How to Extrude 3D Printer Filament (Basics of Screw Extrusion)

Making 3D printer filament from cheap pellets 🧵
More info: www.DrDFlo.com/Extrusion.html
D-Flo’s Amazon Store: www.amazon.com/shop/dr.d-flo
📷 Follow Dr. D-Flo on the Gram: / dr.dflo
Equipment:
EX6 Extruder: www.filabot.com/products/fila...
Spooler: www.filabot.com/products/fila...
Airpath: www.filabot.com/products/fila...
Filameasure: www.filabot.com/products/fila...
Description:
How to make 3D printer filament. This video dives into the fundamentals and technology behind plastic extrusion for 3D printer filament. The workhorse behind this process is the screw extruder, which feeds small plastic pellets into a barrel, where a screw conveys and melts the material. A tight fit between the barrel and screw allows for pressure to build as the plastic melts. This pressure provides the driving force to push the molten resin out of the die (or nozzle) that has a 1.75 mm opening. Of course, this 1.75 mm is the desired filament diameter for most 3D printers, and the melted plastic has no choice but to conform to this profile. The process does not end here as the newly formed filament has to be cooled, measured, and spooled, with each subsequent step requiring its own instrument to carry out.
Each plastic behaves differently during the extrusion process, which provides the opportunity to discuss the molecular structure of polymers (semi-crystalline and amorphous materials). This discussion is not only important in creating the filament but also when printing it. Learn how percent crystallinity affects the tendency of material to warp and their opacity. This video features the extrusion of many different materials, including PLA, ABS, PETG, and HIPS. Also, composite materials, such as carbon fibered reinforced ABS, are also extruded as filament.
Please note: The equipment seen in this video was provided by Filabot, but Dr. D-Flo was not compensated for this video. Dr. D-Flo thoroughly tested all equipment for 1 year prior to making this video.
#Filament #Extrusion #3DPrinting
Table of Contents:
00:00 - Introduction
01:17 - Extruding PLA Filament
09:58 - Die/Nozzle
11:45 - Screw Design
16:47 - Inside the Extruder
18:15 - Barrel Heaters
21:04 - Economics of Filament Extrusion
25:04 - Thermoplastics Structure
27:04 - Purging and Cleaning
27:58 - Extruding ABS Filament
28:58 - Extruding Carbon Fiber ABS Filament
30:02 - Extruding PETG Filament
33:20 - Extruding HIPS Filament

[@DrDFlo]

Sorry for the absence, but excited to walk you through how I make hundreds of spools of filament for my makerspace at work! My favorite part of the video (25:04) is on how the structure of the plastic (i.e., amount of crystallinity) affects the extrusion settings and ultimately, the printability of the material. Let me know if you would like to watch more content on processing and 3D printing specialty plastics. Of course, the recycling video will be out soon, so subscribe for that!

[@darkozver5801]

Great video. Will you do a follow up of the giant 3d printer? It would be cool to see what you are producing with it

[@DrDFlo]

@@darkozver5801 Yes! Upcoming videos: Recycling failed prints, LFDP Part 6, and then boat

[@connorfry7638]

22:18 I’m curious as to where you bought the Colorant? I plan on finding or potentially creating a business that utilizes this feature of recycling waste into usable plastic within the US. Buying the plastic material is easy, but I can’t find where the master batch of colorant anywhere. Love that a good review of this consumer friendly filament making machine being turned into a potential market for recycling waste plastic

[@DrDFlo]

@@connorfry7638 www.mcmaster.com/products/colorant-masterbatch/

[@urbancrafttechnologies9204]

maaaan . . .to much information for free . . . This is going to help soo much people . . . I made my machine with wood drill and everything you say in this vid hits home like nothing else .. .

[@MilesProwerTailsFox]

I have 2 degrees now because I pay for the info just to give it for free on the internet

[@qwertyboguss]

...

[@Fredblez]

Im wondering how was your result with a wood drill?

