Recycling 3D Prints and Waste Plastic into Filament (PET & PLA)

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Күн бұрын

Transform your unwanted 3D prints and household plastics into eco-friendly 3D printer filament! 🌱
More Extrusion Info: www.DrDFlo.com/Extrusion.html
Filabot Recycling Lineup: www.filabot.com/products/recy...
Shredii: actionbox.ca/products/shredii-5
D-Flo's Amazon Store: www.amazon.com/shop/dr.d-flo
📷 Follow Dr. D-Flo on the Gram: / dr.dflo
Description: Welcome to Part 2 of Dr. D-Flo’s plastic extrusion series. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 ( • How to Extrude 3D Prin... ), where a variety of NEW materials are extruded into 3D printer filament. In this video, we will recycle unwanted 3D prints and plastic items found around the house into filament.
The first step in this process is to grind up old parts and empty containers with a shredder/granulator. You'll discover that ground-up plastic isn't the same as new pellets; it's lighter and requires some extra processing before it can be melting and drawn out as a constant diameter fiber. These extra steps include a 3 mm extrusion followed by pelletizing. Ultimately, we end up with a 100% recycled feedstock that can be used for producing 3D printer filament or in any thermoplastic processing equipment (e.g., injection molding).
#recycling #filament #3dprinting
Table of Contents:
00:00 - Intro
01:29 - Recycling 3D Prints
01:58 - Shredding (Reclaimer)
07:55 - Extruding regrind
14:38 - Pelletizing
17:40 - Degradation
20:10 - Re-Extruding
21:15 - Economics
24:00 - Recycling Commodity Plastics
27:10 - Pultrusion
29:00 - Shredding PET Bottles
30:35 - PET Extrusion Challenges
35:15 - Extruding PET Flakes

Пікірлер: 363

@DrDFlo 9 ай бұрын

♻ Mechanical recycling is very challenging. It takes a lot of time and expensive equipment to produce a material that would cost a fraction if just purchased new. Let me know in the comments what societal and technological innovations are needed to make recycling of failed prints and waste plastics more economical.

@bigbomb5904 9 ай бұрын

I have a bag of pla filament failed prints. I have been looking for a long time for someone to take a prints so it doesn't go to waste

@anthonyleggio4877 9 ай бұрын

what if you melted the plastic into a sheet before reclaiming it to get a more uniform size and shape?

@loneepicz 8 ай бұрын

As an optician im very interesting to see if you can recycle cellulose Acetat frames. The goal would be to get uniform pellets to heat mold plates to cut out new frames. For the community could you test a cellulose Acetat spool because it is rare on that market. On the manufacture side i could read that it is possible to recycle PA so my question is while i saw that you have a printer from Formlabs, could you recycle prints with this and could make a PA spool out of it. Hope for more content like this special if you could try cellulose Acetat🙏🏻

@OneHappyCrazyPerson 8 ай бұрын

So how do you get the small particles out ? Like sand or shavings for example, things like that will definitely clog a nozzle

@Master_Tiger_44 8 ай бұрын

This could be a good way to recycle of you can get a donation spot

@halfstep67 9 ай бұрын

If one can't afford a reclaimer, a Chocolate Lab would be a great alternative. A Lab can chew up anything.

@DrDFlo 9 ай бұрын

😂

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

I don't think the Lab gets hot enough to extruder a filament though so good luck recovering the pellets.

@FilamentStories 8 ай бұрын

This is hands down the most thorough and clearly explained video on why recycling 3D printed waste is time consuming, challenging and expensive both in energy costs and products required to produce a useable resultant filament. The added degradation of the plastics from multiple heat cycles and the need for virgin resin to make a product that prints reasonably well is another factor that many people don’t often consider. Thank you for covering so well all the considerations and steps required to produce an at home, Makerspace or other consumer-based recycled 3D printer filament. It is a wonderful thing that so many people are passionate about wanting to recycle their 3D printing waste. It's just much more difficult to do than most people realize. Someday hopefully there will be a more straightforward path or more companies like Recycling Fabrik in Germany, who accept and recycle 3D printer scraps. I’ll be sending people your way to watch this video.when get questions in the future. Many thanks!

