@@user-db9lz2yl7i Not 100% sure what your question is. This isn’t fully melting the plastic and extruding it (pushing under pressure). This is Pultrusion. Taking a long, precut ribbon of plastic and warming it enough to roll it over into a fairly solid tube as we’re pulling it thru a hot nozzle. Watch more of my older videos as I explain the entire process.
Thanks! Posted this from a while back. Currently rebuilding the heat block on my CR10 and the Sprite Pro extruder. Apparently the threads in the block weren’t sealed enough and tiny amounts of hot PET were leaking around the threads of the heat break and the nozzle. Gonna resolve that! 😂
Get an all metal heat-break that goes between the nozzle and the heat sink. The Ender 3 v2 can only go up to 260c and even the Capricorn PTFE tubing will burn at those temps. Whining printing PET, you’ll need to run at 258-260c (like I mentioned) and you’ll need to run super slow, like only 17-20 mm/s. Use very little parts cooling fan, like only 20%. You’ll also have to play with the retraction settings. I think I ran mine at like 6 to 8 mm.
Yeah, I don’t dry before pultruding, but if I use it to print right away, it prints fine. Pultruding is heating and pushing that moisture out. The filament I was using in this video had been sitting in my garage for about 9 months. Plenty of time to absorb more moisture.
Do you mean the large cardboard spools? There’s no ‘model’ per se. They’re just three pieces of cardboard. Two large circles that are about 390mm in diameter (with a small hole in the center), and then a rectangular strip that is about 30mm wide and about 628mm long. Take the long strip and roll it into a circle and tape the two narrow ends together (inside and outside of the circle). On one of the large cardboard circles, draw another circle that is 200mm in diameter. Then on the cardboard ring, just put a little glue on just one outside edge and line that up with the circle you just drew. Use a book or something to hold that in place while the glue dries. When dry, then put glue on the other edge of the ring and set the other large cardboard circle on that being careful to line up the two large cardboard circles. When gluing the ring (hub) to the large circles, you can use a bunch of small bits of tape to keep the ring circular and in place. Put that tape on the inside of the ring where you won’t see it when it’s all assembled.
@@Legotechniccustoms well, that’s sort of a loaded question. There are lots of printers to choose from and you first have to consider your needs and what you want to be able to do with it. You may want to look at Amazon returned printers that you can buy on eBay. Price is good, but there could be things missing or potentially wrong with the printer. And yeah, Amazon also has plenty to printers to shop from.
Thanks! With an Ender 3 your max temp is only 260C. Not ideal as PET needs to print very hot. But you can print at 255-260C if you run at just 15-17mm/s. Very slow. And your parts fan should only be about 20-25%.
Hey man, I like what you did here. I have no idea how you made everything that you used in this video to get to the final product but I do like that you are doing this. Keep making these videos!
Thanks! Yeah, this was one of my older videos. But I continue to create 3D printer filament from plastic bottles and do videos about that process. Have you seen any of my more recent videos? I just dropped some yesterday where I created a large rainbow multi-colored vase using these same techniques! 😮
Yeah I've been looking through a few of your videos. I like that you are both recycling and saving money at the same time. I'm curious of the durability of the filament you end up with and if your prints are staying together or do they start separating? Also, are they holding color fairly well over time?
@@Zizarkis1 PET is super strong and the prints hold up really well over time and the colors stay fast. In the windshield of my truck I have a shade screen that is held closed with some neodymium magnets incases in small PET enclosures. Those have been in my window for well over 4 years in the HOT Arizona sun and they’re in perfect condition. And still as green as the day I printed them! I’d out PET up against PETG or PLA any day as far as strength and durability. And there are different methods for coloring. Permanent markers are very popular. But I’ve also used Polyester Dye and even recently used India Ink applied with a small felt pad. The color is amazing and is SO much faster to apply than using a marker!
Thanks! This is one of the tallest prints I’ve done with PET1 to date. I used a .8mm nozzle on my CR10 v3 with Sprite Pro extruder. Sliced line width was .86mm and then cranked the flow rate to 120%, so I got a nice thick single wall in vase mode. 😊
Kev - you're in our Recreator3D discourd group, yes? Pretty sure I've seen you kicking around? Trying to keep track of names, screen names among all the platforms. Is your model available to share to the community?
Just what the heck are you talking about? I’ve been converting plastic bottles to usable PET filament and successfully printing 3D objects for several years. And these aren’t ‘repackaged’! This is my own video! That’s me in the video. So you just best do your own research before you go running off at the mouth.
Go take a look at all the videos I've published about this technique. I explain the entire process, even how to 3D print with it. So, this sort of makes YOU look dumb (or at the very least, quite ignorant.) There are hundreds of people that do this Pultrusion processing of recycled PET1 plastic bottles. Would you like for me to refer you to about a dozen or so?
