printers. Would be wonderful to have the loop closed and the waste produced by this hobby diverted from landfill.

[@hotshot7000]

amazing Stefan!! Please continue with these kinds of projects! Ain't no way in heck we should just be discarding our prints when they can still be continually reused. And do please keep us posted on updates on this machine and further updated versions of it as the creators release them! Unfortunately that is a fair bit of money, one that I'd be cautious about immediately investing into such a machine, even with the results you've impressively shown, but I believe it's a step in the right direction! -Travtron 3D Printing.