The best advice i have for the filastruder is to finely chop your pieces and sieve them.
Recycling 3d printed parts is typically a multi step process and there aren't many ways to get around it (unless you have deep pockets)
My method is something like this:
1. break large dense parts apart with a hammer or similar (wood chipper?)
2. I use a blendtec blender to break the larger parts into smaller parts (while also adding water to keep the bearings cool)
3. Dry the now pulverized parts in the oven at 170f for a few hours and allow to cool.
4. Sieve, then re-grind the large pieces and sieve again.
5. Re-dry all regrinds in oven at 170f for 8 hours
6. Extrude all material with a large nozzle (diameter isn't of concern see step 7)
7. After extruding all the material, chop it up again in the blender (basically compounding at this point)
8. Re-dry the material again for 8 hours at 170f.
9. Re-extrude to final size using new "chopped pellets" from step 6.
10. Done
The main idea is to keep the screw from pinching the material at the feed throat. Making the pieces small keeps this from happening, but will load the screw pretty well and cause the motor to work hard, hence the larger nozzle (and possibly higher extrusion temp)
Extruding the smashed parts, allows one to make new non-uniform filament for the sole purpose of making new "pellets" to extrude in a more uniform way.
In order to make consistent new(ish) filament, you need it in pellet form to avoid stacking in the screw (and compression).
The filastruder is a capable machine, but for recycling old prints, its not really the best. Even modern industrial machines have issues doing this.
Feel free to reach out to me here, or you can email me directly at:
anthony.kaul (at) fusionfilaments (dot) com
