Upcycle a 3D Printer

Another year, another new 3D printer in the workshop. Maybe you got a fancy new one for Christmas or just couldn’t pass up a smoking deal. Now you have an extra printer collecting dust. It’s slow and the print quality is lacking, so what can you do with it? Why not try one of these awesome project ideas and turn your outdated 3D printer into a whole new tool for your collection!

Recreator3D Filament Maker

I was introduced to Josh Taylor and the Recreator3D back in fall 2022 at the East Coast RepRap Festival (now called 3D Printopia). You may have seen this handy project at other maker events, or here in Make: (Volume 88, page 52). Not only do you get to save your old printer from becoming yet more e-waste, but you also get a handy tool to recycle plastic bottles into printer filament via a process called pultrusion. Instead of extruding through a hot end, this handy machine pulls recycled bottles through a drilled-out hot end and onto a collection wheel to create coils of PET (not PETG!) filament. If you’ve got the urge to take plastic bottle recycling into your own hands, this is the project for you.

There are multiple versions and mods for the project driven by not only Josh, but the thriving community behind him. The Recreator3D MK5 for instance originally focused on using new or recovered parts of Ender 3 printers, but now there’s a more universal MK5 kit. Meanwhile the MK3 Lite is a more compact but still full-featured version of the machine. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it (even if you don’t plan to build the machine yourself). If you do decide to build a Recreator3D, be sure to jump on their Discord server, where the welcoming community will help you get up and running in no time.

CNC Hot Wire Foam Cutter

While hand tools are both vital and efficient, you can’t beat the precision of a CNC machine. For example, a hot wire cutter can be an amazing tool, but accuracy is hard, even for experienced makers with the steadiest of hands. By attaching the hot wire to a CNC, the cuts become amazingly smooth, as many RC plane makers can attest. Peter Ryseck on YouTube has done just that, using a $99 3D printer. He’s not the only one.

On the RCGroups forum, Mario Peralta shared his build of a 4-axis hot wire cutter based on the machine developed by Keith Howlette, as documented on his site and ebook. Keith’s machine is large but still utilizes NEMA17 motors and electronics from 3D printers. Mario used the same electronics as Keith but decided on a smaller footprint for his design.

(Update: apparently wings are a popular application for CNC hot wire cutters)

Powercore Wire EDM Cutter

As desktop CNC machines became more prevalent, it was only a matter of time before we saw some more advanced technologies implemented. One of these technologies is electrical discharge machining, or EDM for short. EDM is a cutting process where electrical discharges (or sparks) erode a conductive material between two electrodes submerged in a dielectric fluid that controls the sparks. Back in April 2023, Rack Robotics took this concept and launched the Powercore over on Kickstarter. Later that year they fulfilled those orders for the Powercore (and related accessories) to get you up and running with a version of the tech called wire EDM.

Wire EDM operates almost like a hot wire cutter, but instead of foam, wire EDM can precision cut metals and other conductive materials. While Rack Robotics only shared plans to convert an Ender 3, there are more mounting plates and CAD files available on their GitHub and Printables pages, so you can turn nearly any motion system or 3D printer into a precision EDM cutting tool.

At press time, Rack Robotics was working to re-engineer parts of the Powercore V2 and ship an updated version in Q1 2025 with their next batch of preorders. (Editor’s note: Rack Robotics has since released the Powercore V3, though they are currently out of stock). They have been working on some great updates within Danger Klipper that will allow 4-axis motion and speed control to increase reliability.

These are just three of the many things you can do to breathe life into your old printers and hardware. People turn these machines into pen plotters, laser engravers, or even kinetic artworks. What will you do with your old printers? We’d love to hear about it and maybe feature you in Make:! Join the discussion on Discord.

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This article appeared in Make: Volume 92.