Trying to get ahold of someone

Anyone know someone who goes by the youtube name five for a change ?
He has a plastic grinder he built and said it was made at make ict was wanting to ask a few questions.

I am not sure who all was involved, but I suspect it was the plastic shredder project from a few years back. They were planning on building plastic blocks for construction. I am not sure if any of the members who were working on it are still around.

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I’m still around! What’s up?

Do you still use it to grind?
How has it held up?
Have you tried making any filament for 3d printer?

I am interested in stl. if you still have, and a parts list.

Very interesting project!

I am not sure what Joel is doing with it currently. From what I can remember It had some fit issues, and would jam some times. I think it was more issues with our plasma table than the design.

The link @sdowens posted has most of the previous discussion about it.

I have pulled down the pp cad files. I was able to take the files from the original website and pull them in to fusion. , and would be willing to dig what I have out. I was in the process of converting them from metric stock to something more standard plate that could be bought in town.

I would be interested in helping out. I had stopped until i could source a motor and gearbox. The most expensive part. My personal curiosity budget stops at about $50-75.

I had also found some people that would laser cut the materials to the design and ship them to you, for what seemed like a reasonable price.

pp_shreader v1.step (2.7 MB)


I’m working on a different projects with Joel currently. I can ask him when is a good time if you’d like to have a chat.

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Would like that when he gets a free moment! Thx

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@Frank What is it you have in mind? You wanting to use recycled PE or PP for a custom large-scale printer? Or, are you thinking of material for a desk top printer?

There is a bit of plastics industry in this area and I have plastics experience myself. There are challenges with recycled materials which would make using them through a .4mm nozzle unrealistic…in my humble opinion.

However, if you wanted to make a custom large-scale printer for making large parts I could see that working well. In fact, others have done it. And you could purchase “regrind” from local producers. This is material that has already been ground up and is in “pellet” form.
Here is an example of someone using a robot:

Here is another example of a larger printer to make furniture:

And this is some very impressive furniture made with printers: (has my wheels turning)


This is great info it has kinna answered the question of is it possible to make P.E.T. filiment from plastic bottles or reg filimant pla from recycled scrap parts
I am wanting to make this for small scale operations table top printers as filament is pricy 20-30$ a 2lb roll. sounds like I could never build a system that could mitigate the cost effectivly.
Curious what size nozzle and filament are ppl using recycled material in this example you speak of ?


Would you mind calling me anytime or texting to set up a time to talk to me about this? My phone number is 316-308-7144. Thanks for your interest and your time.

Looks like based on the above experience it would not be cost effective to try and reproduce pla and pet for small scale desktop 3d printers

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Just thinking outside the box is it possible to build a machine that can melt down these materials without the need for grinding them and perhaps form them into plastic rods the size of glue sticks.
From there you could build an extruder fairly easily out of stepper motors and parts from a hotend just size your tip to make filament?

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Maybe, I don’t see how you get around the size reduction part. To form the new size it has to fit through a die of some sort. Normally in most filament production I have looked at the idea of uniform pieces seems to be to fit in screw that is pushing it through he machine.

There are products out the to make filament at home, so I don’t know if it a lost cause. It depends on your use case and motivations are. I don’t know how long it would take to be good enough to beat the cheapest filament supplier out there double that if you are recycling material.

The idea some had at the space for recycling old print scraps was injection molding or some sort of heated pressed molds.

Good luck.

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