1 Topic by BurningRingOfFire

  • BurningRingOfFire
  • BurningRingOfFire
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  • From: Secure Bunker, Nebraska
  • Registered: 2015-08-30
  • Posts: 58

Topic: Material Wishlist (Or Has Anyone...??)

We have a filistruder that we use for recycling PLA mis-prints from 12 printers,  works great for this application. 

The time has come for us to dabble with making "other" materials for printing.   

My background is injection molding (a lifetime worth) -- I am aware there is an enormous variety of material out there to work with.     We built a set of material driers for our one (1) injection molding press (itty-bitty Arburg 55-75 ton clamp), so we are all set there...       I have literally a ton of HDPE,  a half ton of a talc-filled PP material,  various grades of this and that and some really exotic stuff.


In a nutshell so I don't duplicate efforts as I post... has anyone worked with the following:

  • Impact Modified Nylon (Zytel ST801 series)

  • ISOPLAST Rigid TPU

  • Delrin or other Acetal compounds

  • Talc-Filled PP

  • Mineral-Filled HDPE

  • LLDPE

  • Liquid Crystal Polymer

  • Noryl GTX (polyphenylene ether polymer (PPE))

  • VELOX (polybutylene terephthalate)


After the holidays and my Christmas Bonus clears we'll be getting a second Filistruder and Winder so we can experiment.

   The ones that interest the community are the ones we will attempt first, the more mundane stuff we'll leave undocumented for now.

MonoPrice Mini Select,  Orion Delta, HeartlessTech I3 2020, TWO Taz-5,  8 Wanhao Clones
Filistruder (Operational)  (Scanners RMA'd Due To Missing Components)
Benchtop Molding Press,  Arburg All-Arounder IMM,   Bridgeport ProTrac, Monarch 10EE Lathe,  Light Machine CNC Mill & Lathe
(THIS IS JUST MY HALF OF THE WORKSHOP MUAHAHAHAHA)

2 Reply by genesat1

  • genesat1
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  • Registered: 2015-04-26
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Re: Material Wishlist (Or Has Anyone...??)

That specific TPU no, but I have extruded TPU before.  Extruding went easy, printing was the hard part - I looked up ISOPLAST Rigid TPU and it seems it's more rigid then the TPU I used - which is good, means it SHOULD print easier.

I used regular PP, and it extruded fine - you will probably need to drill out an extra nozzle to a larger size though (it doesn't expand like say ABS, so when the default 1.6mm nozzle is used you end up with filament that is <1.6mm)  For printing it won't even begin to stick to normal print surfaces, but it will stick to cheap polypropylene packing tape (just make sure it isn't polyester packing tape).

Delrin will stick to a raft printed in PLA - just about the only thing I could get it stuck to.  It warped so heavily on me that the pieces would end up tearing themselves apart before they would finish printing.

3 Reply by joba

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Re: Material Wishlist (Or Has Anyone...??)

I have been working with#2 HDPE and have and a lot of success making filament with the precious plastics set up. I am thinking to switch to the Filastruder which is why I am posting in this forum. I shred the plastic and put it into the extruder at 130 C and it comes out clean and the winder I have is not automatic but for the most part the filament is printable using an ultimaker extended 2. For printing, the temperatures Ive had success with are between 227-234 C with speeds at 2800 mm/min. No heated bed, Ive been using an HDPE cutting board, which sticks better than anything else Ive used and have gotten away without a raft on some parts. It shrinks like crazy and the retraction needs some work but for the most part it prints and its basically free so fine by me.

I am looking to change to the filastruter for more precision and control while making the filament because the problem I am having is I cant get more than a few meters at a time to extrude consistently, which is why there are gaps in the image. I am looking to find out if HDPE, PET, and PP all work well with the filastruder and winder.

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