[Update October 13th] Working very hard right now to organize the shipping of the Pellet Extruder and other tasks related to Greenboy3D like organizing a supply of pellets for everyone and a pellet extruder wiki, which is why I sometimes have trouble answering everyone immediately. Most parts for the extruder have already arrived and have been processed & packed for shipping, however the pellet extruder screws are still in manufacturing since this is the most complicated and costly part of the pellet extruder. I believe that the first units will be shipped out by the end of October. Due to the additional organizational tasks related to the supply of pellets, there is simply more work that needs to be done. This includes staying in contact with many companies selling different types of plastics & watching out for good offers, requesting samples, testing them, negotiating prices, organizing the transportation of tons of plastic pellets, and so on. These tasks also take up some of my time, which would otherwise have been spent on the Wiki/Knowledge Base platform and the guide videos. Just a couple days ago, for example, I ordered and paid for 8,600 kg of PLA pellets, which will likely be transported to my location from Slovenia next week. 2500 kg PETG pellets are already in my possession, but more of other types are needed like: ABS/ASA/ABS-GF/ABS-GB PET TPU/TPE (various Shore levels) PA GF/CF Additionally soon there will be a new update about the ongoing progress (including the one about pellets) 🙂 If you want to get some additional pellets along with your order then that is possible however you need to consider that, while the pellet extruder will be shipped for free there will be additional shipping costs for pellets. However I will keep you updated regarding the pellets. The only thing I am not sure about is whether I should also get these extremely elastic pellets I showed in one of my videos, after doing more research it turned out these were not Shore 5A, but Shore 30 (with out the "A") which is significantly below Shore 0A meaning even more elastic and flexible than Shore 0A The only problem is that these pellets are quite expensive compared to other plastics and could only be offered for prices like 12,99 USD/EUR per kg (way higher than the other plastic types like PLA, which will probably go for 3,5 USD/EUR) Should you have more questions or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime - I am here to help.
Hi My idea for coloring is using different color inkjet bottles they feeding directly from side your extruder simply using stepper motor pumps. So you can run the color(s) slow or higher speed, or in a mix of different colors into the extruder.
@@madison66 a similar thought occured to me also. Realistically, for any innovative 3d printing system to try and take on the giants like prusa, creality, or bambu labs, then it needs to have an answer to multi material or multi colour systems with a user experience at least half way as refined. Automated side feeding of colourant into the feeder could be part of that.
@@madison66 theoretically you would only need red blue yellow black and white to make any color combination you could use two or more print heads to achieve full color 3d prints
I loved your research and the video - but I’ll be blatantly honest about the print quality: it’s not there yet. The Benchy has VERY inconsistent layer lines. On a commercial printer I would have returned it. The question is: are the inconsistencies generated by your pallet extruder? Or is it the mechanics of the printer that are suffering from a heavy print head? I would love to see it on a stiffer printer / maybe it gets good on a printer with a more rigid gantry, linear rails or wider gantry extrusion… more tension on the belts. Please, don’t dismiss the importance of print quality - people are willing to pay more for better quality filament exactly because they want smoother prints. Keep going the awesome research!
The issue is caused by the inconsistency that plastic pellets in general have. It's like having a Filament spool with fluctuation a diameter between 5% but because of this it costs also 5 to 10 times less. This issue can be solved in the future for example with a pressure sensor in the extruder barrel or a small AI camera monitoring the extrusion rate and real-time-micro adjusting it, which is why pellet extruders will have in the future basically the same print quality as filament printers. But this this kind of technology still needs to be developed... If I make enough sales, I will try to develop this technology with extrusion measurement myself, since it would be my dream to bring a huge innovation to the world of 3D Printing... Wish me LUCK🙂
@@greenboy3dyou could try an esp32-cam or 2 with a macro lens focused on the hotend, as a bonus you can detect blobs before they cause issues. Imo another option might be double extrusion, with a pellet extruder extruding into a bowden tube and the filament being picked up by a regular hotend, that allows you to use light to measure the diameter, and to use a way lighter moving assembly. (Also depending on print speed you could have a shell that's solid but the core still above 60C, which means more flow rate.) Yet another option (imo the easiest to do currently) would be to use an idex system and do the outer wall on a regular .4mm nozzle, then fill in with the pellet extruder on a 1.2 or 1.6mm nozzle. The great thing with that solution imo, is that you don't need good quality pellets, and can use whatever color recycled plastic in it and still have an uniform print. And also the large diameter nozzle means that you don't need the heavy pellet extruder to move fast.
I dunno, for cosplayers who are going to use huge amounts of filament and will still fill, sand and prime, it's not really a big issue, and the cost saving for these users would be huge!
There are other machines that take pellets to make into Filaments at home... I wonder if that is the better option, though that machine is 2-3x more....
I have access to literal tons of both engineering and commodity resins for free that's thrown away from my workplace. I think you 100% need to pick a nozzle that's optimal for pellet extrusion more so than maintaining broad compatibility.
1kg PETG cost here 6-9 usd per kg. That is so cheap, if it would be free, I would not print more. In the company we also put hugh amounts of PA6 and POM in the junk
Special nozzle all the way. If a standard platform for pellet extruders eventually comes out as a result too, it just means this will have set the ground for that standard! If there is demand, standardization will come, and people will prefer the performance gain and the eventual affordability.
My 2 cents on your question about "standard nozzles": not critical, especially if they are suboptimal for this extrusion technique. Most important is a pellet extruder with optimal heating & retraction results. So if that means a different nozzle type, so be it. Fantastic work by the way ! 👍 Been saving a ton of PLA parts in the hope of recycling them into new prints. But nothing out there seems affordable in terms of time , money or reliability. Most require recycling into filament first, which feels like a dead end for consumers: too many issues, too time consuming, somewhat expensive. Your approach that just requires careful grinding seems the most promising to me so far. And seems good enough for my prototyping workflow for functional parts: many iterations, no need for perfect surface quality. Thanks for your 2 years of effort on this front !
I agree on this. CNC Kitchen even tried to build a high flow nozzle out of a regular brass nozzle and a copper insert when HF nozzles were a novelty. So already manufactured nozzles can be adapted "quick and cheap" with a round copper insert by just press-fitting I guess, and new manufactured nozzles just with one hole less! I am sure that with the visibility you are earning through your videos, you can achieve something like that pretty easily. However, I would let the nozzle compatibility window open.
Agreed - for PLA the time and effort isn't worth it - aesthetic prints like cosplay items, busts, toys etc. wouldn't have the look or shape consistency needed, and the functional parts may not have the tolerances needed - it could be great for printing support or infill perhaps but then that introduces a whole other series of challenges in slicing or IDEX integration. I would recommend this extruder for printing thermoplastic elastomers that are too soft to turn into filament, or perhaps make printed parts from materials other than standard and widely available filaments.
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole. If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@@greenboy3d depends on your goals, I guess. If it is to make money on nozzles then indeed it could become an impediment for buyers. If not, publishing the design specs will get a long way toward copycat nozzles appearing on aliexpress or ebay. With many biz models in between (partnering w 3D printing accessory distributors on each continent, selling through specialized online stores that have figured out worlwide buy & ship like CNC Kitchen's, etc). BUT the nozzle is only a tiny concerning piece in my opinion. How about other proprietary or uncommon parts of the extruder and providing spare parts for repair ? Like the extruder screw, or its housing ? Screw extruders do NOT have a great reputation on the hobby scene. So, as a buyer I'd be less worried about the nozzle (I'll likely find a way to unclog it) and more about whether I'd be able to get spare parts if anything breaks down ? Bambu Lab might be an example to ponder. The highly specialised parts in their printers initially turned many people off for fear of ending up with an expensive unrepairable dead paperweight. But their policy of selling most parts online at a reasonable price went a long way to assuage these fears. Maybe something can also be learned / copied from that ?
Idea: try adding some new pellets to your shredded waste, somewhere between 10-40% of new pellets. This is normally done in recycling as it increases quality of the end product by a lot. And 90% of recycled material will still safe a lot of waste
I mean, 100% recycled material or 90% recycled material should safe the same amount of waste, since you are propably using more waste than you produce (if over 90% of your prints are waste, you are propably doing Something wrong)
Put me down as "don't care" about nozzle compatibility. Nozzles are cheap, they last a long time, and if a special extruder needs a special nozzle, I can understand that. As long as I can GET them, or I can modify standard ones to work. Are you thinking of tapering the inner profile? What would make a standard work better on a pellet extruder?
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole. If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@greenboy3d the idea to modify a stndard nozzle from @BrightBlueJim would be the easiest way in terms of accesability. Even when you break multiple ones during the process of modifying or if they clogged faster you can get a inexpensive replacement. The tapping tool could be a custom cadfile ready to cnc manufacture via different big manufactures, like JLC for example, same for special nozzles.
@@greenboy3di mean if you’re the only one selling it it could be a problem, but if you can solve the distrubution option it wouldnt be an issue imo. You could look into if modifying a nozzle thats readily avaliable is an option because then people could just get that nozzle and modify it themselves if buying one from you isnt an option.
@@greenboy3d I work in blow molding. We use stainless steel screens and place them after the extrusion screw. This catches contaminants and solves your clog. Your only option after that is solvents when removing your nozzle.
