Deepfrying plastic
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Hi all,
Jens Dyvik & Jon Nordby, some friends of mine, have been trying out melting plastic in a deep-fryer and got some good results. I liked the concept because it doesn’t require a lot of machine building to get started with recycling and it’s a quick way to warm up the plastic. They basically just made a mold from HDF which is very quick and easy to make and pressed the molten plastic from the deep-fryer in there. Rather than having one expensive mold where the plastic needs to be cooled down before reuse, this solution makes it possible to have a lot of cheap molds. So while one mold is cooling down, you can fill the next one and so on.
They tested it now on PLA, which was scrap from 3D printing at our local hackerspace, and were able to lasercut and cnc mill the material. They then made some gears out of it. See pictures below.
The thing I’m wondering about is if deep-frying the plastic is a good/safe way to do it, given that the temperature would be according to the melting temperature? The plastic is a bit greasy afterwards. Has anybody else done stuff like this and perhaps have some thoughts on it?
@siemenc,
Cool!
I like the idea of using multiple molds and let it cool while you can continue with other molds. Not sure if it is safe or not. At least dont use the fat to fry your fries anymore 🙂
The laser cut parts look really clean.
If you cut the plates, is the inside also feeling greasy? In other words: does the plastic absorb the fat?
How do you get the molten plastic out of the frying pan?
@mathijsstroober
The inside doesn’t feel greasy but it’s a bit hard to tell. The outside is also not super greasy.
Yeah, definitely not going to make any more fries with that oil, only spring rolls.
I think they just scooped it out and smacked it into the mold and pressed it together. Their test made me actually realize that I did a similar thing 8 or 9 years ago for a school project. As far as I remember I think I used a camping gas fire and a pan with oil to melt the plastic and then scooped out the plastic with a spoon into a mold. The plastic tended to stay together in the oil so it was not that hard to do.
I was thinking today, another advantage of this technique is that you can do this without having a shredder.
Hi @arrow1800,
Nope, haven’t worked on this yet. But in case you feel like trying, let us know how it went! It’s fairly easy to get started. 🙂
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