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 What are you doing with your 3D pointing waste? *QUESTION* What are you doing with your 3D printing waste?
As of right now I'm saving all waste, sorted by color (and type, of course), in the original filament boxes, and I'm planning to store them all until I find a viable way to send them for recycling.
I'm sorting all my waste by polymer and color and manufacturer. Turns out the bags spools come in make for pretty convenient 3D printing waste bags! They're starting to take up quite a lot of volume in my workspace though, I'm looking for a cheap (~
Can we shred the poops right after they are coming out of the nozzle initially? Whole process down the line would be way less involved And the poop piles would take up way less space additionally, since we know what color transition is performed every time we could add a simple sorting solution. In case of A1 mini, in theory, it could be as simple as 2mm difference on X axis allowing the poops to fall in their respective container
It will be interesting to run a heat deflection and material elongation tests on those compared to original material, as it was heated twice it's possible it is degraded significantly
We recycle PLA into filament in our facility in Buffalo,ny. If you’re ever in the area, we can show you how it’s done at a big scale. You’ve got all the parts of the process figured out! Moisture is a huge part of it
It‘s time that Bambu or some other company is getting an affordable filament extrude / recycling station on the market asap! Maybe not for the biggest/thickest parts but at least for the poop!
I thought about the same thing. I have always wondered if it was possible to recycle all the filament waste. Maybe CNC Kitchen can make a filament recycler. However, at the current rate, I'm pretty sure Bambulabs will probably be the first to make a mass-market filament recycler.
Haha I knew there had to be a reason for collecting so many poops! That filament dimensional accuracy is so hard to nail, but you're getting closer and closer! Really encouraging, considering there are zero methods of recycling print waste currently (at least none here in Aus)...
Lowering your purge volumes in Bambu studio also helps. If your willing to spend some time to figure out how much of a purge length you actually need. In my experience I found that for many solid colors, halfling the extrusion distance worked well. But in some situations I went and further refined this getting down to 1/8th of the original purge distances. It does also allow you to set purge volume based on the filament colors involved in the change. So say a very dark like black to a transparent might require a greater purge than to another solid color. I generally don't use a purge block either.
This has worked very well for me. Just need to watch out for highly contrasting colors but around 15-25% default purge volumes has greatly decreased waste.
I had that exact question and you answered it beautifully. Also, it's very interesting to hear that you can adjust purge length to tuples of colors. So smart!
Given you've got the tools to do so, I'd love to see what re-melting it over and over again does to the mechanical properties of the filament. Does the layer strength drop? Perhaps the filament becomes more prone to shattering. I think it'd be a cool thing to test!
I once went to an industrial 3D print conference, and there someone from ESA explained that they have a 3D printer on the ISS and that they recycle their printed parts. And the mechanical properties actually get better! But it was with PEEK 🙂
@@nickoli2356 The additional time used in production doesn't add value to the product - which results in a more expensive product that has a lower quality than fresh filament.
The extra time doesn't make the end product more valuable. In order for recycling filament to be viable to consumers/end users the recyclers are going to have to accept smaller profit margins vs. newly produced filament or find more efficient ways of recycling. Otherwise they will only sell recycled filament to those who are obsessed with being as green as possible. Most people feel good about being more ecologically friendly, but aren't going to spend extra and get an inferior product to do so. Personally, if home recycling was less time and money intensive I would be all about it as I hate wasting materials and love being able to repurpose old materials, but it just doesn't seem like the technology is there yet.
Thanks Stefan. I have boxes of failed prints sorted by colour and filament type and live in hope that one day it can be recycled. I've been sorting my failed prints this way from day one. So it is good to see progress here.
If u're in the US, I'll take it. I make art out of it and sell it on the farmers markets. I'll cover the shipping costs. I take skirts, poop, failed prints, etc.
The question of recycling the 3D-printing waste was actually the major one to keep me from considering 3D-printing as an acceptable hobby. I'm pleasantly surprised that people are working around this issue - and are finding numerous of creative ways of using the waste, moreover recycling it back to the cable. Keep up great work!
Very strange that this comment keeps getting posted over and over here. Are these bots? There is an agenda here but I don't really see the purpose of saying waste is why you don't 3d print. Somebody is paying for this, and trust the people paying for these comments do not care about the environment one bit. This user does not care at all. Do you notice that almost all public schools do not have a single 3d printer? Almost all of them make absolutely no effort at all to teach kids 3d printing. With printers costing as much as a single locker. Especially if they buy in bulk. Do you understand? The public schools are there to bring your child down. The last thing they want to do is teach your child something that is extremely useful in private and professional life. If these children learn to design and make their own products at home, those same children aren't going to the big box store giving money for everything they need. They aren't buying that paper towel holder from Target. Now do you see? The last thing the public schools want to do is make the children a little less of a good little consumer. So once again they are bringing your children down in the name of saving the planet. And if you still don't get it, the person I'm replying to is evil. Taking money to slow down a movement making people self sufficient. All under the guise of not polluting. You know, because Walmart, the place the person I'm replying to goes to buy all their stuff, doesn't contribute to the pollution at all. Soon you will see the people hanged on live TV
More videos of this kind are appreciated! We really need a home solution for filament waste! Also, please discuss material degradation and the limited number of times filament can be recycled!
i've always wanted to have a 3d printer but despised so much the idea of generating so much plastic residue, i'm glad to see some 3d print youtuber taking the interest on reducing such harmful waste.
If environmentalism is important you should only print with PLA which is made from corn starch or sugar cane. On the pollution side that only matters if you get rid of the waste in the wrong way. I could be wrong but i also believe PLA is biodegradable although not over a super short amount of time
I use Recycling Fabriks recycled filaments A LOT and I truly love this filament. I've had zero problems so far and its great to know that this is 100% recycled filament.
@@MauryXman Just had a look at Recycling Fabriks prices. Bundles for 18€/kg, 2.5kg spools for 18.80€/kg and the normal 1kg spools for 20€ is not cheap but still quite reasonable in my opinion. Definitely something I will consider buying in the future.
