Re: [MakerBot] an idea about recycling your waste 3D printing materials

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Hong - FYI - recycling idea isn't new. Do a search for the Filabot project - then you shall see. But, they were originally going to base their project on recycling - then they musta had some kinda issues - and now their Bot only processes pure plastic pellets - not recycling of plastic. There are definitely issues with trying to recycle.

Myself - I do my OWN version of recycling - as I keep ALL My Waste plastic - for failed print jobs and other spare plastic bits - like when warming up the machine and doing test extrusions. I put each color in a different jar - with a GOOD Lid - then pour in acetone - and produce Liquid plastic that I Paint with - or even just use it as a kind of "Glue" for my prototypes!

:-)
-K-

On 11/26/2013 5:12 PM, Hong wrote:

Helloo, everybody! I'm Hong. I'm a college student studying in product design. 

I'm doing my master project now, and currently I have a idea about making a small machine to recycle waste PLA product like disposable tableware. Then I realized that PLA is a major material for 3D printer, so I was thinking maybe it is better for recycling waste material from 3D printing. 

Myself isn't a user of 3D printer, but one of my classmate used to work in a medical supplies company, they use 3D printer a lot. She told me that they had a lot of useless waste models and they didn't know how to deal with those things. Because the materials cost money, they didn't want to just throw them away. 

So I am wondering is it a common situation for you? Do you think it's necessary to design a recycling machine for 3D printer?

I'll be very grateful if you can tell me about your ideas! Really need your help!  

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[Laird Popkin]

+1 this.

Recycling is a great idea, but in practice it's tricky. First, for ABS and PLA, you can only use about 20% recycled material in any printing you want to look good - 100% recycled plastic isn't as smooth as virgin plastic, so it's more suitable for industrial applications such as cafeteria trays. Second, you have to grind up the source plastic into little bits that can be re-extruded. And third, you have to sort the source plastic into matching colors.

Supposedly Taulman T-glase is very friendly for re-extrusion, so that would be interesting to try.

Based on this, the people working on home filament extrusion are focusing first on the money saving aspect (raw plastic pellets cost WAY LESS than spooled filament ready for printing). So both Filabot and Filastruder projects started first with filament extrusion, are now working on automated spooling (which is not just convenient, it gives more control over the process, and thus more consistent output), and after that will look into how to grind used plastic for recycling.

The economics are a strong argument. You can buy raw plastic for $3-4/lb, vs. $15-20/lb for filament. Of course, right now the filament extruders are in their "early days", but it's cheap and fun to learn, and you might end up saving a lot of money.

[Joe Larson (aka Cymon)]

It's also not ecomonical to recycle plastic. It's cheaper just to buy plastic pellets and you get new plastic as opposed to recycling and getting crappy filament.

That said if I had a spare $1000 I'd get a filament extruder and a blendtec and recycle all my used filament. Been saving it for over a year now.

[Dan Newman]

> That said if I had a spare $1000 I'd get a filament extruder and a blendtec
> and recycle all my used filament. Been saving it for over a year now.

Ahhh, but will a Blendtec blend a Rep 2X? Will it blend?

http://www.willitblend.com/

Dan

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Dan - that was SICK! I went to that site - and could NOT believe they
were sticking iPhone in Blenders! Man - that was just nuts!!!!

But - fun indeed Momma!

:-)
-K-

[Hong]

Thanks very much for your information, they are very helpful for me.

在 2013年11月27日星期三UTC上午12时14分43秒，Kurt 'Professor-3D' Wendt写道：

[Obfuscated]

There's a guy on the Filastruder forum who owns a metal shop who has offered to build a plastic shredder.. 

Techbuilder ...

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/4274/filamaker/

I really want one of these.. the price will go down if more people want them

[Jetguy]

Just get a http://www.blendtec.com/products/total_blender_classic?gclid=CO-UxNm4iLsCFTJp7AodnS8AZw 

Pretty sure  it WILL blend.

[洪咏汇]

so in this case, you guys do want to recycle your prints right?

2013/11/28 Jetguy <barry...@hotmail.com>

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[Obfuscated Records]

Yeah it'd be great to beable to recycle but it's not easy to do and even if you can grind up the wasted prints you can only use so much of it in new filament. From what I understand running the plastic through too many heat cycles lowers it's integrity so you really on want to add 10-20% with virgin plastic when extruding filament.

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ObɟuƧcaʇed яecoʁdƧ

[Obfuscated Records]

yeah it's tempting too bad it'd probably void the warranty. I bought my wife vegamix.. I was teasing her by saying I was going to try shredding some plastic in it.

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ObɟuƧcaʇed яecoʁdƧ

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Hey there Obfuscated - U really think it will Void the warranty? Me Thinks Not! Look at the website - they actually show THREE iPhones being ground up into Powder in the Blender!

:-)
-K-

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[Obfuscated Records]

Yeah under the section titled don't try this at home. ;-)

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Ha! Actually - when I went to the site - as suggested by the Now Famous Mr. JetGuy - it was RIGHT on the Front of the website - this whole thing about Blending of iPhones. Pretty Darned CRAZY if you ask me...

