Affordable Filament Recycling?

So I have a confession...

For the last, oh, year or so, I've been hoarding every single shred of wasted filament from my 3D prints. And in this video - the first of a series, we're going to try to build a practical, affordable filament recycling setup that allows anyone to turn wasted filament into a usable, beautiful and functional 3d printer filament.

Throughout this entire series, we're going to work on recycling 3d prints and 3d printer filament into new filament that we can actually use and 3d print with.... all for less than $1,500. So if that's something you're interested in, make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon!

🎥 IN THIS VIDEO: 🎥
00:00 Introduction
00:48 Background
03:29 Project Scope & Challenges
07:24 The Shredder
11:53 The Frame
14:48 The Motor
18:53 Assembling It All
25:28 Next Steps

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[thenextlayer]

Thanks for watching! I really appreciate your feedback on my videos and projects, and I read every comment… So… Like… Leave one!

[nicholashoffman]

Sheet metal worker here, I would be using the 6013 rod too, so good start. Absolutely have to clean your metal down to bare shiny before welding. Cleaning the ground area always helps too. Rod angle is important, always should be dragging the rod not pushing when horizontal. About 80 degrees for butt welds, 45 degrees for T welds. Practice on some scrap!

[DigitalDoyle]

What BALLS you have to show us your actual process! Well done! The only way to learn is to make lots and lots of mistakes as quickly as you possibly can. You're doing life right.

[Antstar]

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this video series. A collaboration with CNC Kitchen might be a good idea so you get the best possible filament out after the whole process.

[TechBuild]

With a VFD, the frequency of AC supplied to the motor can be varied which changes its RPM. Changing the sequence of the 3 phases changes the direction of the motor's rotation.
Though, you can run the motor much slower with a VFD, you won't be able to get a high enough torque to crush plastic reliably. I will highly recommend adding a gearbox.

[jayhalfmoonfarm]

Use a grinder and clean the metal around where you are going to weld and where you put your ground. This will help get a clean contact. Also take some scrap and play with your settings on the welder. That is the main reason you are sticking at the beginning of the weld.

[Nahngunnarson]

I am an engineer, welder, tool and die maker, etc with 50+ years experience. And I have actually built shredders such as you are doing though larger and intended to shred metal. I love the project (am also hording plastic waste) and am very impressed by your "just do it" approach. Lots of people talk and day dream about such things but you are actually doing it. So great respect to you. Good that you are using salvaged materials and trying to reduce cost. Purchasing the kit is a good start. However, the welded frame is, as others have mentioned, totally inadequate for the intense vibrations such a machine will produce, even if you could align the motor with the shredder (which is unlikely without precise machining tools and skills). As others suggest, a MIG welder is much easier to learn and grinding the weld area to shiny metal before welding is essential. The frame needs triangulated bracing and adequate welds as many others have said. The motor must have a substantial mechanical speed reduction (and torque multiplication) system by gears, chains/sprockets or belts and pulleys to drive the shredder. Some shredders actually run at high speed but that would just melt the plastic we want to shred. An appropriate gear reduction system that would couple to your motor and your shredder will be a challenge to find and likely quite expensive. A belt or chain speed reduction system will need pulleys or sprockets, bearings, keyed intermediate shafts and additional framework (and guards for safety) with provision for adjusting belt or chain tension. All a bit more complicated but still possible with your drive and ambition. I would be happy to help you with the design of such systems and might duplicate here for my own use.

Another concern you havent mentioned is cleaning the plastic scrap before shredding. 3D printing needs filament that is very pure with nothing that will clog the nozzle. I know the stuff I collect is likely to have bits of debris included that will cause problems if it gets into the final product filament and I am not sure how to eliminate that problem. It may be that filtering the shredded material by melting it and extruding through a 0.4 or smaller "screen" will be required and that seems high maintenence at best.

[soltharix]

I'm glad I came across this video as I recently was visiting my best friend along with his 11-year old son and both of them had just recently dived into the 3D printing world. I was only a few months ahead of them myself and gladly helped get them all setup to go. During that time, his son proactively saved every single shred of waste filament, and when I asked him about that he said he wanted to save all of it so he could figure out a way to recycle it all at some point (even if he had no idea what that involved). I was impressed by his natural ambition to attempt something extremely useful and helpful on his own and promised to help him with that goal. I think this video series will be extremely helpful to anyone trying to get an affordable recycling solution off the ground, so thanks again for that. I am not a Youtuber by any means, but I do plan on taking video of my design, build, and testing process in order to help anyone else interested in recycling do the same as well, and it may also be a good test case for your overall goal of enabling the average follower to implement something like this!