@Enjoymentboy 9 ай бұрын

This was a great video. Looking at my own PLA waste I can say that supports are about 80% of it is and this makes me think that a perfect use for 100% recycled PLA with 0% virgin pellets added would be for a dual filament 3D printer where the recycled PLA is only used for support material. The physical properties really become irrelevant for supports and colour consistency wouldn't matter either.

@DrDFlo 9 ай бұрын

Great idea! If the model is purely aesthetic, then you could also use the recycled material for the infill and new filament for the perimeter and outside layers.

@SianaGearz 9 ай бұрын

@@DrDFlo Infill should ideally not be load-carrying, as it's extruded faster and with less bonding strength. It's there mostly as internal support for roof layers. I actually do slicing tricks to reduce the extrusion thickness of both infill and support. Infill, it depends, i don't necessarily like going much below nozzle width on that, but on support i go absolutely wild, and it comes out fluffy soft and very easy to remove because it's so fragile.

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

Model dependent but I think the filament swap priming would create more waste than just sticking with the primary filament for the supports, not counting the extra time and energy required.

@AndrewHelgeCox 6 ай бұрын

@@stevecade857 Would this be a problem with a dual head printer rather than a filament swap single head one like the Bambus?

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

@@AndrewHelgeCox The waste on the Bambu comes from changing filament and flushing it through ready to print. A dual head wouldn't need the flushing just priming so it's ready to print.

@beldron 7 ай бұрын

I worked in a recycling plant for PET and HDPE and it was interesting to see that you have faced some of the difficulties in small scale which the big recycling process brings with it.

@ActionBOX 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the shoutout Dr! We were very happy to help you out with our SHREDII 😃 Looking forward to more future collaborations 😁

@MitchDavis2 8 ай бұрын

I work at a filament company. This video is spot-on. I get asked daily by people if they can send me scraps to turn into filament, and the answer isn’t very quick or easy to explain, but you absolutely nailed it in this video. Our biggest sales are the lowest-cost filament. We’ve even made recycled PETG filament, but cost always has a bigger influence than sustainability when it comes to sales. You’re the first person I’ve seen that accurately explains why it’s not as simple as “adding old prints into a melter and making filament” and you even went as far to explain why it typically needs to be extruded TWICE. In the business world, labor = $$$, which makes recycling very difficult to make when competing with virgin resin pellets. I’ll be sending everyone who asks me about recycling over to this video. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

@DrDFlo 8 ай бұрын

Glad the video resonates with your experience on the industrial scale! I wish this video wasn't turning into being such a black pill on the recycling process

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

You guys are blind, you don't see an opportunity that is right in front of your noses.

@MitchDavis2 7 ай бұрын

@@matildo4ka7 what do you mean? We’ve made recycled filament, but it cost more so it didn’t sell

@chilloxik 7 ай бұрын

@@MitchDavis2which country are u sourcing your virgin pellets from? Once you tell me I can check the prices of raw vs. rPET. I think if you can find cheaper rPET abroad it'll still give you a sustainable company label plus you'll sell cheap recycled material to your final consumer. Pultrusion here is the small scale option especially now when you can just use your old Creality 3d printer and reuse it as a pultrusion device. It's $180 for a recycling device, ta-da. Yes, it's long process, but if you work with your community well and they provide you with PET bottles, you can offset some filament costs plus educate your community.

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

@@MitchDavis2 for the large scale recycling you cannot compete with India and China anymore. You can sit and wait for them to come up with the solutions and they will make equipment cheaper than Filabot btw. I'll wait for that ;)

@phillupson8561 9 ай бұрын

Looks like the grinder would be less labour intensive if they changed the design so you had a big hopper at the top, it could grind on the large grinder and drop straight through to the next grinder, with a sieve built in below that (probably angled toward a collection bin) that could deal with the dust and then slide the correctly sized pellets out to the side, that would remove a lot of babysitting from the process. I've always fancied making something like this (on my list of 3000 other projects i'll never get around to it) but seeing this in action definitely gives me some ideas.

@Arturius_Rex_8 Ай бұрын

That would involve extra gearing/axles to run both grinders. This design only requires the one common axle.

@Marzec309 9 ай бұрын

The inconsistent feed of your virgin/regrind material can be improved with a screw that has a mixing section. Also, separate barrel heating zones can help control Feed, Mixing and Extrusion.

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

The Pelletizer should be direct drive as well just pulling off a free standing or mounted spool. No need for two separate machines.

@AllsFree 5 ай бұрын

This is possibly the best/most informative video on filament recycling. This is great, a complete honest 10/10.

@ThingsMadeOfOtherThings 4 ай бұрын

You're a exceptional educator! You pack in so much detail but it all comes across and the explanations are so clearly worded and presented. I'll come back to this video as a reference for anything processing related in future. Thank you

@danialhowe9814 9 ай бұрын

i think this marks the biggest game changing need in the industry today - once this can be done on a home basis it will be huge

@adrenalinejunky789 9 ай бұрын

So cool! Recycling prints has come a long ways since the idea was first floating around!

@itsmisterb 9 ай бұрын

This video is exacly what I have been searching for months. Inceadible and thorough explanations!

@greenenko 9 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video! You have summarized my own experience in this topic and answered all my open questions on why i have inconsistent filament diameter on my diy extruder why filament is not the same as a new one, why do we need compression screws and the most valuable is how to fix all of that issues! Regranulating of the waste and mixing it with a new granules will fix all my problems!

@BodgeEngineering 9 ай бұрын

Excellent video - you explained so many things that I was struggling with in my adventures with plastic recycling.

@DudleyToolwright 8 ай бұрын

Very well done as always. The thought organization in the video is outstanding.

@CD3DP 7 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for your efforts and helping to educate us all with your findings. This is hands down one of my favorite pages along side AVE and proper printing

@BennyTygohome 9 ай бұрын

Your channel is awesome. You explain the process very well.

@lap87 9 ай бұрын

Another banger from the Doctor, love it! was very interesting to see this "at home" setup explained in great detail, today i learned a lot! Would be cool with a follow-up video where you take us through a bigger facility to point out the differences and any other solutions they had to develop

@DrDFlo 8 ай бұрын

🤞 Hoping to get out to a molecular recycling facility

@rodrigoff7456 9 ай бұрын

Thank you very much for such a sober, educational, and comprehensive overview!

@agmuntianu 9 ай бұрын

why not use a modified injection molding machine ( basically only the heating chamber and the piston, with a disk that has many 3mm holes ) , to get fairly uniform 3mm "spaghetti" and pelletize that ? instead of 2x grinding + extrusion to 3mm ?

@rajgill7576 8 ай бұрын

I'm also wondering why he even has to add virgin pellets in if he's going through the trouble of palletizing the recycle to mat h the density anyway. Just feels like he's choosing to recycle 50% slower for a marginally better product

@joshuacheung6518 7 ай бұрын

I wondered the same, then thought about it a bit. How would you load it? How much could you load at once?

@joshuacheung6518 7 ай бұрын

@@rajgill7576to combat thermal degredation.... how much skipping did you do?

@theresaflorian5052 9 ай бұрын

What an extensive process, learned a lot! Thanks

@gorak9000 9 ай бұрын

I think you misspelt expensive... $12k for just the reclaimer and peletizer?? And you still need the extruder and the cooling modules, and given the cost of the other 2 parts, I bet their metal box with a bunch of fans inside it sells for $300 each at minimum - wouldn't even want to guess how much they want for the extruder.