@@greenboy3d I'm quite interested in more details on shredding the plastic to make it workable, or is it really as simple as just throwing parts in a kitchen blender and sifting the result? I would also like to know more about your 2-year journey (what major hurdles did you encounter and how did you tackle them) to get at this point, and on how to get my hands on the result to be able to play with it.
@@satibel I think so is for metals and well, many other materials that melt at high temperatures, so i suppose it should be a similar story with plastic since it's so similar to those just in a much weaker and lighter (and cheaper) form
@@ERIK-457 yeah for metals the main issue is that most of them are alloys and you can't precisely control the quantity of each metal, so you have higher variance on properties with recycled metal compared to metal that is made from known sources.
Honestly the majority of new printers have proprietary nozzles, so if an optimal nozzle can be close in price, i dont see it being an issue. Really interested in this for an option for my sunlu s8 with a bigger nozzle to print my failed prontd
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole. If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@@greenboy3d Good point indeed. Humans on all the sides of the planet. may be you go as some success company do - make a cheap option and a pricy one. So you will also not let your interest go away for some ideas.
Cool to see progress on this! Reg.nozzle: why not just make custom nozzles that use m6 threads? You maintain compatibility, and you can also get the characteristics you want
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole. If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@greenboy3d well, it's not like you can buy normal nozzles at the local super market either, i think as long as you maintain compatibility with standard nozzles, it should not be an issue, otherwise you can sell them in packs of 10, that gives people alot of time to order a new set when they need it. I suspect that the custom nozzle is going to be all about having as little fillament volume as possible to avoid oozing, right? In that case, it might be even easier to clear the nozzle, and it would make it even more a non issue :)
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole. If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
Nozzle clog can be solved by buying another one. Profit. Sell a 3D design of the nozzle for a substantial amount, or just publish it for free for the street cred
In this case, in terms of speed, I think a bed-slinger might actually perform better than a CoreXY. On a CoreXY the heavy toolhead would affect the resonances of both axis, which would limit accelerations. On a bed-slinger the heavy Y axis performs worse than the X, bottlenecking the X axis speeds. But in your case, both axis are heavy, so they don't limit each other, and because they're separate, it's probably going to be easier to deal with their respective resonances. But that's just my theory.
Supporting standard nozzles will bring more people in, so in the short term that's probably the better plan, but the next step will be to develop custom nozzles and setups that work better.
I think a possibly better option is to look at making filament yourself. If you can make filament then you can use any off the shelf printers or parts. Splitting it into separate steps is likely better. That also removes the print quality concern. Another option may be to put the pellet extruder on top of the printer and have it create filament that goes straight into a Bowden tube down to the hot end, although this would likely not be as good as making the filament separately.
For recycling it's typically done by mixing the old plastic into a new batch. You could try how well the system works at different ratios of old and new. Ideally ofc you would want to shred it to similar granule size, but the hopper and screw system should be able to handle varying sizes. Would like to see some tests on this. Recycling old plastic inhouse can be a huge saving overall. For the nozzle question, I think you should aim to have optimal nozzle for the printing and not be chained by universality. If the system becomes widely used then it becomes the new standard :)
I used to work at Tektronix, and there was a shade of color the used a lot on plastic molded parts that we called "Tek blue". I learned one day that they made this by mixing medium blue, white, and black RIT fabric dye (the dry powdered version) to get this color. Of course, those were injection molded parts, so I don't know how that would work here.
I am in absolute awe. You are ABSOLUTELY correct. There is a huge market that falls under the 'Good enough' category. It's not even bad print quality. I'd MUCH rather have a bunch of good enough prints made from all of my plastic waste. I will be ordering soon.
Thank you for your appreciation 🙂 If you have any sort of questions, feel free to contact me anytime. For example, through email or Instagram. I also suggest you to join the Greenboy Discord Community Server where you will encounter more than 1300+ like-minded people that discuss daily all sorts of things about pellet 3d printing > discord.gg/UuFDbFj6FC
I calculated 112g/h = 38.3 mm^3/s, am I correct? Calculations below: Assuming PLA density is 1.24g/cm^3: 112g * 1.24 = 138cm^3/h 138 / 60 = 2.3cm^3/min 2.3 / 60 = 0.0383cm^3/s = 38.3mm^3/s flow It would be cool to see you perform the orcaslicer max flowrate test on different nozzle sizes. It makes it easier to see the actual limits of flowrate.
A bit of an overestimate on flow rate unfortunately - if the PLA is more than a gram per cm^3 then 112 g should represent less than 112 cm^3. I think the calculation should be as follows: 112 g/1.24 g/cm^3 = 90.3 cm^3 90.3 / 60 = 1.50 cm^3/min 1.5 / 60 = 0.025 cm^3/s = 25 mm^3/s Still better than many standard nozzles, but not matching top of the line high flow. I think beyond this, the cooling rates will be a bigger limits but with klipper input shaping the weight of the extruder may be much less of an issue than with previous firmware. Still a very impressive project in general!
I'll look into the "orcaslicer max flowrate test", might test it this way next time. Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂 What would you like to see next?
This is an awesome idea. It would be really nice to be able to actually make our own spools from pellets. Im sure you've already posted a video on why you didn't do that here.
Very good video and so happy to see your progress. I have 40 years of high production high precision injection mold making and molding experience. You are dead on in the process you outlined and are mastering the rheology of thermoplastic flow . The only difference in the outcome is that you are not able to get the density of an infection molded part because you do not have a packing phase in 3d printing. As a result you may have aligned molecules and a grain like wood in printing that has some advantages and disadvantages. But with carbon fiber we may be able to produce a similar strength . Not sure yet all the doors you are going to unlock but accolades to you this this an amazing project. But I can tell you that the injection molding press industry has already figured out how to do a lot of what your doing they just have not figured out how to 3d an extruder for 3d printing
For the nozzle, maybe go with a CHT nozzle, since it has three channels in which the molten plastic flows through, meaning it might have more consistency in the heating and flow. As for the small discrepencies in the melting process, maybe add some small notches on the side of the extrusion screw so that any trapped air could be potentially allowed to bubble out or maybe as a way to control a bit of pressure. As for dying your batch, could try going with alcohol dyes and do it in the same format of mixing it in an enclosed jar/container.
I worked in a factory that recycled their extruded PVC material, and the best results they got was using a giant tumbler to mix "regrind" or your sifted bits into normal pellets, dye pellets and conditioner. As far as I could tell the conditioner was just an oil that helped keep the mixture from clumping up in the hopper.
The retraction explanation makes perfect sense when you consider that reversing the conveyer screw in a pellet extruder is functionally doing the same thing as a "retract" move on a filament extruder; namely, they both are reducing the pressure inside the melt chamber. Which is the real goal of a "retract" move anyways.
Nice. For recycled plastic the bulk density will be different. Building a small pelletizer extruder would be more consistent. I worked as a tool maker in an extrusion plant for 10 years. There are ways to make it more consistent but the complexity goes up.
I like the idea, however I think print quality is a vital thing to consider, especially from those of us who make a living off of making prints. Especially on dimensional accuracy, print quality is something needed.
I really like what you are trying to do. Even if the up front cost is most likely going to be more, the saving on the filament is huge. Making custom colors is interesting too. Are you using regular spray paint?
Yes, regular acrylic based spray paint. But like I mention there are multiple ways and spray paint types... By the way, what would you like to see next?
About the nozzles: could one not just cut away most of a standard nozzle with a hacksaw, leaving just enough threading to screw it in? This would eliminate the entire part where plastic is melted and leave just the final conical shrinky bit needed for printing. Given that this extruder isn't likely to be acquired by anyone non-technical, I think having "SAW ALL THE THINGS" as part of the build process isn't too demanding a step.
you are right on your conclusion but yet it would still make things more complicated for everyone... because if you would do it this way and optimize the pellet extruder for a shorter threat than people without this modification couldn't properly use the pellet extruder which is a problem :(
@@greenboy3d I was thinking more like - have a standard unmodified plan for a normal nozzle that everybody can follow, but mention that this is a possibility so that anyone willing can saw the needless bit off and enjoy a little extra effectiveness.
Hey, this is great! I was looking for a convenient pellet extruder. I currently recycle old plastic and create my own filament, but that is much more work than directly printing the shredded material.
For retraction - you can add a micro-motor with a spring-loaded (curved?) metalic shutter over the nozzle, that activates when "retract" command is issued, and releases otherwise. The trickiest part would proubably be the wiring. One way to solve it, would possibly be to use half wave rectifier (a diod) before the feeder motor leads, so it would just skip the "reverse" motion, paired with reverse voltage detector (or just use another (reversed) diode and step-down regulator or just a voltage divider to drive the shutter motor by the "reverse" motion.
PLA pellets can only reliably sourced at $10-$15/kg. The cheapest PLA filament is $15/kg… last I checked. 0-30% cost savings was not 300% (missinformation factor 10x to infinity)
SAW VIDEO 1 AND NOW THIS!! Thank You! Can a pressure lift switch be added between the nozzle head assembly and the actual carrier mount guide rail? maybe this would be fore a different design. say 0.6 nozzle layer eight travel is 1.2. the stepper feed goes till the head is lifted ill the trigger head lift switch is tripped or lifted to that height, then the travel steppers are engaged to conduct gcode shape. maybe be do a reverse stepper feed code for retraction. Head should relax and lift switch switch off for next travel movement and no feed. Maybe CNC kitchen or Dr. Dflow. Dflow did a very large scale pellet printer. maybe this helps on the stringing retraction issue. micro optical type switch or nano like adjustable switch control to adjust layer height and retraction.. just ideas...
