Expanding to Print Innovative Filaments (part 1)

MY Current 3D print set up

While I stole your attention using my fuzzy companion, the real intent of this writing is one of innovation, and creative exploration. The truth is that my cats all know they aren’t allowed in the studio, the largest room in my house, and that’s for a reason. My studio is a place where there are no rules, instead there are guidelines. If there was a rule it would be that you check your self judgement, inhibitions, and anxiety at the door.

At the moment of writing this, my studio is 75% dedicated to the creation of films. However, being a large room, hidden in the upper corner of the house, under passcode, if you blink, you wouldn’t even realize it’s there. Being the largest room in the house, I managed to create a small area within it that I could dedicate to my 3D printing.

The problem I’m facing, is that this specific area, printing, is growing, and film has turned into more of a creative brainstorming muse. Film is my rule free creation zone, and printing is a more technically restrained hobby. There are rules to printing that, in order to maintain equipment, have to be followed to a “T”. I was a little scared to introduce this hobby to the studio because of its technical nature. However, in order to print I must also design, and that’s the side of the hobby that I am truly passionate about.

To be honest, my Bambu X1 Carbon printer (now a collectors item) was shoved in a corner near the door originally, and now its expanded into me purchasing shelving in order to streamline film storage so I can stream line filament storage. Trust me, at the beginning, I never thought, and even promised myself, that I wouldn’t be like those people that let 3D printing take over their house. Here I am, however, trying to decide next steps for additional filament storage.

With 1 printer it was easy to make the decision to set my X1 on the floor. The cost of shelving sturdy enough for a printer would be out of budget for me, so I found the little area, in front of a Christmas storage area door, that was perfect for the printer. For about a year it has sat there on a concrete slab intended to save my wood floors from the heat. Below the concrete slab is a rubber/silicon shelf liner I got from Ikea.

My biggest concern with printing.

Early into my printing journey I noticed all of the waste I was making, from the colorful “poop” to the left over filament spools, having grown up in the 90’s during the “hole in the ozone” age, I felt bothered by it all. I couldn’t handle being the cause of so much extra material being sent to the landfills.

Reusing spools

The solution for the spools was an easy one. I continued on buying filaments in replacement spools that way the current stash of spools would grow much much slower. However, which specialty filaments still being only offered on stand alone spools, I still acquired a collection of them. that’s when I quickly started thinking about how I could reuse them.

Searching through the Bambu stock of customer creations, I found my first option. I found an insert with tiny holes that could be put into the spool which I thine decided to use to sort my end of season plant seeds (mostly marigolds and sunflowers)

Re-designing a new use for the spool

Of course, as an engineer I knew I wanted to design a solution. Christmas rolled around and then I found it. I heard myself say, “if only these spools where wider I could use them to store Christmas lights. Thus I designed and printed an extender in multiple heights that could help you utilize these spools. My Christmas light Spool extender model

Can’t we just make spools biodegradable?

I had the same thought. Why not make these spools out of some other material. Here’s the problem I found… Most filaments work better when they are dried out before use. Thus, heat resistance plastics are less likely to warp and deform, and don’t catch on fire. Re-use and repurposing really is the best solution. Nothing frustrates me more that receiving filament on a cardboard spool that is so damaged it won’t spin evenly to allow the filament to feed well.

What is “poop?”

Poop, as I previously referred to, and giggled to myself as I typed the word, is the “excrement” a printer produces every time it pre-feeds, loads, un-loads, or changes out filament. “poop” is unavoidable. There are hundreds of artsy print designs out there than users have made that utilize your piles of poop because we are all aware its an issue. The easiest solution for build up of poop, outside of the trash can, is to grind it down, melt it, and pull your own filament. Most of this reformed filament comes out in a gross military greenish brown and you still need to add material to make it useful.

Reforming filament sounds like a great solution but the equipment to do so is pricey and on top of that you have to keep your poop separated between materials, or even colors if you have enough of it.

Un-used and failed prints

prototypes and un-used prints are the hardest and most guilt inducing side effect of printing. No one wants a pile of unused prints which means their final home is the landfill. The only solution here is making minimal design changes or making parts right to begin with. Perfection is difficult, and it defeats the point of prototyping. I personally avoid this issue by utilizing smaller prints that test specific fits and functions without printing the entire piece. When developing my cabinet system, I actually used every prototype and printed and glued on design changes I made later in the process.