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.

  • sj_zero
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    338 months ago

    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.

    • @thantik@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • sj_zero
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        48 months ago

        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
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          18 months ago

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

      • sj_zero
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        108 months ago

        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.

        • @Aux@lemmy.world
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          08 months ago

          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
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            28 months ago

            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

      • Piecemakers
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        28 months ago

        You’re naive if you think that “recycling” hasn’t been a complete smokescreen for decades, FFS.

  • rasterweb
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    8 months 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
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    88 months ago

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

    • @GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.eeOPM
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      48 months 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
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    78 months ago

    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!

        • sj_zero
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          68 months 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?”

        • FuglyDuck
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          8 months ago

          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

            • FuglyDuck
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              18 months 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
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        48 months ago

        Yes. Well they are mixed with an epoxy.

        You can find the research online with all the details.