Yeah it really annoys me that he won't make a video about recycling at a hobbyist cost level Edit, it looks like he's going to make a video for one that's now cost friendly
I can make video of upcycling, cost of equipment is $50, though invest in good mask to protect yourself from the fumes (extra $50). But it's meticulous with poop, you need patience )))
A big problem for making this scale is being able to seperate plastics from eachother. If you're a filament recycler taking in plastic from different sources, you cant really trust that those people are giving you clean, properly sorted filament. A technology for sorting, splitting, or not caring about mixed polymers is an important step
I think another issue is likely that say ABS is not ABS is not ABS. That is I figure that one cannot just pitch their Polymaker into the same bin as their Atomic or Inland or Fusion Filaments.
They do sort plastics at recycling plants. Different plastics either have different densities that can be sorted, or absorb different wavelengths of light
The one suggestion is to do the drying procedure after the poop has been pelletized. Since pellets are smaller, the PLA will have a greater surface area to allow water to escape. The Filament Extruder has two air cooling fans (4:48), with one sucking in warmer air from the extruder itself. Wonder if utilizing a copper spiral coil with cold water flowing, and the hot filament passed down the centre of the spiral, air from fans would be much cooler, greatly shortening the elastic portion of filament between the extruder and the rollers, which should tighten tolerance on the filament diameter. Another option would be to pump a small stream liquid nitrogen into the area. liquid nitrogen would quickly turn into a cold gas.
Moisture was one of my first concerns. Glad you caught it! Definitely a ton of work and energy used to make this recycled filament, but still a really cool idea and result.
Part of the filament recycling process should include a hollow sink that matches the _intended_ diametre which it is pulled through and as blobs are encountered with a sensor before it, vary the speed of the outfeed to ensure the finished product is more consistent. This can be achieved with using metal tubes encasing an induction heating coil, then controlling the temperature of that coil. Once heated and pulled through, a fan and perforated / slotted metal outfeed tube immediately cools down the plastic to lock the diametre in, and it should be a better result once spooled.
recycled material like this would be perfect for a lot of what I do, most of my prints are functional things so I really dont care what color they are or even if they are perfect so long as they are dimensionally accurate enough to do what I need.
As someone who is about to add 3D prints to my small business, this info is extremely helpful! You have probably saved me literal days of hassle and headache trying to find a way to be economic about printer waste! Thank you so much! 👍 Edit: What I meant to say was that because of your work I now realize it's far more economical for a small print business like myself to send my printer waste to someone else to make into filament, rather than struggling to try to do it myself.
@@juliusvalentinas No. He proved recycling to be Work, to be a large task that I severely underestimated. Recycling is very worthwhile, I'm just not equipped to recycle my own print waste. This video helped me understand that fact before I would have wasted many days and several dollars attempting such a task. Now I intend to send any future print waste off to be recycled by more qualified hands.
I think I totally would buy recycled materials, especially if the colors were funky af. I think it's very cool to have weird colored prints, I can always paint them if I need them to be a different color! Unfortunately, where I live, there aren't a lot of people doing 3D prints, let alone recycling! So I just have to wait for 3D printing to catch up I guess.
I am collecting my 3D printing trash until I have enough to be economical to buy a recycler. Recycler are also, slowly getting cheaper, so the two should cross eventually in value.
I half expected that you'd have to mix virgin material into the recycled material, just so that it flows better in the machine. You might be able to get a really good consistent diameter pelletizing and then mixing with some virgin material, so that the mechanical properties aren't too degraded.
I’d really like to see strength tests on the cons batch. If the coupons have roughly the same strength, I wouldn’t mind printing functional parts with it at all. Fascia and more decorative prints, I’d stick with the virgin material, but structural bits not seen by the end user, or parts I just make for the shop, I’d love a recycle option.
It would be interesting to see how combining old plastic bottles into the mix affects recycling of PET filament and how reliable the filament thickness is as a result.
I'm so glad this video came across my feed. I just started heavy into 3D printing. My wife got me a beginner mini printer, and I got the bug and got an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro. But with the mishaps I was having with my tiny printer not being level (it was a nightmare), I've been generating a lot of plastic waste and feeling really bad about it. So I'm glad you brought up Printerior. Thanks for this insightful video!
Nice idea! When you collect the poops you know which color is is (mainly) if no better solution you could monitor the motion of the filament rolls. Why don’t you sort the poops while printing? That would give you the possibility to control the resulting color better. Instead of brown you could get red, green, blue, grey or similar results.
I think Bambu should look more into ways to reduce filament waste, as well as the time taken to swap colors. While people seem to like the AMS, perhaps it is reliable, it's also one of the slowest and most wasteful ways to change colors. In the meantime, Prusa is working on a new MMU system that will hopefully be more reliable than the MMU2, as well as having a tool changer system on the XL.
Very interesting. Here's a small idea from me. Per layer, at the end, on the inside, for infill, THIS is where that last "waste" stuff should be used. But this clearly demands the slicer to be very smart and planned in regard towards this as a method. To be clear, past the start and the end OR thin sections, the infill will often take up a lot of space inside. I'd deem that a safe area to swap filament on the inside so the print can just continue. If one could code this in with some thickness parameters for when it should shred off a blob OR dispose the transition into the infill structure? Sure this would make the waste decrease significantly right? 🤔
I think there's a market for some kind of cottage industry filament recycling service. Imagine a service where you mail them boxes of your failed PLA prints (or Bambu poop) and get 'credits' based on the weight and quality of the material you send. They handle all of the sorting, shredding, and re-extrusion into new spools, and then resell them as recycled PLA. Users who mailed in material can use credits to buy spools made from the recycled material (or just buy spools with money). Could even sell rolls of filament that are partially recycled, ie) 70% recycled material, 30% virgin material, or 50/50, 20/80, etc. The biggest hurdle would be having some way of verifying and detecting the incoming material- you don't want somebody's polycarbonate benchy getting ground up and contaminating a batch of otherwise consistent PLA. ABS should theoretically be even easier to recycle, though it's not as commonly used as PLA for prints.
That's acutally exactly what we do as the Recycling Fabrik in Germany. You can send in failed prints, support structure and empty spools, we pay the shipping, you in addition collect Points for ur Scrap and use them to get the 100% recycled Filament cheaper. Win-Win-Win?! Only work in Germany at the moment tho. Greeting Jonas
I don't usually paint my prints so I do like having the different colours myself (or just print in a neutral grey). But if the end goal for someone is to paint their models then I can definitely see a recycled filament being a popular choice.
