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First plastic experiment using bottle caps
- This topic has 31 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by
.
Hello eco people. Its my pleasure to see lot of great ideas, products, projects on this page. I would like to share with you my first experiment with plastic, without using any kind of machinery. I was using only basic tools ( outside cooker+ pan for cap melting). Ang steel homemade form. I was trying to make flowerpot. I used 100 caps/pot of different colours what made amazing color structure and pots are also very tough.
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Awesome looks good!
another good source of HDPE (same as the bottlecaps) are shampoo bottle´s ofthe it says on the bottom what material it is. then you dont need to drink so much 😉
a bit more compression and then you will also get the “wrinkles” out of the bowl
Greetz from HQ 🙂
Nice!
Now if you cut it, it will look like a regular cup. Need to look into using it as one (whether it is food safe and so on).
Hi. Thank you for the tip with shampoo bottle. I have never try it.
Greetings from Slovakia
I am not really confident about using this stuff as a cup. More likely i would like to use them as regural flower pots for. 🙂 🙂
HDPE is definitely foodsafe. In the USA, the most common source of it is milk jugs and their lids. As long as it was properly cleaned before melt, I’d trust it.
If it was ocean-collected, it’s possible it’s leeched some chemicals. But that’s not the plastic per se.
To build one prototype or “flowepot” i have used 100 of bottle caps ( HD-PE material). When i heated it for 20-30 minutes for temperature 200-220 degree Celzius, size reduction was enormous.
I made this flowerpot for my friend. ( 100% HD-PE material, approximately 150 of bottle caps were used for the creation)
Look for amazing combination with Aloe Vera.
What are your thoughts about it ?
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Some of my creations from HDPE material.
You can support me here, where i made fb page on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/preciousplasticslovakia/
Thank you guys
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This looks soo great!
Can you please send a pickture of your homemade form/mold? I think flowerpots is a genius idea and want to give it a go myself 😉
Maybe you could give me some inspiration?
Greetings from Denmark 🙂
You still melt on a pan with outdoor cooker? How do you control temperature? Anyway the results looks great, have you done anything new this month?
Yes im using “Dvojplatnička” with possibility to regulate temperature. My temperature is about 200-220 degrees. For this month there is nothing new. Im waiting for machinery to create better and more products.
@hugonator
Congrats, those last prototypes look way more professional than the first one 🙂
Remember that you can also sell your products in the Precious Plastic Bazar
https://bazar.preciousplastic.com/
Great news hugonator, always going forward. Yes please, I’ll come by soon to see if there are more news. Good luck!
Hey i made a flower pot aswel but it as been a nightmare to demold it from to metal flower post with the plastic compressed in the middle,
I could find mold releaser do you have tips or suggestions.
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@malor . Hi Malor, your combination of colors on the flower-pot. Its really fresh. And toward the topic of removing part it depends on material of mold. I was using aluminium mold and thanks to quick water cooling – my plastic part shrinked, thanks to decreasing temperature, i was able to remove my part quite easily.
So i recommend you to cool your part quite enough with water for example.
Martin, Slovakia
Hello all friends of recycling and PP. Here is my work from this weekend. I was again playing with HD-PE material(bottle caps) and im quite happy with the result.
I have serious question about melting HD-PE and poisonous fumes. How do you protect yourself against these fumes. Because its very dangerous to inhale them.
Thank you, Martin, Slovakia
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@hugonator
Very impressive result .. Good job 👍
For the fumes… Wear a mask 👹 and use carefully the temperature button. Too high and the plastic burn.
In my case, some fumes were coming from previous content of the plastic container. Orange juice on the caps or glue… Detergent also because not clean enough…
Keep us informed
Precious regards DiB
Hey guys.
Im adding pictures of my recent new experiments with the HDPE.
1. Key rign in Shape of Slovakia with hand gravir of letter to the steel form.
The form is home-made with using some basic tools
2. HDPE heart shape broach – made with steel heart shape form for cakes 🙂
And thats it
Cheers
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