Recycling Failed 3D Prints with a DIY Filament Extruder: Artme3D

Summary

В этом видео Stefan из CNC Kitchen рассматривает вопрос рециклинга отходов от 3D-печати, демонстрируя制作过程DIY экструзора филаментов от компании Artme. Он сравнивает его с профессиональными решениями, которые стоят в 10 раз дороже. Artme3D Mk2 - это открытая система, позволяющая пользователям создавать и восстанавливать филаменты из отходов. В видео подробно описывается процесс сборки экструзора, его функционирование и результаты экспериментов с использованием экструзора для создания новых филаментов из утилизируемого пластика. Stefan также делится своими впечатлениями о продукте и его потенциале для хобби и малого бизнеса.

Takeaways

• 🚀 В видео рассматривается возможность рециклинга отходов от 3D-печати, превращая их в новые пластины для дальнейшего использования.
• 🛠️ Введение в DIY-набор на базе экструдера филаментов Artme3D Mk2, который был куплен за 600 долларов и сравнивается с профессиональными решениями, стоимостью в 10 раз больше.
• 👨‍🔧 Автор Stefan из CNC Kitchen собирает экструдер из комплекта, включая настройку и прокачку всех компонентов самостоятельно.
• 🔩 Комплект включает в себя индивидуальные компоненты, а также требует распечатки пластиковых деталей 3D-принтером.
• 🔥 Процесс сборки охватывает установку барабана, нагревного блока, электроники, мотора и устройства для сушки филаментов.
• 🌡️ Экструдеры обычно состоят из винтовой системы, двигателя с высокой крутящейmoment of inertia, нагреваемого ствола и сопла для производства филамента.
• 📦 Artme3D MK2 предлагает простой в сборке и настройке дизайн, включая инновационные функции, такие как вибрационный фильтр и устройству для измерения диаметра филамента.
• 🔄 Применяется специальная лента для фильтрации и удаления загрязнений из пластика, что улучшает качество производимого филамента.
• 🌿 Рассмотрены экологические и экономические преимущества рециклинга отходов 3D-печати, а также возможность использования экструдера для создания новых продуктов.
• 🎨 Автор демонстрирует процесс рециклинга отходов, включая измельчение, выдержку, выравнивание и натяжку филамента на bobbin.
• 📏 В ходе испытаний полученный филамент проходит проверку на качество печати, демонстрируя хорошую работоспособность и отсутствие заметных неправильностей в диаметре.
• 🔧 Автор отмечает некоторые неидеальности, такие как требование дополнительной настройки и периодической уход за фильтром, но в целом остается доволен результатом и рекомендует экструдер для любителей и создателей.

Q & A

3D принтерами обычно генерируется какая отходная материал?

3D принтерами генерируется отходная материаль в виде неудачных печатей, прототипов и отходов мультицветных печатей, которые также называются "пластиком".

Какой тип филамента можно переработать с помощью экструдера?

С помощью экструдера можно переработать отходы мультицветных печатей, прототипы и даже "пластик", то есть отходы из промежуточных цветов.

Какой компании принадлежит разработанный экструдер?

Экструдер разработан компанией Artme.

Какой тип ступицы используется в экструдере Artme для подачи материала?

В экструдере Artme используется специально обработанная ступиця, которая обеспечивает более эффективное подачу и экструзию свернутых 3D-печатей.

Какой тип филамента экструдируется на Artme3D Mk2?

Artme3D Mk2 экструдирует филамент из ПЛA, который может быть произведен из отходов, таких как свернутые 3D-печати.

Какой средний потребляемый мощностью экструдер во время работы?

В среднем экструдер потребляет около 60Вт электроэнергии во время работы.

Какой размер филамента обычно экструдуется с помощью Artme3D Mk2?

Обычным размером экструдуемого филамента является 1.75 мм.

Как долго занимает сверка всех компонентов экструдера Artme3D Mk2?

Сверка всех компонентов экструдера Artme3D Mk2 занимает около 50 часов.

Какой дополнительный компонент не входит в комплект экструдера и должен быть куплен отдельно?

Комплект экструдера не включает в себя 24В блок питания, который нужно отдельно приобрести.

Какой материал используется для изготовления корпуса экструдера?

Для изготовления корпуса экструдера используются пластиковые детали, напечатанные на 3D-принтере.

Какой тип фильтра используется для очистки отходов от загрязнений при экструсии?

Для очистки отходов от загрязнений используется фильтр растаяжки с проволочным сетчатым покрытием с отверстиями меньшими, чем диаметр насадки 3D-принтера.

