Creating a 3D Felt Printer

3D printers can do all sorts of things! From printing plastic to silicone, they can do everything, or do they? ReFibe is my graduation project, focusing on helping to reduce textile waste by finding new ways to deal with it. ReFibe, is an open-source printer head that you can make yourself, that allows you to felt in 3D with fibres! Simply print, assemble and connect the printer head to your Ender 3 3D printer and go and experiment! Personally, I am also still experimenting with the capabilities of this printer head, but it is showing potential! Because I am almost done with this project, I chose to open-source it, so others can continue working on it if they are enthusiastic about it!

This project started because I wanted to look into different ways of recycling old textile clothing. I found that felting objects out of old clothing is an interesting way to help address this problem, and thus, I started looking into making a machine for this. Currently, I am able to mix in old woollen clothing in the wool sliver that I have to create objects with it. Piece by piece, we must all try to make the world a better place. This is my way to do it! This project is inspired by a project of Christien Meindertsma, who created a robot arm that could felt in 3D.

NOTE: This project is still in the works, and is therefore not fully complete yet. I will be adding info on this page as the project is progressing. However, you can most certainly already make a start with this project! Just be sure that you have done some printer modding before, as it could be quite difficult with 0 experience.