6 ms·

In this virus season alone I've made $8000 in sales. You'll find various subreddits where people are buying around 5-10spools a month. Imagine how much virgin

In this virus season alone I've made $8000 in sales. You'll find various subreddits where people are buying around 5-10spools a month. Imagine how much virgin plastic is being added like that to the environment. I've been creating filament and selling it: https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-home-for-cheap-6c908bb09922 https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho... This activity also help recycle waste plastic. Production cost of filament is $7.5 per 5kg and filament roll has 850 gram filament and can be sold for $20-30 per spool It's trivial to get the quality right. You can sell rolls on Amazon, eBay and Etsy or your own Shopify store and use Facebook ads/Google Ads to advertise your website. That said I didn't use any ads to sell filament! Only few days ago I started Shopify store and paid $5-10 in Facebook ads. Since we accept credit card, it's not too much of a risk for buyer to buy it from us (even when are new) I work from home so I take 5 minute break and walk to my garage and check if the filament machine successfully is running on auto pilot Thing is filament doesn't have huge demand, neither it has very less demand. So you can dominate local demand by creating quality filament. I focus on fulfilling local demand, I've gained customers who need large supply of filament of ABS, TPU and Nylon12. If people do actually come to compete with me, it's a win win. More plastic recycled = less plastic entering landfill.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mrfusion 6y ago
Wow awesome idea. How many rolls do you produce a day? How about recycling plastic waste ground on the beach?
- econcon 6y ago
  I make 15-20 rolls a day. I'll be adding few more extruders soon - waiting for shipping of additional parts to start building new machines on weekend. Well, picking up beach plastic is too much work - I am not that involved, I need easy automated work haha. There are already companies who pick and sort, shred and wash plastic for you and even convert it into granules - so it's much better to give them more business so the are able to pick more of the waste.
- dh-g 6y ago
  Recycling plastic is hard because it will be degraded to various levels, will be of different plastic types, will be dirty, will have custom additives, etc. If you are interested in plastic recycling: https://preciousplastic.com/ https://preciousplastic.com/
  - econcon 6y ago
    We need more research into it I guess also see: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/greek-researchers-determine-the-effect-of-recycling-on-abs-filament-171938/ https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/greek-researchers-determ... Here they report improved ABS properties on recycling
    - dh-g 6y ago
      This test does not simulate actual product recycling where the plastic is exposed to sunlight and liquids. Its environmental iterations that cause the degradation. Interesting findings though.
yowlingcat 6y ago
Wow, great initiative. I think this is a perfect example of the market solving the problem fast. My main question is, how are you thinking about emissions and waste? Presumably, you've got to melt and extrude these things somewhere, and heating the plastic to its melting point to create decent sized quantities of this will result in harmful emissions of some kind. Do you have some sort of a scrubbing system? If so, how did you figure out what kind of system to set up and right size it for your production capacity?
- econcon 6y ago
  >Presumably, you've got to melt and extrude these things somewhere, and heating the plastic to its melting point Right now I do nothing for emissions. It happens inside a barrel that reduces a lot of emissions. The emission will appear near the nozzle and the hopper. As those are the only opening in the barrel. Once filament exists the nozzle, after 10inches, it goes into a water bath. In future tho, I'll add HEPA+Activated charcoal filter lid on the hopper and use same for nozzle but with an extraction fan.
serf 6y ago
>It's trivial to get the quality right. as someone who has 3d printed nearly 100kg with FDM machines in the past year, I can't disagree more. Filament extrusion foaming coefficients are all over the place, even only looking at 'cheap' PLA, let alone PETG. This leads to excess oozing and inconsistent extrusion widths, leading to failed or out-of-tolerance parts. Color is all over the place for anything but the darkest or lightest colors for the cheap stuff. Filament widths are wildly inconsistent even within the same companies products -- this leads to extruder jams on the cold side. Cheap filament spools are commonly fused or spliced together mid-roll, leading to a bump at the splice that has to be shaved -- often it isn't, again leading to extruder jams. Spools that are spliced together often have poor circularity near the splice -- another chance for a jam. I've received dusty spools that were vacuum packed, and spools that were vacuum packed with condensation visible on the inside of the packaging (humidity and moisture can damage many filaments, leading to lengthy rebake procedures if the filament survives at all.). I appreciate your effort, and i'm glad you're doing well in business -- but the quality of your product must come from efforts you don't realize, because the quality on the market for cheap filament is , in HN parlance, a dumpster fire.
- econcon 6y ago
  >as someone who has 3d printed nearly 100kg with FDM machines in the past year, I can't disagree more If you run into problems, feel free to reach out to me. My telegram is in the medium article - I'll help you solve all your problem while extruding filament. >even only looking at 'cheap' PLA, let alone PETG. I don't extrude PLA or PETG at all, buying these special resins is difficult and costs 3x or 5x the ABS. I ask for the lowest wrappage and viscosity blend specially made for extrusion. I buy general purpose polymers like extrusion grade granules of TPU, Nylon12 (it absorbs the least moisture in all nylons) and ABS - buy them from reputable companies they come in membrane sealed bags of 25kg. These polymers are mass produced and finding them for cheap around $1.4-$3 is easy. >Filament widths are wildly inconsistent even within the same companies products -- this leads to extruder jams on the cold side. Before jumping into making filament I researched on Amazon and found most filament being sold is within plus minus 0.05 to 0.02mm tolerance. Upon further research I found that these tolerances are trivial to achieve with sufficiently powered extruder and the industrial machines used for making medical grade silicone tubes can achieve plus minus 0.001mm tolerance using dual axis laser and feedback loop controlling pulling speed at high frequency. You extrude fast, you lose tolerance. Companies might want more througput if their customers don't care about the dimensions and only want ultra cheap stuff. I don't splice, all my filament is continuous length. >I've received dusty spools that were vacuum packed, and spools that were vacuum packed with condensation visible on the inside of the packaging (humidity and moisture can damage many filaments, leading to lengthy rebake procedures if the filament survives at all.). You need to seal the filament spool right after it's ready with a 10-20grams of dessicant. There are special vaccume seal bags and handheld vaccum sealer for low volumes like I am doing it's good enough. >but the quality of your product must come from efforts you don't realize, because the quality on the market for cheap filament is You'll have to troubleshoot the issues with your filament yes but once you've figured it out - it becomes easy. I've written several part articles on my medium blog with many more to come where I'll write about common issues and their solutions. I have had more difficulty in shooting down bugs in production code than building extruder. Just saying that skill level of a programmer and some random guy off the street might have difference. With some guidance anyone can do it. My wife is now tuning extruder, filling the hopper and extruding filament as good as me. She doesn't have technical education background. Arguably, I find baking to more difficult than extruding filament, but it could be just that baking doesn't exite me. I appreciate you concerns but quality of filament has lots of parameters but most common problems appear when: 1. Seller has bought the filament like PLA in bulk from china for $3-4 a spool. They buy a full container load at once to make it as cheap as possible. After a year on shelf even when placed in vaccum sealed bags, PLA becomes brittle. And you'll have very hard time printing with it - it will snap at different places randomly and your prints will fail. 2. Inconsistent diameter - these are extruding too fast or using low quality resin with no good operator on machine available for tuning. For example if I want to extrude 1kg filament and I add 200gram resin of A company, I ran out then I add 200gram resin or B company, you'll have to tune extruder again. Better create filament in large batches from the resin from same batch.
giarc 6y ago
There was a company doing just this on a recent episode of Dragon's Den (Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank). I even think it was a bunch of high school kids.
- econcon 6y ago
  I've no doubt anyone can do this within a few weeks (if they work on weekends only) People can start with extruding clay or Noddles to start

