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Failed 3d print recycling
How to Recycle Your Failed 3D Prints – Fargo 3D Printing
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure… or your trash could be your own treasure.
As great as 3D printing is, it tends to create a bit of wasted material. In fact, failed prints and support structures are two major causes for wasted 3D filament.
Do you ever find yourself looking at your box of scrap material and wondering, “What can I do with these failed prints?” We think that same thing. So we’ve done some investigating and came up with a list of ideas to reuse or recycle your 3D printer filament.
Get a Filament Recycler
A recycler system is a great way to turn your excess filament or failed prints back into usable filament. The system grinds up and melts the plastic. Then extrudes it and coils it onto a spool. Many machines only grind or only melt, meaning you may need two machines. Of course, there is a machine that does all in one.
Although this seems like an ideal system, there are plenty of factors to consider. You’re likely to end up with some wonky colored spools depending on what scraps you put in the machine. Getting a spool with perfect diameter and ovality will be a bit difficult. Also, these systems are pretty spendy.
But don’t worry! We have some more cost effective options you can try out.
You’ll need some filament before you can recycle it. Check out Pro, Workday, Standard, and Specialty filaments.
Explore Filament
Repurpose Your Scraps
Take left over filament strands and blend them up. If you’ve got large failed print pieces, place them on a sturdy surface, cover with a towel, and smash them with a mallet until they are small chunks.
Choose a cookie sheet or shaped non stick pans and fill with the ground up filament pieces. Then place in an oven or toaster oven until they all melt together. (About 220℃ for ABS or 180-200℃ for PLA)
If you used a larger pan, you can seal the plastic with a food safe resin and use as a cutting board.
Or, carve out any shape you want to use as a coaster, keychain, or customized item.
PLA Recycling Service
In some locations, you may be able to take your scrap PLA to your local recycling center. Although many places will not take it. How do you recycle it then? Search for an online filament recycler where you can send them your scraps and they will recycle it for you.
It is also possible to compost PLA, either at an industrial facility or at home. This process is likely to take around 6 months.
Make ABS Juice, Glue, or Slurry
Get more use out of your extra ABS.
ABS Juice
ABS Juice is a great way to make your ABS prints stick to the surface. Only apply on glass or on kapton tape on glass.
- 50mL of acetone
- 50cm of 3.00mm ABS filament – or 4g of ABS scrap
- Snip the filament into small bits for better dissolving
- Mix the ABS with the acetone
- Let sit overnight – should have the consistency of milk
ABS Glue
Use ABS Glue to stick two ABS parts together.
ABS Glue works even better than super glue as it fuses the pieces.
- 50mL of acetone
- 100cm of 3.00mm ABS filament – or 8g of ABS scrap
- Snip the filament into small bits for better dissolving
- Mix the ABS with the acetone
- Let sit overnight – should have the consistency of glue
ABS Slurry
ABS Slurry can be used to blend the seam between two ABS pieces that were glued together. It can be used to fill in or build up areas.
- 50mL of acetone
- 250cm of 3.00mm ABS filament – or 20g of ABS scrap
- Snip the filament into small bits for better dissolving
- Mix the ABS with the acetone
- Let sit overnight – should have the consistency of putty
Bonus Idea
Use left over bits to complete your next print. Print these cool maracas and fill them will small scraps to make some noise.
4 Ways to Recycle Failed 3D Prints
You've purchased yourself one of the best 3D printers around.
You've learned how to dial it in with our ultimate beginner's guide to 3D printing. Maybe you've even designed your own 3D models with OpenSCAD. You're no longer a 3D printing beginner.
But no matter how good you are at 3D printing, you will have unwanted or failed prints. Maybe you were experimenting with a new filament. Perhaps you were still calibrating your machine, or an accidental nudge ruined the latest batch. Whatever the reason, failed prints happen.
Today I'll be showing you some of the coolest things you can do with all these failed parts.
1. Build Something Cool
One of the easiest ways to recycle prints is to combine two or more into something new and unique. Consider combining something like a Yoda bust or low-poly Darth Vader into a new, unique figure. The best part is, you only need simple supplies such as glue or tape.
This project totally depends on what you have available. If you only design and print prototype parts, this may be difficult, but if you're printing the best 3D printables for tabletop fantasy RPGs then you may have all you need already!
If you don't have any useable parts, but still want to make something cool, then checkout this video from the Make Anything YouTube channel.