Какие преимущества имеет экструдер Artme3D Mk2 перед другими DIY-решениями?

Экструдер Artme3D Mk2 имеет преимущества в удобстве сборки, доступности компонентов, более эффективной работе специальной ступицы для подачи материала и открытости исходного кода, что позволяет пользователям внести изменения и улучшения.

Outlines

00:00

😀 DIY пластикового экструдера от(Artme3D Mk2)

В этом параграфе рассматривается проблема отходов от 3D-печати и представлены способы их рециклинга. Автор Stefan рассматривает покупку экструдера пластика DIY от компании Artme за 600 долларов и сравнивает его с профессиональными решениями, которые стоят в 10 раз дороже. Он описывает процесс сборки и тестирования экструдера, включая использование специального кормильного витка, открытого исходного кода и возможности самостоятельного сбора с покупкой необходимых компонентов. Также упоминается спонсорская ссылка на KiwiCo с предложением скидки.

05:02

🛠️ Сборка и настройка экструдера пластика

Второй параграф посвящён сборке экструдера пластика Artme3D MK2. Автор подробно описывает процесс, начиная с печати компонентов на 3D-принтере и заканчивая установкой двигателей, обогревающего блока и фильтров. Он также упоминает о том, что некоторые части, такие как 24В источник питания, должны быть приобретены отдельно. В процессе сборки используются инструкции, предоставленные дизайнером David, которые помогут в сборке и подключении всех необходимых компонентов.

10:04

🔧 Реализация экструдера и производство пластика

В этом параграфе описывается процесс работы экструдера и производство пластика из отходов 3D-печати. Автор рассказывает о подготовке отходов, их измельчении, высыхании и вакуумной обработке для удаления влаги. Затем описывается запуск экструдера, настройка параметров для производства пластика и начальный процесс сpooling'a. Также упоминается спонсорское видео KiwiCo, где автор делится своими впечатлениями о проекте с детьми и его значении для развития STEAM.

15:06

🎨 Тестирование экструдера и результаты печати

Последний параграф посвящён тестированию экструдера и результате печати из полученного пластика. Автор рассматривает качество произведенного пластика, его внешний вид и возможность использования для печати. Он упоминает о печати различных предметов, включая корпуса для soldering iron tips, и подчёркивает, что результаты не отличаются от печати с новым пластиком. Также автор делится своими впечатлениями о проекте, его достоинствах и недостатках, а также обсуждает возможные улучшения и будущие планы использования экструдера.

Keywords

💡3D печать

3D печать - это технология, которая позволяет создавать физическую копию трехмерной модели с помощью специальных принтеров. В видео речь идет об использовании 3D принтера для создания отвердевшей пластины, используя в качестве сырья отработанный материал или отходы.

💡отходы 3D печати

Отходы 3D печати - это неиспользованный или некачественный материал, который остается после работы принтера. В видео рассматривается вопрос рециклинга таких отходов для создания новых материалов.

💡экструдер

Экструдер - это устройство, используемое для производства пластиковых стружек или филаментов. В контексте видео, экструдер используется для преобразования отработанного материала в новый филамент для 3D печати.

💡филамент

Филамент - это спиральное изделие, используемое в качестве материала для 3D печати. В видео описывается процесс создания филамента из отработанных материалов с помощью экструдера.

💡рециклинг

Рециклинг - это процесс переработки отходов в новые материалы. В видео рассматривается рециклинг отходов 3D печати для производства нового филамента, что экономит ресурсы и снижает экологическое воздействие.

💡DIY экструдер

DIY экструдер - это самодельный или наборный экструдер, который собирается пользователем. В видео рассказывается о сборе и использовании DIY экструдера для создания филамента из отработанных материалов.

💡отвердевшая пластина

Отвердевшая пластина - это продукт 3D печати, который уже прошел процесс формирования и затвердевания. В видео автор использует отвердевшие пластины, неудачные принты и прочие отходы для производства нового филамента.

💡теплоотвод

Теплоотвод - это компонент экструдера, который обеспечивает нагрев материала до состояния, при котором он может быть проточен. В видео упоминается использование нагревательного блока, похожего на блок 3D принтера, для нагрева пластика.

💡фильтр плавления

Фильтр плавления - это устройство, используемое для удаления загрязнений или частиц металла из пластика перед его протяжкой. В видео описывается использование фильтра с сетчатой структурой для улучшения качества произведенного филамента.

💡отсев материалов

Отсев материалов - процесс разделения материалов по размеру, часто используемый для подготовки отработанных материалов к рециклингу. В видео автор отсеивает отработанный материал, чтобы удалить частицы, которые слишком крупны для прохождения через ноздри фильтра.

💡сушение материалов

Сушка материалов - это процесс удаления влаги из материалов, что необходимо для обеспечения качественного рециклинга. В видео упоминается использование сушильного шкафа для удаления влаги из отработанных пластиковых отходов перед их превращением в новый филамент.

Highlights

DIY filament extruder kit from Artme can recycle 3D printing waste into new filament.

The kit costs around 600 USD, significantly less than professional solutions.

Artme3D Mk2 is largely Open Source, allowing for easy access and potential improvements by users.

Custom-machined feeding screw for better material feed and extrusion compared to DIY solutions.

Complete kit includes all necessary parts and tools for assembly, except for the 24V power supply.

Manual is detailed and available in multiple languages, aiding in the assembly process.

Extruders use re-purposed 3D printer electronics and a separate driver module for the extruder motor.

Filament winder automatically reverses direction for even filament distribution on the spool.

Use of rock wool for insulation to stabilize temperatures and reduce power usage.

Melt filter with a wire mesh to catch contaminants larger than a typical 3D printer nozzle diameter.

Artme3D MK2 can produce filament from both pellets and recycled 3D printing waste.

Shredding of failed prints is necessary before they can be recycled by the extruder.

Drying of shredded material is crucial to remove moisture for successful filament production.

The extrusion process involves adjusting various parameters for optimal filament diameter and quality.

Artme3D MK2 produced filament with diameter variations of around ±0.1 mm, suitable for many applications.

Recycled filament was successfully used to print new objects, demonstrating its usability.

Melt filter requires occasional cleaning to maintain extrusion efficiency.

Artme3D MK2 is a cost-effective solution for hobbyists and makers interested in filament production or recycling.

The machine's design, electronics, and firmware are open source, allowing for customization and improvements.

Transcripts

Failed prints, prototypes, or just purging  poop from multi-color prints. Yes, this is  

all waste from 3D printing. Instead of throwing  this plastic away and paying for new filament,  

wouldn't it be great to recycle this waste  and make new filament from it. I recently  

bought a DIY filament extruder kit costing only  around 600 buck to find out how it compares to  

professional solutions that I used in the  past that cost at least 10 times as much!  

Let’s find out more! Guten Tag everybody,  I’m Stefan and welcome to CNC Kitchen.

This video is sponsored by KiwiCo. Get 50%  off your first month by using the link below!

Everyone who has a 3D printer will collect  significant amounts of waste over time,  

and at least for me, it always feels  wasteful to throw it into the trash,  

and I think I’m not the only one here. Over  the years, I already showed several attempts  

of how to recycle this waste into new filaments.  Yet so far, my machines have either been quite  

hard to set up to get them working reliably  or were so expensive that only a business  

can really afford them. But this time it  might be different! A couple of months ago,  

I stumbled over a German company called  Artme that makes a DIY filament extruder  

kit that looked really promising. Now back  to extruders. One big downside of other DIY  

solutions is that they often use a big wood drill  or auger as a feeding screw for the material,  

which kind of works but is far from optimal.  Artme uses a custom-machined feeding screw which  

doesn’t only look really pretty but should also  significantly help to feed and extrude, especially  

shredded 3D prints. And the best thing is the  Artme3D Mk2 is, besides some small limitations  

basically Open Source with the intention of  making the machine widely and easily available.  

You could even build one from scratch and just  buy essential custom components, like the screw.  

I ordered a complete kit, and after it had been  sitting in my studio for a while finally found  

the time to build it and test it out. And just to  make it clear, I’m not affiliated with Artme and  

purchased the machine with my own money. If you  appreciate that, please consider leaving a like.

Let’s look at the basics. Very simply spoken,  such a plastic extruder is a screw, that’s driven  

by a high-torque motor that runs inside a heated  barrel. The plastic is fed from one end, then gets  

molten and mixed, and leaves the barrel through  a nozzle on the other end, producing filament.

The Artme3D MK2 is an extruder kit which means  that you get the individual components but have  

to assemble and wire everything yourself.  It also doesn’t come with the plastic parts,  

so you have to print these yourself, and  this is what I did at first. I separated  

the parts into three categories. The first  one was general parts that didn’t have any  

significant thermal loading and that I printed  from PLA in three fully loaded print jobs on  

my Bambu Lab X1 Carbon. In separate jobs,  I printed the esthetic housing parts facing  

down on the textured PEI sheet of my A1 Mini  to get a really nice surface finish. The last  

set of parts were the ones that get a bit warmer  and that I printed from black PETG. All in all,  

it took me around 50 hours to print all of  the pieces using 1.5 spools of filament.

Once I was finished with the printing process,  I could finally start assembling the extruder.  

David, who is the Designer of the Artme3D,  seriously includes everything in the kit,  

starting from well-sorted screws to tools,  and even includes things like superglue  

and aluminum foil that we’ll need in a bit.  The only thing that’s missing due to legal  

reasons is the 24V power supply, which is  another 20 bucks on Amazon. The manual is  

available in many different languages, some  probably machine-translated from German. I  

checked the German and English ones which  are super detailed, very easy to follow,  

and remind me a lot of the manual from a Prusa  printer kit only without the gummy bears.

The assembly process is broken down  into several sections starting with  

the extruder. Here I fixed the barrel to the  pre-cut aluminum extrusion and connected the  

big and geared-down stepper motor to the  extruder screw. The ingenious thing here  

is that the coupler already includes a stir bar  that should later help to evenly feed the very  

sharp and chunky shredded plastic that otherwise  interlocks and even stops feeding. After that,  

the hopper is added, and the heating unit, which  looks like a huge 3D printer heating block,  

gets fixed to the extruder barrel. The  whole assembly gets then screwed to a base.

Most of the electronics that are used sit  in the back and are simply re-purposed  

from a 3D printer. The wires all  come pre-crimped with ferrules,  

and all the connections are explained idiot-proof  in the manual. The extruder motor uses a separate  

driver module because it requires more power  than regular 3D printer motors. The screen  

that sits on the side of the machine is also  just a really old model I’ve already used 8  

years ago on my first printer but it should be  more than sufficient for what we need it for.

Next, I assembled the filament winder, which  will later spool our freshly extruded material.  

This is a really clever construction with an  adjustable filament guide that automatically  

reverses its direction once it reaches the stop  in order to get a nice and equal distribution  

of the filament over the width of the spool. The  spool itself is driven by a separate stepper motor  

that’s connected via a belt that can slip so the  filament is always wound with the perfect tension.  

Every rotation of the spool, a mechanism actuates  the filament guide so it advances a tiny bit.

The next step was a bit messy. In order to  stabilize temperatures and reduce the power  

usage of the machine, the whole extruder barrel  gets insulated with some rock wool. I made sure  

to wear gloves and a respirator, but the  fibers still ended up almost everywhere.  

I wrapped the sheet of insulation around  the barrel and then slit the cover over it.

The following step was honestly one of the most  satisfying ones and shows how much thought David  

put into his DIY filament extruder. If you have  seen any of my last videos on filament recycling,  

you know that any dirt or metal chips that are in  the ground-up plastic will end up in the filament,  

and if they are too big, will clog the  small nozzle. In order to reduce that risk,  

the Artme3D uses a melt filter, which is  a wire mesh that has holes smaller than  

the typical nozzle diameter of a 3D printer, so  anything bigger should be caught here. The mesh  

is not just put flat in the nozzle, but David  developed a two-stage forming die to create a  

3-dimensional filter structure for increased  surface area and rigidity. After this really  

satisfying forming step, I put the filter into  the nozzle holder that seals against leaking with  

some Teflon tape. Unfortunately, this limits  the maximum extrusion temperature to 260°C,  

which should still be enough for most extrusion  and recycling projects. I then screwed a regular  

3D printer nozzle that’s drilled to 1.7mm  into the holder through which the filament  

will later extrude. The nozzle is slightly  undersized because the molten plastic will  

swell up a little after it leaves the small  hole due to the pressures inside the extruder.

After this step was finished, I built  and installed a very simple filament  

feeder that pushes the newly extruded  filament to the winder. It has a small  

tension arm to get enough pressure on  the material to pull it, but hopefully,  

not so much that we squish the  still slightly soft material.

The last essential component of the machine  is the sensor unit. This is not a filament  

diameter sensor but only a filament position  sensor. The Artme3D will rely on gravity to  

basically stretch our extruded filament to the  right diameter after it leaves the nozzle. To  

keep the force consistent, it should always  droop down a similar amount. The Artme uses  

an optical sensor for that, through which  a translucent plastic piece with increasing  

thickness is rotated, which acts like a  simple angle sensor. A piece of wire is  

attached to the rotating part through  which we’ll later guide our filament.

