SOLVED Anyone here turned PLA scraps into powder form?

[nzo 16]

Is it possible and how did you do it?

Thanks.

[geert_2 557]

You could manually file it, but anything mechanically that works at higher speeds (like grinding disks), or with more force, is likely to melt it. Even gentle drilling, or thread-making by hand, or cleaning edges with a dental drill (similar to a Dremel, but can work at lower speeds), do melt it. I have a big water-cooled grinding disk: this produces some particles (together with dust and debris from the disk itself), but it also melts the grinded part to some degree, thus creating fibrous blobs instead of powder. So the resulting powder is not usable as a product.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Guest

[Job_van_gennip 23]

3Devo has a shredder and filament extruder. We are already using the extruder from time to time, but have not yet been able to use the shredder. But you should look at that if you are interested.

[nzo 16]

Thank you Geert and Job. Sounds like PLA powder is not available by the sackfull I hear what you're saying about HEAT Geert! I had thought about spraying PLA powder in a liquid medium onto finished prints and re-heating to fuse the new layer.