How To Make A BIG Block Of Hard Machinable Recycled Plastic

[@thehumblefactory]

I love the idea of a "These are all the problems" list video :) I'm in!

[@alangknowles]

Well done for persevering. I gave up on this too quickly fifty years ago.

[@1pcfred]

Melting HDPE does present a few challenges.

[@tavishjordan5255]

Having a larger audience sounds like it must be such a blessing and a curse at the same time. Thanks for putting up with all our Shenanigans Tim!

[@geoffburrill9850]

Great work Tim, oh the problems this channel could solve, like 'What happens to the missing sock in the washing machine?'

[@rusty911s2]

As you'll know, here in East Sussex, we used to have a lot of Nurdle farms, especially pre-war. Sadly these days, what with cheap Nurdle imports, and the devastating Nurdle Blight period in the late '60's, production is pretty much on a hobby basis mainly, although the local agricultural shows often have some very good Nurdle displays which is always nice to see.

[@craigsnook3605]

Hahaha I love it. Tim's high pressure workshop baking lessons. Just doing what everyone else is doing is boring. I think like most of your viewers, I'm here to watch you experiment and try things out.

[@rudetoy8264]

Way Out West humbly acknowledged commenters, but the reality is he much more creative, problem solver, and hands on than most armchair enthusiasts care to acknowledge. Thank you for sharing the good video. I have learnt something new today!

[@jasonpatterson8091]

Imagining you and Sandra farming nurdles made me smile. Thanks.

[@nobodycares85]

I love how much you humble yourself and how gracious you are. You also have such a kind voice, you could host a children's show and be loved by the kids and their parents. I also love your resourcefulness in problem solving.

[@TechGorilla1987]

@2:16 not enough can be said for effective draft angles.

[@user-ei3fx2vj2c]

Brilliant work! Well done on finding a use for old plastics. Keep up the great work. 👍

[@BRUXXUS]

Bravo! This was so fun. I'm so amused with how you oil and flour the mold like a cake pan. 😂 It makes me so happy to see that works!

[@Odinnyb13]

Terrific work Tim! tour will to press on with your projects and ideas despite setbacks is really inspiring! Keep it up and stay safe!

[@tracybowling1156]

I could watch you tinker all day!

[@ron.v]

So interesting! Farming nurdles is a bit like farming chickens. To be successful, you have to determine whether to plant them feet first or head first.

[@calvinmondrago7397]

It looked sort of beautiful as just a block.

[@MH-yg7cd]

Love your resilience, Tim! You're as much about the jouney as you are about the destination.

[@TheZombieSaints]

Glad to see you kept up up your idea and didn't give up. Great work!

[@tomtruesdale6901]

Very well done Tim, glad you worked out a solution.

[@oldskooljules]

Your enthusiasm is infectious

[@rjung_ch]

Hi Tim, this method worked way better, stronger mold seems to have helped a lot. Thanks 👍💪✌

[@bigbossimmotal]

First video of yours I have seen, good stuff! You did throw me for a loop when you used your 'foot' to help open that first mold though. lol

[@spokehedz]

The word "Nurdle" is hilarious to me, just as a word. But then I remember that it is a REAL WORD that people use in important board meetings. People probably have Nurdle Reports, and projections. hahahahahaa... NURDLE

[@ryelor123]

You could add glass fiber or asbestos to make the blocks stronger.

[@1pcfred]

Now make a block out of untinted stock. Untinted is like water jugs. Not PET though HDPE. No 2 recycling symbol. The binder they put in for tinting changes the composition of the material. So you get a different product. Untinted is harder and more slippery. If you really want to get into melting HDPE what you want is a convection oven. You get a lot more even of a melt. You don't get the crusties on the top. Untinted is more challenging to melt. For a lot of applications I prefer it though. All you need is parchment paper with sticking. To reduce bubbles you need to use the progressive squeeze method. The problem with making stock this way is internal stress. With a simple block you won't notice it. But if you try to make other shapes it'll warp up on you. Take a squeezed block and remelt it. It'll Cronenberg on you.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I haven't looked into what feedstock is available to buy here - I think I'm happy enough with this for now though. As you say, if I want to make a different part I might need to think again..