[@dazultra2000]

I absolutely love every video you put out. Detailed but not boring. Informative but light. You can see how much you love this stuff and its honestly inspiring. Your students are lucky people

[@NathanBuildsRobots]

This is a great video for people interested in pellet extrusion. I have always wondered how things worked in a proper machine,I ran one of those cheap kits, like you showed, using an auger bit and going painfully slow with less than perfect results. Thank you for going into detail on the auger geometry, thermal management, plastic types and properties, really a great piece of content.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Read my suggestion nate. I agree d has great content.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Those noctua fans must be tickling your tickle spot wha haha

[@BradleyDWoods-pz8rv]

Hi, I own a filament manufacturing company. I LOVED this video. Super helpful, you covered materials I haven't worked with yet, but you've got me thinking... I started making filament in 2014, the biggest problem was finding information. I did it through trial and error. Thank you for supporting the technology by sharing your knowledge!

[@DrDFlo]

Appreciate man! I am glad that you enjoyed the info. If you don’t mind me asking, what brand of filament do you make?

[@BradleyDWoods-pz8rv]

@@DrDFlo The Virtual Foundry. Everything we make is a composite of some sort. Most of them are meant to be sintered into a pure metal, glass or ceramic.

[@DrDFlo]

Woah that is an exotic collection of filament that you sell! I have not made my way into 3D printing ceramic and metallic filaments yet. Are there any materials that you would recommend for a beginner? Perhaps one for a structural application and another for decoration? @@BradleyDWoods-pz8rv

[@Dizel960]

Здраствуйте. Я из России. Я так же занялся 3d печатью. Очень интересные вы делаете вещи. Извините, что влез в ваши переговоры, но мне кажется что вам делать общий проект. Очень понравилась ваша установка по производству филаментов. Могу ли я приобрести ваш замечательный, станок?

[@overknight5226]

Next up from Dr. D flow- How to create an upload schedule that keeps your fan base from thinking you died Jokes aside, glad to see a video from you man! I’m always captivated with the quality. Keep up the great work!

[@Nevir202]

No kidding, I saw the notification for this and was like, "WHO!?... Oh right the guy with the HUGE printer."

[@overknight5226]

@@Nevir202 No joke, my brother and I watch him and when I got the notification I said “hey the big printer guy uploaded” 😂

[@SamErbs]

he is only able to make videos during summer break from his job at a uni afaik

[@Graham_Wideman]

This is a masterful and highly instructive contribution to the 3D community's understanding of filaments and their manufacture and properties! It covers a lot of territory and answers a lot of questions along the way. Well done!

[@MasterThief117]

For the price, there sure are a lot of manual controls and such. You'd imagine they'd be able to integrate various pressure and flow sensors, and use that data along with the measured diameter of the filament to automatically control all aspects of the process.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

I agree. My wife just bought a bronco and I left a few grocery bags in the backseat and the truck reminded me when I turned it off. It wasn't a maybe you should check, it was a there is something there. As someone who plays with sensors of all grades for various projects I agree with you.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Edit. I use the bronco story as an example for sensor tech. The 2 bags were small and weighed much less than 5kg. Being they probably bought the cheapest sensor they could reinforces that you're right.

[@ALittleSlowest]

Not only could digitization enable automation, it would probably bring the cost down.

[@murraymadness4674]

@@jstro-hobbytech This is probably designed to keep you from leaving an infant in the back... what a nanny car though, I disable the dinging bell telling the door is open.

[@heckyes]

Only problem with this channel is that the videos don't come out fast enough. Incredible!

[@AllAbout3D]

Seeing an upload from you always makes my day. I've shared several of your videos with people from my university, they are a great way to show people how cool 3d printing can be.

[@NoktiousGames]

Excellent deep dive. Thanks for the effort you put into this.

[@ALittleSlowest]

Extremely informative. Thanks for the deep and thorough dive!

[@fernandoandaluz2281]

Thanks for the whole introduction, legit bro. Keep it up 👍🏼

[@ryansmolchek9464]

I doubt you'll see this - but the funniest coincidence happened today! I've been a fan of your channel for a while, and just recently suggested your 3D printer build video to a friend when we were kicking around the idea of building a liquid handler for our cell culture lab. Today I stumbled across the OTTO open source robot and sent it to my friend. I sent it, then halfway through you popped up in the video and I did the Leo pointing meme! I had no idea you were active in that space - so cool to see you working in our field! You're the GOAT!

