a dog deciding between two bones

[solarbird]

So I'm trying to decide between tools of a sort and I'm in a conundrum.

3D printing generates a lot of waste PLA in the form of bad prints, support structures, and so on. That's not actually so bad; it's a medium-term carbon store that doesn't break down to microplastics.

But.

Reuse is even better. So given that I semi-regularly have use for rigid sheets of material, and that PLA in most cases would be a fine material for this, well, you can see where I'm going.

A bunch of people say they've managed to melt waste PLA into sheets just fine in ovens. People have been talked about casting with it, melting it down into a pourable liquid.

All this should be possible. But.

I tried the oven thing. It was an absolutely laughable failure and I don't know why. So I have a Concern about that whole idea.

I've also seen people make sheets successfully in videos - but they weren't using ovens. They were using T-shirt transfer presses.

T-shirt transfer presses make all kinds of sense. You've got a nice even press, you've got plenty of heat. It should work.

But so should the oven thing, and I know how that went. And if a T-shirt press fails as badly...

...what the hell am I gonna do with a T-shirt press?

A toaster oven, I can do things with. I could use it as a materials accelerator, a hotbox. I could use it just as a warming chamber - though I have a lot less need for that now since I made an even bigger one, another wouldn't hurt anything. I could do powder coating of small objects.

I could even make toast.

But a T-shirt press?

I mean, if it works, great, I become a maker of small-quantity plastic sheeting that I use myself and hand out to other makers who can use it, go public service me.

But if it doesn't, then it's a single-use tool for which I have no use.

I hate that.

So, yeah. Conundrum. More likely to work, but if and when it doesn't, I've wasted gift cards. Whereas if I get a toaster oven and still can't make the oven method work, at least I still have a toaster oven.

I just dunno.

As problems go, it's not big, but I do want to solve it, partly because I've been doing a lot of prototyping (and making tools, say hello to my new little friend the drum sander) so have a lot of space-taking waste PLA, and partly because I could actually use some sheet plastic.

So, yeah.

If I knew for sure I could make the T-shirt press work, I probably would go with it. But I don't know that.

If I knew what went wrong with my oven attempt, I'd probably be okay going with that too. (And I have been told to grind the plastic down, so I might. Maybe.)

ugh.

I wish I knew someone personally (as opposed to reddit people) who'd done this. But I don't.

hmf.

(Side consideration: I have enough gift card for a pretty nice toaster oven, but a fairly low-end T-shirt press. Not the lowest end, rating is 4.5 stars, but it's not exactly the highest quality machine either. That's also a matter of consideration. I guess.)

Comments

[vatine]

Would "baking tray paper and a clothes iron" be enough to do a proof-of-concept trial run? Those are things I would expect to be somewhere between "already available" or "something that can be borrowed for a day or two".

Which, coincidentally, reminds me, my accessible launderettes seem to not have irons, so I should seriously consider purchasing an iron and an ironing board, one of these quarters.

[solarbird]

The problem with that would be having heat only on one side. And the speed of heating and duration of heat are definitely factors.

Maybe if I... hm.

Maybe if I took one of my alu sheets, got that up to 180C or so, took it out, and tried it then. Timing would definitely be a bit on the delicate side, but it could work.

Hm.

[vatine]

Yeah, not a perfect trial run, by any means, but should give some data guiding future decisions.

[solarbird]

Yeah, yeah - it's a good idea. I think... yeah. I think I could safely try it.

[armiphlage]

Or if the key elements are TIME, pressure, and temperature, you could put it in a toaster oven with a piece of scrap metal on top

https://www.delightedcooking.com/what-is-a-bacon-press.htm

[solarbird]

Well, yeah - any toaster oven version would require paired plates. I mean, any version of this at all would. Only question is whether they're built-in and how pressure can be applied.

[peristaltor]

I was at a friend's yesterday. She had a new toaster oven that had a fan and electronic temperature controls, so it could double as an air fryer. I called it the Instapot of toaster ovens.

It seems that's the problem with plastics; their sensitivity to exacting temps. Electronic control and a circulating fan would (at least) help that. Whether it's precise enough….

[solarbird]

Oh yeah I would absolutely need a toaster oven with a fan and all that stuff, and while I didn't specifically mention that, it's included in pricing in my discussions above.

That's why the costs are comparable, in fact. If I didn't have to have those features, I could get two very nice and very effective non-convection non-electronic-controls toaster ovens for the same price as one iffy-grade T-shirt press. xD

[peristaltor]

Oh, yeah. I totally forgot. On a whim I bought a heat gun with temp controls, designed specifically to melt certain plastics. It's still in the box.

You want it?

[solarbird]

I would if I didn't already have one! :D

(In my case, it's a "hot-air rework station" and marketed for surface-mount soldering but it's exactly the same thing. Air get hot go zoom. xD )

I really appreciate the offer though. Maybe find a local makerspace that could use it?

[peristaltor]

I should just open the box and play with it myself like I intended all along. I have a dream of making useful stuff out of old pop bottles.

[solarbird]

You should! Hopefully it'll even be fun! :D

It's not the same thing but there's a project that just dropped a big release on turning those bottles into 3D printer filament. I don't want to work with PET(E) but if I did I would be so into that.