This video shows how I take empty PET Plastic water bottles and process them into usable 3D filament. The process is called 'pultrusion' and begins by slicing the bottles into long strips whose width is determined by the thickness of the walls of the bottle. Thinner plastic will need wider strips and thicker plastic will need narrower strips. These strips are then pulled through a 'hot-end' by means of a geared box and take-up spool. As the strip passes through the nozzle of the hot-end it is heated, curled, and formed into a 1.65mm diameter filament. This filament can then be used on a standard 3D printer so long as it's able to heat the bed to 70C and the hot-end to 258-260C.


PRINTER: Creality Ender 3 v2 (modified to handle higher temps needed for PET Plastic)

3D MODEL: 'The Bucket Lift - Modular Marble Machine' by user 'Out Of Marbles' is available on Printables.com
https://www.printables.com/model/7514...

SLICER: Ultimaker Cura 4.13.1

Chart for determining cut width of plastic strips in relation to its thickness.
Thick Width
.20mm 10mm
.25mm 9mm
.30mm 8mm
.35mm 7mm
.40mm 6mm
.45mm 5mm