Pellet Feeder

thingiverse

This is a Pellet Feeder that clips onto my pneumatic injection molding machine: https://youtu.be/_a7usMe_K38 You simply press the plunger and it feeds some pellets. Much nicer than feeding with a spoon. When you're done it's easy to unclip the feeder and dump your pellets back into whatever you're using for long term storage. The amount fed per push is not huge, but you can just keep pushing until you get the amount you need, feeding too many is more annoying than having to press the plunger a few times. They all print without supports, I printed them in PLA+ With the plunger and knob in black and all the reset in medium grey. Without supports there tend to be some wisps of loose filament in the Main Housing print right at the opening. I just removed them with a hobby knife, but you could in theory put some supports in there to prevent that. Make sure you clear it though so your pellets feed properly. Most of the parts just snap together but the bottom plate/upper hook really should be glued into place. I'd glue the other parts as well once you're comfortable with the fit, just to keep them from ever coming loose and spilling pellets. The feeder is designed to work with these clear plastic column containers. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BHVVDMS You can just trim the bottom off to provide a nice clear vertical view of how many pellets you have remaining. I only used about 2/3 of the length of the containers but you can make them as tall as will fit on your rig. This also requires a small light compression spring. The one I used is diameter: 8mm length: 38mm and the wire is .5mm. Any similarly sized light weight compression spring should work. You place the spring on the grooved lower part of the plunger and push it into the main housing, then it'll lock itself into place. You can remove the plunger buy pushing into the access hole on the underside if you need to take it out again.