1 Topic by iowajames (edited by iowajames 2019-12-16 23:37:42)

  • iowajames
  • iowajames
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Topic: Auger fed pellet extruders

Gentlemen, ladies, friends, acquaintances, trolls & bots,

I am at an impasse, I cannot find a 3D print head that extrudes pellets instead of filament that is:

  • Affordable

  • Reliable

  • Actually for sale

  • Has sellers that respond

I've been trying to contact www.Mahor.xyz & www.direct3d.it & https://dyzedesign.com/pulsar-pellet-extruder/ all to no avail.

The last one I am asking to become a beta tester.

I am building a large scale 3D printer (Cartesian) with a build volume of 1450x1450x1000. Printing large objects with filament is not only slow, but incredibly expensive. I could buy a filastruder, but again, slow.

I was thinking about building my own, there are projects out there that have a partially printed mechanism driven by a NEMA 17 and in to a Chinese auger, I'm just trying to find a pre-fab solution that's sub $400.

Any thoughts? Leads? Rumors? Legends or quests that I can embark on?

TIA.

No trees were harmed in the creation of this email, though some electrons were horribly inconvenienced.

2 Reply by carl_m1968

  • carl_m1968
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Re: Auger fed pellet extruders

iowajames wrote:

Gentlemen, ladies, friends, acquaintances, trolls & bots,

I am at an impasse, I cannot find a 3D print head that extrudes pellets instead of filament that is:

  • Affordable

  • Reliable

  • Actually for sale

  • Has sellers that respond

I've been trying to contact www.Mahor.xyz & www.direct3d.it & https://dyzedesign.com/pulsar-pellet-extruder/ all to no avail.

The last one I am asking to become a beta tester.

I am building a large scale 3D printer (Cartesian) with a build volume of 1450x1450x1000. Printing large objects with filament is not only slow, but incredibly expensive. I could buy a filastruder, but again, slow.

I was thinking about building my own, there are projects out there that have a partially printed mechanism driven by a NEMA 17 and in to a Chinese auger, I'm just trying to find a pre-fab solution that's sub $400.

Any thoughts? Leads? Rumors? Legends or quests that I can embark on?

TIA.


They don't make one as the process is too slow to keep a hotend fed. The hotends consume plastic much faster than an extruder used to make filament can make it. If you look at a filament extruder the heat source is much larger than the entire hotend of a 3d printer. That's due to the fact of the eminence surface area of material that is needing to be melted. The heat source on a hotend just can't generate enough heat to melt the pellets and keep the demand of consumption met. If you increased the heat source on a hot end to a sufficient size the hotend would then be too large and bulky and require much larger and much more expensive equipment to move it and it would have to move much slower than normal speeds due to the mass and acceleration effects.

Your idea is not new but it is just no feasible either or it would already be in use.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
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3 Reply by Tin Falcon (edited by Tin Falcon 2019-12-17 23:40:47)

  • Tin Falcon
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Re: Auger fed pellet extruders

The fact is industrial extruders will push plenty of plastic. A roll of filament can be made in a matter of minutes. I know of no printer that can use it that fast. The university of Maine just printed a boat . Yeas a full sized 25 ft long patrol boat it used 5000 lbs. of plastic in 72 hour print. A few years ago Oakridge national labs printed a full sized car. So yes it can be done.


The only commercially available extruder I know of that will do this is the https://dyzedesign.com/pulsar-pellet-extruder/

They had a drum set the printed with a prototype truly amazing.  the problem is the reatail price is something like  4 - 5 times the money you are looking to spend.

As I see it the physics is not there except for a really large industrial printer and these are pretty much in research demonstration stage.

IMHO the only practical route to go is a volcano or mosquito with a large heater and large nozzle and this will still run likely close  to what you want t have budgeted

you can get 50 watt heaters for the mosquito and  thermistors that go to 450 c  add a pallet e and it will spice rolls for a n endless supply of filament.

or check out the https://e3d-online.com/the-e3d-supervolcano

largest nozzle for super volcano is 1.4

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