I have the models in TinkerCAD, but I don’t think I ever recorded the electronic part numbers or did a schematic for it. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone else would be interested in it. That, and I often get questioned as to why I color the inside of the bottle instead of the outside. And yes, I have a very practical reason for it…. I color the inside, and when I feed the ribbon into the Pultruder I make sure the ribbon gets rolled into a tube with that colored portion going to the inside of the completed filament. That way the ink from the markers is INSIDE the filament, not on the outside where it could contaminate my hot-end. That way I don’t get blobs of color when I’m printing with clear filament (for example).
@@KevinGroninga3D I understand, I asked you if you have or would release the models because sometimes it helps someone (like me) who doesn't know how to model. Thanks!
Looks like you’re enjoying having the time to work on fun projects! I like the bottle turner. You think like I do, coming up with projects to make other projects easier.
Looks great Kevin. Quality came out good, those nasty boogers happen now and again :( I try to stick around .6mm no higher as it becomes a waste of the PET1 to make up for the speed. A .2 nozzle would take less material but go slower and risk possible debris clogs. .4m ends up in my logic being best bang among time vs filament use.
I have a large vase mode vase in mind and want that single wall to be as thick as possible. So this was a test run to see if I had my print profile settings correct to use this .8mm nozzle. Later I’m going to do a vid on the little machine I made to slowly rotate my bottles while I use a marker to color the inside. Gonna do 5 bottles, about 75 meters..
@@KevinGroninga3D Look forward to your antics regardless of my opinion :) Don't stop the train my friend! Keep up the great work experimenting! You're a good influence to the community!
@@KevinGroninga3D it's nothing crazy. It's something homemade just to test the concept. I'm looking online to see if I can find some good open source plans to build a nice one eventually.
@@phillipremondini5617 have you looked at the Recreator3D MK5 on Printables.com? It uses a lot of parts from an old Ender 3 printer. These can be found pretty cheap.
@@phillipremondini5617 I built two of those, but made a LOT of mods to their current design, even created my own Marlin firmware to run on it. $50 for an old Ender 3, and then maybe another $50 for other various hardware. But they work pretty well!
Hmm, I printed mine in PETG, but I think it will also be acceptable to use PLA. You might want to reach out to the designer (Stephano Lunazzi) and ask for his recommendation.
Hi, I'm the designer of this machine. You can print in PLA the parts that don't touch the motors or the heated parts, but petg, pet or abs are recommended.
Higher temp helps, especially if you want to go faster or use strong cooling to avoid crystallization in heat-dense sections and get great overhangs. I'm running 290+ °C at 280+ mm/s.
Kevin, it looks cool. Qq I came across thick PET bottles (Kirkland brand) that I cannot process using my Petalot. Do you know what brands are ok for thickness? I'm trying to source material from my community, but I think it's better to know what to source first.
Based on the thickness of the plastic, you need to vary the width of the ribbon. How thick is the plastic for these Kirkland bottles? There’s a mathematical calculation for this. In my video here, my bottles are .3mm thick, so calculated width is 8mm. However, you generally want to be about .5mm narrower than that. I cut my bottles at just over 7.5mm wide.
I didn’t show a Pultruder in this video. What I showed was an automated filament joiner called the Slunaz FF1R. I showed the name right in the video. You’ll have to Google to find out where to buy the kit ti build it. It’s not free for download.
Hello everything is fine? Have you ever thought of or seen something weld the PETG right after they are filleted from the bottles? I ask because I have several small bottles of mineral water, so the process of transforming the fillet into 1.75 filament is very slow, after which I still have to do several solders, as you did brilliantly here. If I already welded it before turning it into filament, I wouldn't need this step, of course it would be done before, but it would save a lot of time. Thanks!
I have seen people splice their ribbons before recessing them through their Pultruders, but I don’t recommend that as the spliced ribbon could get stuck in the nozzle because there is too much plastic to pull through that small hole. But I do absolutely recommend you look into an automatic filament welding machine called the ‘Slunaz FF1R’. I’ve been using one I bought and built for about 2 months now and it’s incredible! It will weld the completed filament sections together and the weld joints it makes are incredibly strong. Just search for ‘Slunaz FF1R’ right here on RU-vid, or go back on my recent videos and you’ll see I posted a demonstration of how it works.
@@KevinGroninga3D Hello, I saw the machine in your video, unfortunately I can't buy it and bring it to Brazil, my reality is sad. I'm releasing the filaments like you in this video, that's all I can do. Thanks for your attention!
iDye Poly (polyester dye) must be used while the water it hot and it will actually penetrate into the PET ribbon. This India Ink is just swabbed on with a small piece of felt while it’s cold and it does NOT penetrate into the plastic, just merely dries on the surface. But after this test with the magenta color, I’m quite happy with the results! Super fast to swab on, it didn’t bead up on the plastic and in the end, it made a nice consistent color. What do you think of the color?