As illustrated, it's possible to break up, melt down, and shape several failed prints into a new and unique item. You can even achieve a multi-colored pattern by combining prints of different colors -- or stick to one solid color, the choice is up to you!
2. DIY Filament Recycling Machine
Did you know that it's possible to recycle 100 percent of your failed prints? I'm not talking about your local recycling facilities, I'm talking about reprocessing your parts into a brand new filament, ready to print again.
Using a machine that looks more like an industrial process than a DIY project, this recycling workflow is "loosely" referred to as a filament extruder.
Filament extrusion is nearly always a three-step process:
- Smash old parts
- Melt down and extrude filament
- Coil filament onto new reel
First, each failed print is smashed into very small pieces. This makes it easier to melt down. Once melted, the now liquid plastic is forced through a small opening, and then cooled down before wrapping onto a plastic reel.
It's a very cool process that's actually a form of injection molding.
As YouTuber Hugh Lyman shows us in this video, this a complex project, but don't let that prevent you from saving the planet!
Machinery such as the Filabot is available to purchase, but is very expensive. If you want to know more about this project, check out the many extruders you can print yourself! Popular models include the Lyman/Mulier or the Yalfe.
3. Make ABS Juice
This recycling technique only applies to Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) filament. As ABS is oil based, it can be melted down with acidic liquids. By combining a small piece of ABS with acetone, it's possible to make three different liquids, all with slightly different use cases.
ABS Juice: Used to help parts stick to the bed.
ABS Glue: Used to glue or weld two parts together.
ABS Slurry: Used to fill in any small holes between parts---the filler of the 3D printing world.
By sacrificing some bad prints, you can improve the quality of the good ones!
YouTube channel Hoffman Engineering shows us how to make the stuff:
Be careful! Even when combined with ABS, acetone is still a solvent, which has the capability to injure you if misused. While acetone is very mild, it can still cause skin irritation. Always follow the manufacturer's recommend advice.
4. Recycle Locally
Our final recycling technique is exactly that: recycling!
Most 3D-printed parts can be recycled in theory, but you'll struggle to do so curbside. This also depends a lot on what material you print in. Once again, ABS is the big offender here. ABS can produce some very nasty chemicals and fumes, so it will nearly always end up in a landfill.
If you're not keen on recycling, then this short video from YouTuber Amanda Anez explains why it's so beneficial:
Environment friendly material PLA is often touted as being biodegradable---but it has a catch! For PLA to degrade, it can take several hundred years if the conditions are not perfect.
While PLA does not release any harmful substances while degrading, many recycling providers may refuse to take it, as it can be difficult to sort from other plastics.
One of the simplest solutions you can do is to compost it in an industrial facility or at home. Composting simply accelerates the natural decomposition process. Composting at home may take a long time, but you should do anything you can to prevent plastic from going to a landfill.
You can also use a filament recycling service, like the one provided by Filabot. Just box up your PLA, mail it in, and they'll recycle it.
How Do You Recycle Your 3D Prints?
Today we've covered a few of the ways to recycle your failed 3D prints, but there are so many more things you can do. Truthfully, you're only limited by your prints and your creativity!
If you're looking for something to print, why not take a look at these awesome Star Wars props or educational toys!
What do you do with failed 3D prints? Do you have a complex sorting process based on color, material, and size? Or do you just throw them in the trash?
(There is a solution) What to do with bad/unwanted 3D prints?
pla filament abs recycling
I'm planning on getting a 3D printer soon and I'm just wondering what you do with 3D prints that either failed or were prototypes you no longer need?
I tried searching the web but the closest I got was environmental impact turning 3d prints back to filament or restarting a failed print halfway through.
But none of them was the information I was looking for.
The solution should be somewhat environmentally friendly, and just storing unwanted prints in some box is also not a good solution.
Completion of failed prints is not entirely applicable because it does not apply to prototype prints that you do not want to keep.
Is there anywhere to send failed 3D prints for professional recycling, or is there any advice on how to properly dispose of 3D prints?
Just in case it's helpful, the printer I plan to purchase uses filament that can be made from PLA, ABS, nylon, and possibly other materials. This is the printer (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/101hero/101hero-the-world-first-us49-3d-printer) from KickStarter.
@koppany Horvath, iry
Discussion
4 answers
Best answer:
▲ 16
"Obvious" answer is a re-grinding of imprints and manufacturing a larger number of filament.
