I was thinking that the set up cost about as much as you looked up. PLUS the workflow here is a man hour labor cost. So it's not only the cost of equipment to do this but the time involved to "EVENTUALLY" come up with a spool of usable filament. BUT it would really be nice to be able to reclaim failed parts and recycle. It really would be nice.
Do you understand how complicated the process is for manufacturing plastics to begin with? Even with all the inefficiencies this set up is probably still greener than petroleum plants.
It's cus unlike metals we can't just melt it all into a puddle of molten material without releasing tonnes of harmful chemicals or degrading the material
How is this recycling? You can recycle glass with 100% efficiency - That's recycling... With plastic you MUST add 30-50% of new plastic - This isn't recycling, it's remanufacturing.
Here is what i do, i use an air gun to melt the cut up and scraps of 3D prints into a metal mold of a brick to store them, though i plan to try making 4by4's at some point if i get enough, probably mixed with river sand to make it stronger.
@@monev44thats because you were lmao, burning plastic releases toxic fumes, if you arent doing it outside then you should wear an approved gas mask, and even depending on the quantity and duration might still wanna get that mask if you do it outside.
Some one should partner with Cura or whatever slicer and provide a free service(maybe just pay shipping) to take in scrap print material. (separated by type of plastic of course) the way the would profit is by selling the recycled spools. 🤷🏻♂️just an idea
I like the thought, and personally, I think we need to tackle the waste problem with 3d printers. I think there would be more net harm to the planet doing it this way. Plastic is hauled off in massive recycling trucks, which makes their transportation as efficient as it realistically can be. Having people ship plastic, especially in the quantities a hobbiest would use would be pretty inefficient in the best scenarios and even worse if people bought new packaging for it. I'd like to see more things like the filament machine that is low cost and takes in cut-up 2 liter soda bottles to make into PET filament. It's an unfortunate reality that not many people realize even the majority of our plastic recycling that goes to the local trash company never makes it to anything other than a landfill eventually. I think we need to look at 3d printers as possibly recycling more than just used filament, but also recyclables from our everyday life. Also, as someone mentioned, that machine was 30k, but what gives me hope is that not too long ago, so were the most entry-level 3d printers when they were exclusively in the hands of companies. If the retail consumer wants the technology enough, i'm sure a company like creality would make one.
@@ICEWALRUS all valid points and I totally agree. My intuition imaged comparable shipping carbon impact as Amazon or UPS as they are services already in rout to the area anyway🤷🏻♂️ I have seen the DIY plastic bottle filament extruders people have made. For the average hobbyist I feel it would be too much of a hassle that’s why I suggested a hero step up to take on the task. I have never worked with PET but personally when I’m getting a filament it is often for the mechanical characteristics. That’s why I alternately considered a service to take in and grind up the scraps and make back into filament with a linear screw extruder or even injection molding. Some one optimized into that sort of thing.. but your right, we should be sourcing our materials from plastics all around us. I was disappointed to see that even what we do chose to recycle just ends up in a land fill anyway. I saw something about that not too long ago.
Great in theory but with how much contaminates can be easily introduced in the logistics to it including the original end user not ensuring what they are recycling is clean, there's no way you'll get out a high quality recycling output and enough revenue to cover the cost. You essentially will get greenwashing while the plastics will have to be thrown away due to high contamination. That's why this video shows a in-house built solution for 3D print farms because they can reduce the contaiminates in the process and ensure a high quality recycled spool. Most recycling in general in the world is garbage due to contaimination.
A simpler way is to burn the PLA in a controlled environment to extract energy and produce CO2, then grow a plant to convert the CO2 back into lactic acid and re-polymerize it.
One time at my work we had to repair these lube boxes for like a metal wire pulley it’s kinda cute seeing a time plastic version of that giant machine I had to crawl through with a grinder and cut off wheel
This is definitely expensive equipment. I work with extenders at work for heat based adhesives, and I was surprised to see the screw pulling in the plastic which is much like our extruder pulling in resin with its screw. Those machines costs several thousands of dollars and almost do the same thing, we have a dye which turns it into a flat film about 16” wide. This is basically extruding into a filament. Pretty cool.
Yo my man, just an fyi when you put your hand in all those plastics I would be careful because I've gotten some splinters from those before and let me tell you they are not fun. So i would just recommend wearing like a thin glove or something. Cheers!
The amount of initial setup cost plus running this, and the price of Filament has never being so cheap, why not just melt them into silicone molds and sell them on
There is a method for converting bottles into filament directly. It is way simpler than this method but results in a hollow tube of filament. None of these are cost-effective yet. I have boxes of failed prints and supports I've been saving. Hopefully someday soon I can have a local place to take it to My alternative idea was to just melt it into solid sheets and use those somehow perhaps as shelves
You guys should start a business where people send you unwanted 3-D printed parts and you guys can recycle it for a certain amount of money and send it back to them
I've been prototyping new versions of products and can send you a hefty bucket of PLA if you want or need more source material! Hell, I'd pay for a couple spools of recycled made from my parts; they don't even need to be uniform color filament in the end.
You can definitely do that! In fact a water bath would have a higher cooling capacity. The issue is that you would need a chiller ($$) to circulate the water through to remove the heat
I legitimately want to know what the purpose of recycled filament is? Unless you exclusively use one type of filament, like PLA or PET, you now have a filament that is a random mix of various other filaments with different characteristics that can't be predicted, and it's almost always a dark gray or black, meaning it's only really going to work for projects were contrast or color isn't really necessary. I can't imagine there's a market to resell it, and I'm not sure what parts you would want to use it on other than experimental ones, so I legitimately don't understand what the purpose of spending all of the time and money on a recycling system is when you end up with an inferior end result that doesn't really save you any money in the long run. It's a lot like reloading spent brass. Unless you spend thousands of dollars on the highest end reloading equipment, making it as efficient as possible, it's never really going to save you enough money to be worth it. You're better off just buying new filament or buying new ammo
I’ve had ideas towards reusing old 3D printed waste parts, and I want to know if it’s possible to melt parts into molds? I think it would be possible to run a 3D printer with PLA “hot glue sticks.” I’m sure there’s issues but maybe you have some insight?
I was wondering if you could use two drills with drill bits to shred up the old prints? I was gonna try it i just haven't gotten around to it so if anyone knows it would be much appreciated if you could tell me
A, How much does this setup cost? B, How much electricity does it take to recycle this? C, Taking into account the previous two points, for how long/how much filament would you have to recycle a day to turn this setup into a net gain?
When i get more scraps im gonna attempt to make kydex style plastic sheets in the oven. Id already have more than enough but my wife threw away all my scraps when we moved last month
Too much energy and resources, thats non viable for the average consumer, just send the scrap material to those who can recycle the materoal for you and pay them for the service.
