How to: Make a bench with recycled plastic hardware

[@FixitFingers]

I've seen a couple of Aussie makers try this recently melting down milk bottles so it must be gaining popularity. Mostly trouble with getting the scraps to melt together so induction heat and more compression might be the way to go. Interesting use for a waste material, thanks for joining the fun!

[@wafflebeaver]

I'm happy to be a part of this challenge, maybe next year, it can just be #therubbishchallenge.

[@JasonAndrade427]

I think I saw ben uyeda grind the hdpe up in a blender, I’d try finer parts heating them up in an oven and then compressing it with a press of some sort. I dig what your doing 👊 I’m getting rid of some tools soon prepping for the move hit me up

[@wafflebeaver]

I just bought a bandsaw and it needs a new motor. I’ve been thinking VFD to motor since it seems to be a lot more quiet and efficient. Do you happen to know where I can find an induction motor? I’m also thinking of running 220v power using a house plug and getting the other leg from a jackery/goal zero type generator. How dumb is that?

Hello my new friend, I saw that we have a lot in common. You have a nice channel. Go on. this recycled plastic project is beautiful. A very good idea. Congratulations. I'm happy to be on your channel. Notifications (bell) for you will always remain on. And see you all the time. Big greetings. Stay healthy and happy. My new friend Mehmet.

[@wafflebeaver]

Wow that’s an honor. Thank you for the kind words and thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with the world. I’ve already learned a little but still have much more to learn from your other videos.

@@wafflebeaver 👏👏👏👏.. You're welcome. Thank you very much for your words of praise. See you anytime. A warm hug. Best regards.

[@GrumpysWorkshop4]

That is a great idea mate & we all know how bad the problems with old plastic are. Thanks for the video

[@AceWoodCo]

great build, and well thought out explanation on our problem with garbage, it really is sad.

[@julietphillips1991]

For sure, this was about using "rubbish." I think what we have to be mindful of is that in re-using, recycling , repurposing plastic garbage to make stuff, we don't find ourselves in a situation where we need to produce more plastic to supplement the "rubbish" in order to make the very said thing. Humans generate garbage in quantity! I am sure we have already polluted outer space beyond this planet! Love the bench!

[@wafflebeaver]

As long as we don’t get complacent, we have hope to stop and reverse the damage done. I started working with plastic out of frustration with my old employer who bought new hard hats for everyone but did not think about what to do with the old hard hats at all. I ended up collecting the hard hats in hopes of sending to a recycler where I could verify that it actually gets recycled. Sadly it looked like at best, it would just be made into coasters or cutting boards. This video is the beginning of an attempt to brainstorm new ideas of how to use more plastic rubbish. Unfortunately, even if I come up with five more products and they are able to scale up, I still doubt that it’ll be enough to keep up with the current stream of plastic waste from North America. So hopefully others can get involved, do better, and do more.

[@davebauerart]

I have a lot of HDPE I have been saving, I need to get setup and start experimenting. Thanks for the examples.

[@wafflebeaver]

Thanks for watching Dave. I hope melting HDPE will be the new epoxy river table ... wishful thinking though.

[@TakamiWoodshop]

wow man, love that home made beaver nut! I'm gonna go check my milk bottles right now. cheers dude

[@wafflebeaver]

Thanks for watching and I hope some others can make some improvements. I've already learned that compression during the cooling process helps as the plastic tends to shrink during cooling. I'll probably have to post another video soon as I'm still learning and experimenting.

[@_twinklesprinkle]

This is super cool! Thank you for posting this video. I'll be adding it to my #TeamSeas playlist. Keep being awesome and making content like this! :D

[@wafflebeaver]

Thank you I'll be working on another one soon since I may have found a way to make surfboard fins out of plastic. Thank you for watching.

[@_twinklesprinkle]

@@wafflebeaver That's crazy! I'll definitely keep an eye out for that. :)

[@GumtreeHillWoodwork]

Hell yeah man!! I loooooove this! Such a fantastic message & great ideas! You've really sparked something inside me with this video. I'm defintely going to be heading down a rabbithole now & trying to incorporate these sort of practices & technologies where I can ! Cheers 🤙

[@wafflebeaver]

Oh man, this really made me feel better. Thanks for watching and let me know if you have any questions. Induction heating is incredible... it’s worth having in the shop at least.

[@GumtreeHillWoodwork]

@@wafflebeaver beauty, thank you!! I appreciate it & will defintely take you up on the offer & come back with questions when need be. Cheers

[@MalamikArt]

I was just going to suggest heating them in the pipe but you wind up saying it already. Nice idea! I hope it inspires people!

[@wafflebeaver]

I hope so too. I hope to there will be a lot more competition in the recycling plastic youtube genre. Thanks for watching Miki!

[@hurtpiggypig]

I love this! I gotta think about what I want to do with it but I'll definitely come up with something because I am very interested in plastic reuse!