@@lajoyalobos2009 that was the Dr. Ph. Martin’s ‘magenta’. I’m excited to try some of the other colors now! And to design a 3D printed handle to hold the little felt sections at the end.
Awesome documentation Kevin, Thanks for working with and showcasing The Recreator3D! Look forward to future videos! Keep up your awesome progress! I've been enjoying watching your efforts the last couple years. Great projects!
I’ve made two Recreator3D MK5’s, and both have a number of mods to your design that I found to be helpful. For example, I’ve made the hub of the spool larger and it’s reinforced (side to side) with 6 sections of all-thread. Prior to that change, I had a very difficult pull that actually broke the threads between the large gear and the hub. I also reversed the direction of the spool so that the filament wraps underneath instead of up and over the top. These two changes prevent the filament from having such a tight wind around the spool. When I take the filament off, it straightens out instead of being in a tight coil. In any case, any time someone asks about my Pultruders, I always point them to your project on Printables and let them know how easy it is to build one from an old Ender 3.
It’s just a small piece of felt that I binder clipped to a scrap piece of acrylic. This was my first test using this India Ink. To be honest, I’m pleasantly surprised at how well this works and how quick it is to color the inside of these bottles! Normally I use Sharpie brand permanent markers. But these soda bottles are far too small to get my hand inside of. So I did a little research and found that India Ink could be used. And best of all, this ink is water soluble! 😊
@@skydude426 my neighbor has it now. I think he did a cocktail weenie with it. I’ll have to ask him. I think he took it into his work, where it sits alongside some other medieval devices I 3D printed for him, like a crossbow, a ballista, and a penny catapult. 😅
😂. I only do that when I use the small soda bottles that my hand won’t fit inside of. I also use some larger 1-gal water bottles, and I color the inside of those before I cut them into strips. Way more time efficient! Speaking of which…. And you’ll love this…. I just recently made an Arduino Nano and stepper motor powered bottle ‘turner’. After prepping the bottle and cutting off the bottom, I screw it back into a cap that been attached to the shaft of the stepper. It then begins slowly turning, and while that’s happening, I use a marker and make small circles inside the bottle, starting at the neck and working my way down to the bottom. A real time saver! Hahahahhaa!!
@@KevinGroninga3Dwow , you truely are the chosen one ! Lol I recently made the machine too , and tuned the proceses to be very efficient but i still dont like doing it cause it take some time to wash the bottles & also i haven't found a reliable way of joining the filaments toghether . Have you tried slushing alchohol ink inside the bottle & letting it dry before cutting instead of sharpying it ? Personally i'm not intrested in coloring the filament but if i had , i would've gave it a try .best regards bud
@@thevoidedwarranty I tried alcohol ink one time, but it didn't work very well. However, polyester dye works great! I bought a product called 'iDye Poly' on Amazon. I then took the coiled-up ribbon and soaked it in that warm dye, then rinsed and pultruded. The color is absolutely fantastic! I've done Crimson Red and Royal Purple and both were very rich in color! As for joining sections.... I recently bought a Slunaz FF1R automatic filament joiner by being a backer on a KickStarter campaign. That machine is fully automatic and does an absolutely fantastic job of making solid, strong welds. it makes the job of joining multiple sections and winding them up on a spool a veritable pleasure. SO EASY!
@@KevinGroninga3D sounds great ,but we dont have international shipping or ebay or any sites of that kind to by stuff . What i personally make is what i get . I'll figure something out for the joining
The bottle cutter you see here I made myself. But you can buy ones just like it on Etsy. It uses two sharpened bearings. The thing on top of the bottle is just a weight that I made to hold the bottle down as I cut so that the ribbon stays a consistent width. As far as a printer for PET, you’ll want one that can do up to 300c (I print PET at around 275c) and it’s best if it’s a direct drive printer. Do NOT use the old style Bowden tube hot ends where the Bowden tube actually touched the back of the nozzle!!! At these temperatures. The PTFE in the tube will burn and off-has, which is very dangerous to breath. Instead use a direct drive hot-end with an ‘all metal’ heat break.
@@KevinGroninga3D thank you sir 🙏 I have the cutter already, I just cannot perfect it yet lol I got it from Raúl (function3d). I have Creality 3 v2 and I think what you're suggesting applies to it. I'll try to get direct setup for it then. Thank you for being amazing human🙏🙏🙏
@@matildo4ka7 yes, I know Raul! I see his videos over on TikTok all the time. As for the Ender 3 v2…. They will only go up to 260c, it’s the top limit in the firmware. The stock Ender 3 v2 also uses a Bowden tube that goes all the way to the back of the nozzle. You’d have to change that and replace the heat-break with an all-metal heat break, the type where only the break itself touches the nozzle and the Bowden tube is never exposed to high temps. Now having said that, you can make the Ender 3 v2 print PET, but you have to print and really, really slow speeds.
