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Some ideas and questions

Anne Kern annek

Some ideas and questions

11/02/2018 at 18:15

Being new and enthusiastic, I studied the forum quiet a lot, still I am not sure where the right place would be to participate with the following questions or suggestions. Would be nice if someone (taking this post as example)could help me with that.

1.) Is it possible with the injector to push out only small quantity of melted plastic, then stop for a time and then small quantity again? (Overheating?)
-So one could create little mountains and then press them by hand in flat “circles” (or would they cool out to quick?)
-Maybe even using simple molds (wormed up before?)with engravings (little mountain on mold, press by hand, get stamp of engraving?)
Simple molds could be out of plaster or soapstone (very easy to handle and engrave/can stand some heat)?

2.) Would it be possible to create sort of a pistol for the extrusion machine (like huge 3d-doodler), that one could hold in hand and move/start and stop plastic flow? That would increase a lot the creative possibilities I believe.

3.) I understood it is not easy to work with PET due to quiet high and precise temperature if I remember well. Is PET also for other reasons difficult to work with?

4.) Does anyone know/have an idea which plastic is so called and sold “Shrink Plastic/Shrinkies”, how can I recognize it?
Shrink plastic, transparent and colored is sold for crafting. It’s characteristic is that at a temperature around 100 degrees it shrinks and gets much thicker, warm one can completely flatten it then with e.g. a book or form it.
I tried, inspired by the youtube video, to upcycle quiet some plastic I supposed would work but it didn’t have really comparable results. The “Shrinkiepaper” does not say what these plastics characteristics or name is.
It’s a nice and easy crafty thing to do, also with kids and with (used carefully)good and valid results. I would not shredder that stuff but collect it and use it or give it to someone that would.

5.) Maybe languages one speaks added in profile can be helpful

6.) A member had sent me a message, was new and is now deleted, does that mean the member deleted himself or did “you” delete that member in sense of spam?
That’s it for now.

And it would be really helpful to know where a right place for these post’s would be, or where to look to find out. (E.g.: Shrinkies=Research about plastic?, Languages=General ideas and suggestions?…) Thank you

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hero
12/02/2018 at 22:49

Welcome to Precious Plastic @annek

1) What about adding a switch to the motor so that you can turn it on and off while keeping the heating bands on? I personally don’t like this method because you can end up burning the plastic but it’s up to you to try it

2) you could just use a 3D printing pen and make your own plastic filament with the extruder

3) That sounds more like PLA. PET is not very hard to work with.

4) There are several plastics that tend to shrink when heated, one of them is PET. More info at http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/working-with-pet-bottles/

5) I think so. Normally people judge or assumes which language you speak based on your country, but we still encourage everyone to use English as the main language in the forum to make things more universally understandable

6) Next time you get a suspicious message just sent me a private message and I’ll look at it and delete the user if we determine is a spam bot, we have been deleting some spammer profiles lately and have things under control but sometimes a few spammers slip out of our hands.

Best regards

starter
12/02/2018 at 14:05

Thank you!

dedicated
11/02/2018 at 20:32

Ijustput a post anywhere with the big title aware from this user….

starter
11/02/2018 at 19:21

Thank you! I guess it was something like that. Where would I post an alert?

dedicated
11/02/2018 at 18:54

6) sometimes new user send message for phishing or they make business purpose or similar, just post the alert and the administrator will ban them.

starter
11/02/2018 at 18:41

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starter
11/02/2018 at 18:30

Having problems to add and upload files/confusion

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starter
11/02/2018 at 18:26

“Shrinkies out of recycled plastic”

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starter
11/02/2018 at 18:23

Some more pictures

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starter
20/03/2018 at 08:29

Thank you very much for your reply! As soon as a polystyrene (PS/ #6) “Container” will cross my way I will try it out and let you know 🙂

starter
19/03/2018 at 19:02

Hey @annek,

to answer your fourth question: you need polystyrene (PS/ #6) for those shrinky dinks. Here is a tutorial: http://www.rustandsunshine.com/2012/04/shrinky-bracelet.html

I didn’t tried it myself yet, so let me know if it worked.

starter
14/02/2018 at 10:41

Hello Oliver, thank you very much for your reply!
My suggestions regarding the “start and stop”, “the pistol” and very simple plaster and soapstone molds are the result of trying to find simple solutions of how to increase the possibilities of what one can create with these machines because I feel that as not easy to resolve sensefully. Being familiar with molds regarding sculpturing and able to create those I had also long discussions with an industrial design friend who has long professional experience: So we know: Detailed, professional molds are very and for this use/productivity/expensive. Maybe Silicone (heat able) Molds could be something – I found questioning about that in the forum but no produced results. I would try that out only if I believe in having success, specially also because that stuff is not so cheap for my pocket too and should not end as rubbish neither. Simpler things like plaster and soapstone make more sense to me but not under big pressure. Hopefully I will have at some point the possibility to try that out (in case there is a chance to avoid overheating).
I do not wish to work with a 3d doodler (I have done that) and would not build a machine to produce its filament, maybe I would buy it from those guys that seem to have produced it in Greece. I can imagine though that being able to move your hand and start and stop flow , one could create much more things with value then with a nonstop line that needs to be twisted around something, I understand the heat-problem.
Please don’t misunderstand me: I am not trying to put up problems, actually I am very enthusiastically trying to find solutions of how it could make sense for some friends and me to build machines and use them in a creative way. That would need to have precious products as a result. Another precious product could be to do “educational” things with it, especially with children. Other problems.-
Hopefully I will try out some existing machines at some point and till then probably keep my mouth shut.
My suggestion for languages was meant in sense that if someone e.g. tries to resolve “working with waste” or other burocratical and permission problems, or e.g. tries to compile conditions for EU programs in one country, it might make sense to “tag” others in other countries that speak the same language and can suggest e.g. solutions of the country they live in. Also it makes sense for local articles about e.g. precious plastic development (Some people here being active in Thessaloniki now e.g. published a link in Greek, wouldn’t it be useful if they could tag “Greek speakers”?) (Sure Forum talk in English is the best).
And “Shrinkies”, yes I tried several PET plastics not very successfully. I mentioned Shrinkies because they can become precious objects by being e.g. hand painted earrings. They don’t need an equipment. If I would sort out plastic for a shredder, I would put it apart, make a nice envelope with instructions and sell it as a “contribution possibility” for a little amount the same way as “Shrinkie Plastic” is sold. Or use it right away for recycling seminars.–
Last not least “PLA is not very hart to work with”. The link you send me says first:
“Maybe you experienced maybe you didn’t but it is quite difficult to use PET to work with Dave’s machines…” (working with PET bottles/link)
Dave says in its download kit about plastic:
“This plastic is a bit more complex to work with, we advise to start with other plastics.” And as heating temperature: 245-265 degrees (Physical properties/download kit) , that would be about the highest on that page and as high (or higher) then ABS. –
Now I send you a lot of sunshine (hoping that my positive intention speaks in these words)

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