PLA recycling

Google Groups
1

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

2

Hi, not sure if this will help you or not but there’s certainly some good
ideas in there.

Take a look at this discussion on instructables.

http://www.instructables.com/community/Inexpensive-way-to-grind-plastic-bottles/

Jon WilsonOn 3 Sep 2015 19:21, “ginge” barry.carter@gmail.com wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

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3

Theres one or two which ive seen, and one which ive tried

that one is interesting and quite DIY

i have one of those style which i’ve tried once or twice, am planning on
mounting it to a high torque motor at some point which would also work. may
need to pass the stuff through twice though :POn Thu, 3 Sep 2015 at 19:43 Jon W fast21@gmail.com wrote:

Hi, not sure if this will help you or not but there’s certainly some good
ideas in there.

Take a look at this discussion on instructables.

http://www.instructables.com/community/Inexpensive-way-to-grind-plastic-bottles/

Jon Wilson
On 3 Sep 2015 19:21, “ginge” barry.carter@gmail.com wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

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4

Doing a bit of googling
I found this which mentions using solvents
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/makerbot/8UGcLdSUHLQ
or perhaps re-melting the pla into droplets

I found this on youtube a while back which kind of mentions all the
different things they had to do to get pla extruded correctly


like drying out the pla etcOn Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 7:21:30 PM UTC+1, ginge wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

5

The problem with any of the wheat/meat grinders is that they use an
auger/archenemies screw to force the grindables in to the grinding head -
this means that the thing to be ground needs to be fairly small to start
off with, and there is the problem. The bigger grinders seem to be the best
solution, as far as I can see.

ChrisOn Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 8:37 PM, garlicbread (Richard) < garlicbready@googlemail.com> wrote:

Doing a bit of googling
I found this which mentions using solvents
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/makerbot/8UGcLdSUHLQ
or perhaps re-melting the pla into droplets

I found this on youtube a while back which kind of mentions all the
different things they had to do to get pla extruded correctly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkksADFjP8
like drying out the pla etc

On Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 7:21:30 PM UTC+1, ginge wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

–
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6

We had a play with a massive grinder thing at 3DPUG in january:
https://goo.gl/photos/8DC2WDuFUwAFzBYJ7

It is ridiculous, and loud, but it mainly worked. It might need a
second grinding stage before going into the filastruder, but the bits
are small enough that a blade coffee grinder should work at that
point.

-BobOn 3 September 2015 at 22:12, Chris Hilliard badspyro@gmail.com wrote:

The problem with any of the wheat/meat grinders is that they use an
auger/archenemies screw to force the grindables in to the grinding head -
this means that the thing to be ground needs to be fairly small to start off
with, and there is the problem. The bigger grinders seem to be the best
solution, as far as I can see.

Chris

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 8:37 PM, garlicbread (Richard) garlicbready@googlemail.com wrote:

Doing a bit of googling
I found this which mentions using solvents
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/makerbot/8UGcLdSUHLQ
or perhaps re-melting the pla into droplets

I found this on youtube a while back which kind of mentions all the
different things they had to do to get pla extruded correctly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkksADFjP8
like drying out the pla etc

On Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 7:21:30 PM UTC+1, ginge wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the problem
of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and blades, but
this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…

–
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7

Thanks all, some superb suggestions. Seems like I need to build a big
grinder!On Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 7:21:30 PM UTC+1, ginge wrote:

I have a lot of PLA in various colours that I want re-used. I have a
filastruder but the filament produced is terrible. Then there is the
problem of grinding it up. I have hacked up a bucket with a drill and
blades, but this didn’t get the PLA fine enough.
A non exhaustive google search brings up few options.
Ideas anyone? I am not averse to building a big grinding mechanism but
there has to be an easier way!
Chemists, Engineers and clever people unite…