If you own a 3D printer, you probably have a pile of failed prints, supports, scraps, and purge waste somewhere in your workspace. I keep coming back to the same question: why can’t we turn that material back into filament?
In this video, I take a look at the Creality R1 Shredder and M1 Filament Maker—a two-machine setup designed to turn print waste into filament you can spool and use again.
Shredding is only the first step
Breaking plastic into smaller pieces is one part of the process. The harder part is making filament that feeds consistently through a printer. Diameter, extrusion, and material flow all matter. If those vary too much, recycled material can lead straight back to another failed print.
That’s what interests me about this setup: it addresses both preparing the plastic and turning it into a usable strand of filament.
How the R1 and M1 work together
The R1 breaks down failed prints, supports, scraps, and purge waste into smaller, uniform pieces. Those pieces then go into the M1, which melts the material, controls extrusion, and forms new filament for spooling.
In the video, I explain that the system takes a few minutes to come up to temperature and settle into producing a consistent 1.75 mm strand. The goal is a repeatable cycle: print, collect the waste, process it, and print again.
Recycled material, new material, or a blend
I discuss three approaches to feeding the filament maker:
- 100% recycled material from previous prints.
- A 50/50 blend of recycled and new material—the approach I highlight as recommended in the video.
- 100% new material for making custom filament.
That opens up room to experiment with filament making while giving print waste another purpose. The blend is part of the process, but consistency is still the key to making the resulting filament useful.
Giving failed prints another use
What excites me is the possibility of keeping more material in use, reducing waste, and getting more opportunities to experiment from the plastic we already have. The long-term appeal is less discarded material and potentially lower filament costs.
Instead of seeing every failed print as the end of the material’s life, we can start looking at it as a possible ingredient for the next spool. Keep on making.