[@1pcfred]

@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 buy? No, no, no! That takes all of the fun out of it. I'll tell you what not to melt though. I don't care how exciting the color is never under any circumstances ever melt any bottle that contained a perfume in it. Like scented soap. I had this bright orange detergent bottle. I just had to melt it. Big mistake! It stank so bad. I only melted plastic jugs after a while. I started chasing the ivory. I got to be a total untinted snob. But if you're into tinted then plastic buckets are popular stock. Those thin shopping bags are HDPE too. But you need lots of them to add up to anything. They do make this amazingly detailed pattern though. Alternate 10 layers of black and white. As in 10 black bags then 10 white ones. That still makes just a thin line. HDPE is recycling symbol number 2. You can melt anything with that symbol on it. Do translucent untinted though. It's so cool. The blocks come out whitish. It is harder to melt than tinted is. Tinted has binders in it to hold the pigment. Those binders change the material.

[@redoktopus3047]

Tim that's amazing! Road you going a process that works!

[@jakeed09090]

Very impressed by the stronglier mould. Great work!

[@detroitredneckdetroitredne6674]

Hello from romulus Michigan thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise and for taking us on your adventures with Engineering

[@mrMacGoover]

You can recycle old plastic blocks into shavings again by running through a stacked dado blade in your table saw. The shavings are easier to melt and compress resulting in less air bubbles.

[@1pcfred]

I don't like shavings melts personally. HDPE melts poorly. Let's just put it that way. It'll never get to a runny stage. It goes from gooey to crusty. It'll never liquify. But you do you.

[@peterxyz3541]

What I get from this vid: if Doctor Who had a DIY maker space during the dull times between saving civilizations, protecting culture, harmonizing the universe

[@stevvieb]

That's one tough plastic block

[@1pcfred]

Yeah when you cut off the squeeze out you begin to realize just how strong HDPE really is. Know those thin plastic bags that can seem to almost cut your fingers off? That's HDPE.

[@michaelhogan9053]

The secret to working with plastic is getting it all hot together. Our machines melt the plastic, but there are electric heating bands all around to maintain high heat until it's pressed into molds under 300 Tons of pressure then the mold is cooled with internal water jets. This produces zero air bubbles. But whatever works for you Tim. Remember fumes.

[@1pcfred]

If you cook HDPE right it smells delicious. If your jam is sickly sweet. Acrid means you're overdoing it.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

So much to learn!

[@1pcfred]

@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 melting thermosetting plastics is a whole rabbit hole. You're far from the first to go down it either. I'm telling you the pinnacle of HDPE is untinted. Conquer that. It's a whole different animal. Making the pure ivory. It's actually too slippery for a lot of applications though. I've had that problem with it.

[@musikSkool]

To make glass clear they add a chemical that latches onto the microscopic slag that makes the glass cloudy. If you added something that would absorb oxygen and nitrogen under pressure that would shrink the air pockets. Unfortunately I don't know enough about chemistry to give you an example. Chances are good it would be something like clay powder, ash, sawdust, or even something like cement powder. Hmm, soap? Ajax? Some kind of dry soap, like laundry detergent? Or maybe that would add MORE air bubbles.

[@thewunder-lusters9644]

Huzzah!!! Experimental science triumphs again! 👏👏👏

[@wastwammerl]

Great results! Congratulations!🎉

[@jimd.2572]

I agree that the small stuff making and your larger stuff are worlds apart. I do also think, though, that getting those voids out more would help this project. I also worry about your mold pressing, simply because the voids can't escape well enough. Perhaps you could aim beyond the sandwich press and clothes iron phase. How about a heated roller set? The warmed plastic gets rolled through warm rollers to press the voids out, like a giant pasta maker. Yes, you would end up with thinner slabs; but re-fixing them seems easy enough if the plastic is warm before the re-layering. I wouldn't heat them as hot as you got them in the molds, though. Malleable, not liquid. Just a thought.

[@robinsparkes-u1l]

This is great ....I love this content.

[@carneeki]

Depending on the forces and shaft speeds involved, you msy be able to do away with the bearings and simply drill and ream a hole in place instead. Some plastics are excellent bushing materials. Another trick ive heard about is to use a G clamp with the mold in the oven. You can increase the clamping bit by bit while the plastic is still molten. Depends a bit on your oven space available too :)

[@bluekiwi42nd12]

Well done! Double duty from the hydraulic press to! I was thinking some kind of compression to shrink the bubbles/voids the same way as they do with pressure pots and resin casting. Using the press is alot simpler than some sort of pressure pot.

[@sjamesparsonsjr]

Way Out West Brain Trust. I love this idea

[@HWPcville]

Great video and great results. The combined brain power of the internet population can accomplish remarkable things.