I’ve saved all my failed prints/supports/brims etc. I first run them through a wood chipper then through a P5 shredder to make the pieces smaller. Then the plan is to run them though an extruder (should arrive in the next week 🤞). I don’t care what the colour is since I’ll use all the recycled filament for prototyping.
True, and if you look at the viewing numbers on all the videos Stephan made on this topic you could assume there is a fairly large market to cover... just saying :-)
I suggest installing a second extruder and printing internal perimeters and filling with recycled plastic. This can be done with a large nozzle to avoid clogging.
Isnt a lot of the clogging already happening before melt in the heatbreak/extruder/bowden tube? A larger nozzle alone wont help, not sure if there are hotends and extruders with explicitly larger tolerances on filament.
wait is poop the actual term? I'm three days into this hobby and already decided that that is what I'm calling it but good to see the feeling is common
Yes Poop(TM) is registered by Bambulab. Other brands have to find something else in the future. Maybe like PooPoo or Pupu,, doody-doo something like that. :D
Would love to see this DIY filament recycle process perfected. I've been storing a bunch of failed prints and printer poops over the past couple of years because it seems like we're on the verge of a breakthrough.
11:42 Nice; I guess it's a good thing I've been separating my different color 3D print waste into separate bags, looks like I'll have a place to send it now
When jewellers make gold wire, they pull it through a set diameter hole to conform it to that diameter. Could you pull the semi hot filament through a metal hole to ensure no lumps/bumps?
maybe but gold wire is more i guess "rigid" while hot plastic would just make a mess. Gold is easy to bend and correct (even if reheating is required) but the plastic being so thin cools too quickly and if reheated is more then likely going to make a mess rather than fix the problem :/ but thats why the machine has 2 wheels to press and shape the plastic, its not perfect but i think in a few years time there will be a more efficient way to do this. If people want something done, someone will want to get on that!
I'm currently using 95% recycled filaments from Recycling Fabrik. The other 5% are ASA / TPU. All my PLA and PETG needs are covered with 100% recycled material that works "as new".
i think communal maker spaces need to become more widespread. this kind of thing only makes sense for industrial users or as a part of a communal project.
I've been printing with PLA for 4 years now and I've been separating scrap by color and storing it in totes. I'm still hoping someone in my area will be able to recycle the stuff back into usable filament one day but meanwhile the scrap pile grows larger! The good news is that as time goes on and my skills improve and printer quality is steadily improving I don't produce as much scrap as I once did. I like your ideas of extruding twice and extracting moisture; good points!
If you're in the USA, I need your PLA trash. I make art out of it and it seems people like it. I sell it locally ONLY. I cover the shipping cost. I can give you one of the art pieces as a pay back ;)
Many times in industry they mix shredded material with original material granules. It does help even out differences in material properties and it also helps with flow in hopper.
You should try a mix of 75% regrind and 25% virgin to start, if the flow still is not what you’d like, bump up the virgin a little. Also, another way of catching any stray metal shreds is to place a magnet on the outside of the feed hopper, near the mouth so the metal is captured before heating. This plastic can also be sorted before being ground, if you want to keep a uniform color in your media.
Absolutely! This science has the potential to spark incredible innovations. Can't wait to see where it leads and how it will change the game in the future!
There was the Filastruder here in the US that looked similar to the ARTME, but they've been out of stock for a while, and I was planning on building my own extruder. I use a lot pf plastic and print a lotta big stuff, so being able to make and recycle my own plastic I think will help me cut down the cost of the hobby. Thanks for doing this series covering all your trials with extrusion!
I used to work at a plastics molding place for car parts, every few days we'd take all the failed parts and ram them through what is basically a wood chipper, and that'd be mixed in with the new plastics. Was allways fun.
Recycling filament gets even more interesting for other materials like petg or abs as those are not bio based materials but rather oil based, so the environmental aspect is greater there. Pla is after all starch based and can be composted in a suitable composter (not that thing in your garden).
Check the latest study from Sweden, PLA is as toxic as petrochemicals :( I totally agree with the study (by female) and I don't fool people into amazingness of bio based plastic.
To get a perfect dimension filament, I would suggest forcing it through a set of rolling dies that set its diameter to exactly what you're after. Set up a set of rubber wheels in a push-pull config, and force it through a circular rolling die.
im literally trying different things to try and recycle/reuse/repurpuse waste extruded filament, and this shows up! Thank you for this video! I feel like easy, affordable & effective at-home recycling solutions are on their way soon!
What an amazing and interesting video, this not only is very inspiring to see that it is possible and is quite informative on the process of recycling, but is also amazing to see that companies are willing to put in the work to recycle filament on a national scale. Hopefully other industries can learn from this.
I like how the printer is still progressing. Soon there will be more than one nozzle and cartridge that can replace the one being used to speed times up.
I don't print massively often, but right from the very first test print I ever did, every bit of waste plastic has been kept in a lidded tub, waiting for the day that recycling it could become viable at home. It looks like we're still not quite there yet with the machines needed to get something that won't keep causing jams, but we're slowly coming closer to a workable process. I definitely like the idea of the "pelletiser" - a similar mechanism with a robust design could make a very fine addition towards the production of reused filament in a small workshop. I think the filament pullet mechanism might need to have rollers that also act somewhat as a mould that squashed the filament into the correct (or at least more consistent) size, cool it down immediately past there, pass that through the diameter sensor with another pair of rollers, and then spool it.
@@matildo4ka7 I'm sadly very much not in the USA, so I think taking my print trash would be an unnecessarily expensive endeavour, but thanks for the offer.
after seeing your video i collected bigger failed prints and started collecting all prints from then. as soon as possible i will send my waste to recycling fabrik. they are realtively near me (Niedersachsen) and i will buy rPLA now, when my existing pla is gone. thanks mate. i avoided 3d printing for years because of the waste, but now i can print with a clean conscience. thanks!
Just a thought. Mix a portion of the recycled with virgin black material. Most poop mixes will be dark anyway. Would probably give a near black color and might even help with printability.
