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Hey guys,

Thought I would join up, I’ve been printing for a while now, but, am still learning, I like the idea of this site, and was wondering if its possible, to get a filament extruders section added in, so those whom may have a filament extruder can offer those who have lots of failed/scraps (like me) the ability to recycle it all back into usable filaments.

This presents a few issues, such as paying for postage and such, but for those who are close by, and don’t mind travelling to deliver/pick up I think it would be a very helpful thing to have available.

I know I for one would be happy to travel a bit if I could recycle my wasted prints and do my lil part for the environment!

If there is anyone in Sydney who is willing to recycle my waste filament, please let me know, I am keen to experiment with recycled filaments, and of course, am willing to pay for your services!

Thanks

Sotiri

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Hey, I sell filament on my website and was trying to think of a way to give people discounts on new filament when they ‘trade in’ there used plastic. I’m not advertising it just yet because I haven’t worked out a flat rate but check out my website and get in touch if you’re interested. Up to 20% off MADMAT 3D PRINTING Thanks Mat

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Great initiative, Sotiri, hope more people will think of recycling before throwing their failed prints away! There are no plans adding this type of services to the website, but we’ll definitely keep it in mind. In the mean time, I hope you’ll find someone in the Sydney community willing to help. Cheers

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Great idea!

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Hi Sotiri,

I have a filament extruder at 3DUniverse. So far I have just extruded from pellets. I do have a big box of waste material that I have been saving to recycle, but I don’t have anything that can shred/crush/rip it up yet. If you have any ideas I’d be all ears.

Regards,

David

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Heya David, I actually sat down with a set of aviation snips, side cutters, knife and pliers and shredded my waste materials into tiny lil bits…mine would be pretty much ready for extruding i believe.

filament shredders are expensive, it took me a while to do it, but i am pretty happy with the results. I was looking at buying a decent paper shredder and using that, but with the unusual shapes i dont think it would work without modifying the shredder…and alot of them have a piss poor limit of like 6-7 sheets…which means they wouldnt cope with plastic very well…but you could shred them like i have, then chuck a small amount at a time through it…

regards,

soti

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also, i dont think sending a few kilos of waste material to america, and then back to australia is cost effective unfortunately.

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Yeah, really need something like this:

http://filamaker.eu/product/mini-shredder/

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issue with that is its $540 australian dollars just for item, not including postage, can confidently say another $60 for postage, thats $600 for a shredder…thats alot of filament i have to recycle and sell to make money back!

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DIY plastic shredder on Instructables:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plastic-shredder-for-making-3D-printer-filament/

I may have to look into this more seriously because the wastage is piling up!

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issue with that one is to make them small enough, u’d need a way to cross cut them too, otherwise, quite a length could fall into the chamber!

can 3d print a shredder, but not sure how effective thatd be at doing the job well.