@filagain4137 9 ай бұрын

@@gorak9000 40K USD for an entire set of filament recycling, so yeah

@gorak9000 9 ай бұрын

@@filagain4137 I see no reason why it's so expensive, other than some kind of "greenwashing premium" to say "I recycled my filament" that big companies would pay just so they can put some bs blurb on their website - there's absolutely no reason why that "reclaimer" and "pelitizer" is $12k - there's probably no more than $500 of parts in both of them combined, and even that's probably being generous

@walf6978 29 күн бұрын

Awesome video! Everything I wanted to know and a whole bunch more that I was happy to learn!

@johnmoore5593 9 ай бұрын

I'm SO thankful you showed this in such detail. I have been very interested in recycling of 3d prints and I'm glad to know that this is not the direction to go in for now. It's simply too low of a return for too high of a cost. I look forward to the day that we have a 3d print recycling service in the Americas.

@Trust_me_I_am_an_Engineer 8 ай бұрын

Printerior in St.Louis? 😁

@johnmoore5593 8 ай бұрын

@@Trust_me_I_am_an_Engineer thank you. I was not aware of Printerior. I will look to them!

@thenextlayer 9 ай бұрын

Wow. Most effort on a KZfaq video ever. It shows. Great work.

@samuelcarlton6956 3 ай бұрын

Exceptional video and a masterclass in thorough, yet concise scientific education. Thank you for the time and effort in putting this together.

@SeanHodgins 9 ай бұрын

Very cool, I've wanted to venture into this myself, but I don't think I have enough print waste to make it worth it yet. Its odd they didn't just put a feed directly on the pelletizer to get a perfect cut length for different rpms.

@MO-ss7qt 5 ай бұрын

Well, that takes care of any delusions I might have had about doing something with the poop! ;) Excellent conveyance of this bit of knowledge. Thanks so much.

@Uniqueuponme 9 ай бұрын

Even though the costs are still extreme, the advancement in small scale extruding is amazing. I can see this being a long term cost savings for a universities and maker spaces.

@hippopotamus86 9 ай бұрын

But is it really when you factor in the time taken to do this? Buying a spool is probably cheaper than paying someone to run these machines.

@cnc-maker 9 ай бұрын

Even on an industrial scale, recycled filament is more expensive than virgin filament. Electricity and time cost a lot of money, and we haven't even discussed the sorting, or the inability to sort most plastics. As presented, the sorting requires human effort, which again, is extremely expensive and prone to error.

@randallbourque1321 9 ай бұрын

@@cnc-maker The electricity is a point he did not even mention. Unless you have a very large solar array, your costs can be very high depending on where you live.

@whynotbuildit 9 ай бұрын

I get so excited when u post !!!

@agepbiz 9 ай бұрын

This was super interesting and informative. Great video. I have kept my scraps for years for future recycling. Not sure what to do with it yet though

@petermuller608 8 ай бұрын

Do energetic recycling

@kenspaceman3938 9 ай бұрын

Great educational video…and it trashed my ambitions to recycle my PLA prints, bummer.😢…. BUT, I learned a lot, was really interesting!

@gaboxargentina 9 ай бұрын

AMAZING VIDEO, very educative

@nikethunner2732 9 ай бұрын

Thank you for the effort, this was extremely informative.

@Pooria-jr9yf Ай бұрын

this is great. Thank you. One issue I have with the same shredders that I have in my lab is that the previous residue materials is almost impossible to be removed from between blades so the next material is always contaminated.

@BennyTygohome 9 ай бұрын

It looks like a huge pain in the butt, but extremely educational and interesting. The biggest value is education and (although a pain) it looks very interesting to do... Almost even fun 😊

@macros3798 9 ай бұрын

Extremely viry nice idea and best filament making idea 💯👌

@stefanguiton 4 ай бұрын

Excellent video!