We already divide our waste up into different plastics, and keep it in large ziploc bags with dessicant for eventual recycling. A fun idea I had was that I started to separately collect all the fails/supports/bed adhesion scrap from my various silk PLA prints to reuse in other ways. I'm experimenting with making decorative items and costume jewelry parts (like spangles or faux feather/enamel inlay bits) out of the waste. Also I'm lucky to live near a filament recycling company, in St Louis, so when we have enough, recycling will be relatively painless.
what do you think about the idea of a metal tube with a exact 1,75mm bore and sharp edges ? you could push/pull the uneven filament trough to get the excess materiall cut off? it might need to be hardened or replaced every now and then but its just an idea tho.
I've owned and used recycled material. But I've had only 1 spool of "recycled from people sending in their scraps" and maybe 3-4 spools of "filament manufacturer took their own waste and repelletized it and then re-extruded". Interestingly, most of the manufacturer recycled filament is an olive green... but I still mark it as "recycled... color may vary". It came up elsewhere, but it really comes down to 2 things: are you trying to get filament out of it OR are you just trying to not throw the plastic out. I know a lot want filament, but then you have the elephant in the room: money. If a filament maker can't make money, they're not gonna exist/operate. If you told someone "pay $20/kg, now spend $10 to ship the waste to this location, and then we'll send you a proportional coupon that saves you $5 off a $30/kg spool that may not be in spec and is a random color" most of them would say "no" and move on. If you had an altruistic individual/group who isn't trying to make money, then it's a different story... but I've not really seen any of those outside of "that one guy in a garage who happened to do this... but they can only handle a few KG before they're overwhelmed". The one I'm leaning more towards is using the waste to become something else. It's really convenient to make a GridFinity bin or even a generic parts bin for some hardware store rack. But you may be printing $2 per bin, when you can buy them under $1 each. I'd much rather get a mold and then use the waste to make those bins. I know people who make figures, paver stones, etc. with it. But that's not my thing at the moment.
Is the inconsistency of the final product (after drying, etc.) a limitation of the 3devo filament extruder, or is it caused by the recycled PLA? If the latter, it would be interesting to see if adding virgin PLA pellets makes any difference.
This is a fantastic video ! Its a no brainer to reuse your failed prints. Indeed its a technically challenging process, but you have made a great start !
These videos are so important to bring to attention that this is indeed possible! In my country, we don't have any company that recycles 3D printing scraps sadly... But it could actually be doable, if the company got some grant or funding, which they often do, especially if it's related to environmental concerns, to get some good professional equipment
we have been working for several years in our lab with fully recycled filament. So the fact that it was possible has been known for a long time. It's also a lot easier if you get thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment for free
I'm curious about needing to purge so much filament. Since only the outer shell needs to be in the correct color usually, maybe there should be a setting where instead of purging, the filament is gradually transitioned from one color to the next while printing infill? 1.2 kg of purge for 0.5kg print is nuts.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 89 | คู่เอก "ยอดไอคิว vs คิริลล์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3vYkHJ_5Ig/mqdefault.jpg)
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 What are you doing with your 3D pointing waste?
*QUESTION* What are you doing with your 3D printing waste?
As of right now I'm saving all waste, sorted by color (and type, of course), in the original filament boxes, and I'm planning to store them all until I find a viable way to send them for recycling.
I'm sorting all my waste by polymer and color and manufacturer. Turns out the bags spools come in make for pretty convenient 3D printing waste bags!
They're starting to take up quite a lot of volume in my workspace though, I'm looking for a cheap (~
Can we shred the poops right after they are coming out of the nozzle initially? Whole process down the line would be way less involved
And the poop piles would take up way less space
additionally, since we know what color transition is performed every time we could add a simple sorting solution. In case of A1 mini, in theory, it could be as simple as 2mm difference on X axis allowing the poops to fall in their respective container
It will be interesting to run a heat deflection and material elongation tests on those compared to original material, as it was heated twice it's possible it is degraded significantly
We recycle PLA into filament in our facility in Buffalo,ny. If you’re ever in the area, we can show you how it’s done at a big scale. You’ve got all the parts of the process figured out! Moisture is a huge part of it
It‘s time that Bambu or some other company is getting an affordable filament extrude / recycling station on the market asap! Maybe not for the biggest/thickest parts but at least for the poop!
Can just grind them down smaller?
yeah let people pay just because a company uses an idiotic wasteful system
3D printing waste is tiny compared to the rest of the plastic waste you make in everyday life
I thought about the same thing. I have always wondered if it was possible to recycle all the filament waste.
Maybe CNC Kitchen can make a filament recycler. However, at the current rate, I'm pretty sure Bambulabs will probably be the first to make a mass-market filament recycler.
If I remember correctly, you can have, at most, 30% of old plastic in a recycled part for it to have appropriate behaviour.
I don't own a 3D printer but the fact that you are trying to recycle and use as much of the filament as possible is great.
$10,000 worth of gear to do so
Haha I knew there had to be a reason for collecting so many poops! That filament dimensional accuracy is so hard to nail, but you're getting closer and closer! Really encouraging, considering there are zero methods of recycling print waste currently (at least none here in Aus)...
No, we in aus have DC engineering 3D printing for pla and terracycle for abs recycling
i feel like if he put some virgin material in it may have been more consistent
australia or austria?
@@chromyl_chloride No kangaroos in Austria
@@chromyl_chloride note: Aus means australia, Aut means Austria :)
Helpful tip, put the magnet in a small bag before dropping it in. It makes cleaning it of debris much easier-- just invert the bag.
Good point.
step 1: have a bunch of money
i agree
Step 2... Have a lot of free time
Damn, im broke tho 😢
Step 3: uhhhhhhh
Step 4: eat cheese
Lowering your purge volumes in Bambu studio also helps. If your willing to spend some time to figure out how much of a purge length you actually need. In my experience I found that for many solid colors, halfling the extrusion distance worked well. But in some situations I went and further refined this getting down to 1/8th of the original purge distances. It does also allow you to set purge volume based on the filament colors involved in the change. So say a very dark like black to a transparent might require a greater purge than to another solid color. I generally don't use a purge block either.
This has worked very well for me. Just need to watch out for highly contrasting colors but around 15-25% default purge volumes has greatly decreased waste.
How do you get rid of the purge block though. In Bambi studio.
@@EndofTimee1 Disable the purge tower under other settings
I had that exact question and you answered it beautifully. Also, it's very interesting to hear that you can adjust purge length to tuples of colors. So smart!
