Show and Tell Remelted PLA Scraps

[DrNezbit]

So I've been saving all of my PLA scrap from 3d printing since I got my printer. Finally filled the big red plastic coffee can I've been putting it all in. Was a lot of failed prints, brims, rafts, and purge lines. Took awhile to cut and break them all up, but got it small enough to fit in a Pepsi can I had cut the top off of. The bigger stuff I used a small pan and added it slowly as the parts melted into a pool. Set my gas oven to 400°F and baked it for a few hours, checking on it about every 15-30 minutes. It was super sticky while molten, but once finished and cooled they popped out of the molds pretty easily. So now I have myself a few coasters and a soda can trophy of all my scraps. Not sure if I'll do anything with them, but I have been thinking about maybe melting them into a workable form to machine or woodwork something else out of.

 

[Eric]

Very cool, those look they would be great for turning on a lathe!

I think have about 10-20 kilos of shredded PLA waiting to molded into something. I got the shredding down but im still trying to figure out something small and useful it could be. If not its going to be turned back into filament but that is a very slow process for my current setup through the DIY filastruder. I would like to get so efficient in my recycling that I can start taking other peoples waste plastics too someday.

 

[DrNezbit]

Yeah, the soda can was a pretty good mold for making something to turn on a lathe. I was trying to think of what else I could mold it in that was oven safe, but I didn't have much. I've seen people do like knife handles from recycled plastic bottle caps, so I figured getting it into something longer and skinnier would be better for working down into something. I'll have to try to make myself a mold to melt it into next time, or maybe just a bunch of like red bull size cans. I don't have a lathe or any woodworking tools really, so I can't do much with it at the moment, but I'd also like to find something useful to do or make out of scrap, even if it's just blocks that people could reshape or mill.