Introduction: 3d Filament Extruder
Edited!!
Now with CAD design on Solidworks
Please Vote if you like this instructable :)
Instead of buying filament produced from plastic pellets. Why not use your own plastic waste and produce filament much cheaper and eco-friendly?
It’s environmental project that will help sustain plastic problem
Step 1: How It Works
Plastic shreds are inserted through hopper.
the heater starts to heat the room
when heater reaches 100C, the screw will push melting plastic to the nozzle
nozzle will extrude plastic 2 mm in diameter
Step 2: Mechanical Mechanism
Components:
1- Screw
Using screw with big depth and pitch isbetter, it helps transferring plastic to the nozzle faster, as it will hold more plastic.
The screw is 240 mm long, 25 mm outer diameter, 19 mm inner diameter. With shaft 11mm diameter.
2- Heating room
-Two Pipes welded together of inner diameter 29 mm and outer diameter 31 mm. One for heating room and the other one acts as hopper
-Two sheet-metal parts welded at each end with 2.5mm hole to fix nozzle and to close the heating room
3- Motor
AC (220V), 8000 W, 4 RPM
4- Coupler
flexible coupler 5- 12 inner diameter
5- Bearing
6- Screw bolts and nuts
Step 3: Heater
First attempt is making heating room was using nickel chrome coil, fixing it by clay.
The clay cracked when heater reached high temperature.
Our second attempt is using isolated coil 1m high, 6 mm diameter, 1000 watt output power.
It reached 200C in almost 2 min
Tip:
heating store recommended we roll heater on the pipe prior to welding to make coil more stable
Step 4: Insulator
use Glass wool to insulate heat
Glass wool can insulate up to 200C with conductivity rate of 0.043 watt/ms
Step 5: Assemble Mechanical Components
-insert bearing to screw as interference fit.
-mount screw with motor through coupler.
-fix nozzle with pins.
Step 6: Wood Structure
The wood structure is drawn on SolidWorks CAD software
using laser cutter with power 80% and speed 15 mm/sec
DXF files is attached
Step 7: Control Unit
Components:
1- AC power source
2- Arduino UNO
3- Relay board
5V activation coil
220V output
4- Temperature sensor
5- NTC 100K Thermistor
6- 2 Diodes
7- 2 Transistors
NPN 2n222
8- Resistors
100k, 2*1K
Arduino software define motor, heater, temperature sensor.
When heating room reaches 100C or when plastic is in sintering form the motor starts to rotates to extrude plastic.
It prevents heater from reaching value over 120C
Proteus schematics file is attached
Arduino file is attached
Step 8: Plastic
Plastic used is HDPE type
It can be found in milk bottles, shampoos and many other products
It has relatively low melting point about 130C.
Of course you can use any kind of plastic, change the code according to it's melting point and thermal properties.
file contains thermal properties of HDPE is attached
Attachments
Step 9: Assembly of Final Project
and this is how the fonal product looks
Just place the heating room over the wood structure and attach the control ciruit behind the motor!
Enjoy the plastic coming out and save the enviroment!!
If you have any questions please let me know =))

Participated in the
Microcontroller Contest 2017
12 Comments
1 year ago
Could you extrude 1.75 mm filament?
Question 2 years ago
Hi RashaH, have you had success with the 2mm filament? have you made any precisions to your extruder after using it for a while?
Thanks!
Question 2 years ago
it's getting
exit status 1
'Temperatura' does not name a type
Question 3 years ago on Step 9
What is the use of bearing, is it compulsory. How did you seal up the back of the pipe?
Question 4 years ago on Step 2
Hi,
can you tell me where can I buy this screw?
or it should be produced?
4 years ago
Hi
Can tell me the torque of the motor and where put the temperature sensor?
thank you
5 years ago
Nicely done!
What motor did you buy specifically? Anything appliance that would contain a motor with enough torque?
Reply 4 years ago
I got my,12v windshield wiper motor, from a Ford 3 doors hatchback. At a local car demolition site. I forgot which model specifically. I'll look up the numbers on the wiper, for reference.
4 years ago on Step 3
Instead of using red clay, wouldn't using plaster of Paris have been a better solution? Possibly in combination with cloth, such as used for broken limbs.
What I'm aiming at, are the better refractory characteristics of plaster of Paris. I'm willing to give it a try, as I find your design simple and effective.
Reply 4 years ago
I decided, to go for a exhaust-pipe tape, which is a sort of glass-fiber/titanium reinforced tape, instead. See wish: https://www.wish.com/product/59f3e1f824d07352d7b9b851
Question 4 years ago on Step 7
I don't see an extra befit in using an Arduino Uno and not an Arduino Pro micro or Pro mini. I'd gladly read your take on this and my follow up question.
Also would you gain an extra benefit, in using the extra PID+SSR+Thermocouple combination, or is the Arduino setup sufficient?
5 years ago
Nice project.
How do you do for enroling filament on the spool?
Thanks in advance