In January 2020, I started a local chapter of Precious Plastic. My intention was to collect plastic and make something from it. Exactly what remains to be determined. My initial thought was 3D printer filament but this appears to be very difficult so I’m considering other applications.
About 12 months ago, I started building a shredder based on the plans on the Precious Plastic website. Long story short, it cost about $1,000 and took three months. It struggles to handle milk bottles and jams frequently. Jams are a pain to rectify. I realised I’d need something bigger but most machines were out of my price range.
Two months ago, Precious Plastic Melbourne put a granulator up for sale asking $4,200. I wanted to buy it, but they would not accept a payment plan. I tried getting a loan but as expected, pensioners can’t get loans. Eventually, a friend agreed to loan me $4,000 on a 12-month payment plan. The granulator had been on the market for more than a month by this stage, but amazingly it was still available. PPM sweetened the deal for me by agreeing to accept my $4,000 for the machine including GST and freight. The recent lockdown delayed them sending it to me. It finally arrived at my (very expensive) shed last Wednesday. There is still one final hurdle to overcome because the granulator has a 5-pin plug but the sockets in the shed are only 4-pin. Anyway, I’m expecting to be able to start shredding the shed full of plastic very soon, so I need to work on the other machines to process the granulated plastic.
That’s why I’m here. I am keen to work on building these machines and pay for materials as required but I don’t have the engineering knowledge about how to make it work.
There are three machines I’m looking to build initially:
Densifier, which moves feed along a conveyor belt to expose it to 220°C for 15-30 seconds.
Extruder, which takes granulated plastic and forces it via an auger screw which has a heat band near the end, melting the plastic, which is then pushed through a shaped nozzle.
Bottle top sorting machine, using optical sensors to sort by type and colour according to a pre-defined sorting scheme.
Love your lay have out. dott points rule!! I am also on the DSP, and use hsbne as a social outlet as well as a place to make cool shit. It is totaly a irreplaceable. You will mix in well and i look forward to seeing you make some cool shit!
