I Had Fun Making Protopasta Filament AND A Giveaway!

Isn't she lovely? Recently, I got to visit Proto-Pasta and even make my own filament. But, as you just saw, things were a little bit unhinged. My name's Jim, and this is the Edge of Tech. Like I said, a couple months ago I had the incredible opportunity to fly out to Portland, Oregon and visit the Proto-Pasta Proto-Plant. If you don't know who Proto-Pasta is, you probably need to. They're a USA-based filament company that started literally from the ground up. In 2013, they pieced together a makeshift extrusion line and launched on Kickstarter. Yes, that Kickstarter. They were successful on their launch with like 500 makers backing them, and that set them on the path for success. Now, they strive for the best quality filament you can get, and being able to hang out with them for like a weekend really showed that. Now, I need to say that the real reason I went out there was to film an April Fools' video about making filament from teeth. And if you haven't seen that video, you definitely need to. I'll put it like right here, and also in the description below, so when you're done, you can check it out. But, if you haven't checked it out, you need to check that one out. It was a ton of fun. And that's where this video begins. We are on one of the extrusion lines at Proto-Pasta with Alex, who is one of the co-founders. But, he's just not one of the co-founders. He's actually one of the mad scientists behind many of the materials and colors that you see them carry today. And by mad scientist, I mean Alex is crazy. He can grab materials from here and over here and over there and combine them to make amazing-looking filaments and then dial them in to exactly what you want. It's It's actually a really cool process. So, after many, many hours of filming the other project, you'll actually see us dressed in um what we're wearing for that April Fools' video in this video that I'm about to show you. But, after a ton of hours and late nights, we're actually going to jump right into a custom filament he was making for Ryan and Steve of the Offset Maker Lab and then also a special color he made for Tristan, my son, which is really, really cool. You'll soon find out that we are all very tired, excited, and pretty much a bit loony by the time we filmed this video. We had a ton of fun and I hope you guys enjoy this. Let's jump into it. So, we're actually here on the filament line and Alex is doing some stuff. So, we got uh pellets and you added a pearl to it? >> Isn't she lovely? >> I love it. It looks good. I like it. >> It does. It's It's just some loose pearl. We don't usually make things this way in production, but it's a good way to prototype. We only have 2 g of pearl to test and see what we're going to get. And um look at that. >> So, we're going to run this. We're going to see what kind of filament we get and uh I think we're going to call it Offset Green. Well, it's going to be offset from something. >> [laughter] >> We got the Offset Maker Lab guys right here. >> Uh >> Ryan definitely made this. Kim, if you're watching, Ryan didn't make this. So, what do we got going on? So, right now Alex is measuring some more stuff and we're just doing We're just shooting this run again, all right? So, we're That's how it's going to be. >> Making Making a little base. Booze. So, what's the >> So, this is all about the base. >> It's all about the base. >> Yeah. Alex is making the base. He is He has We've been filming another video here. >> Oh, that was the wrong bucket. >> Now, there's the MMA. >> So, we've been We've been filming We've been filming a video for 2 days. >> I don't think I got enough sleep. >> And uh we definitely didn't get enough sleep. Look at that. >> Don't go chasing waterfalls. >> Don't go Jason waterfalls you Oh my gosh. So, we're currently running filament over here, too, and he's making a different prototype filament right now. What's this one called? >> That was mermaids, and this is chameleons. So, you know, I mean Look at that. I mean, that's crazy. >> That looks awesome. >> You got those little glittery bits? >> Glittery bits. >> We're going to do this. We're going to finish it up, and then we're going to go to the hopper and dump it in, and then we'll show the whole process from the hopper this way. Sound good? >> Sounds good. We're trying not to get the loose pearl all over the equipment, so >> Got it. And then in a second here, it'll start extruding out this. What is this? This is like the hopper, right? Can you explain what this machine is? >> This is the hopper. >> Yeah, the hopper. >> And then this is the machine. Hopper. Inside here is a screw and barrel and heaters wrapped around it. So, the screw is turning, that creates some heat, so do the heaters. Liquefies the plastic and pumps it to push it out the end. >> Perfect. >> Comes out the end, obviously somewhat solid cuz it's still holding shape. >> Yeah, and it's starting to turn green now. That's cool. So, we can see it changing there. Went from clear to mermaid tears. So, after it comes out of here so then it goes through here. What does this do? >> This water bath is heated to about the glass transition temperature of the plastic. So, it is cooling it in a very controlled way. >> Okay. >> Um and it also like let it slip nicely. Um and then here we have an array of air knives. They're getting the water back off the surface. >> Oh, so this is drying it again. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then it runs through here? >> Yeah, it's important that it's dry so that then here when the two axes micrometer takes a look, Laser mic, um it can see just the plastic and not the water. >> So, we can see the laser mic in there. It's like a little uh green laser shining on the unicorns. >> That's right. >> No, mermaids, sorry. Mermaids. Yeah, yeah. Then it goes through here and that measures it. >> What's what? >> No, right here it's measuring with the laser. >> That Oh, that does it in the laser. And then what about this? >> it. Um this is just pulling it actually. >> pulls it in. >> together with the rate at which it comes out and the size of the die dictate the size >> Perfect. >> filament. >> And then it comes across uh this right here. >> Yeah. >> And then you wind your mermaids up on a roll right here. >> Oh, man, that looks good though. >> It looks so good. >> I like it. >> awesome. And this was what you said 200 g? How much of the >> Oh, I put 2 g of powder >> in uh and yeah >> Okay. >> um 500 g of pellets. So, we're putting in an uh 0.4%. >> Perfect. That looks awesome. All right. So, what he's doing now, it looks like he what he's stopped this one and he's going to start the top one so we can do like a transition roll, right? >> Yeah, I want it to transition up here and then turn into that other color but not cover up this color down here. It's full mermaid. >> This will be uh some mermaid and some chameleon. >> Yeah, so is it a mermelian? >> A mermelian. You heard it here. You cross mermaid and uh chameleon and you get a mermelian. >> Right. Obviously. >> Yeah. Clearly. >> Oh, I think maybe it's starting to change. >> Let's see. >> It's going from green to like bluer. It's like purple and blue instead of like blue and green. >> One day later. >> So, we we made some other filament today. I think we should make some for my son. He loves yellow. I think sparkly yellow like school bus sparkly yellow or something like that. >> Um I know we had >> Playful. >> We had a little bit of a test and I think we're close, right? >> I agree. And here was kind of a simple take. I put 10% of this 1.25 yellow and 10% of this 10% gold glitter. And so, what I didn't want to do is put too much gold glitter. You see how it's sort of brown. I didn't want to like turn this into a like an olive. I wanted to keep that school bus color. Although here, I mean, if we look >> It did go lighter. >> Right. So, we could we could saturate it further. >> I think that looks great. >> Okay. >> So, >> Yeah. Yeah, we'll start with the yellow. Put in for 10% we put in 100 g. >> A lot of mixing mad scientist kind of stuff going on. >> I like I like how hands-on and tactile it is as well. Got some special sauce to have it flow nice and >> And I special sauce. >> better in your printer without jamming. And then we got to fill it up with the rest of our We just just non-colored resin. We shake that up. >> You want to give that a shake? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to shake it. >> here. Sorry, Mike. Let's see. So, So, what it is. >> Nice. So, now we just we go dump it in, right? >> We do. >> All right. Let's do it. Yeah. So, >> This here is our software we've created to control the process. And here you can see the diameter being measured in real time. And here our goal is 1.75 mm. And we're dancing right between 1.74 and 1.76 most of the time. >> And when you normally do what I mean, when you do your big batches, you have dried pellets like stuff that's ready to go. What's your normal tolerance in >> I mean, it this is walking around a little more. It's normally, you know, about the same tolerance. It's just a straighter line. Yeah. >> But this is pretty typical, too. I mean, like you can expect plus or minus um you know, 200ths. This And that's that's very tight for filament. A lot of >> Yeah. >> A lot of filaments will say plus or minus five >> And And I And to be clear, kind of what we're doing here is prototyping, right? It's not like you have a recipe for this or anything. We're just like, this is what we're going to try. >> Yeah. >> And that's what we've been kind of doing all weekend here. So >> Yeah, totally. >> We had a lot of fun. All right, so we have a full kilogram now of magic spool bus yellow, just self-named. Uh I don't remember who came up with it, but thank you for the credit of that. And he did some wrapping on it. Um so, obviously it doesn't go crazy all the way home. And it looks like he's going to It would You wrap it up, right? And you put a label on it. It should have. Yeah. >> I'll put these together. >> Alex