@Slavicplayer251 9 ай бұрын

could you try melting the shreded prints first into a solid sheet then shred that to create solid pellets/chunks

@chatroux399 9 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video, great content

@jacksonrussell3645 8 ай бұрын

I used to work at a plastic factory we had a water bath directly infont of the extruder to help with keeping uniform size

@kymboskreations1914 2 ай бұрын

Love that piece flying out at 3:02

@Mcdonaldrod75 23 күн бұрын

This video is outstanding, firstly. The main thing is to get consistency for in-flow. Since PET bottles are such a curse, I feel a machine and process totally dedicated to this is worth considering. The flakes melted and compressed into one large sausage, then a machine that just rolls out and stretches sections of it. These are then melted end to end and wound around a spool. Something like that.

@rusgib3648 3 ай бұрын

Very informative. Thank you.

@Ckpe4 9 ай бұрын

One of the best recycling videos on KZfaq. Thanks a lot. IMHO plastic is to valuable mostly non renewable resource to be town away

@Guardian_Arias 9 ай бұрын

The battle for recycling 3D printing waste continues. Have you looked into melting flakes into pucks? or using melting chamber with a piston to extrude into an inconsistent filament? I do understand the first proposition would degrade the filament further, but it might be worthwhile exploring.

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

Hydraulic press? Probably better to avoid another high temp heat cycle. The press will generate heat which could help it fuse and be grindable into chucks rather than flakes.

@Scozzy_23 8 ай бұрын

I was not interested in recycling prints, but after this video I am. Maybe not right now but I’m the future, your video was very informative and very high quality, this is the first video of yours I have seen but I am definitely subscribing and you deserve way more subs then you have man.

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

It's funny as I now am completely of the opposite view. I was interested in personally recycling old print scraps, I'm not now.

@ottorollin395 8 ай бұрын

Excellent content!

@yunessaga983 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for the great explination 👏

@Digitallifeconcepts 8 ай бұрын

thank you for the info on the bottle peeler recycle tech. I am interested in this but not at 20hrs per spool of sub par material

@FALLAXT 8 ай бұрын

What an outstanding video! Do you think you could improve the extrusion of PET by grinding it to a powder instead of shredding it or will the same problem occur as with the PLA particles that are too small?

@CraftySven 5 ай бұрын

excellent video, thank you !

@yinfest 9 ай бұрын

Have you tried compacting the PET bottles and then heating them to melt in a bit more thick/solid object before shredding it? It should give more thick pallets with better flowability and thus be easier for the extruder to operate. I might be wrong but it's worth a shot.

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

You need a very good shredder for this type of action.

@user-sx7kg4sr4t 4 ай бұрын

Yeah, *THATS PRACTICABLE*

@chemistclips 8 ай бұрын

If your 3d print needs a specific center of gravity or ballast for a weighted base, I feel like pellets could be great to add mid-print as opposed to solid infill. Your QC on the pellets can be pretty loose and you still maintain plastic homogeneity should you intend to later recycle the same print. I'd like to see more investigations using heat (look at the PET droplets falling from the screw! 36:16 Could you get those small enough so they serve as pellets?) or maybe high frequency vibration cutting methods to simplify pellet creation and microplastic reduction? Thanks for sharing your experience and doing the economic calculation for us!

@georgstreitz6003 8 ай бұрын

A really informative Video 👍 For me it would be very interessting to see if the addition of a little bit of chain extender as masterbatch into the regrind/virgin would further enhance the mechanical properties. Do you have rheometry equipment to get a feeling for the degradation?

@nietofarias 8 ай бұрын

@DrDFlo do you know a way to merge recycled PET with something that could transform it to PET-G? Maybe painting the bottle with some chemicals before shredding or pulltruding it?

@VANUSUAL 8 ай бұрын

Hey, we have a local maker space. I totally agree with all of your conclusions. One thing I am still debating is converting 2.85/3mm filaments, which we have lots of, to 1.75mm filament, using some pultrusion instead of extrusion. we have anything from PLA to PETG, wood fill, bamboo fill, bronze fill, etc. I don't intent to even try TPU and similar flexible filaments. Is it doable? worth it? Thanks!

