Is there a viable method or company to recycle failed prints or prototypes? I’ve been keeping all of my PETG stuff in a box, still a way to go before it’s full but was curious if anyone had any experience here whether it be something diy or shipping them to a company.
To be honest: not really. The plastic can be recycled well enough, but there’s no good way to turn it back into a filament. There’s a few products out there that purport to, but none do a great job so far.
I’ve played with extruding my own- basically using chips from failed prints and heater cartridges in what’s basically a giant hot end.
The problem I have is consistency of diameter. my set up was a vertical extruder using 2” black pipe that had a melt zone of around six inches before hitting a tapered out brass “heat block” that came down to the 3mm nozzle.
It was almost impossible to maintain a consistent extrusion.
People are playing with it more now, so it’s possible I’m missing solutions
That’s pretty much were I’m at with my design. As long as I can get the extruded filament to the point where my printers can reliably feed on it I’ll be happy to use it for prototypes at least.
I have no doubt we’ll get there, and when we do I’ve got a big box of failed prints even sorted by color and material waiting for it.
Just saying we’re not there now.