Melting plastic waste into beautiful flat sheets on a budget
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
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Finally, a decent end result when it comes to recycling 3D print waste into another product. Precious Plastic have some fantastic machines, but they are not intended for low volume users like myself. In this video, I show how a simple and inexpensive t-shirt heat press can be used to convert shredded plastic, or Bambu Lab purge poops, into uniform, flat sheets.
All equipment was purchased with my own money. Total cost: just over $200 USD. In future, I’m going to try melting down more types of plastic to recycle them. Let me know your ideas and suggestions in the comments.
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Previous recycling recap
Initial paper shredder video: • Recycle waste 3D print...
Precious Plastics shredder video: • Recycling waste 3D pri...
Home injection molding video: • Home injection molding...
2:29 Precious Plastics sheet press
Sheet press: www.preciousplastic.com/start...
Sheet press build page: community.preciousplastic.com...
Bazaar page: bazar.preciousplastic.com/mac...
Sheet press video: • What to do with all th...
3:54 Trialling a t-shirt heat press
Old video on custom t-shirt graphics: • How to make custom clo...
5:37 Testing and refining the heat press process
Vevor 380mm heat press: www.vevor.com.au/heat-press-m...
BBQ liners: www.bunnings.com.au/jumbuck-h...
Aluminium bar: www.bunnings.com.au/metal-mat...
My source CAD for the corner brackets: cad.onshape.com/documents/d62...
Purchase the Carvera CNC (affiliate): bit.ly/3CVfsq3
8:55 The final process
10:26 Using Bambu Lab purge poops
11:19 Making stuff with the recycled sheets
How to guides: community.preciousplastic.com...
Bending guide: community.preciousplastic.com...
Knife: community.preciousplastic.com...
Bendy flat objects video: • Make your parts bendy ...
Dragon clipart: www.inspireuplift.com/Dragon-...
Bicycle kick art: www.etsy.com/au/listing/69962...
12:48 Conclusion
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I would recommend adding a weighing step to measure out chips prior to pressing. Getting a consistent weight for the batch will likely yield better results than eyeballing a pile.
How much does PLA vary by weight? There's going to be additives like dye, so is that on the order of 5%? That would probably be fine, but too much more and you'd want to go with something like water displacement (probably annoying to do).
@@szurketaltos2693 a margin of 5 % is WAY WAY WAY accurate then eyeballing it !
having to put a 100 Grams of plastic is way accurate than 2 fist full's of plastic
also weight accounts for the hollow particles and the air gaps so you get way more consistency
and are you seriously suggesting putting PLA in water before melting it ?
@@fouzaialaa7962 5% is just a guess, I don't know. And yeah, I'm definitely not saying eyeball it. Yes, water displacement would be annoying as I said -- need to dehydrate after.
Had the same thought
Super obvious and I was astonished it wasn’t already done.
We used a heat press when I was in the Navy for all our waste plastics. Plastic was the only thing we couldn’t throw overboard, so we melted and compressed disks that were about 3 ft in diameter and about 0.5 inches thick.
That got me thinking that you can satisfy two of your criteria by making sheets into circles. The first as your doing on your laser cutter shown at the end.
The second would be by spiral cutting a disk and then feeding those strips into your filament making machine. You’ll end up with so interesting colors in your prints, too.
You can't use 100% recycled material. Well, you can, but strength is greatly reduced. Making a good usable recycled filament uses a 3:1 Fresh/recycled ratio. My brother worked for one of the companies that made recycled plastic 2×6's. They used even less recycled material, 4:1. Only 1/5 of it was recycled plastic.
I'd imagine that the laser burns the material and makes it completely unusable as filament
What did you do with the 3Ft plastic disks?
Reusing waste filament to produce sheets for laser cutting or even melt into blocks for CNC Milling to create other practical items with unique patterns and in turn making it a one-off product is the best way to go for me and 100% what I'll be going for, and i think is the most cost effective way if you look from a business point of view if it's just a side hustle.
I found the notion of putting a collection of random PLA into a laser cutter a bit scary! On average it might be fine, but if one in ten inputs are not, that could cause problems.
PLA machines horribly, and if preventing waste is the goal, casting billets of it for machining is just kicking the can down the road. It would be better served being extruded back into filament and sold as support material, or used in sheet form.
also thank you so much for repeatedly making videos about precious plastics. having more people know about this amazing movement is such a great thing
Having a way to turn scrap 3d printer plastic into flat sheets of material is HUGE. Once you have flat uniform sheets you have a material that can be re-heated and formed into lots of things. The first idea that comes to mind for me is vacuum forming.
