also check out recyclebot.tumblr.com

new logo!!

GRAPHICS/PRESENTATION

If you have taken any pictures through the project please either bring the files on a flashdrive to give to me on SUNDAY or upload them onto this photobucket:

www.photobucket.com
USER NAME: recyclebot
PASSWORD: recyclebot

I have divided it onto for different albums:

1) RECYCLEBOT PROCESS PHOTOS

--think action photos
--evolution of parts (example, the grinder beginning...during...end stages etc)

2) RECYCLEBOT INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS

--any component shots before they are all put together (if you have them), this includes major components (grinder, extruder, spooler, etc), as well as the small components that are included in each

3) RECYCLE BOT MONEY SHOTS (Really nice pictures)

--awesome shots that you think are necessary for the presentation
--shots that have been edited already

4) RECYCLE BOT FINAL SHOTS

--final shots of all the parts together...finished RECYCLE BOT

Sickness

Hey guys,

Sorry to tell you but I have been sick the last couple of days and it has gotten worse,

I can still do some work from home if there is any for example graphic work or drawings etc.

So just let me know thanks and sorry

Daniel

Watercut grinder/plasmacut

Hey can Amelia and Lou meet at school tomorrow around 1:00pm to sort this grinder out and get the cutting underway.

State of affairs

Hey all you good looking recycle botters , just had a recap today on whats happening and we need to pull finger to sucessfully pull this one off by next tuesday!

Ive talked to a few in the group of what we need to do and assigned everyone a job.



Heres a list :



Ben- Heating the extruder

Jason-Extruder

Jamie-Spooler

Avid-Spooler

Jenny-Graphics and aesthetics

Luke-Skateboard

Jono-Skateboard

Amelia-Watercut grinder/plasmacut

Lou-Watercut grinder/plasmacut

DC-Watercut grinder/plasmacut



Most of you are probably thinking what the F does that mean! but i will be sending you an email specific to your job of what you have to do all the ins and outs.
Remember to take control of your job, all ideas are free to be developed or changed and its essentially upto you to get it done!



Thanks for the efforts so far guys, just need to knuckle down and push through to the finish, there may be other things to do finishing touches.
Remember...
If you dont do anything,nothing gets done



Chur Jono

Clean and Green

Colour Extrudes

Tye Dye MakerBot

Please collect any colorful bottle caps you can and bring them to our next meeting so that we can make long lengths of colorful thread for the MakerBot!

Heres the potential gears that might drive the extruder. they Currently have a 1:9 Ratio and having two sets combined with this motor from jaycar would be almost perfect RPM of around 100 and should provide enough toque.

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=YM2716&keywords=motor&form=KEYWORD

There might be enough material strength in acrylic if the gears were thick enough would need to do some tests tho

Half of the assembly

The Mixer worked pretty well with HPDE and PET when it was run for about 30 minutes but its really not feasible

A kitchen wizz would probably work better because it would cut rather than munch, but they are expensive for what we might get/use out of it. looked in second hand stores and trademe

Heres a quick model of the kind of chopper i think would work best for all type of materials and states. Also would look cool when you put a makerbot model into it and chop it. Its Based off the chopper Jono posted awhile back.

Depending how finely it chops it may need a second stage to chop it finer. But just speculation at the moment

We can possibly make a larger extruder to fit larger pieces in using a 10-15mm screw, but the amount of material that it would push through may be unfeasible, but something to fall back on

It has 50 pieces which are 3mm thick. There is a plasma cutter in the workshop that would easily cut them out. Using a mdf template cut on the laser cutter and allowing for the cutting tolerances it would be pretty easy to make. and since its kinda dangerous hand operated would be better.

Or it may be a good opportunity to talk to industry and see it we can get someone to supply and or cut the material for us.

Have also looked into meat grinders but the way the material is cuts/grinds may be ineffective for our needs and has same issues as we do with extruder.

Total dimentions above is W 70 x L 80 x H80 but thats very Flexible

Heres some closer ones of Fridays extruding.

The First Extrudes from No4. (Thursday 3rd June) Bottom Picture clearly show the jump in quality from our inital tests. Material above is HDPE 130º Melting point

Heres the latest extruding. (Friday 4th June) I got the gravity "Pulling" out of the die working really well and the material was a very consistent size when the material going into the hopper was all well sized. I also used a fan under the front of the die to increase the cooling of the material as it exits the extruder.