[@lupusk9productions]

your content is so good! always great explanations and breakdowns of what you're doing. Could they make a hopper smarter by having two of them, one for metering the colorant into the other at a consistent rate for better color consistency? you could probably come up with something like that.

[@ffoska]

Yep. This needs more automation, they already have the pc the digital dial gauge, just needs some software and a microcontroller, and maybe a better mechanism for nicer spooling. Would this machine detect a filament break if it breaks before the indicator? I'm guessing not. Filament breaking could be a fire risk. I'm not sure if the price is right for this one

[@PCBWay]

Thanks for the video! Always inspirational.👍

[@6th_spectre]

i’ve learned so much from this channel it’s unreal

[@rexxx927]

Great job and actuate terminology I have been running extruders for over 20 years and can say your the first that I know of in the FDM field that gets it, it's not a glue gun and this is only the start but a very good one at that there are many different styles of screws besides just the Let Down ratio and compression like high output and mixer screws for achieving different materials and ways and my ever famous saying what goes in comes out true story lol Cheers! there are also backpressure gauges like dynisco and melt indicators that help you lock down the ideal heating and cooling of the barrel zones and get the best back pressure for consistency keep up the great work!

[@fellahst]

Excellent video!

[@gaveintothedarkness]

this is an amazing video!

[@arvilblank4842]

Thank you for this video.

[@moth.monster]

The only nice part about HDPE's tendency to shrink is that it makes it easy to remove from things. In fact, you'll struggle to attach it to anything via glue; your only options are mechanical fastening and melting parts together. Brothers Make shows off some great methods for working with it on a hobby scale.

[@rolanddube2169]

Excellent video explaining the equipment. I really liked the business break down that you did explaining the costs and ROI.

[@PyroGam3s]

yes simple and effective way to explain it :)

[@kristiandelchev4034]

Great video! Thanks

[@patoroboto]

Great Job on this video! I learned a lot.

[@beauregardslim1914]

I absolutely share your enthusiasm for trans PETG.

[@btechnet]

I used to work for filabot. I wrote the data logging software "filalogger" for them. Many of you have questions about closed loop operation. This was indeed on the table when I developed the system. Sadly though, it is not anymore.

[@brodieobrien-pickering2202]

Good video, good information

[@carlhitchon1009]

Very nicely presented.

[@just_A_doctor]

Yeaaaaaaaah the Dr comeback 😅❤❤❤❤

[@doodle4532]

Amazing work

[@Mytagforhalo]

Awesome video as always! I wish the ROI made a bit more sense on this equipment. We actually go though a significant ammount of material at work. On a positive note, the small batch nature of our demands makes a machine like this perfect. But when you factor in a small ammount of labor and the upfront capital investment requirement, it makes it difficult to suggest over using our own material stock. Which is one point in this calculation that may not have been considered. If you're a company, maker space, or even really avid home user, it's not terribly difficult to get much better rates on quality materials as long as you meet order requirements. We get up to a 40% discount from one of our suppliers. Which only further lengthens the ROI of a system like this.

[@idiyerbill1968]

Triple thumbs up for this video

[@iopfarmer]

Great vid! a lot going on. thanks.

[@DaddyVet3D]

Im waiting for the large format printer videos! I was talking about you with someone today and realized it had been forever since you updated that project

[@officialteamroc]

this is amazing!!!!

[@idrissolmaz2608]

Thank you this video

[@BennyTygohome]

Extremely interesting

[@KooTheGreat]

I have always wanted a filabot. For sure more for a commercial use case. Not for at home

[@EnergySeeker]

is it more economic if we print from palet direct like you do in the big printer ?

[@talegunner4414]

I used to work for Crane plastics. We extruded Vinyl siding. We had to dip the siding in a water bath to cool and set the size. We also would run a roller to imprint a wood grain into the vinyl siding. We had a line go down we had to stand there and cut the siding with a hack saw into 12 to 14 inches. This would be returned to be ground back up. This is just a much smaller version of the extruder I ran.

[@_Xantras_]

Awesome video, and I love how you go into the material science we hear rarely from. Also, after working into all this, would you say commercial filament is overpriced ?

