[ABS] - MG94 + Regrind ABS

*Regrind is granulate of old filament bits or failed prints. The granulate is usually all MG94, but can sometimes get GP35 bits in too*
**Virgin material is new pellets**

Extruder type: Standard Filastruder with 1.75mm melt filter, full barrrel insulation, hopper shaker, and vertical setup with winder.

Printer type: SD2, E3D v6, Bulldog XL, RUMBA + DRV8825, LCD, Glass bed, and Lawsy's Carraiges.

Extrusion temperature: 186°C
Extrusion rate without colorant: 9-12 inches per minute.
Extrusion rate with colorant: 2-10
Average diameter of filament: 1.72mm
Tolerances: + or - 0.03mm
Comments: One hurdle a user face when attempting to recycle ABS, is granulation (breaking apart of failed prints) and pelitizng (chopping up of filament). I use an industrial granulator to grind up my prints, and the last few posts on this thread have more info on the granulator http://www.soliforum.com/post/67277/#p67277. As for pelitizing filament, I use this http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6997/hig … elletizer/. When mixing granulate, the ratio is 80% virign material to 20% regrind. When mixing pelitzed filament, you can use 100% pelitized filament. I add black colorant pellets to hide any imperfections in color caused by regrind. Most of the standard tips and tricks for MG94 apply for extruding a virgin + regrind mix. I got my MG94 from http://3dsupplysource.com/.

Comparison to commercial ABS filament: N/A ( I have never bought a roll of recycled ABS filament thanks to the Filastruder)

Pictures:

MG94 + regrind in a ziplock.

MG94 + regrind close up.

Overkill Y-idlers.

Wardjr's all in one bull dog xl mount.

Recycled filament on a printed spool.

This weekend (2/8/15) I made some 1.75mm MG94 and 1.75mm recycled (80% MG94 20% regrind) filament. Before extrusion I pre-dried both the regrind and MG94 for about 18 hours in this dehydrator Link: http://www.amazon.com/Presto-06300-Dehy … dehydrator .

Here is a good write up about pre-drying I did a while back:

Pre-Drying
Many different types of plastics need to be pre-dried in order to get good quality filament and prints. The plastics that encounter frequently that need pre-drying are PLA, Nylon, TPU, and PC (polycarbonate). There are several more plastics that need to be pre-dried, but for simplicity I only listed a few. I used a food dehydrator I bought off of Amazon to dry all of my pellets. http://www.amazon.com/Presto-06300-Dehy … dehydrator . The dehydrator comes with mesh plates, so you need to find a way to stop the pellets from falling through. I use this: http://www.amazon.com/National-Presto-D … ZNA913RBA. I usually let the pellets dry for about 10-17 hours. After drying I seal the pellets in a zip lock bag with a silica gel packet inside, and add a label so I know what plastic it is.

The end result of the drying was filament with an average diameter of 1.75 with + or - 0.01mm tolerances.

Picture of the dehydrator:

Picture of the finished filament:

Thanks for reading! Questions? Comment? Feel free to PM me, or post a reply.