Vacuum forming was EXACTLY what I was thinking. Definitely could reuse these in a lot of ways with that
Just in case anyone hasn't mentioned it yet, these would be really cool as pickguards and plastic bits on electric guitars and basses. They're usually around 2.3mm thick if that's possible (The one you made from the bambu labs waste looks around that thickness in the video)
This is great! I would love to see a follow up with recycled sheets used with vacuum forming!
Yeah that would be amazing but I think the sheets would have to be extremely thin
this is a great idea
@@IbrahemAlbanawi it would have to be thin yeah, and I think it could only work for bowls or easy shapes like so.
Wow! This is best most practical and user friendly pla recycling method I’ve seen yet. Fairly cheap and clean method, I’m impressed! I’ve dialed my 3D prints to the point that I really don’t have much waste but if I did I would definitely explore this method
Excellent, more than 20 years ago, when I intoduced some of my early micro, sub micro and palm size helicpters to the market, and was injection molding using an industrial bench top injection molding press I built my own plastic shreder to shred left over injection molded parts and debris. I used a heavy duty paper sheeder modified and at one point I had accumulated barrels of plastic shreds which went back into injection molding as recycled parts
i also experimented with the same style heat press to make thin plastic curved rc helicopter blades using a mold, the beauty of these machines is the heat contoller that allows one to dial in temperature and time.. Any heat type equipment can be used in many ways to recycle plastics. And those T shirt presses have a lot of uses when you get really creative with them but you have to be careful in handling them when moving them from place to place, I nearly lost a finger grabbing the press near the hinge and as I lifted it it clamped on my hand and fingers, talk about severe pain!.
If you're careful you can mix PLA and water in a blender that you dedicate to this process - or at least to non-food-related processes - and it'll shred pretty well. You can get reasonably powerful blenders used for not unreasonable prices, too, if you keep at it for a while.
I've got a big stock of shredded PLA I've been waiting to make into sheets, and made a first test sheet very similar to your first test sheet. Since then, I've been stuck on the "needing to build the frame" part of this process for ages, so I'm really glad to see it works. (I have almost exactly the same T-shirt press you do, lol. :D )
Good luck!
It good to see people trying to solve the waste issue. Would love to see Bambu labs create a recycler for their poops.
I found a used Blendtec blender for around $60 and use that to shred my Bambu poop. It turns it into very small pieces quite well.
It WILL blend!
do you run it dry or with water?
@@ericthecyclistjust dry
Good to see you're supporting fellow Aussie you-tubers👍
Years ago, I made an HDPE press out of plywood, to make HDPE boards. I had to cover the insides with baking sheets so it wouldn't stick to the wood, but it worked. The output of it was 6" wide boards that were 1" thick, and the length of the boards depended on the amount of plastic. The top part was open, and one of the narrow sides as well. The way it worked is that you put the mold in the oven with shredded HDPE inside of it, waited for it to be molten, and then you bolted a cover on top of it. Then from the open side, you inserted a plunger, which you hammered down to pack the plastic tight. Once cooled, you could remove the top cover, then separate the piston from the edge of the plastic board, and extract the plastic board. Et voilà! That way you got a board with smooth, even edges, except the edge that touched the piston, but then you can just saw it off.
Awesome to find a device you can repurpose.
I was planning on building something like this from scratch. But this seems much easier.
One idea I thought about before, to solve size limitation. Remove one of your aluminium edges and put a previous sheet in there.
This would melt the new sheet to the old. In theory you could make sheets any length with a small press.
I'll let you know if I get this far 👍
That dragon looks great!
Another option to explore would be trying the sheets in a vacuum former to make more shapes
We need more engineering going into flat sheets. Making filament at home is too difficult for most of the users but those flat sheets are definitely easier and cheaper to produce.
I would like to see if it's possible to 3d print something on it.
Yooo hadn't thought of that, thatd be cool
Once upon a time I worked in the packaging industry- particularly when it comes to paper/cardboard, turning flat stock material into usable, 3D items is absolutely doable and an established school of design!
Definately most practical use of waste. Can also be used to make shipping boxes and other packaging stuff by companies.
@Michael such a simple and inspirational process to recycle plastic! So much creative potential.
For example I'm already thinking could use smaller frames to make smaller squares which could be pressed a second time in larger frame to create squares with a square pattern. Similarly cutting a shape and placing in the larger frame and filled with new pieces could make sheets with custom art embossed.
