Recycle Filament for Re-Use?

[w22]

I found an amazing filament recycler than shreds any filament prints thrown into a canister like bin and then the shards are melted into a string and then the spooler part of the machine spools the filament back into a ready to use spool. This all sounds amazing and looks amazing and it wonderful for saving money and the environment. The problem is it's basically $4,000.00 and with all the money in the world, I don't see that as economically efficient when you can get Hatchbox filament at $22.99 on Amazon so I have two thoughts:

1. is there a place online I can get cheaper but still same great quality as Hatchbox filament?

2. Is there a DIY filament recycler idea/option that maybe has the machine split into three parts? (The shredder, the melter, and then the spooler?).

I just hope this doesn't end up like solar panels where 200 years from now, a filament recycler is $50.00 off at $3,950.00!

[ednisley]

then the shards are melted into a string

The process of melting and extruding the plastic changes its chemistry, so that re-melting the scrap and turning it back into filament produces something different than you expect.

Also, given the propensity of drives to jam with out-of-round / out-of-tolerance filament, the ability of nozzles to clog with the least contamination, and the fact that high-quality filament costs maybe $25/kg, there's no possible justification for screwing around with your own filament recycling factory.

Hope springs eternal among the Kickstarter crowd, but chemistry and economics aren't strong with them.

[insta]

Filament recyclers are relatively cheap per-kilogram for materials, although you can't use straight plastic over and over. You must blend it with virgin resin -- and virgin resin typically is only available either in 55lb sacks, 1000lb gaylords, or 5x its price on eBay by the pound. Then you have to match resins (or learn how to blend them...), dry them, store them, prevent jams, wind the filament produced, etc.

I used to have an extruder. I could make 1kg a day if I tried. Then I realized, it took me an entire day (and maybe an actual hour of my time) to spend $8 instead of $20 on a spool of now-substandard plastic. 3D printing doesn't pay me a lot, but $1.20/hr is less than I do get paid -- especially if I can pass the costs along.

[w22]

Wow! Great deep analysis guys! You both are brilliant! Thank you for filling me in on this stuff. I've been wondering this for a full year! Case closed!