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mrfusion 6y ago

Wow awesome idea. How many rolls do you produce a day? How about recycling plastic waste ground on the beach?

econcon 6y ago
I make 15-20 rolls a day. I'll be adding few more extruders soon - waiting for shipping of additional parts to start building new machines on weekend. Well, picking up beach plastic is too much work - I am not that involved, I need easy automated work haha. There are already companies who pick and sort, shred and wash plastic for you and even convert it into granules - so it's much better to give them more business so the are able to pick more of the waste.
dh-g 6y ago
Recycling plastic is hard because it will be degraded to various levels, will be of different plastic types, will be dirty, will have custom additives, etc. If you are interested in plastic recycling: https://preciousplastic.com/ https://preciousplastic.com/
- econcon 6y ago
  We need more research into it I guess also see: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/greek-researchers-determine-the-effect-of-recycling-on-abs-filament-171938/ https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/greek-researchers-determ... Here they report improved ABS properties on recycling
  - dh-g 6y ago
    This test does not simulate actual product recycling where the plastic is exposed to sunlight and liquids. Its environmental iterations that cause the degradation. Interesting findings though.

yowlingcat 6y ago

Wow, great initiative. I think this is a perfect example of the market solving the problem fast. My main question is, how are you thinking about emissions and waste? Presumably, you've got to melt and extrude these things somewhere, and heating the plastic to its melting point to create decent sized quantities of this will result in harmful emissions of some kind. Do you have some sort of a scrubbing system? If so, how did you figure out what kind of system to set up and right size it for your production capacity?