:-)
-K-

[Obfuscated Records]

From their website... You've seen him on TV and the Internet—that guy who sticks crazy things in his blender. He's Tom Dickson, CEO and founder of Blendtec®. Now you can own a very special Tom Dickson Extreme blender with more power than any other blender for home use. The Tom Dickson Extreme is a monster of a machine with enough power to blend everything from frozen fruit to nuts to grains—and even rake handles. But don't try that at home. 

I've sent them a message to see what they thought of using a blendtec to prepare plastic for recycling plastic.. so we'll see if they respond.

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Very interesting indeed! Look forwards to hearing what response you get.

-K-

[Stefan Palsson]

Just as long you guys don't try blending Chuck Norris, he does not blend!

[delsydsoftware]

I have a Blendtec blender with an extra jar. I have been fighting the urge to dump my scrap ABS into it.

[diecast_dirtboy]

Taking old filament and grinding it down to make new filament doesn't seem like the most practical thing. And its not the grinding part either. I would guess that the new filament would most likely be contaminated with stuff that would gunk up the new filament. Are there any other ways bad prints and/or old models could be ground down and used? Kurt's paint is a great idea, but I doubt you could do the same thing with PLA....or could you?

Colter

Additive Solutions

[Obfuscated Records]

You mix is a small amount of recycled plastic with virgin plastic when extruding the new filament and you can put a fine mesh in the nozzle of the extruder to filter out particles that would clog the printer nozzle.

If for some reason the recycled plastic is dirty or dusty you should clean it off first.

I suppose it is alot of extra effort but I'd rather try to reuse some of this material if possible rather than throw it away and hope it gets recycled at the industrial level. In theory as long as you know the type of plastic you can grind up anything made of ABS and make filament out of it.

There's no reason why you can do this with PLA but I've heard that extruding the PLA filament is more difficult.

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ObɟuƧcaʇed яecoʁdƧ

[Obfuscated]

Thanks for proposing the challenge. Here is what our engineering team said:

 

“We have looked into this a little bit, and have found our blender will grind plastic into pieces small enough to be extruded, however there are a few issues.  The first is because the motor is so powerful, the blender has a tendency to melt some of the plastic as it is grinding it, this results in larger than desirable globs of plastic, and the second is using the blender like this adversely effects the life of the blender jar.  It would work a few times, but I would not recommend it as a solution to this problem.”

 

So, while I think this would be a fun option, I don’t think the Blendtec would be a long term solution.

[Jetguy]

Really?

So the Blendtec engineers didn't say just add water like the commercial process uses during grinding to prevent that EXACT problem?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvnjgBkjpo

[Gary Crowell]

Odd side note re blenders.  In another life, I was a crypto tech in the Air Force.  Key cards (basically IBM punch cards) for the crypto machines were collected daily in a burn bag, locket in a Top Secret safe, and taken to an incinerator at the local NSA site once a week to be burned.  Then someone figured out that a common blender (with water) turned the cards into mush, and it was accepted as a qualified destruction method.  So from then on, the cards were daily turned into a crypto smoothie and flushed.  Much cheaper and convenient (and secure) than before, even though the blenders only lasted about three months. 

----------------------------------------------
Gary A. Crowell Sr., P.E., CID+

Linkedin  Elance  KE7FIZ

[Obfuscated Records]

Well that might solve the melting problem but not necessarily whatever issue it is with the jar wearing out.

[Jetguy]

The jar wears out because no lubrication of the abrasive mixture of ground plastic with dry blending.

Wet blending solves or reduces the problem.

 

Further, for home use, how much wear are we talking here? How much scrap plastic are you grinding?

Go to a yard sale or hell Walmart, get a blender from them since they take ANYTHING back.

 

I was joking about a Blendtec only because of their commericals. It's an overpriced machine not different from a Kirby.

A total junk blender for the right price or a store that has a generous return policy is more than adequate for most needs.

[Obfuscated Records]

Great! be sure to tell us your results.

[delsydsoftware]

A Blendtec is overpriced if you sit it on the counter and don't ever use it. Most people get their blenders out for a yearly margarita and then put it back under the counter. If you use a blender on a regular basis, you really can't beat it for its power. It makes amazingly-smooth smoothies, has enough horsepower that you can cook soups in it (seriously, a couple soup cycles gets the soup up to about 160F-180F), and shaves ice into snow for snowcones. The only issue I've ever had is the fact that it sometimes blends things too well. I made some carrot soup a few days ago and used the Blendtec to smooth it out. It laid waste to everything in the soup. The soup was smooth, to be sure, but it was a bit too smooth.

I've had mine for 2 years and used it 197 times, according to the counter on the LCD.

[Jetguy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9aW6lRdDUg

[Big-E]

+1 for posting a video with a Buick Nailhead V8 in it! I have one sitting in my garage as I type this (Not the blender, but the engine)

[Kurt @ Gmail]

JetGuy - you actually shot that Video? Sounded like your voice on it!

-K-

[David Kessner]

Here is a similar, but infinitely more funny, V8 Blender:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDlMLqdvHzI

On Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:24:54 PM UTC-7, Jetguy wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9aW6lRdDUg

[Kurt @ Gmail]

Ah - Man - Poor JetGuy - been totally out done by a funny Brit with a Loud Arse Engine!

:-)
-K-

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