Given you've got the tools to do so, I'd love to see what re-melting it over and over again does to the mechanical properties of the filament. Does the layer strength drop? Perhaps the filament becomes more prone to shattering. I think it'd be a cool thing to test!
I should do: "how often can you recycle PLA?"
@@CNCKitchenyes!
I once went to an industrial 3D print conference, and there someone from ESA explained that they have a 3D printer on the ISS and that they recycle their printed parts. And the mechanical properties actually get better! But it was with PEEK 🙂
@@CNCKitchenyes please ❤
@@CNCKitchen or "how many times can you recycle PLA?", but yes, it'd be really interesting! :)
I'd buy recycled material if it was cheaper, instead it's more expensive than just buying fresh filament.
More time goes into it
@@nickoli2356 The additional time used in production doesn't add value to the product - which results in a more expensive product that has a lower quality than fresh filament.
The extra time doesn't make the end product more valuable. In order for recycling filament to be viable to consumers/end users the recyclers are going to have to accept smaller profit margins vs. newly produced filament or find more efficient ways of recycling. Otherwise they will only sell recycled filament to those who are obsessed with being as green as possible. Most people feel good about being more ecologically friendly, but aren't going to spend extra and get an inferior product to do so.
Personally, if home recycling was less time and money intensive I would be all about it as I hate wasting materials and love being able to repurpose old materials, but it just doesn't seem like the technology is there yet.
Thanks Stefan. I have boxes of failed prints sorted by colour and filament type and live in hope that one day it can be recycled. I've been sorting my failed prints this way from day one. So it is good to see progress here.
If u're in the US, I'll take it. I make art out of it and sell it on the farmers markets. I'll cover the shipping costs. I take skirts, poop, failed prints, etc.
If you're in Germany, they have amazing ppl who recycle PLA:Recycling Fabrik.
The question of recycling the 3D-printing waste was actually the major one to keep me from considering 3D-printing as an acceptable hobby. I'm pleasantly surprised that people are working around this issue - and are finding numerous of creative ways of using the waste, moreover recycling it back to the cable. Keep up great work!
Well PLA is biodegradable, wouldn't stop me from buying it but I don't have much money
@@hypercoder-gaming ah yeah, that's a good point :D
It's not really biodegradable. Only under very certain conditions. Just tossing it in landfill it's not going to biodegrade
@@hypercoder-gamingif you are in the US, we don't recycling much of any plastic. Same with Germany, only 15% is really recycled.
Very strange that this comment keeps getting posted over and over here. Are these bots? There is an agenda here but I don't really see the purpose of saying waste is why you don't 3d print. Somebody is paying for this, and trust the people paying for these comments do not care about the environment one bit. This user does not care at all.
Do you notice that almost all public schools do not have a single 3d printer? Almost all of them make absolutely no effort at all to teach kids 3d printing. With printers costing as much as a single locker. Especially if they buy in bulk. Do you understand? The public schools are there to bring your child down. The last thing they want to do is teach your child something that is extremely useful in private and professional life. If these children learn to design and make their own products at home, those same children aren't going to the big box store giving money for everything they need. They aren't buying that paper towel holder from Target.
Now do you see? The last thing the public schools want to do is make the children a little less of a good little consumer. So once again they are bringing your children down in the name of saving the planet. And if you still don't get it, the person I'm replying to is evil. Taking money to slow down a movement making people self sufficient. All under the guise of not polluting. You know, because Walmart, the place the person I'm replying to goes to buy all their stuff, doesn't contribute to the pollution at all. Soon you will see the people hanged on live TV
More videos of this kind are appreciated! We really need a home solution for filament waste! Also, please discuss material degradation and the limited number of times filament can be recycled!
If you're in the US, I'll take your PLA trash. I'll cover the shipping. I make art out of it. I do upcycling (cheap), but not recycling (expensive).
i've always wanted to have a 3d printer but despised so much the idea of generating so much plastic residue, i'm glad to see some 3d print youtuber taking the interest on reducing such harmful waste.
Thats my biggest hang up too. I am glad my local filament supplier makes their own PLA and takes back scraps for recycling.
@@instanoodles wow that's so nice of them.
Please don't get a printer. The community doesn't need more cry babies.
If environmentalism is important you should only print with PLA which is made from corn starch or sugar cane. On the pollution side that only matters if you get rid of the waste in the wrong way. I could be wrong but i also believe PLA is biodegradable although not over a super short amount of time
I use Recycling Fabriks recycled filaments A LOT and I truly love this filament. I've had zero problems so far and its great to know that this is 100% recycled filament.
Thanks for sharing!
yeah...but the thing is what do you do with your waste ??
@@themountain59 easy, recycling fabrik provides shipping labels for free to their customers. They'll then use my waste to produce new filaments
They cost too much, at those prices I buy the originals
@@MauryXman Just had a look at Recycling Fabriks prices. Bundles for 18€/kg, 2.5kg spools for 18.80€/kg and the normal 1kg spools for 20€ is not cheap but still quite reasonable in my opinion. Definitely something I will consider buying in the future.
Always love these recycling videos, can't wait for this to be realistic for everyone with a more accessible version
Yeah it really annoys me that he won't make a video about recycling at a hobbyist cost level
Edit, it looks like he's going to make a video for one that's now cost friendly
I can make video of upcycling, cost of equipment is $50, though invest in good mask to protect yourself from the fumes (extra $50). But it's meticulous with poop, you need patience )))
A big problem for making this scale is being able to seperate plastics from eachother. If you're a filament recycler taking in plastic from different sources, you cant really trust that those people are giving you clean, properly sorted filament. A technology for sorting, splitting, or not caring about mixed polymers is an important step
I think another issue is likely that say ABS is not ABS is not ABS. That is I figure that one cannot just pitch their Polymaker into the same bin as their Atomic or Inland or Fusion Filaments.
They do sort plastics at recycling plants. Different plastics either have different densities that can be sorted, or absorb different wavelengths of light
Sorting is already possible, the problem is making recycling process to be cheap.
I do appreciate this line of thinking! I hope to see a stronger recycling market. No reason to allow any plastic waste.
Many monsters (Dow) of the chemical industry are working on it, but there are a lot of lies in it.
The one suggestion is to do the drying procedure after the poop has been pelletized. Since pellets are smaller, the PLA will have a greater surface area to allow water to escape.