[@ButterflyMatt]

1:27 Exactly the technique my oral surgeon used on my wisdom teeth. When you only request novocaine you remember the details.

[@-slasht]

watching that bit of video after reading this comment made my teeth hurt, this is a cognitohazzard :D

[@parkerwall5197]

Perhaps you could use a pressure pot to compress the internal bubbles. Like the opposite of the vacuum chamber idea

[@wabash1581]

Looking forward to seeing what other plastic molds you come up with. I am sure more than just that part could be plastic. Maybe be add that to you, Solve All the Problems, video. lol

[@kinnikuzero]

This is awesome! I'm just speculating but maybe if you filled the mold gradually it may help with air pockets? In other words, putting a little at a time, waiting for it to melt then adding more a d more it it fills.

[@madleech]

You could measure the weight and volume of each block to work out its density, which would tell you if there were significant voids or not. Would be a good quick quality assurance step.

[@1pcfred]

Once you get your process down air voids are not a big issue. I knead as I go. Kneading pushes out air bubbles. He also hasn't discovered progressive squeezing yet. The big squeeze is ineffective due to material shrinkage as it cools. You lose your squeeze over time.

[@sjaakvaag]

Well done, sir.

[@jamescoxall322]

Very clever

[@totherarf]

Good result! If you are getting voids on the surface you could melt some of the plastic you used into the void with a soldering iron/ gun with good results! Or if you are still looking to improve things drill a bolt hole near the bottom. Once heated remove the bolt and extrude the liquid plastic out into a mould. You might need the mould to be heated though. That should not be too hard for a man of your talents though! This would have the advantage that you could fill several moulds sequentially rather than individually to speed things up! I do have to say you seem adept at comming up with interesting things to do and ponder about! Thanks!

[@1pcfred]

What I do is knead the melt with the heel end of a big metal punch. Just bash the hell out of it. Every time I add more to the melt I give it the old basheroo. That consolidates it good.

[@antiochman8222]

Excellent. Well done.

[@Schwertmaid]

As soon as you do it right, it works :-D

[@jonjessen]

Excellent result!

[@waynethomas3638]

the easier way to release the mold would be to heat each panel with a gas torch prior to trying! I find it much easier, that way the surface loses its grip.

[@thisisaduck]

Could you use your charcoal cutter to slice up the plastic into smaller sections?

[@jasonburguess]

If you apply used motor oil to the inside of the mold, the plastic will release more easily, it will somke a bit, but will definitely aid in getting the mold to release the plastic.

[@thomasvnl]

Nicely done!

[@Demo12345]

Man, first time I'm seeing a video less than 10 minutes after it comes out.

[@mischef18]

Yep well done bro, any ideas on making a plastic car next using this method. Safe travels. Ken.

[@leonclose7823]

Growing the nurdles is one thing. It's the threshing and winnowing that would be an interesting engineering challenge. I'm sure you'd need a very large flywheel.

[@oasntet]

Yeah, the reason Brothers Make do so well is they're only working with tiny amounts. They melt some, twist it by hand, melt in some more, twist it again... To make a block the size that you need would take quite a few 'kneedings' and would certainly develop your forearms. There might be something to the 'little bit at a time' approach, though. Rather than all at once, get a tenth of it up to a runny temperature, pour it into a hot mold, repeat. That way you're starting with fewer air pockets to begin with. Brothers Make also deal with exposed voids by patching with more HDPE. Body filler is probably good enough, maybe even sticks better than separately-melted HDPE, but if you were doing this a lot a test would be worthwhile.

[@carld3184]

Excellent progress. I still don't understand why you need such a large solid block of plastic for what is essentially a kingpin for each front wheel. A hollow block with 1 inch wall thickness should have sufficient strength to perform the same function. Admittedly that would be significantly harder to manufacture. Keep posting your new developments.

[@mrclaus859]

Thanks for posting

[@calebgrefe8922]

If you make round stock you can use a thick wall tube and only have the bottom to worry about. But draft angles would be tricky to make I suppose...