Nozzle compatibility across filament printers makes sense, but it does not have to be that way for a pellet extruder. It makes more sense for the pellet extruder that uses a different extrusion method to have a different nozzle. Then from there, hopefully all future pellet extruders would have the same nozzle compatibility. Maybe if you just keep the same threading, it can be up to the user to decide if they want to use an easily available filament nozzle, or a pellet nozzle.
Love to see that project continuing... any estimation on when this will be available for testing? Would love to adapt one of those to my voron-toolchanger 😁
I have collected around 8-9 kg of PLA waste in the course of 14 months and building an extruder to use them to print functional parts will be a much better use for them instead of giving them for recycling. I am very excited for the design files to come out and know where I can source the screw from so that I can recycle my waste into useful parts!
Some of the problems you're running into are also issues in small extruders. I.e. if the extruder screw is running at 60 rpm, expect an uneven "squirt" of resin every 1 second out the end of the nozzle/die.This is why metering pumps are often used at the end of an extruder (to tightly monitor flow). The 3d filament printer brilliantly solves this issue inexpensively by using filament. The filament feeding system is acting as the gear pump. Another issue will be safety. If you build up pressure behind molten plastic that has frozen off at the nozzle, watch out. Randcastle has made a great miniature extruder for decades to learn some of the inherent issues.
Please note that if you have quality pellets (clean) you can produce filament on professional liine for 4-5 eur/kg. For instance TPU 65 shore D costs 3,8-4,8 euro kg now (Resinex, Ravathane 130 D65 NATURAL), regranulate 2 eur. Total is 6 euro kg while in store you pay 40 euro.
Could you technically print pellets with the shredded prints so the size is consistent? As for the standard nozzle question, I'd love to see the difference in print quality with a non standard nozzle
Depends on how consistent the shredded prints are. If you have for example cylindrical shaped shredded plastic, and you plan to mix it with round shaped pellets, then you might get even more inconsistency... But yes you can...
IIRC the pellets won't run themselves through the extruder at a perfectly constant rate. You'd have the same problem using filament with a non-constant diameter.
@@ski3091 so I suppose this type of extruder is not good for prints with tight tolerances or small details but is excellent for large structural objects that you would need a lot of?
Like others mentioned, the pellets or granules don't have a perfect constant flow rate. I have some ideas to solve this problem in the future, but for now it is what it is :)
Nozzle compatibility isn't important if it comes at a cost of performance. What would ultimately be nice is to design it to function with a breakout board, and be compatible with toolswap plates such as the Hermit Crab or WhamBam Mutant for Ender 3, or be able to easily mount it to a toolchanging printer. That's a much nicer quality of life, to be able to quickly swap between a pellet extruder and filament extruder.
Love this project and can’t wait I have an old Ender i could dedicate for this awesome project! I think having a quick swap that can change to other machines.
Let's not forget that pellet 3D printing is also better for the environment. You're cutting out the entire step of shipping to the filament producer, extruding filament, spooling it, and packing it. I'm not a type of "oh my god the environment is everything and we have to drop everything to protect it"-person, but it's still nice when something is more efficient. I do wonder, what's causing the visible layer lines? Is it the relatively inconsistent extrusion rate?
You should check out the quantum delta 3d printer by Kilian Gosewisch, instead of moving the printhead it moves the entire bed on all axis and the extruder stays stationary, that way you can eliminate the size and weight constraints of your extruder.
High volume extrusion + large format(build volume)? Robotic arm or gantry For molds. Like CEAD. Thank you. Because then you can use carbon fiber and vacuum bag setting resin- infusion.
I love what you got here. The problem is layer lines. I would like to see this mod on something really good with that. If it's your system then open-source it to see how you can compress it. Current superchargers come to mind with compression.
You can use any firmware like. For example, Marlin is the firmware I use. You just need to adjust some very minor settings in the firmware in order to use the pellet extruder on your 3D printer. But don't worry I will make very detailed tutorials regarding this, which will everyone to upgrade their 3D printer to a pellet 3d printer 😀
@@greenboy3d Yeah would i be able to grind/shred failed prints and support material and reprint it in this extruder setup? Also would you be able to grind things like PET bottles to recycle them directly into new prints?
I once read an article about an Indian university student who couldn't afford a 3D printer and so he designed and built his own, the only things he bought were the arduino chip to build his control board and the steppers, he was also having trouble affording filament and so he also designed and built a pellet extruder as he could get the pellets for pennies. I have a few old bedslingers that I would love to convert into pellet printers!
I’m all for recycling and reducing waste, also I like saving money, so I love it! Most prints just don't need good quality. Stuff like hooks, holders, storage containers and so on work just the same even with a +-1mm tolerance, so the reduced surface finish is no problem.
Neat video, I love the amount of work folks put into FDM printers just to get a new way to print or not waste materials. I am not sure I would go through the trouble of doing all this, just to save a few bucks in materials, but I feel the pain of wasted materials as well. Resin printers create so much waste with support materials only being used and tossed. I love that you took and Ender 3V2 and did this, those things are like Honda Civics, cheap and easy to mod.
This is a great idea! It would be very efficient to use this machine for prototyping for a product where initial quality isn't needed. I think this has potential to be a "final product" solution as well!
It is "less" easier to produce Filament because more steps are involved in in that process than just directly printing with pellets. However, nothing is holding you back to produce Filament with the Pellet Extruder, if that is what you want to do. The point is that you have full freedom of choice... 😀
Maybe if you can measure the power the stepper needs to turn, you could get a constant pressure? Maybe even switch to a brushed motor and gearbox that just is current limited to one specific amp rating, thus giving exact pressure?
This is really interesting. I wonder if you could make some GCODE that would use your pellet extruder to make spools too with a small addon. Seems like it would be a pretty handy thing to have around in general. Your screw style pellet extruder might actually be ideal for people's DIY filament recyclers, turning older printer parts into filament recyclers is of interest to a lot of people.
Oh man - Subscribed! Great content! Look forward to see what else you work on, and following along your progress! Really would like to experience your setup! Heading down similar journey. Thanks for being down similar paths, the world needs it!
Let me ask a question can you just make standard filament roll with the pellets? If its available we can bypass many problems and use it with any machine without modifying the machine
Great work on this! Look forward to supporting you in the future. Survey done, I hope you got many responses with valuable information. Keep up the awesome work you are doing!
I think this is the way to go especially for large printvolume printers since the printmechanism is bulkier and the material is way cheaper. Mach weiter so, 👍
@@greenboy3d The video you already hinted at. Tests seeing the strength of parts printing this way versus the standard method. Also with different materials.
I don't know much about it but from what I understood the print quality is caused by the pellets inconsistency, maybe it is fixable with a bigger heating nozzle, or maybe a semi-melting tube before it reaches the main nozzle. I am aware of the dripping problem it creates since there is nothing to hold the plastic from flowing down but maybe a custom nozzle could handle it? I loved the video btw
Was interesting, until I saw the prices of pellets on the internet... so please share a link where the pellets are "much cheaper" than the filament... reference could be GST3D, where you buy filament for approx 11-14 EUR incl VAT, per kilo..... pellets ?
@@greenboy3d Either links to examples, or a video about it... until proven, 90% of people seeing the video first thinks "great, I need to look into this"... and after 10 mins with google, thinking "clickbait", all this trouble and risk with pellet extruder to save 10-20%... not worth it !
Really good. I would like to see this as something thats produced or DIYable. I have so much support scrap usually that could be turned into functional prints.
bro, you should definitely make a filament extruder. just a sloppy one, then grind that filament into granuals (using a blade cutting the filament as you feed it as one stand) . this will definitely make for more event pellets for your extruder! this is interresting. gj
I have a custom pelletizer and you can even set the desired size of your pellets. The resulting print quality is excellent, but the pelletizer is unfortunately broken atm. If I have a bit more time and more people show interest in that, I might get back to that idea tho
So I just ordered my first printer (Creality Ender 3. I know, far from the best, but it fits in my budget) so of course I'm looking for videos on how to make the most of it, and this came up in recommended. Now while I find the premise intriguing, I seriously have to wonder where the heck I can actually get pellets for those prices, because no matter where I look (Amazon, Aliexpress, Wish) pellets and filament cost ABOUT the same per kg...
One small question: where do you get your pellets? It's an interesting project, and after your first video did a quick google search for plastic pellets in the EU, and couldn't find anything in the 3-8€/kg range you are citing, most i find are at least 10€/kg, and at that price you might as well just buy cheap filament. So if you want this to get popular, also show us where to buy these cheap pellets XD.
@@greenboy3d Could at least be an interesting section of a next video, i'm clearly not the only person wondering, and it's an important part of your sales pitch, it should be a lot cheaper, but if we can't find cheap pellets, we won't have any use for your extruder...