Alternatively making longer thinner strips could be weaved before a second press to create another interesting texture pattern. Would require a narrow frame, or the cutting of a thinner sheet into strips. Using laser cutter (or CNC?) on perimeter of sheets could allow adding an interlocking pattern, which would allow for assembling larger sheets before repressing seams.
Only got to it now. Great video.
As someone who has plenty of failed prints and other filament waste this video hit home.
I recently converted one of my Ender 3 S1's into a 5w laser.
So making melted sheets and then laser cutting them is a very viable option.
To get even tops and bottoms, I would place another tray on top of the plastic for a proper squish down.
If the top one is bigger, we could get an even thickness every time. Just like with your frame.
So final remarks on your video.
Highly inspirational ❤🎉
At the very least, sheets like that will store much more easily than a bucket of waste material of various shapes and sizes. I recently threw out probably 10 kilos worth of PLA waste, and felt pretty bad about it, but I simply don't have the space to store them in that form. I also can't justify the money for a press like that as I don't produce nearly enough waste to get more than a sheet or two per year, but if I ever scale up and start providing a print service in my area it could very well be worth it for storage reasons alone.
As far as shredding note that a wood chipper makes a great shredder for printing waste. Tape a thick canvas bag or a bag made from tarp material to the output chute of the wood chipper then put the waste in the port made for small branches. It makes short work of it.
Very intetesting. I look forward to more on this topic.
Also been impressed with Vevor. I ordered an ultrasonic cleaner from them just at the tail end of covid so there were delays in the package arriving but for the price I paid, I cannot complain
Glad you tried the Bambu Poop. I have a massive box of it
I have a 20A 120V paper shredder I'm going to try this with. I think a trick to make it work will be a sheet cutter just before the shredder. This will be a pair of plates with a single matching rectangular hole in them. The top plate(base) would be fixed with a hopper above to hold material coming into it. The bottom plate would need to travel back and forth no less than the length of the opening in the axis of movement. The two plates would need to be lapped to each other for little to no gap. This will make the cutting more efficient. Another plate would need to be under the dynamic plate but attached to the base plate. This would use the thickness of the dynamic plate to set the thickness of the sheets to be sheared. The driving/bearing configuration for the dynamic plate can be as simple as some V rollers and some aluminum extrusion, or as complex as a pair of ball screw rods either tied to one motor, or each having its own motor for more power. The sheets coming out of the shear would then fall into a hopper to keep them on edge as they are fed into the shredder. The speed of the shear can be adjusted to optimized the feed rate going into the shredder. Not too complex, and build-able from salvaged parts if you are mechanically incline.
This is great. As soon as I saw the thumbnail it clicked in my head. This combined with the laser cutter is just 🤌. One could process this just like acrylic: vacuum forming, heated bends, etc. I've been 3D printing for about four years now, and have never thrown away any of my waste plastic. Just didn't feel right about it. I now have a huge bin full of waste. Waste processing options are very much appreciated!
I love this! I’m always impressed by the amount of effort and time you put in to a project. Thanks for sharing
I’ve seen equipment from Vevor showing up in other maker channels, specifically their small furnace for melting various metals and their vacuum investment casting machine. At least from what I’ve seen so far, they seem to have quality products at a great price - and to see they have good shipping to somewhere like Australia is really impressive.
As for uses, making practical things seems like a decent idea but with some care put to the locations of the colors of the raw material in the press I think the plates could have the edges trimmed cleanly and just be hung as abstract wall art.
Where has the injection molding series gone? I’ve come to really enjoy the topic and your videos so seeing them combined in modern videos was really interesting and captivating for me
Wondering about using a textured 3d printer base plate to create a different surface from textured to the cell type one you can buy. I guess they should release.
That is *very* cool! The color pattern makes those laser cuts look really neat, fantastic job!
I just want to say that vevor are great. They've got a heap of entry level machines for most manufacturing processes and a heap of tools.
Great video. Congrats on developing a home process to get sheets. Can see assembly using 3d pen too. Mahalo for sharing!
nice update on this approach to recycling print waste
@9:53 Congrats! You are now a professional heat presser... Be really glad your press came with a silicone boot on the upper platen - our machine is permanently stained from this very same trick (only, from a plastisol transfer).
I do follow these italian guys since 1 month or so and they're on another level of scale about artistic recycling! I admire what they do!
Dang nice. Awesome video.
