ABS & PLA Filament Extruder

I've had my printer about a year now and I'm finding the filament is costing me a fortune. I've been monitoring the Kickstarter site as there seem to be quite a few desktop extruders beginning to be manufactured and these use PLA or ABS pellets which are converted into filament. However some of the early designs are built using wood and look a bit home made. This whole make your own filament idea looks like a great way to save money, I had a quick search and found a few companies that will supply raw pellets at £3.50 per Kg. I also found a UK company that are selling a more substantial filament extruder www.nutralabs.co.uk and I wondered if any had any experience using one of these?

I've heard that the major problem with these extruder is that the filament quality is poor, lower than the one we are used to buy. More problems happen with the hotend (jamming, cogging, etc) and it might not worth it at the moment. Maybe later updates will improve the filament quality.

woodencase01 Wrote:
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> I've heard that the major problem with these
> extruder is that the filament quality is poor,
> lower than the one we are used to buy. More
> problems happen with the hotend (jamming, cogging,
> etc) and it might not worth it at the moment.
> Maybe later updates will improve the filament
> quality.


Incorrect, my friend. +/-0.05mm is no problem.

[www.filastruder.com]

Repraps look a bit "homemade" and are sometimes made out of wood too - doesn't mean they can't turn our quality prints.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2013 06:35PM by greenman100.

Thanks guys. I have noticed that you may require some kind of cooling set up as the filament is extruder to stop it kinking. I think being based in the UK I'll purchase one of these extruders and try it out for myself.