I feel that its worth mentioning that spraypaint isnt a great thing to be melting down, depending on the paint it could be very toxic. Additionally, when mixing pigments into plastics the formulation is tricky as the pigments can easily ruin your material properties...
I would worry about off-gassing for using the various shake methods while the pellets are in the extruder. I thinnk a greater focus on post-painting and recycling already mostly off-gassed materials makes more sense.
I honestly do not care about chasing the highest print quality. For me #d printing a a utilitarian endeavor. I make useful things that are meant to be used instead of "pretty" things that are meant to be looked at. If I can get 5x the prints at 1/5th the price and still meet the industrial level quality I accept then this is more than fine by me. I don't waste my time or money printing busts of deadpool. As for nozzles, I would prefer to use standard nozzles that are interchangeable among multiple printers, BUT....I think this is one of those cases where I see value in needing to use a specific "one off" style nozzle. However I think it would be best that any nozzle be as robust as possible. I'd ideally want a nozzle to last as long as the extruder screw and I don't think that is unachievable.
@@greenboy3d I was thinking about this more yesterday and I do believe that your extruder could do double duty and act as the first stage for a pelletizer for ground up failed prints or supports. This would make it much easier to blend with virgin material to then feed into your extruder. This thing you've done opens up a LOT of avenues. To have a viable extruder on a small scale really gives so many more options than a bulky unit that is not portable.
I honestly think I could live with the reduced print speed if it prints consistently or great. but even right now it could be used in a tool changer? I also have an idea: i'm developing a pressure sensor for hotends that can optimize the flow and calibrate on the go based on hotend pressure, you could use one and then do a closed loop servo style hotend!
Well done! A good enough print as shown in the video is insane. The possibility for community collection and reusing plastic is through the roof. There are a lot of nonprofits in Buffalo NY, that currently have 3d printers that would be interested in this project. Filament is the biggest cost right now which blocks us from legitimate local manufacturing. Since the injection molded parts are cheaper than just the filament, its hard for 3d printing to make sense This project could bring us closer to - buy nothing world I think a lot of 3d printing print farms are looking closely at this too! Could make their prices much more competitive and possible to break into more product categories, including more simple shapes.
impressive that you can make this work at all - but for small scale users I feel like it would make more sense to have a machine that can mold the pellets into standard filament. Its a smaller problem to solve, so quality compromises can probably be less. The downside is that it becomes a two-step process of course. How do you deal with air entrainment (bubbles) though? I would assume that if it's ignored the resulting prints become terribly weak from all the imperfections. Im pretty new to this, so if a good low-cost method for this already exists then someone tell me what to search for :)
Yes, a lot of people already thought of using it as a "filamentizer", which you can do if you want to. Using the pellet extruder directly eliminates the intermediate step and the need of a second printer, allowing for more direct and cost-effective material use, especially for large scale prints. The trade off is the need for some technical tuning and familiarity with pellet printing. Every time I had bubbles it was because the pellets were ever so slightly wet, which is why drying is a simple but effective solution.
@greenboy3d So the print quality degradation is mainly visual? Have you done some objective testing to verify I can look up? I think water induced bubbles are far more obvious than air voids in the structure. You can make do with less pretty prints, but compromised strength would severely limit the practical applications. I agree that direct use of pellets is a big boon in any sort of larger scale production where it doesnt make sense to go all the way toward making ordering injection molding. I hear those master molds can be stupidly expensive, and too big of a barrier to entry for smaller businesses. That doesn't apply to many of us enthusiasts, but it's a very worthy topic to explore and refine for commercial use. Raw plastics in bulk are really cheap.
I think significantly better print quality is more important than full nozzle compatibility. However it would be great if you could maintain some level of compatibility, for example by keeping the M6 thread. Then the pellet extruder would work best with the custom nozzles but still function ok-ish with a common nozzle. Some compatibility would prevent complete downtime and allow the early adopters more ways to experiment - an easy one would be shortening common nozzles as from what you're saying a stubbier nozzle is closer to ideal.
It is "less" easier because more steps are involved in producing filament than just directly printing with pellets. However, nothing is holding you back to produce Filament with the Pellet Extruder, if that is what you want to do. The point is that you have full freedom of choice... 😀
This is exactly what I need. I have been saving all my PLA trash from supports, failed prints etc, since I started 3d printing, waiting for this product.
This is super cool work you are doing! Consider me thoroughly impressed and in awe of your abilities! I love 3D printing and the amount of innovation and absolutely genius levels of ingenuity I've seen at so many levels within this community! Being able to purchase an AFFORDABLE pellet extruder that can be put onto many other brands of printers would be invaluable as a 3D printing oriented business owner. I'd especially love to see this become standard on some other printers like Prusa or Bambu, though I'd settle for a reliable conversion kit and I'd buy like 5x of them. Haha! Keep up the great work! I'll be keeping a close eye on this project for sure!
This is, frankly, truly awesome stuff. When I get the time, I definitely want to investigate this pellet extruder further. Do you intend to release the source material, etc? That would be really awesome, if I could make one myself eventually and try it out!
@@greenboy3d hmm. Since it's already a pellet extruder, couldn't you design a custom extra wide nozzle for direct injection molding? Say you 3d print a prototype of something, but then you want to produce it in bulk, so you acquire a mold (you can actually resin print them), swap the nozzle, and then begin injecting. I just thought about it, since it already extrudes pellets it could be used for both printing and IM, all in the package of one device. You don't even need a plunger, just have the screw set to high speed? :) Additionally, I'd like to see some experiments with some more exotic materials (PC, Polyamides, etc,). Have you ever thought about buying some graphene powder and making some master batch pellets with something like polystyrene, and then combining that with the bulk material? I think you'd be surprised at the strength of graphene infused parts.
[Update October 13th]
Working very hard right now to organize the shipping of the Pellet Extruder and other tasks related to Greenboy3D like organizing a supply of pellets for everyone and a pellet extruder wiki, which is why I sometimes have trouble answering everyone immediately.
Most parts for the extruder have already arrived and have been processed & packed for shipping, however the pellet extruder screws are still in manufacturing since this is the most complicated and costly part of the pellet extruder. I believe that the first units will be shipped out by the end of October.
Due to the additional organizational tasks related to the supply of pellets, there is simply more work that needs to be done. This includes staying in contact with many companies selling different types of plastics & watching out for good offers, requesting samples, testing them, negotiating prices, organizing the transportation of tons of plastic pellets, and so on.
These tasks also take up some of my time, which would otherwise have been spent on the Wiki/Knowledge Base platform and the guide videos.
Just a couple days ago, for example, I ordered and paid for 8,600 kg of PLA pellets, which will likely be transported to my location from Slovenia next week.
2500 kg PETG pellets are already in my possession, but more of other types are needed like:
ABS/ASA/ABS-GF/ABS-GB
PET
TPU/TPE (various Shore levels)
PA GF/CF
Additionally soon there will be a new update about the ongoing progress (including the one about pellets) 🙂
If you want to get some additional pellets along with your order then that is possible however you need to consider that, while the pellet extruder will be shipped for free there will be additional shipping costs for pellets.
However I will keep you updated regarding the pellets.
The only thing I am not sure about is whether I should also get these extremely elastic pellets I showed in one of my videos, after doing more research it turned out these were not Shore 5A, but Shore 30 (with out the "A") which is significantly below Shore 0A meaning even more elastic and flexible than Shore 0A
The only problem is that these pellets are quite expensive compared to other plastics and could only be offered for prices like 12,99 USD/EUR per kg (way higher than the other plastic types like PLA, which will probably go for 3,5 USD/EUR)
Should you have more questions or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime - I am here to help.
Hi
My idea for coloring is using different color inkjet bottles they feeding directly from side your extruder simply using stepper motor pumps. So you can run the color(s) slow or higher speed, or in a mix of different colors into the extruder.
@madison66 hmm🤔
@@madison66 a similar thought occured to me also. Realistically, for any innovative 3d printing system to try and take on the giants like prusa, creality, or bambu labs, then it needs to have an answer to multi material or multi colour systems with a user experience at least half way as refined.
Automated side feeding of colourant into the feeder could be part of that.
@@madison66 theoretically you would only need red blue yellow black and white to make any color combination you could use two or more print heads to achieve full color 3d prints
@@muatok9904 same way like an inkjet printer does, so there's no need of rocket sience
I loved your research and the video - but I’ll be blatantly honest about the print quality: it’s not there yet. The Benchy has VERY inconsistent layer lines. On a commercial printer I would have returned it. The question is: are the inconsistencies generated by your pallet extruder? Or is it the mechanics of the printer that are suffering from a heavy print head? I would love to see it on a stiffer printer / maybe it gets good on a printer with a more rigid gantry, linear rails or wider gantry extrusion… more tension on the belts.
Please, don’t dismiss the importance of print quality - people are willing to pay more for better quality filament exactly because they want smoother prints.
Keep going the awesome research!
The issue is caused by the inconsistency that plastic pellets in general have. It's like having a Filament spool with fluctuation a diameter between 5% but because of this it costs also 5 to 10 times less.
This issue can be solved in the future for example with a pressure sensor in the extruder barrel or a small AI camera monitoring the extrusion rate and real-time-micro adjusting it, which is why pellet extruders will have in the future basically the same print quality as filament printers. But this this kind of technology still needs to be developed...