[@arnobashtar6707]

Dude you have a full lab and a 15,000 $ apparatus and you still don't think your filament is perfect enough to sell? I don't understand this but you clearly know a lot more than I do or a lot of people for that matter. Neat video, very well presented.

[@3D_Printing]

I believe some wire drawing is passed through a cold die, basically a hole the "correct" diameter that is needed. Tiny bit smaller to allow for expansion after that cold die

[@DiomedesDominguez]

Great video!!! I understand that is out of the scope of this video, but how silk filaments are made?

[@MrAts1984]

What was the composition used for Carbon fibre and ABS blend ?

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Hey d. When you start the spool put the filament in the hole at the outer part of the empty spool and when it runs out it the filament won't stick in the capture hole and and it'll trigger the run out sensor on a printer. This will help if there's a long print running. I can't take credit for this. The fella at slant3d mentioned this fact.

[@lezyne1234]

Have you seen Smarter Every Day's video of the Kodak factory? In Ep.1 they have a giant 20m screw they use for their film backs.

[@PuppyPalsNZ]

what would you reccommend if i wanted to start a filament selling business

[@HorstGBurkhardt]

I've just gotten into 3d-printing, but so far have had good luck with PLA+. The problem of course is that I don't know what additives make the "plus" in PLA+, nor do I believe that PLA+ is a standardised material. I assume each vendor would have their own additives, and their own "secret sauce" to make their filament perform well. I've hypothesised that blending recycled shredded PLA+ with, say, 35% virgin PLA by mass, would produce a material that I'm jokingly calling PLA# ... but without knowing the exact additives in the PLA+ there's no way to model how that material might behave, or the ideal ratio with virgin PLA that would produce a stable material.

[@filanfyretracker]

I never expected that the screw itself played a part in heating, But I it makes sense because if you bend a plastic part quickly and repeatedly like say the pocket leg or whatever its called on a pen cap it heats up.

[@loganluckless372]

Would a machine like this be capable of doing those side by side quantum PLA spools?

[@CraftedChannel]

Questions. Why is there no foaming ABS? PLA can't be left in the sun for 3d printed aircraft or rockets. Is it possible to make a foaming ABS? Also, how are foam filaments manufactured where they can be extruded the first time (under mfg) without foaming, yet foam for the end user when they print the material? LOVED THE EPISODE. I am also a full-time maker at a university.

[@MrWaalkman]

The Berstorff extruder at Goodyear in Lincoln, Neb. was 12 inches in diameter extruder. It used a 1000hp DC motor which was geared low to break "cold" jams, and was run under field weakening once things settled down to speed things up. The mouth of the extruder (where it met the calender rolls) was about two inches deep, and 84 inches wide. No clue as to what electricity cost per hour to run it. Since I am local, can I buy filament from you to help you out?

[@henrychan720]

Why would they go through all the trouble of making a software and using a digital dial indicator just to run the drive wheels in open loop?

[@MisterkeTube]

Great video and clearly great hardware, but ... I can't shake the question: why so much manual and analog gauges and knobs rather than having everything measured digitally and controlled as a whole by one or more microcontrollers? Seems to me that automating could seriously simplify the process and by dropping those analog controls and feedback gauges, I'm wondering whether it wouldn't even save BOM cost ...

[@ErtsenPlayGames]

Dr. D-Flo talking about THE FLOW ... 😂

[@SeanDWalker4]

Do you think a closed-loop controller could be added to this system to actively control the diameter instead of having to babysit it every once in a while to keep it in spec?

[@DrDFlo]

The issue is that the lag between the drive wheel adjustment and the change in filament diameter will depend on the volumetric output of the extruder (depends on the material) and the distance between the spooler and extruder die. You could set the automatic adjustment to wait for a long time before making a change in drive wheel speed in response to a change in filament diameter, but that would waste material/time. Also, it only takes me a couple minutes to set the drive wheel speeds and it remains constant for the whole spooling session (~ 8 hrs). In the beginning of the video, I was trying to show everyone what it was actually like to set up the extruder, but by filming and commentating I missed that I needed to adjust the drive speed a little more to prevent that one spike. This kick started quite a few comments about an automatic drive speed adjuster.