@stevelyons2744 3 ай бұрын

Going down memory lane a bit. When bottles were glass, and some modern plastic containers, had deposits on them. Returned to a store, if your state participated, you got cash or credit. It was better than shattered glass on the roads and such. Shipping would be hell, but recycling drops in brick and mortar filament vendors could do the trick... a little. 6 kilos of old prints for 1.5 kilo spools. Dunno. Some big box stores do it with batteries. No money, but a central drop off.

@becauseican2607 9 ай бұрын

If you dry the pet flakes with a higher temperature it could pelletize. A pet-bottle in hot water shrinks a lot. So will the flakes.👍

@IncendiaryMedia 8 ай бұрын

Would there be any real issue with milling recyclables into a powder ( maybe the virgin pellets as well ) and using that as feed stock for extrusion?

@stuartashers 8 ай бұрын

I would modifie the hopper and auger starting with large screw tapering down to the standard shaft.

@pmcquay1 9 ай бұрын

Instead of grinding regrinding and melting the bottles, then pelletizing them and reextrudimg them, could you melt them in an oven in a 3 inch by say 18 inch tray, until you have a bar that is half an inch thick, and then grind that? It might avoid some of the flake problem and let you process the bottles faster.

@itsmisterb 9 ай бұрын

Exactly what I was thinking! ActionBox, who he partnered up with for the shredder, also sell a injection molding machine. My idea is he use that machine and use the flakes to make PET ingots. That way it makes it just like a 3d printed part! Of course it adds to the thermal history but such is life

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

You guys are thinking in the right direction 👍👍👍

@richardborens833 6 ай бұрын

wow, really interesting. Thanks.

@loneepicz 8 ай бұрын

@keegan854 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video, this is very interesting stuff. The hollow filament produced by pultrusion is a non-issue -- you just increase the slicer's extrusion multiplier to compensate. I have printed many aesthetic and functional parts from pultruded PET bottles, including all the motion parts for a 3D printer. I agree that the process is quite slow and tedious, but the results are good. If you're dedicated enough, it is pretty much the only truly affordable way to produce filament at home.

@kevingauthier7973 6 ай бұрын

I worked in injection molding over 40 years and I worked with plenty of regrind materials. I kept looking for you to make a mistake but you hit everything on the head good job. Those are all the same issues all recyclers deal with . I worked at an injection molting factory once that advertised a product as recycled materials but used virgin because it was cheaper than recycled. Also there is a difference between pre consumer and post consumer plastic.

@steevepark4966 8 ай бұрын

Wow Great ~!!!

@donrozwick7367 8 ай бұрын

well that explains my problem with extruding my grindings. They usually got stuck and no extrusion.

@elementzero_0 8 ай бұрын

all this is done at a makerspace? thats really cool!! there are none by me and i want to go to one. where is this one?

@william-Bartee 8 ай бұрын

Would it lower the chance of clogging if machine ran vertically in some way like some have adapted theirs to do

@frozendude707 8 ай бұрын

When making PET bottles in a factory, they start with a preform that looks kind of like a short test tube with thick walls, and then use compressed air in a die in an oven to expand it to the final shape, like a balloon. Would it not be possible to do the same in reverse? Like using a vacuum pump connected to a metal bottle cap and then put it in an oven or perhaps using hot air? Then it should be thicker and easier to granulate.

@asharma9345 6 ай бұрын

Keep it up Bro.

@tummy_fritters 9 ай бұрын

Really interesting video. I have to wonder what the energy use impact is per kg of material produced compared to a factory setup. I expect it will be less efficient, but is it enough to make the diversion from landfill worth while? Essentially, is small scale plastic recycling better for the planet overall than not consuming the energy it takes to do so? I think a good option might be large scale recycling of PLA and PETG, but I doubt that can be done in many places. Really well made video, Doc!