If I make enough sales, I will try to develop this technology with extrusion measurement myself, since it would be my dream to bring a huge innovation to the world of 3D Printing... Wish me LUCK🙂
@@greenboy3dyou could try an esp32-cam or 2 with a macro lens focused on the hotend, as a bonus you can detect blobs before they cause issues.
Imo another option might be double extrusion, with a pellet extruder extruding into a bowden tube and the filament being picked up by a regular hotend, that allows you to use light to measure the diameter, and to use a way lighter moving assembly.
(Also depending on print speed you could have a shell that's solid but the core still above 60C, which means more flow rate.)
Yet another option (imo the easiest to do currently) would be to use an idex system and do the outer wall on a regular .4mm nozzle, then fill in with the pellet extruder on a 1.2 or 1.6mm nozzle.
The great thing with that solution imo, is that you don't need good quality pellets, and can use whatever color recycled plastic in it and still have an uniform print.
And also the large diameter nozzle means that you don't need the heavy pellet extruder to move fast.
@@greenboy3d look into extrusion screw yours is too loose and no enough tight and maybe to short too
I dunno, for cosplayers who are going to use huge amounts of filament and will still fill, sand and prime, it's not really a big issue, and the cost saving for these users would be huge!
There are other machines that take pellets to make into Filaments at home... I wonder if that is the better option, though that machine is 2-3x more....
I have access to literal tons of both engineering and commodity resins for free that's thrown away from my workplace. I think you 100% need to pick a nozzle that's optimal for pellet extrusion more so than maintaining broad compatibility.
What place u work for?
Absolutely. This gives so many benefits overall, a small compromise is no problem.
Thank you for your feedback🙂
What would you like to see next?
1kg PETG cost here 6-9 usd per kg. That is so cheap, if it would be free, I would not print more. In the company we also put hugh amounts of PA6 and POM in the junk
Special nozzle all the way. If a standard platform for pellet extruders eventually comes out as a result too, it just means this will have set the ground for that standard! If there is demand, standardization will come, and people will prefer the performance gain and the eventual affordability.
My 2 cents on your question about "standard nozzles": not critical, especially if they are suboptimal for this extrusion technique. Most important is a pellet extruder with optimal heating & retraction results. So if that means a different nozzle type, so be it.
Fantastic work by the way ! 👍 Been saving a ton of PLA parts in the hope of recycling them into new prints. But nothing out there seems affordable in terms of time , money or reliability. Most require recycling into filament first, which feels like a dead end for consumers: too many issues, too time consuming, somewhat expensive.
Your approach that just requires careful grinding seems the most promising to me so far. And seems good enough for my prototyping workflow for functional parts: many iterations, no need for perfect surface quality.
Thanks for your 2 years of effort on this front !
I agree on this. CNC Kitchen even tried to build a high flow nozzle out of a regular brass nozzle and a copper insert when HF nozzles were a novelty. So already manufactured nozzles can be adapted "quick and cheap" with a round copper insert by just press-fitting I guess, and new manufactured nozzles just with one hole less! I am sure that with the visibility you are earning through your videos, you can achieve something like that pretty easily. However, I would let the nozzle compatibility window open.
Agreed - for PLA the time and effort isn't worth it - aesthetic prints like cosplay items, busts, toys etc. wouldn't have the look or shape consistency needed, and the functional parts may not have the tolerances needed - it could be great for printing support or infill perhaps but then that introduces a whole other series of challenges in slicing or IDEX integration. I would recommend this extruder for printing thermoplastic elastomers that are too soft to turn into filament, or perhaps make printed parts from materials other than standard and widely available filaments.
Thank you for your great input :)
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole.
If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@@greenboy3d depends on your goals, I guess. If it is to make money on nozzles then indeed it could become an impediment for buyers. If not, publishing the design specs will get a long way toward copycat nozzles appearing on aliexpress or ebay. With many biz models in between (partnering w 3D printing accessory distributors on each continent, selling through specialized online stores that have figured out worlwide buy & ship like CNC Kitchen's, etc).
BUT the nozzle is only a tiny concerning piece in my opinion. How about other proprietary or uncommon parts of the extruder and providing spare parts for repair ? Like the extruder screw, or its housing ? Screw extruders do NOT have a great reputation on the hobby scene. So, as a buyer I'd be less worried about the nozzle (I'll likely find a way to unclog it) and more about whether I'd be able to get spare parts if anything breaks down ?
Bambu Lab might be an example to ponder. The highly specialised parts in their printers initially turned many people off for fear of ending up with an expensive unrepairable dead paperweight. But their policy of selling most parts online at a reasonable price went a long way to assuage these fears. Maybe something can also be learned / copied from that ?
Idea: try adding some new pellets to your shredded waste, somewhere between 10-40% of new pellets. This is normally done in recycling as it increases quality of the end product by a lot. And 90% of recycled material will still safe a lot of waste
Thank you for your interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
I mean, 100% recycled material or 90% recycled material should safe the same amount of waste, since you are propably using more waste than you produce (if over 90% of your prints are waste, you are propably doing Something wrong)
Put me down as "don't care" about nozzle compatibility. Nozzles are cheap, they last a long time, and if a special extruder needs a special nozzle, I can understand that. As long as I can GET them, or I can modify standard ones to work. Are you thinking of tapering the inner profile? What would make a standard work better on a pellet extruder?
I'd think something that's internally threaded to eliminate the extra unneeded melt area.
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole.
If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@greenboy3d the idea to modify a stndard nozzle from @BrightBlueJim would be the easiest way in terms of accesability. Even when you break multiple ones during the process of modifying or if they clogged faster you can get a inexpensive replacement. The tapping tool could be a custom cadfile ready to cnc manufacture via different big manufactures, like JLC for example, same for special nozzles.
@@greenboy3di mean if you’re the only one selling it it could be a problem, but if you can solve the distrubution option it wouldnt be an issue imo. You could look into if modifying a nozzle thats readily avaliable is an option because then people could just get that nozzle and modify it themselves if buying one from you isnt an option.
@@greenboy3d I work in blow molding. We use stainless steel screens and place them after the extrusion screw. This catches contaminants and solves your clog. Your only option after that is solvents when removing your nozzle.
I love your attitude of just getting things done rather than getting stuck in making the prints perfectly clean 😃
And I love you comment ❤
What would you like to see next?
@@greenboy3d I'm quite interested in more details on shredding the plastic to make it workable, or is it really as simple as just throwing parts in a kitchen blender and sifting the result? I would also like to know more about your 2-year journey (what major hurdles did you encounter and how did you tackle them) to get at this point, and on how to get my hands on the result to be able to play with it.
@@Kurckie maybe another extruder just a little bit bigger where you can throw in bigger junks and then making consistent pellets not just dust...
0.0.o
this makes utter sense when recycling, you reduce one step and won't reheat the plastic again saving it from losing it physical properties
What would you like to see next? :)
From tests I've seen reheating doesn't really reduce properties by a significant amount, the main issue with recycling is contaminants.
@@satibel I think so is for metals and well, many other materials that melt at high temperatures, so i suppose it should be a similar story with plastic since it's so similar to those just in a much weaker and lighter (and cheaper) form
@@ERIK-457 yeah for metals the main issue is that most of them are alloys and you can't precisely control the quantity of each metal, so you have higher variance on properties with recycled metal compared to metal that is made from known sources.
Honestly the majority of new printers have proprietary nozzles, so if an optimal nozzle can be close in price, i dont see it being an issue. Really interested in this for an option for my sunlu s8 with a bigger nozzle to print my failed prontd
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole.
If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@@greenboy3d Good point indeed. Humans on all the sides of the planet.
may be you go as some success company do - make a cheap option and a pricy one. So you will also not let your interest go away for some ideas.
Cool to see progress on this! Reg.nozzle: why not just make custom nozzles that use m6 threads? You maintain compatibility, and you can also get the characteristics you want
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would do if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole.
If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling it, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
@@greenboy3d Make many or get a manufacturing partner. If you want this to catch on it needs to be accessible.
@greenboy3d well, it's not like you can buy normal nozzles at the local super market either, i think as long as you maintain compatibility with standard nozzles, it should not be an issue, otherwise you can sell them in packs of 10, that gives people alot of time to order a new set when they need it.
I suspect that the custom nozzle is going to be all about having as little fillament volume as possible to avoid oozing, right? In that case, it might be even easier to clear the nozzle, and it would make it even more a non issue :)
@@TurboSunShine there is a screen going somewhere at the end of the screw catching debris
I would agree with most others that a more efficient nozzle would be preferred over a standard one.
A question that can't get out of my mind is what people would if they had a nozzle clog, which can happen on any 3D printer due to some particle blocking the nozzle hole.
If the "special nozzle" is not easily available globally because only I am selling, then this might be a problem. Any ideas?
Nozzle clog can be solved by buying another one. Profit.
Sell a 3D design of the nozzle for a substantial amount, or just publish it for free for the street cred
This channel ought to have 500k+ subscribers. Good job at pawing the way for pallet extrusion on consumer grade printers.
Thank you for your kind words ❤
What would you like to see next?
You’re designing an entirely new hotend. A custom nozzle is not going to be the deciding factor in whether people choose your design or not.