It looks gorgeous
I have been trying to find a way to recycle my PLA waste myself that wouldn't cost me too much extra money and this is perfect. I already have a heat press, and the teflon sheets (that's what those BBQ ones are, I have a roll of if for pressing HTV). I don't have the equipement to build the frame but I think just a couple lengths of aluminum stock the thickness I want as guides will be fine, I don't need perfectly square. Now to just find a way to grind it all up that's cheap
Awesome. I have been thinking about this also. I hadn’t gotten very far but you have given me a solution.
Someone else I saw was using a panini press to make sheets. They may have been smaller, but if memory serves they picked it up for like $50 US.
Cool to find this video! Ive been mucking about with small scale recycling projects like this but never had the resources to get to shredder / shirt press stage. HOWEVER...
A flat sandwich press with those BBQ sheets also works, it just produces much smaller plastic sheets and more ragged edges. The secret in this case is to pile a few bricks on top and let it cool cor around 30-60 minutes before opening. Also, since I can't shred plastics, I'm stock with HDPE / LDPE bottle caps, PP material like old nursery plant pots, etc. Bottle caps can be done whole and you can make interesting patterns with them, scissors take care of nursery pots, and I've tried some PLA leftovers but really need a shredder at some stage.
As to what to make with the sheets - they can be planed and shaped just like thin plywood so you can make all sorts of woodworking projects, and one other thing I've done is scrollsaw a freehand shape (remembering I can only make small sheets) and drill mounting holes, then print house numerals out of PETG or PLA and use something like Liquid Nails to attach them, or put tiny countersunk screws from the back to hold things together.
One other thing is that "waste" bottle caps etc need to be washed and dried before using, to get rid of sugars and oils, which isn't so much a problems with filament. Was good to see your results, now I just need to make a few things and sell them instead of giving them away... Cheers and thansk for your video!
Oh and also a clue as to how much plastic to use - you can work out the volume of your sheets, and then knowing the SG of the plastic you're using, you can weigh out how much will be needed for each sheet (+ 2-5% for squeeze-out which you can trim once it's cold) so you can then just use kitchen scales.
Friggin awesome! I've also wondered about using sheets for siding, roofs, or floor tiles.
I believe the precious plastic CZcams channel has videos on uses to make roofs, houses etc with the reused plastic
That was phenomenal😮
I love these examples of throwing money at something until it works.
well, now I'm DEFINITELY saving all my bambu poops
This is great. I needed something like this.
I've been thinking about this ever since I saw the tray oven method of melting pla down. I wasn't keen on cooking plastic in the oven I use for food. I'll have to check out those t-shirt presses. Could you also use it to adhere flat 3d prints to shirts? I think a TPU 3d design on clothing could be useful.
Actually on that though, semi thin fabric like cheesecloth could potentially be pressed into the plastic to make a pseudo fibreglass type thing, so the plastic is reinforced, and could make even more stable stuff.
Awesome, well done!!
it looks beautiful
Thank you for doing this research
This is awesome. Thanks so much! I have the T-Shirt press! Just need to figure out how to build that shredder thing!
i saw the precious plastic stuff before but it's quite expensive to do. using a t shirt press with a teflon liner are excellent ideas and your details about trial end error will probably save a lot of time for people who'll try this. i might, as a friend of mine produces a lot of printing waste
I've been on the lookout to recycling my Bambu poop as well. I've had some luck for use in my CNC using something called pre press molds. I used a 5x7 one and was able to get some thicker stock. I wish there was a more convenient way to go bigger. Such a small size can be limiting and it does take a big of cleanup.
I look forward to seeing what other creative ways you utilize your plastic waste.
Awesome method of recyling
"Free shipping, in a timely manner, in Australia. Unheard of." made me laugh out loud.
I've been looking at this sort of thing for the near future myself after expanding my 3D printer roster recently. I didn't like the idea of just binning the failed prints/waste, now I've got an informed guide for it.
impressive results. I dont have enough space to fit all these toys :D I will have to keep watching :)
Nice Job 👍🏻
First thing that comes to my mind: there should be a way to make filament out of these sheets to get real color-changing filament.
Wouldn’t it be possible to produce really thin sheets like 0,5mm to 1mm. Roll them into a cylindrical shape and weld them together. After that you should be able to produce filament the same way you produce is from bottles.
Or maybe you could produce the ‚bottle‘ with deep drawing/vacuum forming or blow moulding.