@sammy_1_1 9 ай бұрын

Would be a cool to see this process automated at this scale where possible...

@Eric_In_SF 7 күн бұрын

FYI, honestly, you really should be running your recycled material through your extruder first to create a rough filament then you could be running it through pelletizer and you would be creating fresh new pellets out of the old recycled material. It’s how the original fresh raw pellets are made from polymers. That way you eliminate all those inconsistencies and the lightweight of the recycled material raw shreds into something that’s more measurable with a scoop . Also if you use a little black masterbatch, you can change it from that inconsistent brown color to a nice solid black. If you use a black mica black batch, you’ll have a nice galaxy black filament at the end of the day.

@NicksStuff 9 ай бұрын

How had is it to add some glycol to your PET? Is it like off-the-scale chemistry?

@AndrewHelgeCox 6 ай бұрын

Could you press and heat stacks of PET bottles into 5mm thick sheets before grinding so that they grind to chunks rather than flakes? Could be tried with a panini toaster and two sheetd of baking parchment.

@seanwelding4183 9 ай бұрын

I wish these machines weren't so prohibitably expensive, the setup is quite nice overall. I would love to see more recycling done on a small scale by individuals such as those of us in the maker community, but at $12000 for just two of the four machines you realistically need to make quality filament, the ROI isn't there except for larger businesses that have employee time to burn between other tasks. At $2,000-$3,000 all in for a setup such as this, I could see it becoming rather commonly used, as the ROI on that is more tangible for an avid maker or small makerspace to digest investing in.

@NicksStuff 9 ай бұрын

I wonder what is expensive, though. You find new (but discounted) 1 hp motors for $200. Wouldn't a hacker space be able to machine the screw?

@jeromefeig4209 8 ай бұрын

I agree with seanwelding4183. I also want to add that the cost that is represented is way understated in that the source of power (electricity) has not been considered nor the cost of maintenance and repairs to the equipment. You have already stated as well that the cost of labor and facility overhead (raw material cleaning, operational, maintenance, and supervisory) has not been included.

@markumoeder 7 ай бұрын

This is actually a very good investment if you are operating a big 3d print farm business. But only if you got the experience have source's of free plastics and the time.

@iandalton887 9 ай бұрын

Great video! I’m sure you’ve already experimented with this, but have you considered heating the PET regrind slightly to cause it to shrink and take on a more irregular shape? This could potentially increase the friction between the regrind and the barrel.

@DrDFlo 8 ай бұрын

The PET regrind was heated for 4 hours at 110C to remove moisture. All the material you saw was after that heating cycle

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

110C is not enough, you need 150C. It will curl PET and that's what you need.

@matildo4ka7 7 ай бұрын

I tried this option to regrind PET and you're absolutely right. I'll heat regrind (

@TekedixXx 9 ай бұрын

I love working with PETG, does it recycle as well as PET, or does the Glycol cause it to degrade faster?

@DrDFlo 8 ай бұрын

It is easier to recycle PETG because it has a larger process window (more temperatures at which it will be molten without degrading). However, this process window is at a lower range of temperatures than PET's , which means they can't be processed together

@stevecade857 6 ай бұрын

Very enlightening. Seeing all the scraps I throw in the bin I really wanted to put that waste to good use, probably on prototypes rather than final prints so plastic quality and colour isn't a big concern for me. The time, money and effort required to be doing the 'right thing' is very off putting when a new spool of filament is so reasonably priced. This has really got to be something for 3D printing clubs / shops or education facilities to offer a recycling service. Bring along your scraps (free donation) and purchase recycled filament spools at cheap prices. As long as it makes sense for them financially as well.

@yerry_verse 9 ай бұрын

Nice video, some things about pulltruders are not correct, and maybe you chose one older model. The other thing is that pulltruded filament can be used to print up to 0.08mm , I'm doing it with my printers, you just need to increase the flow.

