3D printing with recycled material

General
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Hi Folks,

I was wondering if people have good recommendations of projects/initiatives/communities related to taking waste material (plastic bottles, old prints that did not workout, etc) and using them as stock material for 3D printers?

I have seen a couple of things online, but it is hard to tell how much of a hassle they are to set up and if they really make for practical applications? (currently I am in a workplace with 6 filament printers that are used a lot for prototyping, so much material gets printed, tested and discarded :cry: )

@hikinghack I see from the Dinacon videos and talks that you guys have been working with this? Any pointers/tip?

@jpearce also had a paper a while back if I am not mistaken describing and extrusion system?

So far I have seen:

precious plastics Which I guess we could use some of the machinery to prepare the plastic for re-printing.

Filabot but they seem a bit costly and not open source

Recreator3D - for turning PET bottles into filament

Polyformer - also for turning PET bottles into filament

Thanks in advance for your comments!

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We do it two ways – 1) a 3D printable recyclebot to make filament https://www.appropedia.org/Recyclebot

now with computer vision control:

and 2) direct extrusion FPF
with an OS GigabotX if you just want to buy something: https://www.appropedia.org/Fused_Particle_Fabrication_3-D_Printing:_Recycled_Materials’_Optimization_and_Mechanical_Properties

You can make one from a cheap FFF printer:

or you can try a hangprinter waste extruder (this is our first -and is only good for really large things -a more detailed DIY and tighter version is on the way)

For both of them you need a grinder

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I really like this one:

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We never did it but it could be a great idea to test it in south sudan.

John Bior Ajang
Open Tech Engineer
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Producer (videos and audios)
Radio presenter at Radio Jonglei FM
Founder ATAKA Hub South Sudan
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We have messed around with modifications to build a hopper and screw into your 3d printer to go the pellet printing route

And it was
-expensive
-finnicky to print with
-jammed a lot

So i was blown away with how easy it was to go the pullstruder pet filament route!
We built a recreator3d at dinacon and it worked great in sri Lanka, and we just built a second one in Panama which is also awesome! I just modifies a $100 used creality ender i got off ebay.

I also built a device to more precisely and efficiently turn pet bottles into strips (rather than the method with a non motorized blade) and that’s made things quite easy in my opinion!

https://www.printables.com/model/221589-motorized-plastic-bottle-string-slicer

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