So after running out of black... I ran out of white. Managed to get 1 white chess set and 3 incomplete red ones that I'm just going to finish up and get sent out without dual printing them. Frustratingly inefficient. I've placed orders for more black, white, and red filament through Joseph Chiu (aka Toybuilder) who will soon enough be dipping his fingers into the realm of filament distribution and I wish him well on that.
Meanwhile, the first chess set orderd I'm getting out the door this morning and hopefully tonight I'll be getting two more out. Then when I have some more filament I'm doing this whole production run again.
I'm curious what goes into making the filament and might dip my toes into that realm. Have you run across any information on any processes to making it, particularly from recycled plastics?
ReplyDeleteThere are several project trying to make high (enough) quality filament at home with recycled plastic. The leader of the pack is the filabot but there is also the Lyman filament extruder http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30642
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is it's going to cost about $350 - $500 plus a little experimentation as you get it right.
That actually looks quite doable. Since I don't have a Makerbot or any other 3D printer I was thinking about exploring making filament only and doing it as efficiently as possible. I'm a bit obsessed with proceses, especially manufacturing ones. For me being able to reconstitute filament from household plastics would be ideal, like the ultimate recycling.
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