3D printers have come a long way in the past few years, but what most people don’t realize is that while the machines themselves have steadily become more advanced, the filaments they print with have also been progressing in leaps and bounds.
It’s not just ABS and PLA anymore. Nowadays we’ve got 3D printing filament made from dozens of different materials. Wood, bronze, nylon, carbon fiber, water-soluble plastic, flexible rubber — you name it and there’s probably a filament made of it. And the list just keeps on growing.
The latest addition to the ever-expanding category comes from the filament wizards at 3Dom. The company, which specializes in eco-friendly printing materials, has just released a new filament called “Buzzed” that’s made from the waste byproducts of beer. No joke — they figured out a way to make a high-quality printing filament with used-up hops and barley.
“We get the byproduct from a local major label brewing plant. It’s stuff that would otherwise just be placed in a landfill,” says 3Dom CEO Jake Clark. “We specifically look to make useful supposedly unusable material.”
This isn’t the first eco-friendly, plant-based filament that 3Dom has ever produced; it’s actually the fourth. However, unlike the company’s most recent release –the coffee-based Wound Up filament— Buzzed doesn’t give off a noticeable aroma when heated up, so it won’t, as the company puts it, “leave your work area smelling like a corner booth after bar-close.”
Now here’s the coolest part. Because the filament has visible grain fragments and naturally inconsistent color/darkness, the parts you print come out with a beautiful natural-looking grain. You also don’t need a special printer to use the stuff. It can be printed in any machine capable of printing with PLA, using standard PLA settings — which means practically every FDM printer known to man can work with it.
You can get your hands on a 1kg spool of Buzzed filament (available in 1.75mm and 2.85mm diameters) for about $49.