It clearly is the best way to recycle plastic as a hobbyist
This is brilliant, I've worked with heat presses a lot and I never would have thought to do
Nicely done, I really wanted to build some items from PP, but size and price are sure a hurdle. Never thought of just a smaller press. Thanks for sharing your process and results.
That is really awesome!
Great job!
Amazing!
Mighty car mods!!!
"Didn't quite have enough to go all the way to the edge". I will NEVER have that problem.
A great idea that's affordable to many. As for what to make, Drone parts come to mind.
Brilliant execution Michael. Enjoyed that. Just got the A1 mini so I know from one of your vids that the poop is going to accru. Let's see what else we can make from it.
Nice recycling. The sheet colors are beautiful.
I was thinking about doing this to create a sheet of plastic that can be used as an interface layer for my CNC. Slap the plastic plate down, surface the top, then boom you got your interface.
I just melt them into bricks for CNC machining but sheets for laser cutting works too.
Nice Job. Great Video.
This is pretty neat! I just ordered an ender 3 v3 se and was thinking about what to do with failed prints and supports. Could you maybe do a project where these sheets can be made using households equipment like clothing iron? The price of admission to a project like this is still too high for me and probably most other makers so a DIY alternative would be awesome!
I watched your prior attempt at this with tons of interest, as I really would like to do this also. This is a very interesting method, and I bet it could even be small scaled without the full tshirt press. I love the idea of using these with the laser cutter also. This is one to chew on. thank you.
Fantastic video.
Awesome. Gonna try an even more budget funky m friendly version of this with a Kmart sandwich press and clamping the sheet between 2 small metal bowls to cool. My plan is to do it with HDPE bottle lids.
That's pretty cool.
Great work! I will try to replicate it!
Very cool
Love the idea
Do you think you could try melting full size failed prints in the oven without shredding them, then putting them into the press to flatten? Maybe once it's melted you can smear it around to approximately get it even before putting it in the press. Obviously you don't get the same nice pattern, but you skip the shredding, which is a huge time saver and less equipment.
Oooooo, that's nice!
Excellent video
I hope the next place I move I'll have a place to set up something like this, great work!
great! that's something I can actually do at home :)
Thanks for your videos and experimentation... also an excuse to finally get a laser cutter
Amaaazing
Nice idea on the frame. I have been using a laser-cut square frame on my heat press but making it from frames is so much cheaper. The CNC cut part was over $100 for 4 on PCB ways but it should be printable on a resin printer with abs like resin or just made using some spare bars
Kudos.
This is wonderful, and it's great that this looks identical to what I'm a few steps behind you on. I loved watching through this, every step in this video has been me nodding my head along as you went, since it's almost exactly the process I've been working through for a few months.
Thank you for doing a bunch of that early research and experimentation, makes me feel a whole lot more confident spending the time to build out my setup.
One question: you were making pretty thing sheets, and I don't know if I missed in the video exactly why that was. The primary reason I've been waiting to test out a tshirt press before buying one was because I was thinking half inch sheets would be the most useful to make and I wasn't sure I would be able to get those done well in the press. Did you experiment much in that area?
i think the main reason the precious plastic press is 400 volts, is because of the heat needed for half inch thickness to melt.. outside is easy to melt , but the inside..
I am following this because I was also hoping to get closer to 1" and be able to build furniture from it.
This video is brilliant!!!! I wonder if flipping the part using the oven method would be a good alternative to get both sides smooth
I've had decent results shedding failed prints in an old (not used for food anymore) kitchen blender, if you want a super budget option for shredding.
I used oven safe molds to remelt plastic into things like jewelry and coasters that I sell on Etsy, Mercari and craft fairs.
Seems like a solid option for regular consumers to recycle bits of plastic. Especially those that might not have as much, a smaller tshirt press would cost less.
I would really love to see what you can do with PET soda bottles, HDPE milk jugs and plastic shopping bags.
I've been wondering about how to recycle old unprinted PLA that's too brittle to be fed thru an extruder. Was thinking of making a bottom cover for my CoreXY. I'm not gonna spend money on a T-shirt printing device... so gonna try my luck with an oven, either baking paper or aluminium sheets and a good ol' rolling pin to get it as flat as possible.
I think if it comes out of the oven very molten, and you clamp it immediately you can get good results.
I was thinking - what do you do with it, then you answered it. Seems like an interesting solution
Very nice process!! Could we imagine to use petg sheets as kydex sheets ? Would be very useful to make tool holsters and a variety of other ideas !