In this case, in terms of speed, I think a bed-slinger might actually perform better than a CoreXY. On a CoreXY the heavy toolhead would affect the resonances of both axis, which would limit accelerations. On a bed-slinger the heavy Y axis performs worse than the X, bottlenecking the X axis speeds. But in your case, both axis are heavy, so they don't limit each other, and because they're separate, it's probably going to be easier to deal with their respective resonances. But that's just my theory.
True :)
By the way, what would you like to see next?
Supporting standard nozzles will bring more people in, so in the short term that's probably the better plan, but the next step will be to develop custom nozzles and setups that work better.
Thank you for your great input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
It's better to have something that works. If it doesn't work it doesn't matter if it uses a standard nozzle.
I think a possibly better option is to look at making filament yourself. If you can make filament then you can use any off the shelf printers or parts. Splitting it into separate steps is likely better.
That also removes the print quality concern.
Another option may be to put the pellet extruder on top of the printer and have it create filament that goes straight into a Bowden tube down to the hot end, although this would likely not be as good as making the filament separately.
That pellet straight to filament idea is great and it was something that I was thinking some time ago. You would have best of both worlds.
For recycling it's typically done by mixing the old plastic into a new batch.
You could try how well the system works at different ratios of old and new.
Ideally ofc you would want to shred it to similar granule size, but the hopper and screw system should be able to handle varying sizes.
Would like to see some tests on this. Recycling old plastic inhouse can be a huge saving overall.
For the nozzle question, I think you should aim to have optimal nozzle for the printing and not be chained by universality.
If the system becomes widely used then it becomes the new standard :)
very interesting input 🙂
Thank you
I used to work at Tektronix, and there was a shade of color the used a lot on plastic molded parts that we called "Tek blue". I learned one day that they made this by mixing medium blue, white, and black RIT fabric dye (the dry powdered version) to get this color. Of course, those were injection molded parts, so I don't know how that would work here.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
I am in absolute awe. You are ABSOLUTELY correct. There is a huge market that falls under the 'Good enough' category. It's not even bad print quality. I'd MUCH rather have a bunch of good enough prints made from all of my plastic waste. I will be ordering soon.
Thank you for your appreciation 🙂
If you have any sort of questions, feel free to contact me anytime. For example, through email or Instagram.
I also suggest you to join the Greenboy Discord Community Server where you will encounter more than 1300+ like-minded people that discuss daily all sorts of things about pellet 3d printing > discord.gg/UuFDbFj6FC
I calculated 112g/h = 38.3 mm^3/s, am I correct? Calculations below:
Assuming PLA density is 1.24g/cm^3:
112g * 1.24 = 138cm^3/h
138 / 60 = 2.3cm^3/min
2.3 / 60 = 0.0383cm^3/s = 38.3mm^3/s flow
It would be cool to see you perform the orcaslicer max flowrate test on different nozzle sizes. It makes it easier to see the actual limits of flowrate.
A bit of an overestimate on flow rate unfortunately - if the PLA is more than a gram per cm^3 then 112 g should represent less than 112 cm^3. I think the calculation should be as follows:
112 g/1.24 g/cm^3 = 90.3 cm^3
90.3 / 60 = 1.50 cm^3/min
1.5 / 60 = 0.025 cm^3/s = 25 mm^3/s
Still better than many standard nozzles, but not matching top of the line high flow. I think beyond this, the cooling rates will be a bigger limits but with klipper input shaping the weight of the extruder may be much less of an issue than with previous firmware. Still a very impressive project in general!
I'll look into the "orcaslicer max flowrate test", might test it this way next time.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
Love your work keep doing a good job improving our 3D printing community I plan on using this design on a personal project in the future.
Thank you for your warming words ❤
What would you like to see next?
This is an awesome idea. It would be really nice to be able to actually make our own spools from pellets. Im sure you've already posted a video on why you didn't do that here.
I can try that out, should I? :D
Very good video and so happy to see your progress. I have 40 years of high production high precision injection mold making and molding experience. You are dead on in the process you outlined and are mastering the rheology of thermoplastic flow . The only difference in the outcome is that you are not able to get the density of an infection molded part because you do not have a packing phase in 3d printing. As a result you may have aligned molecules and a grain like wood in printing that has some advantages and disadvantages. But with carbon fiber we may be able to produce a similar strength . Not sure yet all the doors you are going to unlock but accolades to you this this an amazing project. But I can tell you that the injection molding press industry has already figured out how to do a lot of what your doing they just have not figured out how to 3d an extruder for 3d printing
Thank you for the Feedback :)
Yea, there a definitely some additional challenges involved making a "mini" extruder for 3d printing
For the nozzle, maybe go with a CHT nozzle, since it has three channels in which the molten plastic flows through, meaning it might have more consistency in the heating and flow. As for the small discrepencies in the melting process, maybe add some small notches on the side of the extrusion screw so that any trapped air could be potentially allowed to bubble out or maybe as a way to control a bit of pressure.
As for dying your batch, could try going with alcohol dyes and do it in the same format of mixing it in an enclosed jar/container.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
I worked in a factory that recycled their extruded PVC material, and the best results they got was using a giant tumbler to mix "regrind" or your sifted bits into normal pellets, dye pellets and conditioner. As far as I could tell the conditioner was just an oil that helped keep the mixture from clumping up in the hopper.
660g is world record for sure, you can achive less with robot joint motors but they are expensive (BLDC+Harmonics+step/dir input)
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
The retraction explanation makes perfect sense when you consider that reversing the conveyer screw in a pellet extruder is functionally doing the same thing as a "retract" move on a filament extruder; namely, they both are reducing the pressure inside the melt chamber. Which is the real goal of a "retract" move anyways.
Nice. For recycled plastic the bulk density will be different. Building a small pelletizer extruder would be more consistent. I worked as a tool maker in an extrusion plant for 10 years. There are ways to make it more consistent but the complexity goes up.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
I like the idea, however I think print quality is a vital thing to consider, especially from those of us who make a living off of making prints. Especially on dimensional accuracy, print quality is something needed.
I really like what you are trying to do. Even if the up front cost is most likely going to be more, the saving on the filament is huge. Making custom colors is interesting too. Are you using regular spray paint?
Yes, regular acrylic based spray paint. But like I mention there are multiple ways and spray paint types...
By the way, what would you like to see next?
About the nozzles: could one not just cut away most of a standard nozzle with a hacksaw, leaving just enough threading to screw it in? This would eliminate the entire part where plastic is melted and leave just the final conical shrinky bit needed for printing. Given that this extruder isn't likely to be acquired by anyone non-technical, I think having "SAW ALL THE THINGS" as part of the build process isn't too demanding a step.
you are right on your conclusion but yet it would still make things more complicated for everyone...
because if you would do it this way and optimize the pellet extruder for a shorter threat than people without this modification couldn't properly use the pellet extruder which is a problem :(
@@greenboy3d I was thinking more like - have a standard unmodified plan for a normal nozzle that everybody can follow, but mention that this is a possibility so that anyone willing can saw the needless bit off and enjoy a little extra effectiveness.
@@fallingwater ok
Hey, this is great! I was looking for a convenient pellet extruder. I currently recycle old plastic and create my own filament, but that is much more work than directly printing the shredded material.
For retraction - you can add a micro-motor with a spring-loaded (curved?) metalic shutter over the nozzle, that activates when "retract" command is issued, and releases otherwise. The trickiest part would proubably be the wiring. One way to solve it, would possibly be to use half wave rectifier (a diod) before the feeder motor leads, so it would just skip the "reverse" motion, paired with reverse voltage detector (or just use another (reversed) diode and step-down regulator or just a voltage divider to drive the shutter motor by the "reverse" motion.
PLA pellets can only reliably sourced at $10-$15/kg. The cheapest PLA filament is $15/kg… last I checked. 0-30% cost savings was not 300% (missinformation factor 10x to infinity)
You just don't know where to buy pellets.
@@greenboy3d so where do you buy pellets?
@@pyalot going to make a detailed video about that in the future
SAW VIDEO 1 AND NOW THIS!! Thank You! Can a pressure lift switch be added between the nozzle head assembly and the actual carrier mount guide rail? maybe this would be fore a different design. say 0.6 nozzle layer eight travel is 1.2. the stepper feed goes till the head is lifted ill the trigger head lift switch is tripped or lifted to that height, then the travel steppers are engaged to conduct gcode shape. maybe be do a reverse stepper feed code for retraction. Head should relax and lift switch switch off for next travel movement and no feed. Maybe CNC kitchen or Dr. Dflow. Dflow did a very large scale pellet printer. maybe this helps on the stringing retraction issue. micro optical type switch or nano like adjustable switch control to adjust layer height and retraction.. just ideas...
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
Nozzle compatibility across filament printers makes sense, but it does not have to be that way for a pellet extruder. It makes more sense for the pellet extruder that uses a different extrusion method to have a different nozzle. Then from there, hopefully all future pellet extruders would have the same nozzle compatibility.
Maybe if you just keep the same threading, it can be up to the user to decide if they want to use an easily available filament nozzle, or a pellet nozzle.
You've got a point here :)
Any wishes for the next video?
