DAMN that’s a good idea!
Wow now this is a great invention
Common misunderstanding i’d like to clarify:
Soda bottles are made of PET or HDPE, generally blow-molded. These types of plastics do not print very well, because they have very high thermal coefficients of expansion…which causes extreme warping.
DAMN, that was a good idea that won’t work well…
People seem to have no problems printing with it. I’ve got a spool of it I need to try myself. I’m expecting it to be no worse than ABS’s awful 5% shrinkage, based on what I’ve read.
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?184,145146
http://fablab013.nl/blog/printing-with-pet-on-the-ultimaker-3d-printer/
@Electra_Flarefire , there’s a big difference between the PET used in 3D printing and the PET used in blow molding.
@Tim_Elmore 3DS is using 25% recycled PET (at the CES demo they mentioned bottles specifically but I’d imagine it’s not bottle specific) in the EKOCYCLE cartridges which is about the same recycle ratio you’d use in a Filastruder for ABS.
@dstevens_lv I’m very aware of the Ekocycle… but the other 75% isn’t the same type of PET that you use in blow molding plastic bottles. (Taulman recommends no more than 12% water bottles, by the way)
So my point remains: You cannot make usable filament from bottles, at least not bottles alone… so the article is misleading at best.
What specifically is the difference in the PET used in bottles and that of printing?
Soda bottles can be layered or have additives/coatings to provide CO2 and oxygen barriers.
Can it melt post printed extruded material? Meaning, by one spool of the quality stuff and reuse over and over…