Anybody have any constructive ideas to do with a spool of useless filament?  I

Anybody have any constructive ideas to do with a spool of useless filament? I bought some “Coex” PLA filament from Amazon, and I haven’t been able to get a decent print with it.

I’ve tried temps from 180-210C on two different printers, with three different hot ends. I’ve tried drying it for hours in the oven. It prints intermittently, clogging and clearing spontaneously.

I’m ready to call it a loss, and just keep the spool itself. Can anyone think of something to do with it, other than printing?

@Mark_Rehorst
Might have been a knock-off. TBH: It’s been a long time, and I have plenty of other filaments.

BTW: Zeni Kenetic filament prints like a dream, if you can get it. Just saying because that’s what I switched to for this print.

I think that it would be great fire starter. also Zeni kinetic is amazing. I love it because it is local for me here in Salt Lake City

melt it down and cast some thing

@Graydon_Treude
Hmmm… that’s an interesting idea. I’ve seen ideas for injection-molding. Maybe I could take one of these knock-off “metal” hot ends and make some kind of injection-molding setup.

That would be cool. I use my bad filament as 3d printer test material. Also I have found that if you use it in a rock tumbler with other parts that are the same color it smoothes the print out. and leaves a similar smoothie finish.

@Chris_Holland id just put it in a can and hit it with a torch but that should work to.

I have tried that, but it can change the dimensions of the print by quite a lot. I made an apple watch stand and torched it to smoothie it, then took it tried to put the watch charger in the print and it did not fit. Then I printed another of them, put it in the tumbler, six hours later, nice and shiny. In the tumbler I put nails, screws, walnut shell, bad filament, wax for skis, and river pebbles. It works amazing. after you pull it out, you rinse it and torch it a little. Then it looks like a non 3d printed part.

@Chris_Holland i just sand or use acetone vapor

@Nathan_Walkner
“(aka cancer fog)” - Truth

@Nathan_Walkner well i use abs so i use acetone when i use pla i sand

Did you check the diameter?

@James_Zatopa
I did, but large variations may account for some of the behavior I’m seeing. I’d take a bunch of measurements, but, if it varies too much, it doesn’t really change that it’s junk to me.
Someone suggested trying it at 230C, so I may try that before giving up.

If the problem is the diameter and not the plastic formuation itself, you can pull the filament through a wire die. I made a video about this a while ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJdAHpQmOo