My DIY Filament pelletizer/chopper (Page 2 of 2)

I plan to use the filament chopper for:

1) recycle bad/short filament

I've had some trouble extruding long enough lengths of black filament that doesn't snap during winding (due to moisture and other problems) so the filament chopper lets me give that filament another go through the filastruder, as well as any leftovers I have lying around.

2) diluting masterbatch percentage

I had been using 2% masterbatch, which seems to be too high.  After chopping up all the bad filament, I plan to dry it all in the oven dilute it down 2:1 with more natural abs to improve its strength.

3) better mixing masterbatch for improved strength

The masterbatch I use also comes in fairly big pellets, and even with a lower percentage I occasionally get weak spots that break when winding, presumably because a masterbatch pellet has made it through without enough mixing.

4) better mixing masterbatch for more even colors

I've had problems getting colors to be even in the first pass without increasing the masterbatch percentage so high that the filament is brittle.  Instead, it tends to "pulse" a bright color whenever a masterbatch pellets comes through and fade to white in-between.  Chopping up the filament and extruding a second time should fix this and also allow subtle color mixes that wouldn't possible otherwise.