@DrDFlo 9 ай бұрын

How long would it take for you to make 1kg of filament from (~50) bottles with your pultruder? Please include the time it takes to prepare the bottle and strip it. I had very little practice, so I am curious how quickly an experienced user can process this material.

@nietofarias 8 ай бұрын

You could easily make stackable pulltruder machines. Also, I usually prepare 3 or 4 bottles at a time without inflating them, just heating them. The cutting can be done quickly and you can store and pile up the strips. I'm actually producing more filament than I consume myself. The problems are: • Too difficult to set the proper printing parameters to combat crystallization • How to join filaments pieces to make one large 1Kg spool. Since the filament is hollow, it's difficult to join. Filament joiners available now make too weak joints that require wider spools to protect joins from breaking

@sujithkr136 7 ай бұрын

great video..One thought is ,if you melt the whole bottle to a smaller ,sphere shape,and then perform the shredding process..That way i think you might be able to get rid of the flake shape of pet bottle shreds to much more of a granular shape...

@sebastiaobiz 9 ай бұрын

really nice!! about the PET, is it possible to do a pultrusion first and the make pellets out of it and then extrude it for filament? or is just to much time and energy wasted?

@DrDFlo 9 ай бұрын

Yes definitely possible! But I need the pultrusion process to be about 10x faster (~couple minutes per bottle)

@subtext9881 27 күн бұрын

This is quality content and well presented too. Regarding the set of machines, I am somewhat surprised that those are, well, "under engineered". For 17k I expect more sensors and actuators. Adjusting rates by hand is a thing of the past.

@carrar1113 8 ай бұрын

Hey you bro I have suggestion about a new subject machine making powder iron

@bran706 4 ай бұрын

This is a fantastic video and you weren't joking about being expensive for hobbyists. Just $13,000 lol

@RPBCACUEAIIBH 7 ай бұрын

Plastic bottles shrink when heated. When they shrink, they also thicken. You may be able to shred plastic bottles far easier if you heat them before shredding. Thicker shredded pieces may also feed better, so it worth trying to heat the bottles to shrink before shredding.

@lavachemist 9 ай бұрын

Regarding the PET flake issues, would it help to vibrate the hopper?

@DrDFlo 8 ай бұрын

Yes, would definitely be helpful for the flowability problem. I actually purchased a magnetic vibrator that I could stick to side of the hopper when purchasing regrind, but it didn't come in on time

@gladiatormechs5574 6 ай бұрын

where is the place place to buy these PLA PELLETTS.... color gray is preferred..

@Ne0kil 6 ай бұрын

One thing that I was wondering is why are we even feeding the pellets directly into the screw? wouldn't it make the process much easier if there was a some kind of "heated kettle" that would already heat up the plastic and from there it would already be flowing and the screw could press it through the extruder with far less issues. Or am I forgetting something?

@AlexanderBurgers 8 ай бұрын

get yourself a panini press and turn your household recycleable plastics (bottles) into flat pieces first before sending them into the shredder. :) And plastics that are not good for 3d printing can still be turned into feedstock for cnc machining or straight into cast/moulded parts.

@miscbits6399 3 ай бұрын

rather than heat drying, would a vacuum chamber be a better idea?

@nledevil 3 ай бұрын

The reclaimer needs a baymax sticker saying "I am not fast"

@scheinp9844 8 ай бұрын

What about recycling Bambu Lab printer AMS poop without those pre-processing? If the result is positive, that might be good investment for tinker.

@zeroblood1435 8 ай бұрын

why not use pet strip filement from a bottle time in video 27:53 if it's not clear what I mean and use it as pellet? could be an idea to make it easier

@bluebens2761 3 күн бұрын

I would cut two holes in your material dryer/oven, one on each side then put a blower on one side with a hose running from blower to one of the holes you cut then on the other side of the dryer connect another hose and run it to a box connected to the bottom of the container you have your material in after you have cut off the bottom and replaced it with a screen. Then you will be blowing hot air through the material which will obtain proper drying rather than the moisture being trapped in the container/material.