The Filament Extruder has two air cooling fans (4:48), with one sucking in warmer air from the extruder itself. Wonder if utilizing a copper spiral coil with cold water flowing, and the hot filament passed down the centre of the spiral, air from fans would be much cooler, greatly shortening the elastic portion of filament between the extruder and the rollers, which should tighten tolerance on the filament diameter. Another option would be to pump a small stream liquid nitrogen into the area. liquid nitrogen would quickly turn into a cold gas.
Moisture was one of my first concerns. Glad you caught it! Definitely a ton of work and energy used to make this recycled filament, but still a really cool idea and result.
Part of the filament recycling process should include a hollow sink that matches the _intended_ diametre which it is pulled through and as blobs are encountered with a sensor before it, vary the speed of the outfeed to ensure the finished product is more consistent.
This can be achieved with using metal tubes encasing an induction heating coil, then controlling the temperature of that coil. Once heated and pulled through, a fan and perforated / slotted metal outfeed tube immediately cools down the plastic to lock the diametre in, and it should be a better result once spooled.
recycled material like this would be perfect for a lot of what I do, most of my prints are functional things so I really dont care what color they are or even if they are perfect so long as they are dimensionally accurate enough to do what I need.
Proof of concept is the first step, not the last. Once it can be done, it can be done better.
You are right
Recycle and get the best
This stuff is so important for the 3D printing community. Thanks for sharing your successes and failures on this.
You're very welcome
it will be so good when somthing affordable comes along and affordable for the home user. I have a feeling we will be waiting quite a few years yet.
As someone who is about to add 3D prints to my small business, this info is extremely helpful! You have probably saved me literal days of hassle and headache trying to find a way to be economic about printer waste! Thank you so much! 👍
Edit: What I meant to say was that because of your work I now realize it's far more economical for a small print business like myself to send my printer waste to someone else to make into filament, rather than struggling to try to do it myself.
You wanted to say that he proved recycling to be nonsense.
@@juliusvalentinas
No. He proved recycling to be Work, to be a large task that I severely underestimated.
Recycling is very worthwhile, I'm just not equipped to recycle my own print waste. This video helped me understand that fact before I would have wasted many days and several dollars attempting such a task.
Now I intend to send any future print waste off to be recycled by more qualified hands.
If you're in the US, I'll take your PLA trash and cover the shipping.
Well done dude, I did a master project regarding exactly that in 2015, but you have gotten a much better quality filament than I did back in the day.
its always amazing to see that you cover so many aspects of 3d printing.
I think I totally would buy recycled materials, especially if the colors were funky af. I think it's very cool to have weird colored prints, I can always paint them if I need them to be a different color!
Unfortunately, where I live, there aren't a lot of people doing 3D prints, let alone recycling! So I just have to wait for 3D printing to catch up I guess.
I am collecting my 3D printing trash until I have enough to be economical to buy a recycler. Recycler are also, slowly getting cheaper, so the two should cross eventually in value.
I half expected that you'd have to mix virgin material into the recycled material, just so that it flows better in the machine. You might be able to get a really good consistent diameter pelletizing and then mixing with some virgin material, so that the mechanical properties aren't too degraded.
I’d really like to see strength tests on the cons batch. If the coupons have roughly the same strength, I wouldn’t mind printing functional parts with it at all. Fascia and more decorative prints, I’d stick with the virgin material, but structural bits not seen by the end user, or parts I just make for the shop, I’d love a recycle option.
It would be interesting to see how combining old plastic bottles into the mix affects recycling of PET filament and how reliable the filament thickness is as a result.
PET and extrusion are not friends on the small scale.
Takk! Thanks! This was great too see
Glad you enjoyed!
Come on Bambulabs !!!!!
Hop on the recycling bandwagon.....Make it affordable and I'll be 1st in line to make that purchase
Why poops not sorted by color? :)
Idk ;)
Becuase he thinks when it poops out its too hard to sort so he didint… but i wouldve honestly ;)
It's time consuming, I sort it by hand and it takes a while (at least 10 hrs for a small batch for me).
This process is called nerling, it is very popular In LEGO.
if they could be sorted by color, then they wouldn't exist in the first place
I'm so glad this video came across my feed. I just started heavy into 3D printing. My wife got me a beginner mini printer, and I got the bug and got an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro. But with the mishaps I was having with my tiny printer not being level (it was a nightmare), I've been generating a lot of plastic waste and feeling really bad about it. So I'm glad you brought up Printerior.
Thanks for this insightful video!
Nice idea!
When you collect the poops you know which color is is (mainly) if no better solution you could monitor the motion of the filament rolls. Why don’t you sort the poops while printing? That would give you the possibility to control the resulting color better. Instead of brown you could get red, green, blue, grey or similar results.
I think Bambu should look more into ways to reduce filament waste, as well as the time taken to swap colors. While people seem to like the AMS, perhaps it is reliable, it's also one of the slowest and most wasteful ways to change colors. In the meantime, Prusa is working on a new MMU system that will hopefully be more reliable than the MMU2, as well as having a tool changer system on the XL.
Very interesting. Here's a small idea from me. Per layer, at the end, on the inside, for infill, THIS is where that last "waste" stuff should be used. But this clearly demands the slicer to be very smart and planned in regard towards this as a method. To be clear, past the start and the end OR thin sections, the infill will often take up a lot of space inside. I'd deem that a safe area to swap filament on the inside so the print can just continue. If one could code this in with some thickness parameters for when it should shred off a blob OR dispose the transition into the infill structure? Sure this would make the waste decrease significantly right? 🤔
I think there's a market for some kind of cottage industry filament recycling service. Imagine a service where you mail them boxes of your failed PLA prints (or Bambu poop) and get 'credits' based on the weight and quality of the material you send. They handle all of the sorting, shredding, and re-extrusion into new spools, and then resell them as recycled PLA. Users who mailed in material can use credits to buy spools made from the recycled material (or just buy spools with money). Could even sell rolls of filament that are partially recycled, ie) 70% recycled material, 30% virgin material, or 50/50, 20/80, etc. The biggest hurdle would be having some way of verifying and detecting the incoming material- you don't want somebody's polycarbonate benchy getting ground up and contaminating a batch of otherwise consistent PLA. ABS should theoretically be even easier to recycle, though it's not as commonly used as PLA for prints.