Unfortunately, this is not yet a very economical or simple operation. A decent filament extruder that can handle acceptable diameter tolerances costs around $1,000, and even then they can be pretty awkward to use. For regrinding to be economical, a filament extruder must have a high throughput.
Some of the reasons why it can be difficult to convert prints to filament are:
- Most plastics degrade to some degree each time they are extruded. (Both with a 3D printer and with a fiber extruder.) PLA will thermally degrade when exposed to heat for a long time. PET will hydrolyze and break down unless it is thoroughly dried to remove moisture before being heated to its melting temperature. (PETG appears to be less susceptible to hydrolysis damage than PET from a plastic bottle, but this still occurs to a limited extent.) ABS withstands extrusion conditions better than most, and this is one of the reasons why it is preferred to be used for injection molding, but there is still room for properties to be affected due to depletion of additives or burnout of plasticizers.
In practice, this means that grinders usually need to be mixed with fresh pellets in a certain ratio. This dilutes a degraded or additive-depleted polymer with good material so you can maintain material properties and performance. - If you're printing a variety of colors and don't want all of the recycled filaments to mix and end up muddy brown, color sorting and matching can be difficult to manage. Most people also don't need different colors along the length of the coil. Therefore, the regrind must be evenly mixed with clean granules and the right amount of masterbatch dye to obtain an acceptable color yield. You are not going to release a new coil with 95% virgin pellets just to recycle a 50g bad print, right? The same goes for material selection. Mixing materials is a bad idea. If you're only printing white PLA, it's all pretty easy to manage. But if you're printing a variety of colors and media, you'll need to set up tracking, sorting, and storing media. You can do it.
.. it's just a hassle. - Diameter control difficult. 3D printers need fairly tight diameter control to work reliably and produce good quality. This is indeed a key issue in any filament extrusion process. Extruded polymers like to change shape as they are extruded and cooled due to molecular alignment effects. You can't just push the melted plastic out of the 1.75mm nozzle - "die swelling" will cause the extrudate to bulge out to a larger diameter just after exiting the nozzle. Then you must actually pull the soft thread when it has cooled down to carefully lower it to the desired diameter. The way the fiber extruder measures the diameter and controls the tension is the key to getting acceptable results. Most hobbyist/desktop filament extruders are not good at this.
These are just the main problems. Thread extrusion is a complex subject with great depth. For the home user of 3D printers, filament making is basically becoming a completely second hobby.
In my opinion this only really makes sense in a commercial print production environment where paid technicians can run the extruder(s) and the very high throughput makes the bead+regrind economics much more profitable than just buying new filament.
Reduce and reuse is preferred over recycling. Increasing the reliability of your printer and gaining experience in calibration/adjustment will help reduce waste.
There are also some productive uses that allow you to reuse unwanted prints as is or "cycle" them for productive use.
- Personally, I keep a box of failed prints (as well as calibration prints and unnecessary prototypes) as exhibits for people who want to learn about 3D printing, and as toys for my nieces and nephews. I highly recommend making calibration prints with a "toy" calibration model such as Benchy or CaliBlocks. 3D printing is still new enough that people will gladly take dozens of benches off your hands for novelty value.
- Damaged and unwanted prints can also be used in the workshop for gaskets, sacrificial pads when clamping, hammering or drilling, and as scrap for experiments with adhesives or post-treatment methods.
- ABS scraps are good for making ABS slurry as a layer for platen adhesive treatment or for solvent staining and filling gaps in other prints. Unfortunately, most other threads do not have such convenient and safe solvents.
- Some people have experimented with placing stacks of scraps on a cookie sheet in the oven and melting them into multicolor cutting boards. You can do a lot with such a heavy Remelted Plate if you get creative. (Personally, I wouldn't use cheap Asian threads for food contact, although they often have nasty soiling.)
, @ Ryan Carlyle
▲ 9
It will be very difficult to find a recycling facility that will accept your 3D prints because they are primarily designed to process packaging materials (which make up the vast majority of plastic waste) such as bottles. If you send your 3D prints to your municipal recycling program, they will at best separate them from the packaging material and incinerate them, at worst they will contaminate a batch of recycled plastic (another type).
You may be able to find a recycling company that specializes in recycling the plastics used in your printer, but given the extremely low volume, it's not worth the time they or you spend on it.
You should dispose of your prints as household waste and offset your environmental impact in some other way (by paying to plant some trees or by investing in renewable energy...) that would be a better use of your time and resources.
, @ Tom van der Zanden
▲ 3
At the Chaos Computer Club summit this winter, the Maker, who himself was in the recycling business, spoke.
How can 3d printing be a dual-use technology? Print more, produce less waste, save money! You can read the talk here https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7321-re_cycle
Update: At Fabcon3D in Erfurt/Germany, two startups presented their prototype filament extruder.
You can either recycle old print materials or create your own pellet filament. http://mcubus.com/ and http://3devo.eu/ I'm not sure how mature their "product" is. But it will be soon.
, @ FrankL
▲ 0
If you have a few friends, you can go to a recycling service like Terracycle where you can send your failed prints, rafts and scraps. No association with Terracycle, it's just a service I found and review.
, @ Migster
4 ways to recycle your broken 3D prints
You've got yourself one of the best 3D printers around. You've learned how to do this with our beginner's guide to 3D printing. You may even have designed your own 3D models with OpenSCAD. You are no longer a 3D printing beginner.
But no matter how good you are at 3D printing, you will end up with unwanted or bad prints.
Maybe you have experimented with a new thread. Perhaps you were still calibrating your machine, or an accidental push messed up the last batch. Whatever the reason, bad prints happen.
Today I'm going to show you some of the coolest things you can do with all those broken parts.
1. Create something cool
One of the easiest ways to recycle prints is to combine two or more prints into something new and unique. Consider combining something like a bust of Yoda or a low poly Darth Vader into a new unique figure. The best part is that you only need simple materials like glue or tape.
This project depends entirely on what you have. If you're only designing and printing prototype parts, this can be tricky, but if you're printing the best 3D prints for desktop fantasy RPGs then you already have everything you need!
If you don't have the parts you need but still want to make something cool, check out this video on the Make Anything YouTube channel.
As shown, you can smash, melt and turn a few bad prints into a new and unique item.
You can even achieve a multi-colored design by combining prints of different colors - or stick to one solid color - the choice is yours!
2. DIY Thread Recycling Machine
Did you know that it is possible to recycle 100 percent of your bad prints? I'm not talking about your local recycling facilities, I'm talking about recycling your parts into brand new filament, ready to be printed again.
Using a machine that looks more like a manufacturing process than a DIY project, this "weak" recycling workflow is called the Filament Extruder.
Thread extrusion almost always consists of three steps:
- Break up old parts
- Melt and extrude thread
- Glow coil for new coil
First, each bad print is broken into very small pieces. This makes melting easier. Once melted, the liquid plastic is passed through a small hole and then cooled before being wound onto a plastic spool. This is a very cool process that is actually a form of injection molding.
As YouTuber Hugh Lyman shows in this video, this is a tough project, but don't let that stop you from saving the planet!
Equipment such as Filabot is available for purchase but very expensive. If you want to learn more about this project, check out the many extruders you can print yourself! Popular models include Lyman/Mulier or Yalfe.
3. Make ABS Juice
This processing method only applies to 9 thread0137 acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Since ABS is oil based, it can be melted with acidic liquids. By combining a small piece of ABS with acetone, three different liquids can be made, all with slightly different uses.
ABS juice: is used to help parts stick to the bed.
ABS Adhesive: Used to glue or weld two pieces together.
ABS Slurry: is used to fill any small holes between parts - the filler of the 3D printing world.
By sacrificing some bad prints, you can improve the quality of the good ones!
Hoffman Engineering's YouTube channel shows us how to do it:
Be careful! Even when combined with ABS, acetone is still a solvent that can injure you if used incorrectly.
Although acetone is very mild, it can still cause skin irritation. Always follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
4. Recycle locally
Our ultimate recycling technology is exactly what you need: recycling!
In theory, most 3D printed parts can be recycled, but you will struggle to do so. It also depends a lot on what material you are printing on. Once again, ABS is the big offender here. ABS can produce some very nasty chemicals and fumes, which is why it almost always ends up in a landfill.
If you're not interested in recycling, then this short video from YouTuber Amanda Anez explains why it's so beneficial:
The environmentally friendly PLA material is often advertised as biodegradable, but it has a catch! PLA can take hundreds of years to decompose if conditions are not ideal. While PLA does not release any harmful substances when it decomposes, many recycling service providers may refuse to accept it as it can be difficult to deal with other plastics.
