MY ZERO WASTE JOURNEY:

I'm on a mission to create a ZERO waste system for my 3D printing setup! The contest description states that you can “simply recycle and turn purge waste into a complete new design.” Well… I decided to go above and beyond the contest to see if I could find more efficient ways to USE filament poop and failed prints! I wanted to share my process thus far with the Bambu community! And I also thought, hey, I can't afford another Bambu… maybe I could win a sweet prize by entering this competition!

The Stormtrooper Planter pot, keychains, and electric tea light holder are created from ONLY filament poop/failed prints!

ZERO WASTE PLANTER (Same process for keychains and electric tea lights pictured)

My process:

1. Gather poop and failed prints
2. blend blend blend! I found a blender from a thrift store. It works great!
3. Scoop blended parts into a silicone mould. You can 3D print your own mould and then pour your own silicone… or buy a silicone mould!
4. Fire up an oven to 400 degrees Celsius… again… the thrift store will be your best friend here! (DO THIS PART OUTSIDE OR IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!!
5. Check every 15 minutes and scoop more into the mould as needed (2 to 5 hours depending on the size of the mould)
6. Once the filament is melted and sits level close to the top of the mould… pull it out! Let it cool for at least 3 hours
7. Peel the silicone mould off the melted plastic and voila!
8. Repeat steps 1-8 for other types of silicone moulds (keychains, other planters, electric tea light holders, etc.)

For the keychains I just drilled a hole into the plastic and added key tags through the holes.

ZERO WASTE MULTI-COLOUR PRIME TOWER

This ideas has been adapted from Elite_1650 who also entered this competition. My wife did not like the volcano looking planter, so I made a hexagon planter instead! I also wanted to get rid of the prime tower entirely… so that the entire prime tower could be practically used.

My process:

1. Open Bambu Studio and import your file… paint it as desired! Set whatever desired settings you want (layer lines, support, etc.)
2. Download the Hexagon “Zero Waste” STL and imput it into BambuStudio
3. In the scale setting…. you can scale up the Z height by taking off uniform scale. I would scale the Z up so that the zero waste planter is just above your LAST colour change spot.
4. Enable “prime tower" by going to “Global” “Prime Tower” "Enable"
5. set the Prime tower to 2mm “width” and 1mm “volume”
6. Drag the prime tower and hexagon around (rotating the hexagon if need be) so that the prime tower sits inside one of the hexagon walls. It should NOT stick out of the hexagon anywhere.
7. An error will show… but it is fine! The prime tower gets built Inside the planter!
8. Go to objects and select “Zero Waste Planter”
9. In “Others” go to “Flush Options” and select “Flush into this object”
10. “Slice” away!

Pictures:

1. Front profile of zero-waste Storm trooper 
2. Side profile of zero-waste Storm trooper 
3. Back profile of zero-waste Storm trooper 
4. Side profile of zero-waste Storm trooper 
5. Bin of scraps (prime tower, filament poop purge lines, etc.)
6. Scraps inputted into a blender
7. scraps blended up
8. Scraps mixed together in a bin
9. Scraps scooped into a mould
10. Another pic of scraps scooped into a mould
11. Grogu with zero-waste prime tower
12. Spiderman with zero-waste prime tower
13. Keychain tree (keychains made from recycled plastic)
14. Electric tea light holder made from filament scraps
15. Another style of zero-waste planter
16. Another style of zero-waste planter

If you made it this far… and you would like any more info on my process or supplies used, feel free to email me: connornitro3d@gmail.com

Thanks,

Connor B