[@bootsowen]

Hi Tim, two points on your mould. maybe you are happy with it as it is. A slight taper or draught angle might make it easier to get the cooled block out, you know this already. and if the bottom of the mould can also slide you get double acting compaction. In asphalt testing you have to make up various slugs of hot asphalt for testing. The machines are all heavy and able to apply big loads to hot steel moulds. The Duriez (an obsolete maybe) test for the moisture susceptibility of asphalt calls for this type of compaction. it has a heavy straight sided cylinder and a slug of steel at each end free to move within. the bottom slug is on a base plate with collars. you remove the collars before compaction. Instead of pushing down from above only you are also pushing up from below. Maybe I am too late to this party. It was a real ballache to get asphalt that had cooled out of moulds. If you heated it again it would come out but then you had heated it again and hadn't followed the procedure.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I guess it depends on the size of the slug - if it's small enough it surely wouldn't make any difference if the base is fixed or moves? The gap between gets smaller. Thanks - interesting!

[@bootsowen]

@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 You'll be thinking about it now!

[@robertsanders4651]

Hi Tim, hope yous are all well! My only idea was that with the lid part of your new mold, it may be handy to weld some thin metal around the outside edge upwards so that the plastic doesn't ooze out and up over the ends of the channel as the channel could become keyed in

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

good idea!

[@darthgbc363]

Great plan.

[@dk7863]

Stronglier vid, if I ever seen one.🙂

[@ptonpc]

That is ingenious :)

[@elijahwerner6130]

So, who is Lot? Sounds like a pretty smart fellow!

[@jackpastorello3438]

You should make a gas locomotive for your reilway

[@mark-]

11,000 brains = a super brain 😊👍

[@RandomAxeOfKindness]

I think briefly heating the metal mold with a torch would get the stuck block out of it fairly easily with only cosmetic surface damage.

[@alexkerpe930]

nice Press, should use it for making apple juice :D

[@collie147]

Great job! Understandably it saves on cost vs. welding and would stand the weather more than wood, but I'd be curios what is the time cost per block? I'd also be curios about the weight of each block. Would it be possible to mould it with some purpose made holes maybe to save some time on the bearing but also to remove weight without reducing the structural stability (say putting a few bars in the mould maybe and swiss cheesing it)

[@Muzzled]

You think you could pull off dove-tailed slots for the bottom plate to slide into?

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

hi Tim glad to see you're making progress with the moulding process, but PLEASE, do sweep up all the wood shavings and sawdust before you have a surprise fire. PS, dust + air in the 'right' ratio becomes explosive.

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

​@@DianeD862up yours! Tim is man enough to speak for himself.

[@DianeD862]

@@kathrynwhitby9799Up yours as well your so rude to everyone it seems.🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[@JunayedMahmud-s4s]

interesting! can you provide some more info about dust & air explosive?

[@bushratbeachbum]

Chill your boots there. Any workshop I've worked in, owned or visited has been dusty. It's the nature of the beast. Nobody needs your paranoia. Keep it to yourself.

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

@@JunayedMahmud-s4s plenty of documentaries on KZbin etc. You could browse the Plainly Difficult channel for starters. Dust and air, when mixed in the right ratio has the power of a bomb when ignited. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpOwg2B5l6t_hMk

[@barrettdent405]

I wonder if vibration would help? (As it does with form pour concrete for example.)

[@le7456]

Maybe make the chamber slightly sloped so once you hit it out it will go all the way.

[@gangleweed]

Hmmmmm. it has great potential......I wonder what type of plastic id being used in the video (any kind?)..... .I wonder if soft plastic compressed will work too?.....I seem to get a huge amount of it.

[@joethompson11]

I wonder if you could use plastic film from packaging too, there's an unfortunate amount of it around. Great progress Tim!

[@johnroadley-battin4577]

Would vibrating the mould before it sets help, this is what they do with concrete formwork to get rid of air bubbles and preventing large voids forming.

[@LiamTaylor26]

Would the charcoal crusher/shingle maker work to cut the plastic down into smaller pieces to make the process a bit faster/more reliable? Could be an interesting experiment either way.

[@keninglis7060]

Try a hot version of a deairing pug mill used for pottery clay - google 'precious plastic' - a mad Dutchman into recycling plastic!

[@timeflysintheshop]

Hey Tim. Just out of curiosity, how much does the solid plastic block weigh compared to the plywood block, compared to a solid block of wood?

[@Aheitchoo]

Good idea. Good way to check for voids

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I will weigh things and report back..

[@aaronhunter7026]

@@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299 A follow on idea would be to do some of the machining for the bearings/holes/outer surfaces on the router before gluing the plywood layers together. Use alignment pins or a jig to orient the plywood layers for glue up.