That's acutally exactly what we do as the Recycling Fabrik in Germany. You can send in failed prints, support structure and empty spools, we pay the shipping, you in addition collect Points for ur Scrap and use them to get the 100% recycled Filament cheaper. Win-Win-Win?! Only work in Germany at the moment tho. Greeting Jonas
I don't usually paint my prints so I do like having the different colours myself (or just print in a neutral grey). But if the end goal for someone is to paint their models then I can definitely see a recycled filament being a popular choice.
I’ve saved all my failed prints/supports/brims etc. I first run them through a wood chipper then through a P5 shredder to make the pieces smaller. Then the plan is to run them though an extruder (should arrive in the next week 🤞). I don’t care what the colour is since I’ll use all the recycled filament for prototyping.
I just started the video and that Zelda Majora’s mask is absolutely beautiful! 0:22
Well done!
We need more affordable solutions for this. Recycling and reuse is becoming more and more important as more users get into 3D printing!
True, and if you look at the viewing numbers on all the videos Stephan made on this topic you could assume there is a fairly large market to cover... just saying :-)
If you're in the USA, I'll take your trash, but to make art, not for recycling.
This seems perfect for prototyping designs without wasting so much filament.
Hope it becomes more affordable in the future!
I suggest installing a second extruder and printing internal perimeters and filling with recycled plastic. This can be done with a large nozzle to avoid clogging.
Isnt a lot of the clogging already happening before melt in the heatbreak/extruder/bowden tube? A larger nozzle alone wont help, not sure if there are hotends and extruders with explicitly larger tolerances on filament.
Honestly i like the variation in the grooves and reflection, makes it look more natural
wait is poop the actual term? I'm three days into this hobby and already decided that that is what I'm calling it but good to see the feeling is common
Yes Poop(TM) is registered by Bambulab. Other brands have to find something else in the future. Maybe like PooPoo or Pupu,, doody-doo something like that. :D
Another pro to pelletizing your first melt is that it mixes the material a second time, thus making the color more even
Would love to see this DIY filament recycle process perfected. I've been storing a bunch of failed prints and printer poops over the past couple of years because it seems like we're on the verge of a breakthrough.
If you're in the US, please ship to me. I make Upcycled art out of it. I cover the shipping. It'll help me as a woman artist/never to be scientist.
11:42 Nice; I guess it's a good thing I've been separating my different color 3D print waste into separate bags, looks like I'll have a place to send it now
When jewellers make gold wire, they pull it through a set diameter hole to conform it to that diameter. Could you pull the semi hot filament through a metal hole to ensure no lumps/bumps?
maybe but gold wire is more i guess "rigid" while hot plastic would just make a mess. Gold is easy to bend and correct (even if reheating is required) but the plastic being so thin cools too quickly and if reheated is more then likely going to make a mess rather than fix the problem :/ but thats why the machine has 2 wheels to press and shape the plastic, its not perfect but i think in a few years time there will be a more efficient way to do this. If people want something done, someone will want to get on that!
I think it's an overkill for PLA
I'm currently using 95% recycled filaments from Recycling Fabrik. The other 5% are ASA / TPU. All my PLA and PETG needs are covered with 100% recycled material that works "as new".
i think communal maker spaces need to become more widespread. this kind of thing only makes sense for industrial users or as a part of a communal project.
That would be so great to have one in every city!
5:48 you can separate them before and you'll get several colors, i think it's gonna be much better than getting just one color
your logo looks like the gancube logo
I've been printing with PLA for 4 years now and I've been separating scrap by color and storing it in totes. I'm still hoping someone in my area will be able to recycle the stuff back into usable filament one day but meanwhile the scrap pile grows larger! The good news is that as time goes on and my skills improve and printer quality is steadily improving I don't produce as much scrap as I once did. I like your ideas of extruding twice and extracting moisture; good points!
If you're in the USA, I need your PLA trash. I make art out of it and it seems people like it. I sell it locally ONLY. I cover the shipping cost. I can give you one of the art pieces as a pay back ;)
Damn the Majora's Mask print wasted more filament than it used?!
I think home filament recycling is the next big step in 3D printing.
The video starts about near 4:07
Yey thanks
@@trainspeer3100the video has segments
Many times in industry they mix shredded material with original material granules. It does help even out differences in material properties and it also helps with flow in hopper.
You should try a mix of 75% regrind and 25% virgin to start, if the flow still is not what you’d like, bump up the virgin a little.
Also, another way of catching any stray metal shreds is to place a magnet on the outside of the feed hopper, near the mouth so the metal is captured before heating.
This plastic can also be sorted before being ground, if you want to keep a uniform color in your media.
No need for this much waste
There's DEFINITELY much better ways to do multimaterial. 1.2kg of waste is INSANE
I love the new music after the intro. It feels more modern and fresh.
This is such a cool effort! Thank you for documenting your recycling process, it was such a labour of love!
This is the science that will lead to a useful invention
Absolutely! This science has the potential to spark incredible innovations. Can't wait to see where it leads and how it will change the game in the future!
"Der Weg ist das Ziel" - nice Video. Love the journey!
There was the Filastruder here in the US that looked similar to the ARTME, but they've been out of stock for a while, and I was planning on building my own extruder. I use a lot pf plastic and print a lotta big stuff, so being able to make and recycle my own plastic I think will help me cut down the cost of the hobby. Thanks for doing this series covering all your trials with extrusion!
0:40 Guten Tag to you too (I’m learning German in school and on Duolingo)
SAMEEE cause my mom and grandma are from Germany and i plan on visiting in a year :D
@8:21 Half an owl later...
Recycle! Reuse!! Repurpose!!! 👏👏👏
Loved this ❤❤❤
Refuse is the only R you need to know ;)
For most ppl that dont want to or cannot spend thousands for a recycler you can melt it all down and use molds to make stuff.
I just adore your Irish accent! sehr gut👍
Recycling Fabrik is my solution at this point.
They are the BEST. I'm a huge fan of theirs.
That green is actually quite pretty!
I used to work at a plastics molding place for car parts, every few days we'd take all the failed parts and ram them through what is basically a wood chipper, and that'd be mixed in with the new plastics. Was allways fun.
Recycling filament gets even more interesting for other materials like petg or abs as those are not bio based materials but rather oil based, so the environmental aspect is greater there. Pla is after all starch based and can be composted in a suitable composter (not that thing in your garden).