is being a trooper. He has had almost no sleep all weekend, so >> See, they're friends. >> They're friends. Aw. So, he puts it in the the plastic that he's going to seal it in. There's desiccant in there. And then they have this sweet machine here that I wish I had in my kitchen. >> All right, here we go. That's cool. >> And that just uh >> Pulls the air out, so creating a vacuum. Then it seals it. And then it lets the air back in. The air comes back in. The bag >> Aw, that's pretty cool. >> contracts. >> Awesome. >> I'm not a pro with this. There we go. We stuffed some plastic in there. >> Nice. >> And then we'll uh >> Cool. >> wrap this whole adventure up. >> It It was an adventure. We had an awesome weekend making a whole project. We have literally spent three pretty much full days doing all of a whole bunch of stuff and then making a whole bunch of filament. >> Something we've all never done before. >> 100% And And top On top of all of that, he's letting Corey and I stay at his house with his family, which we really do appreciate. And also, he went through the troubles of like making everybody's colors like almost perfect to what they want. So, he could have been like, "Yeah, it looks good." But Alex is a professional. >> have to anything. [laughter] >> That's right. Dude, thank you so much. >> Yeah. It's been >> Yeah, yeah. >> And honestly, I don't know where we'll ever do something like this again until >> next year. So, stay tuned. >> I know we're having a ton of fun in this video, and I do need to jump in and talk about today's sponsor, PCBWay. And if you haven't heard about PCBWay, I'm not sure where you've been hiding. They do custom PCBs, of course, hence the name PCBWay, custom CNC, custom metal work, custom 3D printing, I mean, injection molding, they just they do it all, really. And if you're looking for a custom project like this SLS printed nylon 12 Death Racer they did for me, look no further. You can save some money in the link in the description below if you click on it, but you got to know that their website is super simple to use. Just choose the service you're looking for, in this case we'll we'll call it 3D printing, throw your files in, choose the material you want, and that's it. They'll take care of the rest for you, and they ship it out fast. PCBWay has been a great support to this channel and many other channels out there, and I definitely suggest you guys use them on your next project. Click the link in the description below to save yourself some money. Now, back to it. That was such a great time, and I really appreciate Alex for having us out to Proto-Pasta and just for you genuinely being a great person. He is an absolute pro at mixing filaments and put a ton of work into getting all of our prototype filaments like perfect to what we wanted. Speaking of those colors, we have the magic spool bus, yes, magic spool bus is what we ended up calling it, right here. I have not opened this yet. I'm super pumped to print something for Tristan in this one. And then, uh of course, we have Is It Teeth? the teeth filament we made uh while we were there as well. So, I have a couple of these to actually give away. And this is the Is It Teeth? filament. Special filament, never going to be made again, only made for the April Fools run. And they had some rolls at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival is how I got my hands on them, too. I have two rolls to give away. And what I'm going to do is give them away to somebody who comments, likes, and shares this video. All you got to do is comment, like, and share. I'm going to pick it randomly. Then I'll get a hold of you and send you one of the rolls of the special edition Is It Teeth? filament. Like I said, comment, like, and share down below. What did you like about the filament? Or what what did you like about the video? Did you learn something? Anything you want. And I'm going to pick someone from the comments, and two people are going to win uh a roll of Is It Teeth? So, it's going to be pretty awesome. I have a brand new respect for Proto-Pasta and their process to make this, some of the best filaments that you can buy. They're meticulous about getting the right quality products, preparing them right before they extrude them into filament, and then extruding them into filament with crazy precision. I I just, like I said, I have a new respect for the whole process, and thank you, Alex, for running us through that, because I learned so much over the weekend. There's a link in the description if you want to check out the filaments and support them as well. Smash that like button if you got value from today's video. And if you want to see more videos about 3D printing, lasers, and CNC, please hit that subscribe button now. I'm on a mission to try to get to 200,000 subscribers this year, and I really need your help. And if you haven't seen the Is It Teeth? April Fools video, uh you need to check that out now, and it's going to be like right right here. Check this one out. Go to this next.