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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Filastruder → How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?
How would one go about extruding pla without a filawinder? I have heard that it is very difficult to nearly impossible extrude pla without a filawinder so what would be the best method to make sure I get a consistent diameter of filament without a filawinder? I'm currently using a vertically/wall mounted filastruder.
Anyone? please...
It is possible, but more difficult. You'd want to:
- Make sure the PLA is totally dry, with a food dehydrator or similar
- Potentially add cooling in the form of more fans
- Ensure the filament cannot touch anything (like a wall) on the way to the floor. This will likely involve building something to offset the unit from the wall instead of mounting it directly to the wall.
It is possible, but more difficult. You'd want to:
- Make sure the PLA is totally dry, with a food dehydrator or similar
- Potentially add cooling in the form of more fans
- Ensure the filament cannot touch anything (like a wall) on the way to the floor. This will likely involve building something to offset the unit from the wall instead of mounting it directly to the wall.
Awesome! I have a old CPU fan that I can use that runs around 100 CFM so that should work. I'm also in my basement so I can mount the filastruder from the ceiling and I can probably find an old food dehydrator somewhere in the basement. Any recommendations on how high to put the filastruder? My setup is for a 3 millimeter diameter. Thank you so much for the help!
P.S I would like to have a filawinder but I currently don't have $170 to spend. I just want to get something working until then.
elmoret wrote:It is possible, but more difficult. You'd want to:
- Make sure the PLA is totally dry, with a food dehydrator or similar
- Potentially add cooling in the form of more fans
- Ensure the filament cannot touch anything (like a wall) on the way to the floor. This will likely involve building something to offset the unit from the wall instead of mounting it directly to the wall.Awesome! I have a old CPU fan that I can use that runs around 100 CFM so that should work. I'm also in my basement so I can mount the filastruder from the ceiling and I can probably find an old food dehydrator somewhere in the basement. Any recommendations on how high to put the filastruder? My setup is for a 3 millimeter diameter. Thank you so much for the help!
P.S I would like to have a filawinder but I currently don't have $170 to spend. I just want to get something working until then.
Did you have any luck extruding PLA? I do have a filawinder, but the filament tolerances for PLA are still way off to be considered usable filament. I tried piece of the filament I made on my Prusa I3 and seemed to work fine for a while, until it got stuck in the printer's nozzle.
I saw on another post that you're not using a Filastruder, it might be worth explaining your setup a bit.
Dehydrating the material is very important. Also there are a few different PLA success stories in the DIY Filament Materials subforum.
I saw on another post that you're not using a Filastruder, it might be worth explaining your setup a bit.
Dehydrating the material is very important. Also there are a few different PLA success stories in the DIY Filament Materials subforum.
My extruder looks pretty much the same as a filastruder, with the only difference that I'm using a 110v band heater, a windshield wiper motor and a motor controller to regulate the extrusion speed. I based my extruder on Ian McMill's design on Instructables. I do pre-dry the pellets before trying to extrude filament, and I let the filament make a "loop" between the extruder and the filawinder. I saw a post from @agilliam showing some beautiful PLA filament extrusion results but didn't post any details regarding temp of anything he did to achieve that consistency. I guess I'll just keep playing with it until I fine tune my settings.
I think it would be a good idea to more fully elaborate on your setup, photos, etc. Things like nozzle design, cooling, etc all make a difference. Posting in the Filastruder forum without explaining otherwise will lead folks to assuming you're using a Filastruder, resulting in less applicable advice.
Here's a few of those posts I was referring to:
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/7470/pla-4043d/
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8530/pla-100-regrind/
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8529/pla-4043d/
All Filastruder users, all +/-0.05mm.
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