this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Holy crap, that's a lot of work to get a roll of filament. That's only economical if your time is worth nothing. Ugh.

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[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)

tbf, you wouldn't do this because it's cheaper, you'd do it because it's more ecologically friendly and it helps make your 3d printer a bit more sustainable.

But at 20 bucks for a spool of thread, you won't be coming out ahead economically by recycling, I agree.

[–] dawnerd@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’d be fun to mess around with if it wasn’t 12-18k for the setup.

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 points 2 years ago

Yikes. That's a loooooootta filament.

[–] thantik@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

It's also not more ecologically friendly -- you've gotta use near 80% virgin material with 20% regrind for a good quality product. All you're doing is bringing its production into your house on a smaller, more inefficient scale. And then you're paying this dipshit here $20k so you can save $5 on your 1kg of PLA.

To be fair, however, it is good if you're testing small batches of filament formulations because you're running an actual production line though.

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

The video uses 50/50, not 80/20

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

ngl, I've never tried it and I doubt I'm about to start, so prints go into the recycle bin so they can get dumped in the landfill with the rest of the recycling.

But at the very least, it's a better practice to use PLA as your main choice.

[–] thantik@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Strangely enough, ABS is better for the environment, as it's one of the few actual materials that get recycled...

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

No, the ecologically friendly option is to send it to the recycling.

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Assuming it's recycled instead of sent to a landfill.

Once you find out about how the business of recycling works that's often not such a certain assumption.

[–] SirHery@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

In Germany there is a company that specifically lets you send in oly pla and pet and the sells it. You even get a credit based on how sortet your used Filament is. https://recyclingfabrik.com/

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

3D printing waste is a clean waste. It doesn't have food leftovers on it, weird paint or anything else which will render it unrecyclable. Also PLA just goes into a composter.

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Great argument. Bit of a problem though: you don't need to convince me or the fediverse. You need to convince plastic recyclers not to just take the strange plastic like thing that isn't labeled and isn't common and just send it to the landfill.

The journey of recycling doesn't end the moment that a potentially recyclable object ends up in your recycle bin. In order to be recycled, A bunch of things need to go right, and if they don't then your "recycling" just enters the local landfill, if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, your "recycling" will end up in a cargo container on its way to a landfill in some third world country somewhere.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Mate, there are specialist recyclers for 3D printing waste - https://3dprintingwaste.co.uk/

They don't dump into the landfill.

[–] Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You're naive if you think that "recycling" hasn't been a complete smokescreen for decades, FFS.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Not all recycling is the same.

[–] rasterweb@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

"That’s only economical if your time is worth nothing." Well, we should all be able to live lives where we can pursue things that do not have monetary rewards. Obviously not everyone is in that position but perhaps for David Florian exploring and learning and trying things is what makes him happy. Of course for him it probably makes money as well, even if indirectly. The fact that his video got shared means more people will see it, and more views means more money, so there's the value for David Florian. It's also worth considering that in science, it's all about trying things and gathering information that will hopefully lead to new (and hopefully lower cost) capabilities.

[–] stalfoss@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

To be fair, most hobby 3d printing is only economical if your time is worth nothing

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

True, in some sense. However, I can't get a lot of the things that I can 3d print. There's literally no way to buy them.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Someone at McGill university figured out how to recycle wind turbine blades into 3d printer filament. However, a single blade made enough filament that it's length could go to the moon and back. From one blade!

[–] balthazarsnakewizard@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Aren’t wind turbine blades fiberglass? Can fiberglass be printed?

[–] thurstylark@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Anything can be printed with enough heat.

See: lava

[–] sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 6 points 2 years ago

Post: "My hot end is only reaching earth's mantle. Do I need to reach the surface of the sun to make this work?"

[–] tonyn@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

Now I want a Lava Printer

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Not to be like that… but… gases would be hard to print, I’m not sure why you’d want to….

Liquids could be interesting, for like, ice sculptures. But at that point you’d be having to extract heat from ambient… drop the build chamber below freezing

[–] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ice printing could work with supercooled water.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Eh. That could work, might be more complicated though.

I’m envisioning a freezer for an enclosure, then heat the water to just above melting. This would allow using essentially-fdm set ups on the printer itself.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago

Yes. Well they are mixed with an epoxy.

You can find the research online with all the details.

[–] thantik@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Glass reinforcement material is a common filler, just as much as carbon fiber.

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