Learn How to Manufacture Your Own 3D Printer Filament

Fused-filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers create parts from thermoplastic that is solid at room temperature, but which softens and eventually melts at higher temperatures. That material almost always comes in the form of thin filament wound around a spool so that it is easy to feed into the printer’s extruder. ABS and PLA, which are the two most common material types, generally cost between $20 and $40 per 1kg spool. But those materials in pellet form cost just a fraction of that. If you want to take advantage of that savings, Alex of Endless Filament has a guide on how to manufacture and even sell your own 3D printer filament.

To make your own filament, you need to take bulk plastic pellets (which cost just a few dollars per kilogram), melt them, form the molten plastic into a long continuous strand, and then wind that strand around a spool right as it finishes cooling. That might sound easy, but good filament that actually prints well needs to be completely consistent in both composition and diameter. Even a few hundredths of a millimeter variation in diameter can result in poor print quality. Cheap desktop filament extruders generally produce poor quality filament, because they can’t maintain the kind of consistency that is necessary for smooth printing.

Most of Alex’s multi-part guide covers the fundamentals of the extrusion process and how to build your own extruder. The one he built cost about $700 and can process around 5kg per hour. He also elaborates upon how to build a more affordable $500 version that can process about 2kg per hour. From there, he goes on to explain how to operate the extruder, how to setup water cooling, and how to wind your fresh new filament onto spools. Finally, Alex describes some of the basics of marketing and selling filament. He claims he was able to make $8,000 in sales in just his first two months. If you’re able to reach even a fraction of that, you should be able to cover the cost of your extruder and finance your own 3D printing adventures!