Many times failed 3D prints often accumulate or are thrown away: why not give them a second life and turn them into new filament? With Felfil filament recycler system this is possible!

As every enthusiast knows, PLA is one of the most used materials in 3D printing: in fact, it is easy to print at low temperatures and does not require a heated bed. Moreover, it is quite inexpensive and it is not toxic.

For this reason, you will easily find yourself having numerous PLA prints on your desk or scattered around the house. Probably the best ones are proudly kept as ornaments or used for the most different purposes; but, as we know well, for every successful 3D print it is necessary to make a lot of print test.

You probably wondered how to use the test prints. Throwing them in the trash would be a real waste, but on the other hand they take up space and you don’t always have a place to store them.

It is in these situations that a filament extruder as our Felfil Evo comes in handy: it allows, in fact, to recycle PLA 3D prints  and transform them into new filament ready for a new 3D printing session. And what’s more, is that you can do everything on your desk.

Recycling PLA with Felfil filament recycler.

With Felfil system, recycling PLA is simple and takes little time if you follow the correct procedure.

First of all, to extrude your 3D prints and turn them into filament you need to chop them into small pieces: they don’t need them to be the same size, but it is important that you cut them small enough (about 8mm) to enter the melting chamber. To do this, you can use our 3d print shredder or alternatively a normal kitchen blender.

We recommend to dry the PLA before extrusion to get optimal results. It tends, in fact, to accumulate moisture, which ruins the quality of the extrusion.

At the same time, to speed up the operations you can turn on Felfil Evo and bring the temperature around 190° – 205°: it is the optimal range to work with PLA.

Now the chopped prints can fill the Felfil Evo tank. You should now adjust the RPMs (round per minute), the motor speed, depending on the filament diameter you want to extrude. We recommend 6/7 RPM for 1.75 mm, while if you want to get 2.85 mm filament we suggest to set the RPM to 8.

Once the preliminary operations are completed, you can begin to extrude. For best results we recommend using Felfil Spooler together with Felfil Evo. Otherwise, it is possible to place the extruder on the edge of a table and let the extruded filament wrap on the floor.

If you don’t have Felfil Spooler we recommend using a caliber to measure filament diameter on the floor. If it is too thin, increase the RPM or decrease the temperature, and vice versa. The filament diameter also depends on the surrounding environmental conditions, and there are no universally valid settings.

Can I recycle PLA at 100%?

It is possible to create new filament starting exclusively from recycled PLA, as we showed in our video guide, which we invite you to watch. However, to ease the extrusion process we recommend to use a part of virgin PLA, which is easier to treat. In this way, the quality of the extrusion will increase further.

Recycle PLA with Felfil System, therefore, is easy. If you want to give your 3D prints a second life, we suggest you try a filament recycler!