[@normanboyes4983]

Great result - well done.👍😀

[@1pcfred]

HDPE can range from 0.93 to 0.97 g/cm3 or 970 kg/m3 Conifer Plywood is 470-520 kg/m3 So the plastic is about twice the mass of plywood.

[@fluffyfullbox2075]

Spray it with mould release.

[@thedave7760]

Hi Tim been loving your channel for years now and whilst I am not an environmental alarmist I do worry about the fact that all this cutting plastic with saws is making huge amounts of microplastics. If you do too much of this then you might contaminate your work area and the soil. Don't really know what to suggest to minimise this but maybe a dust collector and then burn the dust.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I've been thinking about this too - and I think you're right - put all the sweepings into a really hot stove.

[@tropifiori]

There is a process called injection molding. You might look into it. I am not certain it would be practical for a small shop.

[@peterxyz3541]

I don’t think you need to taper the mold (to get a tighter tolerance on the ramming cap) Once cooled, you could use the ram and jack to push out the block…I believe

[@kevincurrie2052]

1:39 Easy! 😂

[@markt9028]

"Stronglier" there's a T shirt in that.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

even more stronglier!

[@marcomarcos5533]

Have you ever seen a channel called precious plastics they have a bunch of different machines that are used for recycling plastic maybe one of those could be adapted?

[@mgjk]

There must be guys in rural China doing exactly this, but with a different set of values in the variables of the the economics equation.

[@Peter-jo3wt]

I would have adapted turkey timing @ 20 minutes per lb 😅 9 minutes per kilo.

[@daryl5638]

Hi Tim, i was woundering if you would add small bits at a time pressing between if that would help with air pockets or creat more. but your mold would proberbly cool to much .

[@1pcfred]

What's you're describing is called the progressive squeeze and it's how it's done. The melt will stay molten for a long time. HDPE shrinks a lot as it cools too. I use C clamps to squeeze the melt. Then as it cools I periodically clamp it more. But I also kneed the melt too. You're best off starting out with no air bubbles. I have a really big punch and I mash that down into the melt. If you go for the big squeeze it all oozes out like we saw happening here. One kid came up with the slow cool method. I never had the patience to try that. It takes a long time. Like a day. Slow cool is leaving the melt in the oven and gradually ramping the temperature down. Because squeezing always introduces internal stresses into the material. As you machine it the material can spring and move on you. Supposedly slow cool alleviates that. But like I said I never did it so I can't say. I have tried to anneal a block. That's a disaster. The block will go crazy as it remelts.

[@d0pomein]

IDK because I'm not over there messing with it, but I would think to get the trapped gas out you'd have to have a release hole for it to go when you press it.

[@1pcfred]

Considering the squeeze out he's experiencing his mold is far from air tight. One problem is shrinkage. You can squeeze the snot out of the plastic but as it cools it's going to shrink. So what you need to do is increase the squeeze over time to compensate for that shrinkage. Every half an hour or so squeeze it a bit more.

[@mikepapa3196]

.....'more stronglyer' is much 'bettera' 😆

[@danielkemp4860]

The small voids are unavoidable…

[@mmheti]

Is this block lighter than the wooden one?

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

No it isn't. - I wondering if 3d printing them with cavities would be feasible

[@johndough8115]

It would probably be better to cut the mold into two halves, vertically. That would probably make removal a little easier. To keep them together, however, you would need to weld on some tabs, drill bolt holes into the tabs... thread the holes, and then bolt everything together. Or maybe use a few Spring-Clamps, similar or identical to the arcade machine control-panel "Panel Clamps". Those panel clamps are a lot stronger than you would imagine... yet they are pretty easy to snap on/off (and function similar to a Vise Grip). To keep the plastic from escaping the Seams, you probably want to grind a v shape, and an inverted v shape, on the edges, that interlock together. As far as the voids goes... its probably best to create a plastics shredder / grinder ...that makes smaller and more uniformed pieces. The smaller the pieces, the more likely they will melt in a more uniform way. And it will make filling the mold easier too. That shredder would be a great additional video / project. Ive wanted one myself... for dealing with recyclables, due to how much space some of them take up.

[@1pcfred]

I make my molds flanged and all the sides screw together. Because HDPE sticking is a very real thing. It's basically hot glue.

[@assassinlexx1993]

The only thing I change is to use talcum powder.

[@1pcfred]

All you need is the parchment paper. You put it in the mold right and it does the trick. But you do have the cut the paper out so it forms in the mold. You also can't get wild squeeze out either though. Biq squeeze out is a big problem.