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It's partly low demand (relatively speaking) and partly because the machines to make it have historically been on the expensive side (i've heard something like

It's partly low demand (relatively speaking) and partly because the machines to make it have historically been on the expensive side (i've heard something like half a million or so). Then there's the time that it takes to run a batch of filament and all the other normal business issues there. It'll definitely come down but it'll likely only approach the range that has been hit with lyman's machine. The pellets have high demand and extremely high quantity (injection moulding). That being said, even when commercial costs come down to this realm they'll still likely have more consistent and higher quality filaments (longer runs tend to even out issues in the plastic).

kefka 14y ago
I'm already thinking of ways to automate this machine to "print money". Run a fan at the end of the filament guide. Then, attach a mouse recovered wheel encoder to monitor amount of filament extruded. Then make a simple geared wheel that turns the rate equal to extrusion (with some given slack). You can even stagger it the similar way a yarn winder weaves on the coil, to allow even fill on the spool. After the circuit monitoring this process indicates the right amount of filament on spool, it kills the system and alerts operator to finish spool prep. I could probably make a tidy profit if I made 20 machines and undercut filament prices of everyone on the market now. And even charge a bit extra for customized filament color (mixing beadstock would be easy).
- simcop2387 14y ago
  What would likely help that even more is to do it in some larger spools (say 20kg spools) so that you can do larger runs and then chop it up later. There is a possible market here to do that, but I don't know what kind of margins you could expect; I've got no idea what the power the filament extruders use. I'll know when/if I finally get my filabot from the kickstarter, it's a very very similar design to lyman's but came a bit later. The main thing I'm after for it is that it'll come with a grinder to let me take things like plastic bottles and try to print with PET plastics and other strange materials.

kefka 14y ago

I'm already thinking of ways to automate this machine to "print money". Run a fan at the end of the filament guide. Then, attach a mouse recovered wheel encoder to monitor amount of filament extruded. Then make a simple geared wheel that turns the rate equal to extrusion (with some given slack). You can even stagger it the similar way a yarn winder weaves on the coil, to allow even fill on the spool. After the circuit monitoring this process indicates the right amount of filament on spool, it kills the system and alerts operator to finish spool prep. I could probably make a tidy profit if I made 20 machines and undercut filament prices of everyone on the market now. And even charge a bit extra for customized filament color (mixing beadstock would be easy).

simcop2387 14y ago
What would likely help that even more is to do it in some larger spools (say 20kg spools) so that you can do larger runs and then chop it up later. There is a possible market here to do that, but I don't know what kind of margins you could expect; I've got no idea what the power the filament extruders use. I'll know when/if I finally get my filabot from the kickstarter, it's a very very similar design to lyman's but came a bit later. The main thing I'm after for it is that it'll come with a grinder to let me take things like plastic bottles and try to print with PET plastics and other strange materials.