Check the latest study from Sweden, PLA is as toxic as petrochemicals :( I totally agree with the study (by female) and I don't fool people into amazingness of bio based plastic.
that's amazing, i mean for test prints or for small one this type of recycling filament is one if not the best option.
To get a perfect dimension filament, I would suggest forcing it through a set of rolling dies that set its diameter to exactly what you're after. Set up a set of rubber wheels in a push-pull config, and force it through a circular rolling die.
im literally trying different things to try and recycle/reuse/repurpuse waste extruded filament, and this shows up! Thank you for this video!
I feel like easy, affordable & effective at-home recycling solutions are on their way soon!
What an amazing and interesting video, this not only is very inspiring to see that it is possible and is quite informative on the process of recycling, but is also amazing to see that companies are willing to put in the work to recycle filament on a national scale. Hopefully other industries can learn from this.
11:09 PLA said to be eco plastic that could be used as a compost, so it's not a big deal. Anybetter rather throwing all those wastes away
I like how the printer is still progressing. Soon there will be more than one nozzle and cartridge that can replace the one being used to speed times up.
Wonder if pulling the filament through stages of Bowden tubes might help in ensuring a uniform diameter when they're being cooled.
The filament: Let me die in peace!
I don't print massively often, but right from the very first test print I ever did, every bit of waste plastic has been kept in a lidded tub, waiting for the day that recycling it could become viable at home.
It looks like we're still not quite there yet with the machines needed to get something that won't keep causing jams, but we're slowly coming closer to a workable process.
I definitely like the idea of the "pelletiser" - a similar mechanism with a robust design could make a very fine addition towards the production of reused filament in a small workshop.
I think the filament pullet mechanism might need to have rollers that also act somewhat as a mould that squashed the filament into the correct (or at least more consistent) size, cool it down immediately past there, pass that through the diameter sensor with another pair of rollers, and then spool it.
If u're in the USA, I'll take your PLA trash. I make Upcycled art from plastic and what not.
@@matildo4ka7 I'm sadly very much not in the USA, so I think taking my print trash would be an unnecessarily expensive endeavour, but thanks for the offer.
@@KingOfRedPlays if you're not in the US to cover the shipping for me will be not feasible) thank u for replying)
after seeing your video i collected bigger failed prints and started collecting all prints from then. as soon as possible i will send my waste to recycling fabrik. they are realtively near me (Niedersachsen) and i will buy rPLA now, when my existing pla is gone. thanks mate. i avoided 3d printing for years because of the waste, but now i can print with a clean conscience. thanks!
another way to call the 3d printer poop is Dremel spaghetti.
Just a thought. Mix a portion of the recycled with virgin black material. Most poop mixes will be dark anyway. Would probably give a near black color and might even help with printability.
We already divide our waste up into different plastics, and keep it in large ziploc bags with dessicant for eventual recycling. A fun idea I had was that I started to separately collect all the fails/supports/bed adhesion scrap from my various silk PLA prints to reuse in other ways. I'm experimenting with making decorative items and costume jewelry parts (like spangles or faux feather/enamel inlay bits) out of the waste. Also I'm lucky to live near a filament recycling company, in St Louis, so when we have enough, recycling will be relatively painless.
what do you think about the idea of a metal tube with a exact 1,75mm bore and sharp edges ? you could push/pull the uneven filament trough to get the excess materiall cut off? it might need to be hardened or replaced every now and then but its just an idea tho.
Amazing! Before this video I was just throwing my failed prints away, but now I am going to save them for something else! Thanks 😍😁
Run the filament into a PTFE tube/funnel right as it exits the fan cooling? Might smooth out the blobs.
The printed Majora's Mask looks awesome. It's crazy how far 3D printing has come
I've owned and used recycled material. But I've had only 1 spool of "recycled from people sending in their scraps" and maybe 3-4 spools of "filament manufacturer took their own waste and repelletized it and then re-extruded". Interestingly, most of the manufacturer recycled filament is an olive green... but I still mark it as "recycled... color may vary".
It came up elsewhere, but it really comes down to 2 things: are you trying to get filament out of it OR are you just trying to not throw the plastic out.
I know a lot want filament, but then you have the elephant in the room: money. If a filament maker can't make money, they're not gonna exist/operate. If you told someone "pay $20/kg, now spend $10 to ship the waste to this location, and then we'll send you a proportional coupon that saves you $5 off a $30/kg spool that may not be in spec and is a random color" most of them would say "no" and move on. If you had an altruistic individual/group who isn't trying to make money, then it's a different story... but I've not really seen any of those outside of "that one guy in a garage who happened to do this... but they can only handle a few KG before they're overwhelmed".
The one I'm leaning more towards is using the waste to become something else. It's really convenient to make a GridFinity bin or even a generic parts bin for some hardware store rack. But you may be printing $2 per bin, when you can buy them under $1 each. I'd much rather get a mold and then use the waste to make those bins. I know people who make figures, paver stones, etc. with it. But that's not my thing at the moment.
Is the inconsistency of the final product (after drying, etc.) a limitation of the 3devo filament extruder, or is it caused by the recycled PLA? If the latter, it would be interesting to see if adding virgin PLA pellets makes any difference.
In a world of increasingly solid state products, it’s fun to see such a mechanical process take place.
Thanks so much for sharing this! My very comment on Twitter where you showed this mask was " I want to see the poop". Thanks a ton!
My kids really loved how many times you said poop in this video 😂
This is a fantastic video ! Its a no brainer to reuse your failed prints. Indeed its a technically challenging process, but you have made a great start !
At 9:13, what other colors did you use besides white and green?
.
These videos are so important to bring to attention that this is indeed possible! In my country, we don't have any company that recycles 3D printing scraps sadly... But it could actually be doable, if the company got some grant or funding, which they often do, especially if it's related to environmental concerns, to get some good professional equipment
we have been working for several years in our lab with fully recycled filament. So the fact that it was possible has been known for a long time. It's also a lot easier if you get thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment for free
I'm curious about needing to purge so much filament. Since only the outer shell needs to be in the correct color usually, maybe there should be a setting where instead of purging, the filament is gradually transitioned from one color to the next while printing infill? 1.2 kg of purge for 0.5kg print is nuts.