I want to recycle printed items, not filament
CHOPPER is not meant to pelletize usable filament. It is for turning material that can no longer be used as filament into pellets.
This includes:
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Old, brittle, tangled, or contaminated filament
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Material converted into ~4 mm pellets, which are often unavailable or too expensive in many regions
In some workflows, filament or extruded strands may be pelletized intentionally to feed a pellet extruder or kept as reusable material stock.
Filament is optimized for handling. Pellets are optimized for reuse and material control.
What’s the point of CHOPPER?
CHOPPER exists to make pellets accessible.
Most pelletizers, large or small, are expensive machines that perform a very simple task: cutting plastic strands into pellets. CHOPPER does the same job in a compact, affordable, and open-source form.
While it may look odd to turn filament back into pellets, pellets are the baseline form of plastic processing. Having pellets unlocks workflows like pellet extrusion, compounding, recycling, and small-batch material testing.
For users with pellet extruders, CHOPPER also allows branded filament to be used as feedstock when pellets are unavailable.
CHOPPER is fully open-source, and its DIY kit is priced to stay accessible.
Where do I get X for building CHOPPER?
Availability of some parts depends heavily on region and local suppliers, so there isn’t a single global source we can point to.
Some CHOPPER parts are difficult to source individually in many countries; they may only be sold in larger quantities or rely on a second-hand CNC parts market that doesn’t exist just everywhere.
For this reason, Metafuse offers a CHOPPER kit as a cost-effective convenience, which is often cheaper than sourcing parts individually. You’re still free to source or substitute parts locally as long as the specifications are met.