3D Printed with Recycled and Wool PLA

We've mentioned recently that we located a New Zealand company that is not only recycling PLA but also producing a 'wool blend' PLA which is including sheep wool in the printing process.

KiwiFil is the company and after we contacted them they fantastically sent us some samples to test.   The sample PLA supplied is featured left.  This includes the "WoolyFil' PLA which is recycled PLA but also includes wool.

The print is a small sheep 50mm across and 60mm but the PLA with the wool has produced the effect that you can see left.  This was produced on the Bambu H2D by using the sample PLA and setting the machine to 'generic PLA' setting.

We will be updating this post later today with additional information but the first print that we have used with the 'WoolyFil' and its completely blown us away in the terms of the texture and the detail.

This is one of the most exciting things that we have seen in some time - the students are going to be incredibly excited by this and the texture provided and it will open up a new avenue for our students for their design and creations.

The print used for the demonstration print was located from Maker World and is described as a 'Knitted Sheep'

Thanks once again to KiwiFil for reaching out to us we appreciate the connection and the ability to create something new with our students.

The print took approximately two hours to print, was printed in three stages, the fleece part the legs and head and a third print was then completed for the eyes and nose.   All of the PLA used for the print was recycled print.   It was printed with a Bambu H2D.

In the past there has been the occassional difficulty with some novelty PLA - however there was nothing required here with this wooly filament.

The texture has created attention and opened up a huge realm of possibilities for 3D printing.

We will be posting a multitude of prints using this PLA and also the recycled PLA in the future.

We are preparing our students by establishing recycling centres at school for PLA and also looking at prints that we might want to take and then have repurposed if they are no longer working.

3D Printing with WoolyFil PLA V2

We've been experimenting with a range of PLA over the year but have previously posted about our excitement in discovering the range of WoolyFil filament and in particular the ability to essentially be able to recycle nearly all of 3D Printed material via a New Zealand company KiwiFil.

We have always been extremely careful not to endorse of promote anything to do with this site as we are simply trying to highlight what works for our students and staff however the values of being sustainable and also producing unique and interesting prints to capture the imagination of the students is something that we are very much always looking to achieve.

In the example shown above we have conducted another test print using WoolyFil Filament.   The print has been completed using this and the Bambu H2D.   The machine needed to have the PLA set to 'generic' rather than the automatic selected Bambu PLA that we are predominantly using.

We decided to produce this figure as the eyes were the only part of the print not completed using the combination of recycled PLA and wool blend was the eyes.

The contrast with the Suffolk sheep shown left was that this used a fair degree of regular PLA to complete for the feet and the face (although this was also recycled PLA).

This is a design that was sourced from the Bambu Lab Online portal by using the search phrase 'wool animal' to narrow down the elements.   While there were a very large range of potential designs the Elephant was selected as the print was nearly entirely completed using the WoolyFil Filament.

The print measures 60mm across is 50mm deep and 70mm high.   The print took three hours and thirty minutes to complete using the Bambu H2D.   The print used 24g of filament to complete this had a price point of $0.60.

As we have mentioned in the past while the students aren't designing the print the idea is to get the students familiar with the material, the concepts and the idea of using different PLA to encourage them to think laterally about the designs that they could use.