- #1
JoeSalerno
- 79
- 2
I'm considering making a plastic melter / extruder for making my own 3D printer filament as opposed to buying the spools of it. The basics of the project are simple, but the hard part (for me at least) is making a heating element that has a control on it so that I can turn the heat up or down and keep it where I want to. I plan on using nichrome wire as the source of heat, and it will be wrapped around an aluminum tube (probably 1/8" thick at most). As a bonus, it would be great to implement some kind of digital display for the temperature, but if that's too complicated I can just set up a simple thermometer. I would like to be able to melt a few different kinds of plastics, so this should be able to at least get up to 250 degrees Celsius. I haven't committed to this project yet, so if it turns out to be an electronics nightmare, I'll hold off, but if it's relatively easy to understand, I'm ready to tackle the challenge. And it may also be worthy of note that my electronics skill level is basic (and I mean simple) circuit diagrams and concepts, as well as my ability to solder. Thanks in advance.