And after a bit of final wiring and cleaning up,  the Artme3D MK2 is finally finished. This honestly  

was a really nice and well-documented build  taking me a good day to finish. But let’s now  

see if it also works and produces filament  in the quality we need for 3D printing!

The extruder is easily capable of making filament  from pellets, yet we want to use it to recycle old  

and failed prints. So I recently printed a bunch  of soldering iron tips cases that we sold for a  

Black Friday special yet I ended up with a bit  of scrap. Some of the prints failed due to bad  

bed adhesion, clogged nozzles or filament that  ran out. I think these scraps are the perfect  

opportunity to recycle into new filament and, of  course, print new cases from. These, of course,  

don’t directly feed in the extruder, so the first  thing we need to do is grind them up to have small  

shreddings. In the past, I tried a blender,  a modified paper shredder, and even built a  

hand-cranked shredding machine, which all, to some  degree, work, yet the most reliable thing is still  

a real electric shredder that I, fortunately, have  as well. So I fed the failed cases, purge blocks,  

and printer poop into the machine and let it chew  through the plastic. The ground-up material was  

already mostly fine enough, yet I still sieved it  and put the parts that were too big back into the  

shredder. At first, I kept the blue and grey  shreddings separate. I had to learn more than  

once that dry material is essential to make  good filament, so I took all of the material,  

put it on a tray, and placed it into my drying  oven for three hours at 60°C. Since I was a bit  

lazy, I mixed the two separate colors together,  hoping that the resulting color would still turn  

out nice. To get the last bit of moisture out  of the material, I poured everything into my  

vacuum chamber with a bit of desiccant  and evacuated the still-warm particles.

The next day, I was finally able to try  out how well the Artme3D MK2 handled my  

shredded 3D printing waste. So I turned  the machine on and preheated it to the  

recommended starting temperature of  180°C. While it heated up I installed  

an empty spool of filament on the holder  and adjusted the endstops in a way that  

the filament guide reached both sides of  the roll. Then I added some scoops of the  

shreddings into the hopper. Once everything  was hot, I started the extrusion process and  

was super excited once the first bit of our  recycled filament came out of the nozzle.

I think you were able to hear my enthusiasm if  things start working that I built and where I  

see the opportunity to learn something new! We  have a 3-year-old daughter, and I really hope  

that she, at some point finds the same level of  excitement in doing things with her own hands,  

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So I let a bit of material extrude out for a  little bit until the flow equalized and started  

the spooling process. To do that, I first cut  off the freshly extruded filament right after  

the nozzle and guided the strand by hand through  the sensor arm and toward the feeder until it was  

pulled in. Then I adjusted the feeder speed so  that the sensor arm stayed in more or less the  

vertical orientation. Once this seemed to be the  case, I started the auto-pulling process. In this  

mode, the extruder will go faster if the filament  hangs down more and go slower if it’s getting too  

far up. To start the winding process, I once again  cut off the filament where it leaves the guide and  

threaded the end through a hole at the spool, and  bent it over, so it doesn’t get pulled out. I used  

the first couple of meters to make sure that the  filament diameter was close to 1.75 mm. Dialing  

the diameter in is something that needs a bit  of experience and skill. The parameters won’t be  

universally usable and will depend on the filament  type and even color, yet Artme provides some good  

values to start with. So if the diameter,  for example, is too big, you can increase  

the extrusion temperature; if it’s too thin, you  can reduce it. Yet also, the position and strength  

of the cooling fan, position of the sensor and  also rpm of the extruder screw can change the  

result. I regularly measured the diameter of the  filament with calipers, which is something that  

isn’t optimal, and once I was happy just let it  run. I filled up the rest of the hopper with the  

shredded material and could nicely see over the  course of 3 hours how the spool slowly filled up  

with a really nice-looking filament. The extruder  ran in a different room, and I was always wearing  

a respirator when checking because extruding  so much material is a bit smelly and probably  

also small of the unhealthy kind. But, you do  you. The winding wasn’t perfect, but I mean,  

what can you expect from a first-try and an  inexpensive DIY solution? During the process,  

I could really see how the stir bar feature helped  to constantly mix the shredded material so that it  

was nicely and, more importantly, evenly fed. I  hooked up a power meter since people always ask  

how much energy is used, and I was surprised  that it only drew, on average, around 60W,  

which is far less than a 3D printer and just what  an incandescent light bulb needs. I regularly  

checked the diameter of the extruded filament  which fluctuated +- 1/10 of a mm around our 1.75  

mm target. This means, at least, this batch is not  as precise as most commercial filament, but hey,  

this is a $600 machine and 100% recycled material!  And in the end, the proof is in the eating of the  

pudding or rather in the printing of the recycled  filament. So once most of our shredded 3D prints  

were eaten up by the extruder, I stopped the  process, cut the filament, and removed a really  

beautifully looking roll of filament without  any noticeable bumps or other inconsistencies.