Love to see that project continuing... any estimation on when this will be available for testing? Would love to adapt one of those to my voron-toolchanger 😁
Probably in the next couple of weeks
What would you like to see next? :)
Thank you for answering my question in your previous video about retraction!
no problem :)
I have collected around 8-9 kg of PLA waste in the course of 14 months and building an extruder to use them to print functional parts will be a much better use for them instead of giving them for recycling. I am very excited for the design files to come out and know where I can source the screw from so that I can recycle my waste into useful parts!
Thank you for your warming words ❤
What would you like to see next?
Try a little brass funnel that will fit inside the nozzle. Or match up.
Good idea :)
Some of the problems you're running into are also issues in small extruders.
I.e. if the extruder screw is running at 60 rpm, expect an uneven "squirt" of resin every 1 second out the end of the nozzle/die.This is why metering pumps are often used at the end of an extruder (to tightly monitor flow).
The 3d filament printer brilliantly solves this issue inexpensively by using filament.
The filament feeding system is acting as the gear pump.
Another issue will be safety. If you build up pressure behind molten plastic that has frozen off at the nozzle, watch out.
Randcastle has made a great miniature extruder for decades to learn some of the inherent issues.
Thank you for your interesting input :)
What would you like to see next?
Be I have a flash-forge adventure 5 m pro printer . It is a big improvement but still has some things that can still improve on
It’s the best high speed for the price but it has triggered lower printer prices from the competitors
Please note that if you have quality pellets (clean) you can produce filament on professional liine for 4-5 eur/kg. For instance TPU 65 shore D costs 3,8-4,8 euro kg now (Resinex, Ravathane 130 D65 NATURAL), regranulate 2 eur. Total is 6 euro kg while in store you pay 40 euro.
this should be watched by all big 3d companies. Whoever makes this reliable and with quality will win everything.
Great video! really hope this gets adopted in a larger scale than tinkerers.
Thank you for your kind words ❤
What would you like to see next?
Could you technically print pellets with the shredded prints so the size is consistent? As for the standard nozzle question, I'd love to see the difference in print quality with a non standard nozzle
Depends on how consistent the shredded prints are. If you have for example cylindrical shaped shredded plastic, and you plan to mix it with round shaped pellets, then you might get even more inconsistency... But yes you can...
Whats the cause of the poor print quality? Is it just a lack of dialing in the settings? Or is there a mechanical reason causing it?
IIRC the pellets won't run themselves through the extruder at a perfectly constant rate. You'd have the same problem using filament with a non-constant diameter.
@@ski3091 so I suppose this type of extruder is not good for prints with tight tolerances or small details but is excellent for large structural objects that you would need a lot of?
@@ski3091 gotcha, thanks for the reply
@@ipodtouchiscoollol Sorry, I don't know enough about the process to answer that
Like others mentioned, the pellets or granules don't have a perfect constant flow rate. I have some ideas to solve this problem in the future, but for now it is what it is :)
Nozzle compatibility isn't important if it comes at a cost of performance.
What would ultimately be nice is to design it to function with a breakout board, and be compatible with toolswap plates such as the Hermit Crab or WhamBam Mutant for Ender 3, or be able to easily mount it to a toolchanging printer. That's a much nicer quality of life, to be able to quickly swap between a pellet extruder and filament extruder.
What would you say are the top 5 most popular toolswap plates?
Love this project and can’t wait I have an old Ender i could dedicate for this awesome project! I think having a quick swap that can change to other machines.
Thank you for your kind words ❤
What would you like to see next?
Let's not forget that pellet 3D printing is also better for the environment. You're cutting out the entire step of shipping to the filament producer, extruding filament, spooling it, and packing it. I'm not a type of "oh my god the environment is everything and we have to drop everything to protect it"-person, but it's still nice when something is more efficient.
I do wonder, what's causing the visible layer lines? Is it the relatively inconsistent extrusion rate?
spray painting raises cost and time quite a bit.
I have a question: why does using pellets reduce print quality?
I recommend you to watch my First video "Pellet vs Filament 3D Printing" ua-cam.com/video/AS898H9F04s/v-deo.html
I explain the reason for this in it
You can you make it work with normal nozzles and start making a custom nozzle after the release of the extruder
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
while i get that the point is not print quality, it would still be nice (assuming 3mm pellets) to quantify extrusion consistency
You can get quite good extrusion consistency with some pellets that have the right size and shape...
But What would you like to see next? :)
You should check out the quantum delta 3d printer by Kilian Gosewisch, instead of moving the printhead it moves the entire bed on all axis and the extruder stays stationary, that way you can eliminate the size and weight constraints of your extruder.
Could we put a narrow "shim" into a standard nozzle? I'm thinking about a copper tube that reduces the internal diameter of the nozzle bore.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
Makes me want to build an extruder. Then just buy pellets and colors. Would be awesome
What would you like to see next?
Great job on this video! From the production to the information. Fantastic.
Thank you for your warming words ❤
What would you like to see next?
High volume extrusion + large format(build volume)? Robotic arm or gantry For molds. Like CEAD. Thank you. Because then you can use carbon fiber and vacuum bag setting resin- infusion.
What would you like to see next? :)
I love what you got here. The problem is layer lines. I would like to see this mod on something really good with that. If it's your system then open-source it to see how you can compress it. Current superchargers come to mind with compression.
Will you need custom firmware because I have that exact same printer and will try and ake this as soon as it comes out.
You can use any firmware like. For example, Marlin is the firmware I use.
You just need to adjust some very minor settings in the firmware in order to use the pellet extruder on your 3D printer.
But don't worry I will make very detailed tutorials regarding this, which will everyone to upgrade their 3D printer to a pellet 3d printer 😀
Any more questions?
@@greenboy3d Yeah would i be able to grind/shred failed prints and support material and reprint it in this extruder setup? Also would you be able to grind things like PET bottles to recycle them directly into new prints?
I once read an article about an Indian university student who couldn't afford a 3D printer and so he designed and built his own, the only things he bought were the arduino chip to build his control board and the steppers, he was also having trouble affording filament and so he also designed and built a pellet extruder as he could get the pellets for pennies.
I have a few old bedslingers that I would love to convert into pellet printers!
I’m all for recycling and reducing waste, also I like saving money, so I love it!
Most prints just don't need good quality. Stuff like hooks, holders, storage containers and so on work just the same even with a +-1mm tolerance, so the reduced surface finish is no problem.
Neat video, I love the amount of work folks put into FDM printers just to get a new way to print or not waste materials. I am not sure I would go through the trouble of doing all this, just to save a few bucks in materials, but I feel the pain of wasted materials as well. Resin printers create so much waste with support materials only being used and tossed. I love that you took and Ender 3V2 and did this, those things are like Honda Civics, cheap and easy to mod.
This is a great idea! It would be very efficient to use this machine for prototyping for a product where initial quality isn't needed. I think this has potential to be a "final product" solution as well!
Would the cost of making a filament extruder using pellets and recycled prints give you the best of both worlds?
It is "less" easier to produce Filament because more steps are involved in in that process than just directly printing with pellets.
However, nothing is holding you back to produce Filament with the Pellet Extruder, if that is what you want to do. The point is that you have full freedom of choice... 😀
Maybe if you can measure the power the stepper needs to turn, you could get a constant pressure? Maybe even switch to a brushed motor and gearbox that just is current limited to one specific amp rating, thus giving exact pressure?
This is really interesting. I wonder if you could make some GCODE that would use your pellet extruder to make spools too with a small addon. Seems like it would be a pretty handy thing to have around in general. Your screw style pellet extruder might actually be ideal for people's DIY filament recyclers, turning older printer parts into filament recyclers is of interest to a lot of people.
Oh man - Subscribed! Great content! Look forward to see what else you work on, and following along your progress! Really would like to experience your setup! Heading down similar journey. Thanks for being down similar paths, the world needs it!
Would melting spray painted pellets in your extruder not eventually gum up your extruder?
Let me ask a question can you just make standard filament roll with the pellets? If its available we can bypass many problems and use it with any machine without modifying the machine
i was just thinking the same. im not an expert but it sounds like it should be possible. hoever its a DIY development most probably
I recently got a Magneto X printer, and your work seems tailored to using it as a test bed, since the linear motor can move some serious mass quickly.
Great work on this! Look forward to supporting you in the future. Survey done, I hope you got many responses with valuable information. Keep up the awesome work you are doing!
I think this is the way to go especially for large printvolume printers since the printmechanism is bulkier and the material is way cheaper. Mach weiter so, 👍
Danke :)
Was würdest du gerne als nächstes sehen?
This seems great for functional parts at an engineer shop.
*functional...
And yes, pellets work great for very large 3d printers..... Not so well for the size 3d printers that most people have at home.
Thank you for your kind words ❤
What would you like to see next?
@@greenboy3d The video you already hinted at. Tests seeing the strength of parts printing this way versus the standard method. Also with different materials.
I agree with him... It's a great idea to try to recycle the filaments residue, even if the prints doesn't get perfect
Where do I buy one? I have a cr10 collecting dust and a ton of waste from my bambu lab
I don't know much about it but from what I understood the print quality is caused by the pellets inconsistency, maybe it is fixable with a bigger heating nozzle, or maybe a semi-melting tube before it reaches the main nozzle. I am aware of the dripping problem it creates since there is nothing to hold the plastic from flowing down but maybe a custom nozzle could handle it? I loved the video btw
Besides printing metals this is by far the best development in the 3D printing space since years. Kudos to you, keep up the good work.
