I saw the Filabot EX6 extrusion videos and got excited enough to look into trying it myself. But given the cost, would I be better off building my own extruder?
I understand extrusion screws are hard to make, so I’d probably have to buy those separately - Filabot does sell their own screws for a fraction of the EX6’s price.
From there, if I can source a barrel with the right tolerances to combine with the screw, wouldn’t it be fairly straightforward to hook up a motor and complete the rest of the machine? I feel like I am missing something. It just doesn’t seem right that the motor, gearbox, and barrel heaters would add up to the 15K price tag Filabot currently charges for an EX6. Someone please correct me of my dunning–kruger effect
Of course, I will need something to cool the filament and wind it into rolls as it comes out of the extruder, but I’ll look into later.
Actually I might abandon this idea, going by the lack of response - instead I’ll try finding a local university or makerspace lab with plastic extrusion equipment that I can visit, or at least send plastic samples in for them to extrude on my behalf.
Really, I just need a few good extruded samples of my plastic to know if it’s worth producing at scale. If it goes well then I can take the plunge and buy proper extrusion equipment.
I do agree that the cost of EX6 extruder is significantly higher than the sum of its components. I assume that this is likely due to the low number of units that are sold per year and the insurance required to sell what is basically a pressure vessel. You do need to keep this in mind if you go the DIY route.
You can purchase screw and barrels from aliexpress. Then you just need to add the motor, speed control, and discrete barrel heaters. You can definitely save money if you are able to source the screw and barrel at a reasonable price, but I am unsure of the quality of the Aliexpress options.
You will need to be careful when designing the connection between the screw and the motor. The screw will be pushed back due to the pressure of the plastic that is being conveyed forward, so you will need angular contact bearings.
Thanks for the info! I’ve been looking into recycling 3D-printed plastics with it (or maybe I’ll just take the plunge on an EX6 if it takes too long to DIY). I wrote a second post in the filament extrusion section about sorting 3d printed waste for recycling.