[@Matt3DMaker]

Better off with a Noztek system for closed-loop extrusion. We have both systems and the EX6 is my go-to for non-experimental filaments. The Noz-tek takes the guess work out of the variables, and it's around the same price!

[@DrDFlo]

​@@Matt3DMaker This is my first time hearing of Noztek. I looked at their product lines and while there are lot of similarities between Filabot and Noztek there is some innovation on the mixing side with the fusionX. Also, good to know that similarly priced instruments perform comparably +/- some features.

[@Matt3DMaker]

@@DrDFlo I think the main improvement is the Noztek (excaliber) uses a Servo vs the DC motor on the EX6. You can set the specific RPM and it will maintain it whereas I find the EX6 has an oscillation in diameter I just can't get rid of. It won't take the filament out of spec - and I make recycled PLA +/- 0.03mm on the EX6! - but it definitely shows up as z-banding type extrusion artifacts on prints. I think the ideal solution is to integrate a PID loop with measured filament diameter at the extruder inlet, and output an extrusion ratio change. That way any filament would work perfectly!

[@mahendradhungel8011]

Would you mind extruding some recycled stuff like rpet?

[@daliasprints9798]

I'd love to hear if you've tried extruding PET (not PETG) filament. There's very little information out there about it, and companies that have tried doing it commercially have encountered difficulties.

[@btechnet]

As would I

[@aidanrust1870]

Where do you source CF masterbatch?

[@platin2148]

Hmm how is it possible todo transparent colored stuff? Is there a additive for transparency? Mostly Blue Petg Translucent.

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

you use a transparent base resin, and add your master batch colour pellets to that. Depending on the ratio of base resin to colour pellets, the colour's intensity will change too.

[@CarterSchonwald]

I like how the fans in the ex6 unit are noctua. Seems like a strange manufacturing choice, but they definitely are relatively quiet good quality fans.

[@quantumenergysolutions9128]

Hi , Do you offer master batching equipment,? As I would like to correctly mix my high quality FLG Graphene. What do you suggest? Cheers! Or would you like to test my Graphene powder for testing?

[@cheetahkid]

long time no see. How is your main printer going? Love to see the making filament in details, top man. About the HIPS are they expensive?

[@tblosser8921]

Is there a quality extruder that is cost effective for diy use? The spooler and cooler are fairly simple and can be had for a reasonable price elsewhere, but the cheaper extruders just don't quite get the job done from what i've seen.

[@DrDFlo]

Unfortunately, not that I have seen. I am trying to build a conical barrel extruder for processing flake (common form of recycled material), and I am getting wild quotes for barrels. Seems like only specialized machine shops are able to bore and properly harden barrels.

[@murraymadness4674]

@@DrDFlo Would it not be possible to simply extrude the plastic through smaller and smaller holes until it gets to 1.75ish. This is how they extrude metal rods.

[@genericcheesewedge4870]

So they have a digital diameter gauge that can measure diameter in real time, but they didn’t think of adding a closed control loop with the puller speed?

[@DaddyVet3D]

What’s your opinion on that filament extruder as far as cost and lifetime of the machine? The guy at slant3d did a video about this machine a while ago and based on his math it wasn’t worth it.

[@GnuMovies]

When you said you could not color carbon fiber? then i wondered how bambulab did it? they have made pla cf red, green, blue, grey and of course black?

[@thijsvannoordt9789]

i would be cool if it had a sticker printer connected dat automatically print the tolerances and specs of the spool which you can stick on it

[@ziyayldz331]

Did I see Formlabs Fuse 1? I would like to see it on your chanel.

[@DoublePenetration0]

Would it better if the extruder is set vertically so the gravity could assist with tensioning. I know I've seen something similar, ( i think it was spaghetti manufacturing), where as silly as it sounds, the diameter consistency and tolerance was really important.

[@johnkelly7264]

WOW... so useful, and seems to work really well. However, over 15K USD just for a standard extruder is beyond my means - Grrrr I wish I could afford this system... would be a game changer for me.

[@Xamy-]

Likely dunning Kruger here but won’t metal be too abrasive over time and increase that 100 micron gap?

