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valuable Marble from plastic
This topic contains 16 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
timo 4 years ago.
Hi guys:)
Last week I started working on blocks of plastic with a more valuable feeling. I am working at the workshop of Dave and I am using his machines.
this will be te things I work on in this topic:
Different kinds of marbles.
clean edges
polishing, get it shiny
facets Shaping
Give it a valuable (precious) look.
First block is made from flakes of PS, in the compression oven for 120 min on 230 C. Cooling over night in the oven, this is still a bit a struggle if you want to make many blocks a day.
When it came out it gave a slightly yellow color but with sandpaper it becomes more white and has a nice stone look.
more will follow…..
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Clean edges
The edges from the plastic coming out of the mold are always a bit unfinished and give a cheap look.
I made some edges with metal and used it as guideline for the sanding paper to get real tight edges. first grain 180 > 240 > 400
It gives already a more valuable stone look.
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On this TEST I tried to have different patterns in the plastic (PP) by using the extrusion machine to mix the flakes. When the plastic was extruded in the mold it went into the compression. because it was very cold it cooled down to much and took about 3 ours on 230C to get is wel compressed.
the effect is working in the way that it has a very different look than the flakes. I facet shaped the edges again to give it a more finished look.
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Hi Sharma-Sagar,
What I am testing on the moment is mostly for material research. when the plastic comes out of a handmade mold it is nearly never perfect or has a non valuable look. My challenge is to see it ass a real craft and see if it gets more valuable by that.
Cheers
Polishing ABS plastic to get is nice and shiny:)
For this block of ABS I used the same mold as before, made a new angle to make bigger facets and tried to get it shiny.
First i used sanding paper from grain 120 > 1200. I tried to do it with brass polish but it didn’t work out. Then I used toothpaste that nearly everyone has at home 🙂 The effect is decent but still have to get out the last little scratches.
More will follow
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@emilecorre also Google acetone bath. its used for giving smoother finish to 3d printed abs, may or may not be useful for you though
@sharma-sagar Thanks for the hints:)
Last week I did some new experiments to give the plastic a new valuable look.
From waste to craft, I worked the plastic with the chisel.
It went pretty good in al different types of plastic and it gave a new feeling to the material.
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In this experiment I tried to give another look than the flake-look to the plastic. I used the extrusion to mix colors in a different way and get new patterns.
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Some pretty cool results there! The one with the extrusion looks a bit like an abstract painting.
I wonder if it would be possible to sandblast plastic.
Looks great!
The marble effect looks just like the marble laminate that is often used on kitchen benches… That would be a great possible use for the polished product @emilecorre!
Look forward to seeing more 😀
@siemenc the sandblasting could be a very nice finish indeed! I see that they are doing it with 3D printed objects, did you try it already?
@thanks aidenryan!
In this test I tried to extrude PS, In the beginning it dind’t come out very smooth but after some hustle I found the right settings on the extrusion machine: 230 C on front 215 C middle and a speed of 15-20.
After this it went into the compression for 135 min on 230 C, finally cooled down after long waiting…..
It came out pretty nice and smooth, when I cutted the block in half I noticed that the strings from the extrusion where not thorough the same color.
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@emilecorre Cool. Plastic pie.
Nope, no experience with doing sandblasting myself, unfortunately.
First of all, Welcome to Precious Plastic @emilecorre (Sorry, 22 days late :P)
And second, I love your project. I have been thinking about making my own compression mould but never though about it for artistic purposes, but after looking at your creations, I can see that making Marble-like art out of plastic is more than feasible, and simply stunning. Congratulations.
@emilecorre , really cool stuff. What kind of steel type did you use for the molding?
is it stainless steel?
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