Filabot: Plastic Filament Maker

I would like to share a project that I am currently working on, it is called Filabot. Filabot is a personal extruding system that will allow users to make their own 3D printing filament from recycled plastic.

Right now we are raising funds on kickstarter, with 9 days left in the funding period. There is a bunch more information on the kickstarter page, please check it out. Filabot: Plastic Filament Maker



This is some test filament that was extruded on the prototype extruder.

Have you used that filament for printing ? Would love to see a video or pictures of that.

There are some parts that need to be finished on the Filabot before the filament is ready to use on a our 3D printer. Right now we are working on the the system that makes the filament the right size, and we are waiting on a nozzle for extruding the right diameter.

How are you going to overcome die swell? The images show a series of rollers, though that will simply squish the filament in one direction, making the cross section an oblong - unless I'm missing something?
It's a project that has been discussed a few times here, that I've seen, so congratulations for committing to making one.

This is excellent stuff - congratulations on reaching your goal! I look forward to following your progress.

---

------------------------------------------
garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

does anybody else think it looks kinda like a Mr Fusion?

1.21 Gigawatt's!

Pass me a flux capacitor.

---

[richrap.blogspot.com]

yydoctt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How are you going to overcome die swell? The
> images show a series of rollers, though that will
> simply squish the filament in one direction,
> making the cross section an oblong - unless I'm
> missing something?
> It's a project that has been discussed a few times
> here, that I've seen, so congratulations for
> committing to making one.

The rollers have semi circular grooves of, I assume, 3mm and 1.75mm diameters. This will be great when you get it working!

What are the exact issues you were having with the sizes and what's your solution? Jumping the gun, but... was is burrs (like casting lines) caused by only vertical rollers? and would additional horizontal rollers solve this?

Also are the rollers heated at all or does the filament carry enough residual heat from the extruder?

I was a bit sceptical when I saw the filament being heated over little oil burner but this design seems infinitely better and I am eager to see the results you got once the bugs are ironed out.

Also you say you can recycle cds, how do you get the metallic film off them before grinding them up? Is there a nack or just patients/brute force?

Keep up the great work, this is exactly the kind of development that will accelerate the community!

Following this with interest

---

__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand

@Filabot,

Can you say anything about whether and/or how you keep voids (AKA bubbles) out of the resulting filament?

Yeah this is pretty cool..

Larry_Pfeffer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Filabot,
>
> Can you say anything about whether and/or how you
> keep voids (AKA bubbles) out of the resulting
> filament?


The pressure from the extruding process removes the air bubbles. A cross section of plastic was sliced and we did not find any air bubbles.

Great work guys!! Its on my wish list. Another problem of 3D printing solved.

That's really great! Thanks for your work!

I'm eager to see this working in a chain with my eagerly desired printrbot

The only thing that confuses me is what would be an outcome of using several sources of abs plastic melted into one thread? Unstable melting temperature? That's really really cool to be able to produce the filament by yourself, but how to overcome the fact that different sources have different additives and thus different physical properties? Also, is it OK to recycle the same bit of plastic several times?