<![CDATA[SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> 2017-01-24T01:30:00Z PunBB https://www.soliforum.com/topic/15963/how-to-extrude-pla-without-a-filawinder/ <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> 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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/221/ 2017-01-24T01:30:00Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/131539/#p131539 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> elmoret wrote:

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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/15320/ 2017-01-23T23:50:11Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/131532/#p131532 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> 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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/221/ 2017-01-23T22:11:50Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/131527/#p131527 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> Voyex wrote:
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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/15320/ 2017-01-23T20:37:29Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/131523/#p131523 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> 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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/15490/ 2017-01-04T23:15:10Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/130517/#p130517 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> 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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/221/ 2017-01-04T19:30:12Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/130502/#p130502 <![CDATA[Re: How to extrude PLA without a Filawinder?]]> Anyone? please...

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/15490/ 2017-01-04T17:21:30Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/130486/#p130486 <![CDATA[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.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/15490/ 2017-01-02T00:36:41Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/130273/#p130273