[ Closed ] Filament Extruder - Convert pellets to filament (Page 47 of 58)

justnick - good to hear! Especially with the recent Kickstarter success, it is comforting to know people are having good experiences. That hopper was printed on a original Solidoodle 2 with Filastruder filament - no mods to the printer or filastruder, so it is what you should expect in terms of print quality.

Most printer hotends use teflon on both the insulator and the thermocouple leads. The filastruder uses it only on the thermocouple leads. I think because the mass of the teflon insulation is so small, any resulting PFOA will also be very small.

Anyway - I knew about PFOA and teflon, but it seems like it has widespread use in industry so I assumed the amount offgassed would be very small. There are people with birds in the same room as the Solidoodle without issues. Having said that, it's best to use the filastruder in a well-ventilated area, of course.

Rob's been hard at work up in the frozen tundra of Canada, cleaning up the CAD assembly:

Nothing to click through, and right click/save as works fine. Not sure why anyone would want to save it anyway, it's a draft.

Hi all,

I've been following the Kickstarter comments and find it interesting how many of the backers seem concerned by the bits of work they have to do to a kit (drill a hole in the nozzle, find a piece of wood, etc).

I personally am glad than Tim has decided to keep the costs of the kit down by getting the buyer to source some of the bits.  This is still a lot better than me trying to source everything (and probably spending more as Tim will be getting volume discounts), so I will happily tackle a bit of sourcing/work myself to save some money and get the Filastruder in on lower budget.

The rest of this post is no reflection on the Filastruder, as I think all bases are covered, however:

It kind of blows my mind how little people read before putting down their cash on things.  There are a number of comments along the lines of "Do I need to drill a hole, how am I going to do that?" and "What else isn't included?", and in each case the response is: "Read the home page, it says it all!!".

This probably explains why there are so many people out there complaining about 3D Printer kits and parts, etc, when they simply didn't do their research and make sure they got something that was properly researched and that met their needs.

I have been following this Filastruder topic for a few months now and have read every single post and probably every article/page that anyone has linked to.  This means I know how much good research has gone into the Filastruder, and I also know that it isn't (and never intended to be) a fully industrial level piece of kit.

Thanks again for the hard work to Tim, Allan, OSPrinting & let's not forget, the Beta Testers!!!.

Craig

I go over to defcad all the time people will come in and ask what would be the best printer for them. Then when you ask what do you intend to do with it they don't know or are embarased lol

for anyone wondering the sd3 is the perfect size to print an ar lower or a 30rd magazne. i won't guarantee how well it prints but you can do it

Maybe include a pre cut board for an extra $50

Tried it, hopper splits open, among other issues. I printed with 10mm thick, 100% infill walls.

Maybe you'll have better luck!

Any pictures?

I thought Bob's plastic soda bottle hopper was worth a look.  My concern with Bob's method is if the opening for the pellets to fall through is too small and would jam.  I think the slotted pipe in the Filastruder currently gives a larger opening for the pellets.  I have no experience though, so I don't know if the soda bottle trick would work for the Filastruder setup.  It would still need a way to adapt it to the top of the pipe.  Perhaps a small printed adapter, or...

It would be a big part, but I am thinking the walls could be pretty thin and they'd pick up some support from the all thread/standoffs.  Just have to give the pellets enough room to dance. Probably don't need 1.5" of exposed auger pick up surface like in the beta. since pellets would be feeding from all sides.

My concern would be that the pellets would not be as organized going into the end of the pipe compared to how well they get lined up with the slot.    Might have to try it this weekend.

Bulk machined pipes would be a plus for KS.  Good to hear people's feedback.

Plan to provide at end of campaign. It's possible they might change, there's no point in someone printing them 2 months before they could possibly have a kit in their hands.

You know the people on the board, Tim, first-rate headstarters!  If I hadn't ordered the full build I'd be clamoring for the STLs too.  As it is, I'm glad I ordered what I did.

On a second note:  2 nozzles included for the Full build is an excellent thought as I'm going to be switching between 1.75 and 3 for the 3doodler.  Will a guide be available for build your own nozzles so that I can create backups?