1 Topic by SvdSinner

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  • Registered: 2015-04-27
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Topic: Is home extruding worth it?

Although relatively new to this, I am starting to burn through filament fast enough to wonder if there is any real return on investment with a DIY filament extruder beyond being able to make custom colors in any size batch I want.

Since I am blessed with a decent fabrication shop, and lots of spare parts, I figure I could make a DIY extruder for roughly $100.  Or I could spring for a filastruder for $300ish.

I haven't seemed to find any uber-cheap source of pellets.  Lowest I've seen is ~$4/lb (~$9/kg) for ABS.  Add in masterbatch colorant and waste from testing/samples/failures/waste and it looks like consumables would run $10-12/kg.

Looking around on Amazon, there are regularly ~$20 specials on brand name ABS 1KG spools.

So, it would take 10-15kg of filament just to break-even.  (At my pace, that's about a year's worth.)

Assuming 10hrs of initial build time, and 1 hr per KG, after 2 years, I'd have only paid myself $100 for 25hrs of work -- less than minimum wage.  (And that is assuming no maintence time or cost over the two years.)

Are their benefits of home extrusion that I'm missing here?  Are their sources of lower cost pellets that would make this compelling?  Or have filament sale prices taken the value out of home extrudors?

(NOTE:  I'm a maker at heart, so finding a reason to build one would be cool, but not at sub-minimum wage.)

Also, has anybody successfully made one of these work as a group buy at a makerspace?  The numbers look much better if costs are split between multiple makers and the machine would get more usage -- IF sharing costs wouldn't be painful to organize.

2 Reply by FelixP

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

You're not alone in this observation. I think a home extrusion setup would be a good value if you want to make filament that is not ABS or PLA (which is a project I plan to start on as soon as I have my printer properly working). If you're just going to make ABS and PLA, the value just isn't there.

3 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

Your time estimates are off. It takes about 2 hours to build and 10 minutes per kg.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
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4 Reply by widespreaddeadhead

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

I just moved from Ames, IA. Are you studying at ISU?

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5 Reply by cor5151

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

i thinky u mean 10hrs per kg, but anyway that varies to and have done it in under 1/2 that time with some materials.

It really depends on how you look at it, if your a diy type and how far you want to take your printing, and how much you plan to print.
think of it as an introduction to polymer extrusion.

+'s Custom colors! Cheaper filaments, Cool factor of diy, more options for materials, recycling possibility.

-'s Time consuming, learning curve, waste material(could be recycled) , not as easy or simple as just ordering rolls..
color variations sometimes(depends on masterbatches and mix ratios) but this is something i like.

Now for me its been great owning one and would say if your going this route get a winder to, its worth it.

The investment may seem large, but once you start making material with good results ( pretty easy with abs/pla)  it starts to pay for itself.

i've had mine over a year and it has easy saved me the cost of the machine and winder with how much i've printed and gave me the freedom to now worry about materials.

also in the past 2-3 days i've made over 1kg of some nice clear PC, 1kg of HIPS, some HDPE, Nylon6 and on the better half of about a kg of 1/4pc 3/4abs mix i'm trying and its turning out great to.

printing with them some of the might be a challenge but that's what learning's for.

6 Reply by xwl

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

Can home extruder produce filaments with the same consistency and diameter accuracy as the commercial filaments? Maybe producing filaments at home is not a good ideal since low quality filaments may ruin your printed works.

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7 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

The Filastruder + Filawinder can produce filaments with tolerances of +/-0.01mm, which is better than nearly all commercial filament on the market.

Filastruder - the robust, inexpensive filament extruder
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8 Reply by TheBaron

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Re: Is home extruding worth it?

elmoret wrote:

The Filastruder + Filawinder can produce filaments with tolerances of +/-0.01mm, which is better than nearly all commercial filament on the market.

There is something to be said for small batch artisan-made goods. I've been to some plastic extrusion shops over the years and the sheer volume and speed is astonishing. That they can get the tolerances that they do is amazing, but taking it slow and steady is the way to go if you want quality.

It's like the difference between bread from a bag or bread from a bakery!

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