[@DrDFlo]

Yes the gap increases. You hope that the screw is the one to decrease in diameter as this is a replaceable component. Usually the barrel is engineered to be harder.

[@diychen]

The price of the extruder is 20000USD, how much filament do you need to make to recover the cost?

[@paulnewman2000]

The short answer is 1.5 - 2 tonnes. Look at 21:22 he explains the economics of it in that section.

[@daylen577]

The sad thing is that anything that is even remotely accurate or efficient is so expensive that you just never make that investment back as a consumer. A DIY machine will lead to very low quality filament (good enough for a test print or something decorative that you plan on post-processing, but not structural stuff) and the machines you can buy outweigh the cost of all the failed prints of a lifetime. That is even ignoring the fact that you can't just keep re-melting plastic over and over without adding new pellets. I hope this changes some day, because I have about 4KG of failed prints sitting in a bag that I literally can't do nothing with but refuse to throw away. Would love to just turn it into a poopy brown filament that I can use for prototyping stuff.

[@memamu0]

About the thing with the screw: Destin from Smarter every day has shown something similar where kodak is melting plastic to extrude their film base material. Link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/foKuqmSBf9WGjMU

[@dazultra2000]

Destin's Kodak video instantly came to mind when I saw the screw. Then I saw the taper and realised it's basically the exact same process

[@netac7667]

Won't it be pretty simple to have a motor instead of the manual knob and then you choose 1.75 and then it's an IF >1.75 speed up, IF

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

No, unfortunately you can't. That's because the measurement is at the end of the line. Changing the speed would not change the extrusion thickness at the point of measurement, but 1-2 meters up ahead of the road.

[@ffoska]

@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse PID can handle that, hell a P reg can handle that if it makes slow enough changes. Absoulutely can be done and should be done, then just flash some LED for the operator that the diameter is correct and it's ready for spooling

[@netac7667]

@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse I figured it would wIt a few seconds between each change, same as you need to do manually

[@GiovanniGiorgo]

For $20k+, that thing better give you a reach around and an ice cold beer every time you use it.

[@tazanteflight8670]

Im sure Dr D-Flo knows this, but it needs to be said... @7:48 you can see the layer lines so dramatically, because the tolerance of the filament is too great. The printer assumes perfect 1.75mm diameter filament. If that varies, so does the quality of the print. Although the industry standard is +-0.05, you wont see a quality print unless the diameter tolerance is +-0.02mm.

[@DaddyVet3D]

I still wanna see someone extrude filament into a printer then print a 3d printer all at the same time.

[@oliverer3]

Finally something to use that 400V 3-phase outlet for, that I for some unkown reason have in my apartment. Like who needs 19kW in a smallish apartment? Edit: Awwh it's not even that power hungry

[@daliasprints9798]

$6/kg of pellet is expensive, but I guess that's PLA. 🤷 I'm looking into solutions for getting PET filament, and rPET pellets are well under $1/kg. I don't recall the price for virgin but it was nowhere near $6.

[@btechnet]

Depends on where you shop

[@JeffsTravels]

Excellent video with concise explanations. Please watch slant3ds review of this same machine which he wore out in a few months and wasted 12 grand. What works for school and makerspace environments does not work for production environments (in his opinion).

[@JeffsTravels]

ok, I saw you basically covered that in your economics chapter

[@terencem9962]

7:01

[@derekfarealz]

why not accurately and evenly heat plastic to its melting point and extrude it from a large molten volume instead of dealing with all the complexities an auger brings?

[@DrDFlo]

Plastic has a low thermal conductivity, so it is very difficult to melt large volumes of it in a timely manner. Also the plastic degrades when kept at high temperatures for long durations. The Archimedean screw more uniformly mixes and heats the plastic.

[@IncendiaryMedia]

So uh, could I pay you to spin some esoteric thread? For some reason there's no post-extrusion options on the market for cellulose acetate - only pellets!