Was interesting, until I saw the prices of pellets on the internet... so please share a link where the pellets are "much cheaper" than the filament... reference could be GST3D, where you buy filament for approx 11-14 EUR incl VAT, per kilo..... pellets ?
You need to know where to buy. Should I make a video about this in the near future? :)
Yes you should ;)
@@greenboy3d Either links to examples, or a video about it... until proven, 90% of people seeing the video first thinks "great, I need to look into this"... and after 10 mins with google, thinking "clickbait", all this trouble and risk with pellet extruder to save 10-20%... not worth it !
Really good. I would like to see this as something thats produced or DIYable. I have so much support scrap usually that could be turned into functional prints.
bro, you should definitely make a filament extruder. just a sloppy one, then grind that filament into granuals (using a blade cutting the filament as you feed it as one stand) . this will definitely make for more event pellets for your extruder! this is interresting. gj
found this video using the excact same concept as i was thinking lol ua-cam.com/video/3p7bl7eFaEo/v-deo.html
I have a custom pelletizer and you can even set the desired size of your pellets. The resulting print quality is excellent, but the pelletizer is unfortunately broken atm. If I have a bit more time and more people show interest in that, I might get back to that idea tho
So I just ordered my first printer (Creality Ender 3. I know, far from the best, but it fits in my budget) so of course I'm looking for videos on how to make the most of it, and this came up in recommended.
Now while I find the premise intriguing, I seriously have to wonder where the heck I can actually get pellets for those prices, because no matter where I look (Amazon, Aliexpress, Wish) pellets and filament cost ABOUT the same per kg...
One small question: where do you get your pellets?
It's an interesting project, and after your first video did a quick google search for plastic pellets in the EU, and couldn't find anything in the 3-8€/kg range you are citing, most i find are at least 10€/kg, and at that price you might as well just buy cheap filament. So if you want this to get popular, also show us where to buy these cheap pellets XD.
exactly my experience, nothing on the 3-8eur/kg range... starting from the same price as cheapest filaments
Should I make a Video about this?
@@greenboy3d Could at least be an interesting section of a next video, i'm clearly not the only person wondering, and it's an important part of your sales pitch, it should be a lot cheaper, but if we can't find cheap pellets, we won't have any use for your extruder...
I feel that its worth mentioning that spraypaint isnt a great thing to be melting down, depending on the paint it could be very toxic.
Additionally, when mixing pigments into plastics the formulation is tricky as the pigments can easily ruin your material properties...
Yeah also pre pigmented pellets exist that aren't that expensive.
I would worry about off-gassing for using the various shake methods while the pellets are in the extruder. I thinnk a greater focus on post-painting and recycling already mostly off-gassed materials makes more sense.
I honestly do not care about chasing the highest print quality. For me #d printing a a utilitarian endeavor. I make useful things that are meant to be used instead of "pretty" things that are meant to be looked at. If I can get 5x the prints at 1/5th the price and still meet the industrial level quality I accept then this is more than fine by me. I don't waste my time or money printing busts of deadpool. As for nozzles, I would prefer to use standard nozzles that are interchangeable among multiple printers, BUT....I think this is one of those cases where I see value in needing to use a specific "one off" style nozzle. However I think it would be best that any nozzle be as robust as possible. I'd ideally want a nozzle to last as long as the extruder screw and I don't think that is unachievable.
Thank you for your very interesting input 🙂
What would you like to see next?
@@greenboy3d I was thinking about this more yesterday and I do believe that your extruder could do double duty and act as the first stage for a pelletizer for ground up failed prints or supports. This would make it much easier to blend with virgin material to then feed into your extruder. This thing you've done opens up a LOT of avenues. To have a viable extruder on a small scale really gives so many more options than a bulky unit that is not portable.
Should get a Nobel Prize for this.
Thank you for your warming words ❤
What would you like to see next?
11:40 - it has not thaaat much to do with a "mindset", but simply to get reliable results, especially for mechanical/functional parts
I honestly think I could live with the reduced print speed if it prints consistently or great. but even right now it could be used in a tool changer?
I also have an idea: i'm developing a pressure sensor for hotends that can optimize the flow and calibrate on the go based on hotend pressure, you could use one and then do a closed loop servo style hotend!
Can you write me an email regarding your presure sensor please to kristian@greenboy3d.com :)
I am interessted and also willing to pay for it
@@greenboy3d Sure!
Well done! A good enough print as shown in the video is insane. The possibility for community collection and reusing plastic is through the roof.
There are a lot of nonprofits in Buffalo NY, that currently have 3d printers that would be interested in this project. Filament is the biggest cost right now which blocks us from legitimate local manufacturing. Since the injection molded parts are cheaper than just the filament, its hard for 3d printing to make sense
This project could bring us closer to - buy nothing world
I think a lot of 3d printing print farms are looking closely at this too! Could make their prices much more competitive and possible to break into more product categories, including more simple shapes.
impressive that you can make this work at all - but for small scale users I feel like it would make more sense to have a machine that can mold the pellets into standard filament. Its a smaller problem to solve, so quality compromises can probably be less. The downside is that it becomes a two-step process of course.
How do you deal with air entrainment (bubbles) though? I would assume that if it's ignored the resulting prints become terribly weak from all the imperfections.
Im pretty new to this, so if a good low-cost method for this already exists then someone tell me what to search for :)
Yes, a lot of people already thought of using it as a "filamentizer", which you can do if you want to. Using the pellet extruder directly eliminates the intermediate step and the need of a second printer, allowing for more direct and cost-effective material use, especially for large scale prints. The trade off is the need for some technical tuning and familiarity with pellet printing.
Every time I had bubbles it was because the pellets were ever so slightly wet, which is why drying is a simple but effective solution.
@greenboy3d So the print quality degradation is mainly visual? Have you done some objective testing to verify I can look up? I think water induced bubbles are far more obvious than air voids in the structure. You can make do with less pretty prints, but compromised strength would severely limit the practical applications.
I agree that direct use of pellets is a big boon in any sort of larger scale production where it doesnt make sense to go all the way toward making ordering injection molding. I hear those master molds can be stupidly expensive, and too big of a barrier to entry for smaller businesses. That doesn't apply to many of us enthusiasts, but it's a very worthy topic to explore and refine for commercial use. Raw plastics in bulk are really cheap.
I think significantly better print quality is more important than full nozzle compatibility. However it would be great if you could maintain some level of compatibility, for example by keeping the M6 thread. Then the pellet extruder would work best with the custom nozzles but still function ok-ish with a common nozzle. Some compatibility would prevent complete downtime and allow the early adopters more ways to experiment - an easy one would be shortening common nozzles as from what you're saying a stubbier nozzle is closer to ideal.
Maybe it is easier to use pellets to make your own filaments for the 3D printer?
It is "less" easier because more steps are involved in producing filament than just directly printing with pellets.
However, nothing is holding you back to produce Filament with the Pellet Extruder, if that is what you want to do. The point is that you have full freedom of choice... 😀
One other neat benifit you might be able to exploit. Because you aren't bound by fliment sizes, you could scale this up to crazy large flow rates.
That is true :)
Amazing work! This is true innovation!
I'm so excited for the future of this system!
Thank you for your warming words ❤
What would you like to see next?
@@greenboy3d Perhaps a road map of your goals with this project and technology? Love to see the progress, but I also want to know your vision
I definitely would like to see this take off; even if I didn't use it so much, I can definitely see a place for it
This is exactly what I need. I have been saving all my PLA trash from supports, failed prints etc, since I started 3d printing, waiting for this product.
Working on it :)
What spray paint? Acrylic?
This is super cool work you are doing! Consider me thoroughly impressed and in awe of your abilities! I love 3D printing and the amount of innovation and absolutely genius levels of ingenuity I've seen at so many levels within this community!
Being able to purchase an AFFORDABLE pellet extruder that can be put onto many other brands of printers would be invaluable as a 3D printing oriented business owner. I'd especially love to see this become standard on some other printers like Prusa or Bambu, though I'd settle for a reliable conversion kit and I'd buy like 5x of them. Haha!
Keep up the great work! I'll be keeping a close eye on this project for sure!
This is, frankly, truly awesome stuff. When I get the time, I definitely want to investigate this pellet extruder further.
Do you intend to release the source material, etc?
That would be really awesome, if I could make one myself eventually and try it out!
The 3D Printed parts will be for free, but the other ones need to be purchased :)
What would you like to see next?
@@greenboy3d hmm. Since it's already a pellet extruder, couldn't you design a custom extra wide nozzle for direct injection molding? Say you 3d print a prototype of something, but then you want to produce it in bulk, so you acquire a mold (you can actually resin print them), swap the nozzle, and then begin injecting.
I just thought about it, since it already extrudes pellets it could be used for both printing and IM, all in the package of one device. You don't even need a plunger, just have the screw set to high speed? :)
Additionally, I'd like to see some experiments with some more exotic materials (PC, Polyamides, etc,). Have you ever thought about buying some graphene powder and making some master batch pellets with something like polystyrene, and then combining that with the bulk material? I think you'd be surprised at the strength of graphene infused parts.