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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Filastruder → Pre-grinding pellets for diameter consistency
I read a post by Tim where he said that one cause for filament diameter variation is the inconsistent size of the pellets and the random way they fall into the auger flights. I was wondering if grinding the pellets into smaller pieces (like with a coffee grinder) would facilitate a more even packing inside the barrel and thus give a more consistent diameter. Has anyone tried this?
That variation doesn't really matter with the way a Filastruder is typically set up, it only matters on direct pull setups that try to pull the filament at a constant velocity. Extruding onto the floor, the floor doesn't care about output speed changes. The Filawinder has the laser sensor to adjust for output speed changes as well.
Folks get +/-0.01mm variation with normal pellets and a Filawinder. Hard to beat that!
Just to note, I tried to grind colorant in a coffee grinder and it did not work. It basically just halted the grinder and wouldn't turn. I used a hand-grinder with the burr grinder style. I even tried ABS pellets and, basically, it would have taken me days of grinding to grind even a pound of the stuff.
I've been able to grind masterbatch with a bur grinder, but it had to be something like a teaspoon at a time, running in short bursts. It came out pretty fine, but it was difficult to handle because static would cause half of it to stick to everything.
I just bought one of these to reduce the pieces that come out of my harbor freight wood chipper. Trial run seems promising, but just got it and haven't had time to do too much with it yet.
garbage disposal maybe? only dry with drain tilted down like 45 degrees used like cement mixer. just a thought.
I have ground bulk material (not pellets) in an industrial blender, and a coffee grinder (the kind with a blade). This only works well for harder polymers like polycarbonate (PC) or high-density polystyrene (HDPS). It may be that ABS is just too soft.
Possibly freezing it in ice or dry ice would help. Be very very careful with dry ice! Someone in my office burned themselves on dry ice just this weekend. It hurts!
Edit: as Tim said earlier, this may not help depending on your setup. Just figured I'd provide info for what's worked for me.
I'm grinding abs quite nicely.... Cut it to a couple inches with the band saw, put it through the HF chipper and the the Chinese pulverized (that I modified) and I'm good to recycle.
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Filastruder → Pre-grinding pellets for diameter consistency
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