So as I said in the beginning, this material once  was the trash and leftover from my soldering tip  

case production, so what better way to use it  than to print more cases with it? I loaded it  

onto my Bambu Lab A1 Mini and started printing  without any special settings. And oh boy, was I  

not disappointed by the results! The cases  looked really pretty. Mixing up the two colors  

only led to a bit of a darker blue color, but  the prints looked really pretty. The only way  

I was really able to tell them apart from new  filament was the fact that there sometimes  

were a bit of color streaks in the material,  where more of one or the other color was fed.  

I also printed this owl as well as a Mini  Stefan, which both turned out beautiful,  

and I honestly wasn’t even able to see the  variances in filament diameter on the print.

During the time I’ve had the Artme3D so far,  I extruded two more batches of recycled PLA.  

One was some leftover filament poop  shreddings I had from my last video,  

which came out really beautiful. Due to  the compact design of the Artme extruder,  

there isn’t a lot of material mixing happening  in the barrel, which results in these really  

unique color gradients in the material, and  particularly on the prints! The third batch was  

from some 3-year-old shredded material I still  found in my basement, but that also extruded  

really well. This had a significant portion of  black so it extruded in this dark grey with a bit  

of glitter. Filament diameter variation was again  around +-0.1 mm but the prints didn’t show any of  

that and were honestly really nice! So besides  these Mini Stefans, I printed more cases from  

my own recycled filament, which you can find as a  limited edition in our shop at CNCKitchen.STORE.

At the end of the last batch that I did, I noticed  that the extrusion rate significantly dropped.  

During my first batch, the feeder was set to  around 30 revolutions per minute, but during  

the last hour of extrusion of the last batch, the  feeding speed dropped down all the way to around  

16 rpm. This could, of course, be simply due to  the different material that I ran, but I already  

suspected the melt filter caught some stuff and  slowly clogged. So I first purged everything  

that still was in the barrel with some plain PLA  pellets and then unscrewed the nozzle holder with  

the melt filter. At first sight, it didn’t look  too bad, but upon further inspection, I was able  

to see some bigger metal pieces and also a bunch  of glitter that accumulated. I had not a single  

clog printing any of my three recycled batches,  so the filter clearly does its job but it seems  

to require a bit of attention from time to time to  get the machine running smoothly and efficiently.

In summary, I’m super happy with the Artme3D MK2  DIY filament extruder. You really notice that this  

is not the first generation of this machine,  and many problems have already been ironed  

out. You clearly see David's German engineering  background. He did a tremendous job designing  

the machine and putting a kit together that’s  super simple to assemble. Running the machine  

will require a bit of tinkering, and you can’t  expect tightly toleranced filament like from  

machines that cost orders of magnitude more and  uses virgin materials, but as my tests showed,  

the material that I made seems to be perfectly  usable for many applications. Yet the machine  

is not perfect. The wire sensor arm is annoying,  and sometimes the filament gets stuck to it and  

then bounces around. Measuring the diameter  is not super easy, and of course, it would  

be great to have some kind of an active feedback  system. But the amazing thing is that the design,  

electronics and firmware are all freely available  and mostly open source, so if you have a special  

application or simply want to improve it, you can  do that and contribute to the project. I’m quite  

sure that this is the least expensive yet still  really well-working solution if you want to get  

into making your own filament or recycling  old prints. 650 € is still a lot of money,  

and this doesn’t include a shredding solution  yet. There also aren’t that many makers that  

will make this money back in saved filament. Yet,  just like consumer 3D printing, if you see this  

as a hobby and are happy if you can recycle your  old prints, even though it doesn’t save you money,  

this is probably the best bang for your buck  filament maker that you can get at the moment.  

But please let me know your thoughts in  the comments about filament recycling and  

what you would like me to see doing with this  machine in the future. Do you see this as a  

feasible solution for hobbyists or maker spaces,  or would you rather just discard your old prints? 

Thanks for watching, everyone! I hope you  found this video interesting! If you want to  

support my work, consider becoming a Patron  or YouTube member. Also check out the other  

videos in my library! I hope to see you in  the next one! Auf wiedersehen and goodbye!