econcon 6y ago
>Presumably, you've got to melt and extrude these things somewhere, and heating the plastic to its melting point Right now I do nothing for emissions. It happens inside a barrel that reduces a lot of emissions. The emission will appear near the nozzle and the hopper. As those are the only opening in the barrel. Once filament exists the nozzle, after 10inches, it goes into a water bath. In future tho, I'll add HEPA+Activated charcoal filter lid on the hopper and use same for nozzle but with an extraction fan.

serf 6y ago

>It's trivial to get the quality right. as someone who has 3d printed nearly 100kg with FDM machines in the past year, I can't disagree more. Filament extrusion foaming coefficients are all over the place, even only looking at 'cheap' PLA, let alone PETG. This leads to excess oozing and inconsistent extrusion widths, leading to failed or out-of-tolerance parts. Color is all over the place for anything but the darkest or lightest colors for the cheap stuff. Filament widths are wildly inconsistent even within the same companies products -- this leads to extruder jams on the cold side. Cheap filament spools are commonly fused or spliced together mid-roll, leading to a bump at the splice that has to be shaved -- often it isn't, again leading to extruder jams. Spools that are spliced together often have poor circularity near the splice -- another chance for a jam. I've received dusty spools that were vacuum packed, and spools that were vacuum packed with condensation visible on the inside of the packaging (humidity and moisture can damage many filaments, leading to lengthy rebake procedures if the filament survives at all.). I appreciate your effort, and i'm glad you're doing well in business -- but the quality of your product must come from efforts you don't realize, because the quality on the market for cheap filament is , in HN parlance, a dumpster fire.

econcon 6y ago
>as someone who has 3d printed nearly 100kg with FDM machines in the past year, I can't disagree more If you run into problems, feel free to reach out to me. My telegram is in the medium article - I'll help you solve all your problem while extruding filament. >even only looking at 'cheap' PLA, let alone PETG. I don't extrude PLA or PETG at all, buying these special resins is difficult and costs 3x or 5x the ABS. I ask for the lowest wrappage and viscosity blend specially made for extrusion. I buy general purpose polymers like extrusion grade granules of TPU, Nylon12 (it absorbs the least moisture in all nylons) and ABS - buy them from reputable companies they come in membrane sealed bags of 25kg. These polymers are mass produced and finding them for cheap around $1.4-$3 is easy. >Filament widths are wildly inconsistent even within the same companies products -- this leads to extruder jams on the cold side. Before jumping into making filament I researched on Amazon and found most filament being sold is within plus minus 0.05 to 0.02mm tolerance. Upon further research I found that these tolerances are trivial to achieve with sufficiently powered extruder and the industrial machines used for making medical grade silicone tubes can achieve plus minus 0.001mm tolerance using dual axis laser and feedback loop controlling pulling speed at high frequency. You extrude fast, you lose tolerance. Companies might want more througput if their customers don't care about the dimensions and only want ultra cheap stuff. I don't splice, all my filament is continuous length. >I've received dusty spools that were vacuum packed, and spools that were vacuum packed with condensation visible on the inside of the packaging (humidity and moisture can damage many filaments, leading to lengthy rebake procedures if the filament survives at all.). You need to seal the filament spool right after it's ready with a 10-20grams of dessicant. There are special vaccume seal bags and handheld vaccum sealer for low volumes like I am doing it's good enough. >but the quality of your product must come from efforts you don't realize, because the quality on the market for cheap filament is You'll have to troubleshoot the issues with your filament yes but once you've figured it out - it becomes easy. I've written several part articles on my medium blog with many more to come where I'll write about common issues and their solutions. I have had more difficulty in shooting down bugs in production code than building extruder. Just saying that skill level of a programmer and some random guy off the street might have difference. With some guidance anyone can do it. My wife is now tuning extruder, filling the hopper and extruding filament as good as me. She doesn't have technical education background. Arguably, I find baking to more difficult than extruding filament, but it could be just that baking doesn't exite me. I appreciate you concerns but quality of filament has lots of parameters but most common problems appear when: 1. Seller has bought the filament like PLA in bulk from china for $3-4 a spool. They buy a full container load at once to make it as cheap as possible. After a year on shelf even when placed in vaccum sealed bags, PLA becomes brittle. And you'll have very hard time printing with it - it will snap at different places randomly and your prints will fail. 2. Inconsistent diameter - these are extruding too fast or using low quality resin with no good operator on machine available for tuning. For example if I want to extrude 1kg filament and I add 200gram resin of A company, I ran out then I add 200gram resin or B company, you'll have to tune extruder again. Better create filament in large batches from the resin from same batch.

giarc 6y ago

There was a company doing just this on a recent episode of Dragon's Den (Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank). I even think it was a bunch of high school kids.

econcon 6y ago
I've no doubt anyone can do this within a few weeks (if they work on weekends only) People can start with extruding clay or Noddles to start