A Paste Extruder For Normal Printers

A row of 3D printers with paste extruders was visible in the warm sunshine of a spring afternoon at Delft Maker Faire. They were the work [Nedji Yusufova]We were interested in the potential of edible media to print.

The extruder follows a path set by similar ones we’ve seen before in that it uses a disposable syringe at its heart, this time in a laser-cut ply enclosure and a lead screw driven by a stepper motor. It’s part of a kit suitable for run-of-the-mill FDM printers that’s available for sale if you have the extra cash, but happily they’ve also made all the files available.

We’ve seen quite a few syringe extruders and at least one food printer, so there’s nothing particularly new about this one. This project is relatively easy to build and integrates well with many mass-market printers. Perhaps the most interesting part of this project isn’t even the extruder itself but the materials, after all having a paste extruder gives you the opportunity to experiment with new recipes. We like it.