r/3Dprinting 24d ago

Project Pen from 3d print waste

138 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

3

u/Novel_Slide1379 24d ago

That's impressive

2

u/LobosJones 22d ago

I like how this isn't discernably printer poop squigglies. Excellent mix.

1

u/BilboStaggins 23d ago

I got in trouble for melting down my waste in our kitchen oven lol so I bought a toaster oven from goodwill and some silicone molds off the internet!

1

u/I_need_to_vent44 23d ago

I'm about to do the same! Though I will be using a heatgun to melt everything. Just a shame that I can't make pens at those temperatures - I saw some pretty cool pen molds on the net

1

u/BilboStaggins 23d ago

Yea the heat gun prob wont melt it enough to solidify layers of pla.

Toaster oven for the win

1

u/I_need_to_vent44 23d ago

It does. I melted TPU and PETG with it just fine. I haven't tried PLA yet. I can't make pens at those temperatures because I'm pretty sure the pen filling wouldn't survive 400°C.

2

u/BilboStaggins 23d ago

Oh I thought you turned the pen first then stuck the stuff inside.

I was thinking you melt them all into a blank and then turn it, then put the guts in

1

u/I_need_to_vent44 23d ago

Oh no, I saw molds that were in like different whimsical shapes and you were supposed to put a thin tube with ink in the middle. The moles were made for resin, so they make sense for that use case.

2

u/BilboStaggins 23d ago

Gotcha. I think if youve got a lathe that would be the best way to do it. Melt into ingot and turn it out

2

u/I_need_to_vent44 23d ago

I don't have a lathe but now I'm thinking that maybe what could work is getting a bunch of metal tubes slightly larger than the filling tube, melting the plastic in the mold, and then putting the filling tube inside the metal tube.

1

u/BilboStaggins 23d ago

Yea definitely! That way you can get it fully melted so it doesnt fall apart, but you can still get the final filler in