What can possibly make 3D printing even more fun and captivating? A variety of filaments you can use to bring ideas to life! That why making your own filament is convenient and fun.  Just in case you still have a hard time grasping the value in filament making – No problem, here are some points to guide you.

 

If you’ve worked with the 3D printing long enough, you may have felt a glint of disappointment regarding the lack of the materials you wish to try in your projects. Of course, color changing, and glowing filaments are fun, just like the super-flexible ones, but creators need more potential and more appliance possibilities for their final printed items. And this is the exact reason to consider making your own 3D filament instead of purchasing the ready-made one.

1. Customization

We don’t know about your experience, but we face the defective filament too often to blame it on the coincidence. Different thickness, fragility, lamination – all of these low-quality 3D filament features can ruin your project, or even become a cause of your 3D printer’s breakdown.

Customization – creating your material with the required properties – can eliminate all these listed problems. And here are the reasons, why.

• Filament extruder allows controlling all features of the produced filament. Thanks to the built-in thickness meter, possibility to customize all the stages of granules heating, multiple sensitive sensors, the filament you’ll get will have the identically perfect properties without any thicknesses or thinnings, overburnt sections, cavities.
• You can combine different materials in order to get entirely new blends. When the standard assortment of filaments satisfies you neither with quality nor with characteristics, you’re able to experiment with different types of plastic granules, additives, tweaking compounds to obtain something brand-new for your projects.

2. Convenience

When making your own printing material using a 3D filament extruder, you’re controlling the future of filament.

Let’s say you need less than a kilo of the Bio PE, but don’t want to wait several days before the delivery? Simply extrude whatever amount of 3D filament is required at the time it’s needed!

A home-made filament is convenient because:

• You make the needed amount of the printing material and don’t have to keep dozens of half-empty spools you’ve used once and not going to try anymore.
• The filament will not be stored in improper conditions. Sunlight, temperature change, high humidity damage the structure of the filament making it inapplicable for printing. But when you create it on-the-go and then immediately use it for craft, you get the best quality without any odd material remains.
• No need to order filament from unreliable sites. Every time you buy 3D filament on the Internet you rely on luck – its quality is quite hard to predict unless you’re shopping from your trusted manufacturer. Then again, having a filament extruder, the printing material you’ll be using in the craft will pass your quality test, so the prints will always be up to your standards.
• Have filament when you need it. Don’t count days before delivery – your perfect 3D filament is always within reach!

3. Cost

Let’s look at the price of the spool of the regular black PLA filament. You won’t find a decent material cheaper than $17 per 1 kilogram. This price, apart from the raw material price, includes the cost of the manufacturing (electricity, heat, industrial workstation, employees paycheck), shipping, storage, and seller’s extra charge.

Comparing the price of the ready-made PLA with the PLA pellets, you will see an unbelievable variation of prices: 1 kilogram of the most expensive PLA granules costs $5. Thus, when you buy filament pellets instead of manufactured spools you save around $12 per kilogram.

Of course, a quality filament extruder will cost money, and you absolutely don’t need it if 3D printing is your part-time hobby. In this case, you may never pay off the cost of the equipment, and the purchase will only leave you with a hole in your pocket.

However, if 3D printing for you is something more than making models of your favorite cartoon characters, we’d recommend thinking about buying a filament extruder to fulfill your demands.

4. Sustainability

We all know how often 3D printing process becomes interrupted by different issues – from a jammed nozzle to an accidental warping. You stop the machine, fix the problem and start printing again, but what about the plastic the printer has already used?

In many 3D workshops, such wasted material is collected for the re-using needs. The concept is simple:

• Collect defected plastic
• Clean and let it dry
• Put it into the special plastic shredder
• Manufacture the filament from the plastic granules using filament extruder

Such a scheme not only saves you a sufficient amount of money but also protects nature from redundant plastic pollution. Benefiting all sides of the ecosystem.

5. Profit

Filament extruders, on the top of all these advantages, are a promising source of income. You can freely share it with the other people for the additional price. Cost of the granulated plastic – even summarized with the charge for your services – won’t excel the price of the spooled filament. This way you’ll have a source of the passive income, and your extruder won’t stand idly when you won’t need it.

In addition, we’ve already discussed how you can use the extruder in order to experiment with the materials. Other 3D printing fans will appreciate a close-by source of cheap qualitative filament, so your extruder will have less chance to cool down!

To buy or not to buy a 3D filament extruder

This is not your option if you’re absolutely fine with the filament you buy from the manufacturer, as well as if you turn on 3D printer once a month. Still, when printing is your primary occupation, filament extruder is an excellent investment in your printer’s well-being and your creative freedom. Defective printing material is our collective nightmare, and an efficient extruder can really change a situation with filaments for better.

 

Do you want to know the latest news from the 3D printing world? Do you know why PEI is one of the coolest printing materials available on the market? Or what you can do with PETG filament? Well, you’ll find all the answers in our 3devo blog. Don’t miss an opportunity to learn something cool!

 

 

You might also like the following posts: