<br clear="all">If plastic comes in granules, then why not make an extruder that accepts granules?<div><br></div><div>Perhaps some sort of a bin and a heater. Especially if you had a moving platform rather than a gantry.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I'm planning on making adhoc stuff rather than production with my extruder (when it arrives). So I'll probably live with whatever suppliers the community is using for makerbots and stuff.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But on another project I am planning on manufacturing some propellers. I haven't figured out how to do that yet but I might need to figure out where to buy bulk plastic for that. </div><div><br></div>
<div><br></div><div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 1:19 PM, Paul (Maker Engineering) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:paul@makerengineering.com">paul@makerengineering.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Makergear is in the USA, as are all the other 3DP suppliers I've been able to find.<div><br></div><div>I order mine from Ultimachine (I use PLA) and pay a fair bit of shipping to get it here.</div><div><br></div><div>
One of the problems with PLA is that there is only one manufacturer in all of north america that I know of producing it, which is NatureWorks. In addition there is another in the Netherlands. So if you order straight from them in very large quantities it gets fairly cheap.</div>
<div><br></div><div>ABS is easier to source because there are manufacturers all over the place.</div><div><br></div><div>NatureWorks doesn't normally sell it in 3mm filament either, but they do sell it in granules (as most suppliers sell). But most manufacturers will sell filament as well for an additional cost (basically because they have to take the granules and extrude them into filament for you). This is why granules are cheaper, and why so many are working on building granule extruders to be able to extrude our own filament.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Many suppliers and distributers also have the ability to extrude 3mm filament because it can be used in plastic welding. But is normally cut into short lengths, so with a special request you can likely get spools of continuous 3mm filament in Ontario (specifically in the GTA) quite easily... I believe several of the <a href="http://hacklab.to" target="_blank">hacklab.to</a> guys were mentioning they had a supplier in the toronto area that was able to provide them with very large quantities of 3mm abs filament for a reasonable price.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Hope that helps!</div><div><br></div><div>- Paul</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Darcy Whyte <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:darcy@siteware.com" target="_blank">darcy@siteware.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div></div><div class="h5"><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse"><div>
<span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse">I ordered a small amount to get started at: </span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse"><a href="http://www.makergear.com/" target="_blank">http://www.makergear.com/</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>Not sure where they are from their web site.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 20:11:32 +0000<br>From: <a href="mailto:emteeoh@gmail.com" style="color:rgb(28, 81, 168)" target="_blank">emteeoh@gmail.com</a><br>Subject: [Lab] Plastic for makerbots<br>
To: <a href="mailto:lab@artengine.ca" style="color:rgb(28, 81, 168)" target="_blank">lab@artengine.ca</a><br>Message-ID:<br> <872190262-1296763893-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-2144851823-@bda256.bisx.prod.on.blackberry><br>
<br>Content-Type: text/plain<br><br>Hi!<br>I've got a quick question: I'm wondering if you can tell me where you're buying plastic for your makerbot? I'm assuming there has got to be a better way to get it than importing it from new york, but none of the plastics suppliers I can find in toronto seem to sell 3mm filament.<br>
<br>Thanks!<br>Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry</span>
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