[erickwill]

Shalom! Watching you, all the way down from Brazil! Awesome content! Looking forward for new episodes! Thanks and keep it up 👍

[Lindsey-stjw]

Amazing video, can't wait to see the rest of the series! Some tips for the welding:

- Be very careful welding any steel that is galvanized, it's fumes are uber bad for you. I'd do it outside if possible and grinding the area you're about to weld will reduce these fumes (though it's difficult to grind the inside of steel bar).
- You appear to be using a 110v welder. To increase it's penetration in the material (and therefore strength), you can pre-heat the metal with something like a propane or map gas torch.

Other than that you're doing great! Keep up the good work :)

[glennfelpel]

Wonderful project you have taken on. I surely shall be following along. As for the welding. It helps a lot to have a scrap piece of grounded metal beside or near where you are welding. Strike your rod on this scrap piece to heat the rod, like to red hot. Then move to your work piece with a hot rod to start. Another thing do NOT be afraid to hold the welding rod with your other dry gloved hand near the end of the rod. I mean hold the rod with your hand to guide you as you start. Once started you can let go of the rod as it gets pretty hot with you hand that close to the weld. But now running the weld is much easier. Thank you for the series.

[danielchiu]

I love how open you are about your skill level, the mistakes you made and how you got everything. Awesome video! Cant wait to see more.

[EyebrowsMahoney]

Massive respect for trying, and OWNING your own inadequacies when welding. It's not a particularly easy skill to master, but the fact that you want to learn, and aren't trying to show people how to weld; let alone are TRYING to humbly learn your own way makes me not even want to critique your work. I'm not a stick welder (I prefer TIG/MIG) but I've done some - I'll throw some tips though, you look like you'll take to it like a duck to water.

- You have an angle grinder already, get a grinding wheel for it and grind the millscale (the grey dull coating) and paint off what you're trying to weld. The cleaner it is, the easier it is to weld. With stick welding, it's a bit more forgiving than MIG/TIG in my opinion for dirty joints but it's not infallible. Experienced guys can kinda weld through anything but they'd clean it if they can.
- You've already got the idea down for starting your arc, drag the stick, don't poke it. I think part of your issue starting is the millscale, but I think you might be lifting the stick too high and too fast. They say it's like "striking a match" but I don't think it's quite that quick. Definitely get some scrap and practice laying a bead down. Once you can scratch start it reliably, it will be so much easier for you to weld.

Keep up the good work, I'm deeply interested in this project myself!

[TheBenjdude]

Mad respect, seriously. I have seen some of your other videos, but this one really drove it home for me just how real you are. I wish you all the best dude.

[Mr.Hugh_Jass]

As someone who works with VFDs everyday, I'm excited to see this series. It's not often I hear about them outside of work. Your explanation of them was funny, but pretty much right. I encourage everyone to watch a video on how VFDs work, interesting stuff.

[talbech]

Kudos for actually making a video about a topic where you do not excel to perfection and showing the shortcomings. I will be following this series with great interest.

[DustyWall]

Awesome project! Welding tips: Only weld on clean metal (grind or wire brush to bare metal and de-grease with acetone). Wire brush the flux off your previous welds before welding over or next to them (a wire brush and chipping hammer are essential tools, stick welding leaves a flux coating that you do not want to weld over). In the U.S. many steel supplies sell remnant and scrap cuts to the public if you're having trouble finding steel. When beginning to learn welding, practice on flat steel plates to learn how to tack pieces together and lay slow and steady beads in straight lines. Before welding a new project, practice on scrap steel of the same thickness in the same kind of joints, trying different welder settings to see what works best. Beginner stick welding videos on YouTube are a massive help getting your welding hobby off the ground.

[stephanb]

the guy from precious plastic (dave) now has another youtube channel : Project Kamp

[chrisdixon]

Great job!
I'll take ugly and functional over pretty and useless every single time.
The alignment of the motor and cutter shafts looks like it's probably close enough that the coupler will be able to mate them. If not, that old crafting technique of "a shim" under the motor will get you through :)
Looking forward to seeing the finished result!

[guglielmo]

Italy mentioned we support and love you guys ❤️