[@DrDFlo]

I could help you, but for a more professional arrangement I believe that filabot has a service where they can extrude your material. If you still want to go with me, then shoot me an email at [e-mail]

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

Heyo! at 30:02 you mention that PETG is commonly used for food containers and drinking bottles. This is not correct, actually! The PET used in food containers and bottles is PET, no G. PETG is PET where the glycol group of PET has been replaced with something else. Modifying the glycol group to be something else than glycol makes it more suitable for 3D printing, as it behaves more amorphously. That also means PETG isn't made from recycled drinking water bottles -- at least not directly. It's possible to do this, and done on an industrial scale. But it involves hydrolyzing the PET into its original chemical components to then use as a base material for a new polymer.

[@daliasprints9798]

PETG is much less suitable, not more, for FDM printing in all ways except being extrudable at stock Ender 3 temperatures. The reason that gunk is sold is that it's easier to manufacture as filament and easier to sell to consumers with ultra low end printers, not that it's better than PET.

[@bylolo4964]

❤🇨🇵😘

[@Queracus]

its wierd the designers decided for horizontal design istead of vertical. Filament and the screw would gretely benefit that. also the end customer, because it wouldnt take so much space

[@333donutboy]

Interesting topic and tech but definitely not geared to the typical home user. $20, 000 for the setup is a bit steep for most of us. Hopefully at some point the filament recycling process will be more economically feasible for everyone.

[@charliemancuso5690]

Where's the life size Benchy?

[@landroveraddict2457]

PVA is Polyvinyl acetate not alcohol.

[@DrDFlo]

It’s both, but I could have been clearer. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_alcohol

[@jec90]

so who is this 10k+ machine setup made for bc the average consumer isn't going to spend money like that yet its presented as such? is it meant for industrial purposing?

[@NicksStuff]

I understand why this would be $15,000 in 1950 but with modern electronics and manufacturing techniques, the price is quite surprising

[@BloodyMobile]

2:05 "the smaller extruders can not make this process worth your time" - I disagree with that statement because it depends on the intention for DIY extrusion. If you're someone who does a LOT of printing, then 8h / 1kg spool might be "too slow" to be "worth the time", but I'd argue that most people that use 3D printing are NOT using up 1kg / day. As an example, my primary intention with DIY extrusion would be to prevent failed prints from ending up in a landfill. If the quality is top, then 8h / 1kg spool would be absolutely perfect for me and totally worth the time. But I'm obviously not a high volume printer to begin with. What I find odd though is that the spooling end part has a digital read-out of the filament diameter, but no feedback system that utilizes that data. Meaning the lack of automated spooling speed based on diameter accuracy. But otherwise a very informative video, especially the point on economics and expectations of return from that.

[@DrDFlo]

The other issues with the small extruders: 1) Increased residence time of the plastic in the barrel, resulting in thermal degradation of the extrudate. 2) Insufficient or nonexistent compression region causing poor pressure generation and inconsistent output. 3) Poor mixing by the short screw, making it difficult to mix in colorant or other additives). So unfortunately, even if you have more time for the extrusion process, the filament produced by very small, low-cost extruders will be inferior to those produced on a larger machine. Screw extrusion is one example where a machine that is 2x larger is not just 2x better but exponentially.

[@swiezakchemik]

OWALITY is the keyword here :)

[@murraymadness4674]

$20 for pla, its $15 or even $10, so the ROI factor is doubled, 3000 spools, who can go through 3000 spools of filament, and then isn't it going to be better to do injection molding? I looked into contracting out production of some 3d parts I am using for a small production product (like 100 units), and the quotes given from 3d print services were insane, I don't see how any of these businesses (who are the people that would buy these machines) can stay in business, who pays $20 to have a $2 part 3d printed?

[@VTeslaV]

Nice video, I thought there would be more information about carbon fiber fillament since that is presented almost like a title in the thumbnail. (I barely read titles myslef, 80% looking at thumbnails and 20% title) Filament extrusion machine is not recognizable as one. Maybe have a shot of the extruder nozzle making a spool of fillament so it's immediately clear what the video is about. Another litle side note, maybe call the video something like "Making 3D printer fillament" or something since it could be interpreted as being a video about extruding existing fillament from a 3D printer nozzle. The video is really good but I can imagine it maybe not reaching the proper audience with the current title and thumbnail

[@SystemsPlanet]

This process is ripe for disruption. Next year someone sma😢rt will event an inexpensive PLA respooler.