[ Closed ] Filament Extruder - Convert pellets to filament (Page 15 of 58)

Good info Tim.  The 2 screws will solve one of my issues.  I want to just try printing from your height before I change my guide/fan location.  My other fan design was a huge failure! Going back to the wood base gave reliable results.

Yup! That's what works for me. Thanks, good feedback. Also, something interesting is that my "gray" ABS pellets are auto-coiling. I haven't changed any of the geometry on the output end. Here's a capture from my "nanny cam":

Yeah, my white lays in figure 8's. No idea why.

1998 Nissan 240sx. SR20DET, 3071r twinscroll, etc etc. My other hobby.

I think I figured out why it got quieter. I was testing a different coupling, and wrapped the motor shaft in a couple layers of painters tape where it went into the coupling, to hold the key in place while sliding in the shaft. I think the tape deadens some of the motor vibrations from resonating through the rest of the assembly.

EDIT: Just ran 9 hours straight. yielded 15.8 ounces (just under a pound). No signs of bearing or motor wear. I'm using the 30lb bearing again, backed by a 1 inch nylon spacer to distribute the load across the whole bearing, and using nylon spacers on the bolts to ensure the flange faces are parallel. I have 2000lb roller bearings on hand, but I want to use the weak bearings to make sure I've sorted out the alignment issues. Gonna run it all night tonight, which will bring the total to 24 hours by noon tomorrow.

I've got a lot of filament piling up. About 4kg now.

Greetings everyone,

I just discovered this discussion yesterday and I have already read all 15 pages. This project is awesome and well documented. I enjoy seeing the design process.

In case some of you don't know what Open Source Printing is. We are a seller of small volume plastic pellets. I know I have sold to one of the beta testers, there may be more. Right now we have a variety of colors for HDPE and ABS.  We are looking to add to our ABS colorant. I am hoping to add the primary colors within the next few weeks.

We are also going to be adding natural PLA. If any of you are interested in PLA, could you head over to our site and answer the survey. I would like to know how much we will be selling up front. To get the PLA at a reasonable price. I need to order a very large quantity. osprintingllc.com

You guys are doing good work. I look forward to seeing more progress. If there are any other materials or colors anyone is interested in. Please let me know [email protected]

Some great ideas in there for sure! My comments:

The Filabot Wee's Bill of Materials is estimated at $244 before shipping when purchased in bulk, and it requires welding/machining. I haven't seen more than a few dozen feet come out of it, but I've heard it works okay. To my knowledge it has not been tested by anyone but the creator.

Lyman's Filament Extruder requires less machining, but costs $240 in bulk. To my knowledge, kits/assembled extruders are not being sold by Mr. Lyman. I drew a lot of inspiration from Mr. Lyman's design, though in the end I only kept 2-3 parts from his BOM. To my knowledge it has not been tested by anyone but the creator, but it seems like a great design that would work well.

The other extruder (posted by doctorcontra) I had not seen before. It appears to use a National Instruments USB-6009 for control. I use these at work - they're $200 a pop. He uses a bigger, high-current heater (15A) which is more costly to modulate. I would estimate his BOM at nearing $500.

He's using a set of die rollers, which is an interesting idea. I know Ian was looking into things like this quite a bit. I'm not entirely clear on how he's controlling them  he talks about PID controllers, but I can't make out the info on his block diagrams. Maybe he explained it and I missed it. It's still really interesting!

One of the big issues here is cost. In my opinion, people won't pay $400 for a filament extruder - $400 buys almost 20lbs of filament, enough for a couple years for most people. $400 is also almost enough for a printer! At $200, things become a little more attractive. I've worked hard to get it to that price point, spent many hours tweaking the BOM. The Filastruder is a full kit, requiring only a Dremel, drill, and basic hand tools to assemble - no welding or milling. That, in my opinion, sets it apart.

OsPrinting,

I'm excited about both the ABS primary colors and PLA options. I've already gotten several orders in from you guys and hope you can continue to expand your selections.

Hi Tim,

I LOVE this project and the quality of output! I'm a HS Tech Ed teacher and have been using a RapMan with my students quite intensively and found out the hard way how expensive filament is...   

I was wondering if anyone in the beta group has tried modifying the nozzle to create 3mm filament? (I know it isn't a requirement for the competition but could go a long way.)

I'm really excited to set one of these up in my classroom to give my students a chance to experiment more and not worry as much about the cost of materials.

Is there any way that you'd be willing to send out 1 more beta kit before you go live so that I can test for 3mm and give feedback?

Thanks for your time and great work to all those working on this project!

Shane

Your the best Rob! Let us know when the new colors are in. I'm very interested in what can be made via mixing of colorant.

All Beta kits have shipped! Jon and DeParted: your upgrade kits have also shipped, and I included a pound of grey pellets at a bonus. Nicky: your upgrade kit should ship Tuesday, I'm waiting on more parts.

EDIT: Just another reminder, the Solidoodle really struggles with anything over about 1.82mm. I have a spool or two where the diameter is 1.78-1.83, and when its a wider section, the extruder motor will occasionally skip steps. As long as I feed it stuff under 1.80, no skipping steps. It seems most commercial filament is 1.65-1.75, so probably aim for 1.70 when Filastruding.

I got this motor in:

http://www.servocity.com/html/1_rpm_gear_motor1.html

It's rated at 38 in-lbs of torque. It's a lot quieter, and it worked!

...for four inches of extrusion. Then, the gearbox stripped internally. On to the next one...

If anyone finds a gearmotor rated at 1-3 RPM with at least 40 in-lbs of torque, let me know! I have one more coming this week, maybe it will be better...

EDIT: I tore down my beta v2 unit over the weekend. No signs of wear on the auger or thrust bearing. Fired it back up this morning, shooting for 48 hours straight.

About 4 hours, if you mean hopper + funnel I made an extension for the funnel that lets me run 12.