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.
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