[@wafflebeaver]

Let me know if you need some shredded plastic. That's probably the hardest thing to get because breaking down plastic by hand is very tedious.

[@bluecurlygirl]

Great idea

[@imadeitworse8275]

Totally thought you were going to make the whole bench

[@wafflebeaver]

I guess I should show more build than talk...

[@tpmcguire]

Great video and aspirations man! The amount of waste we make is terrible.

[@wafflebeaver]

Thank you Tom, maybe I should start working on our other HDPE idea...

[@ChrisPowellFSD]

That’s pretty interesting. I’ve seen others using this stuff, but haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet. You’re right about how much waste we produce. It would be nice to be able to turn some of it into something cool. As far as heating the stuff in the tubes, are you thinking like induction coils around the outside of the pipe?

[@wafflebeaver]

Yes. I was thinking of using an induction coil around a black steel pipe. Then I would extrude out the plastic through there. Using a smaller pipe might be fine as well and I don’t think I’d need a forging coil more like a 12v -48v low voltage coil since I don’t need that super high heat.

[@wafflebeaver]

I just realized that making inserts for your extruded aluminum rails might be worth it. HDPE was created to be like paraffin wax so it should slide around nicely in those aluminum rails.

[@ChrisPowellFSD]

@@wafflebeaver that’s a good idea. It would be great for a lot of different hardware.

[@wafflebeaver]

@@ChrisPowellFSD Mostly because those T-nuts are super expensive haha.

[@robshamel3210]

Nice idea and techniques, I was curious to see how easily the cooled plastic came out of the conduit...

[@wafflebeaver]

I’ll have to get a video on that because it’s really easy. The plastic will shrink in the pipe a little so it pops out when cooled. Also, almost nothing sticks to HDPE when it’s at room temperature... kind of like Teflon.

[@karlfimm]

Neat idea. I was puzzled, why did you cut the cylinder in half, rather than using the whole cylinder for the nut? I've done some melting hdpe but plan to get back into it soon. Greetings from New Zealand.

[@wafflebeaver]

Haha I cut it in half because I figured I could get two threaded beavers from one cylinder. I haven't made these in a while and I think I need to get back to it. A solid threaded piece of HDPE holds up well in this type of threaded/compression form. Also seems to do well with vibrations

[@spirosnik2651]

nice diy procedures to make this plastic hardware. It would be easier for a production line, to use the Precious plastic shredder and injection machine, and inject plastic in a dedicated mold. To use that method though you would need to invest quite some money and effort to build the machines first..

[@wafflebeaver]

Yes a shredder would be really helpful. I think the injection machine can be done cheaper with an induction coil common for forging. With more people starting to use plastic as a hobby material, I think the cost of these production machines will decrease. Thank you for watching. Do you have any ideas for recycled plastics besides jewelry, cutting boards, & coasters?

[@spirosnik2651]

@@wafflebeaver I just did some experimenting with melting plastics in an oven and then compressing in diy molds, such as between pans and so, with rough results. Other than that, i ve been watching the precious plastics universe, where a lot of related information is posted daily.. I watched your how to there, and moved here to comment..

[@wafflebeaver]

@@spirosnik2651 I guess it finally got pass moderation. I've been thinking about ordering ferrous based steel molds to speed up the process. The mold can sit on the induction plate and melt some plastic pellets. Ive also bee thinking about using a blender to shred plastic as that's what Peter Brown does.

[@SMee67]

Awesome recycling of total rubbish bits and pieces, mate. 👌🏽

[@wafflebeaver]

Thank you. I probably should have showed the rubbish wood in use more but, I’m hoping to push the idea that using plastic might be easier than you think. I really hope it encourages more people to try.

[@SMee67]

@@wafflebeaver I think safety is high on the list of workshop priorities, and these fumes can be quite toxic and quite possibly to the tune of being a carcinogenic, you might want to get yourself a proper respirator for these types of fumes and an extraction fan. Best to be safe than sorry. An easy way to tell if your mask is failing you, is that if you can smell the odour of what your supposed to be wearing the mask for protection against, it's not doing its job! And yes, recycling should be on everyone's list! Good luck with it all, mate👍🏽

[@wafflebeaver]

@@SMee67 thank you for caring about my safety. I’m in a lucky situation where I have a good stock of vapor cartridges but I have thought about adding an extraction fan. Problem is that I’d probably end up taking off my respirator. If you look up the chemical make up of HDPE, it’s C2H4 so adding heat to it will only allow mixtures of air. This doesn’t mean it’s safe to breath in fumes though, it will typically generate ketones, alcohols, and probably more carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in an enclosed space. Open ventilation is very important!

[@SMee67]

@@wafflebeaver Good to know, and be an awesome added info bit in your videos for people not knowing about this side of recycling and are keen to get in to it. Can never be to careful.😉