I tried a variety of plastics, HDPE, Milk bottle, milk lids, Plastic bags (by far the funnest to watch and do), Clear Bottle PET and White Abs

So far have tried Blue Green Orange White and Clear and a few different mixing s. Also have some yellow for the next extrude session. The spool in the bottom picture is around 2.5m.

Some Pictures of Screw Extruder Number 4 (finished Wednesday 3rd June) - now has separate sections that can be insulated if needed. At the moment it has a 2.75mm Dia Die. It Works really well. It does needs a thrust Bering for the end because it wearing through the metal but thats an easy fix.

Precedent Study: MakerBot Material Extrusion Photos

Cooling Conveyor Belt

Here are some shit renders of my concepts of a cooling conveyor belt, it also might help pull the extruded plastic out, which has been a problem lately. 

Cooling Belt

Hey, 

I have been working on a cooling conveyor belt for the extruded plastic to be extruded on to,

I will place sketches up shortly

Extruding

Todays extruding tests, good progess

Extruder

Here are the Photos of the initial "Extruder", made by Jason 2 weeks ago.

Food Processor Grinding Experiment #1

These are photos from my experiment a couple of weeks ago. Obviously a small hand held processor isn't the way to go in terms of the grinding mechanism.

Wire Nichrome

Hey guys,

Heres a website for cheap nichrome wire only $5.80 for 4m 

http://www.surplustronics.co.nz/shop/product-EWW4040.html

Also:

Tomorrow (1st of June) Would like to extrude some plastic through the screw extruder and see if it has any issues.

In manufacture they use a screw with a variable thread and spacing to increase pressure, move material in different states and maintain temperature within the chamber.

Ive had a really good look around in town and the hutt for a screw or orger, at any place I could think of, as well the ideas of every business i walked into. I couldn't find exactly what would be used and it seems they are usually custom made for their purpose.

The screws were either far too large, thread depth was too small or angle of thread was too large and would require a high pressure to move.

And so far the best suited is a 8mm wood orger for drilling holes - run in reverse.

If this does not work a 10-15mm Coach Screw may be a good replacement.

I also think Ive underestimated the amount of pressure that can be required within the chamber to extrude the plastic, in a few different machines they use COOLING only because the large pressure causes over heating of the plastic within.

If it requires heating it is usually done at the chamber close to the die and uses the radiating heat along the chamber to melt the plastic at a slower rate making it mix better. As the plastic moves along the chamber it will absorb heat from the outside and help to stop overheating towards the hopper.

Hopefully, at the moment the steel chamber will give us enough control over the temperature along it.

On the extrusion side with our current screw configuration, some upgrades might be

*A heat separation section between the start and end of the die to help cool and keep the plastic in the die shape (high temp plastic, brass,copper which is 5 times less thermally conductive as steel or ceramic - i haven't check its thermal capacity yet)

*A vent to reduce air within the melt section(a vertical metal tube with a plate at the top that has tiny holes or a porous material)

*A screen inside part way down the melt section to help clean the Plastic as it moves along the chamber (Metal Plate with holes in it)

This also helps with re-aligning the chemical bonds within the plastic and a possible avenue to make re-melting easier within the makerbot and the recyclebot process

*Change of material for the Chamber to better control temperatures.

*Screw Replacement.

And further down the track and easy way to assemble/clean/clear material and replace parts within the extrusion chamber and screw assembly.

Have been looking at the variable temperature melting points and has something to do with re-melt and amount of moisture within the plastic during flake to melt stage.

If the plastic is not kept below a certain Moisture content the water has a chemical reaction within the plastic and causes it to break down back into its primary elements causing a higher temperature to re-melt again.

"Ideally the reground pet should be dried to below 0.025% moisture content before extrusion"

Seems there are generally two methods. Drying the pre-grind and then flakes, or a Vacuum in the melt and flak chamber(Seems a little intense).

hopefully we can get the extrusion and heating a little tuned and see if we really need to go down the "drying" track before investigating further.

To make our job easier we really need to keep as much moister away from pre-melted and melting pet as possible.

Got the coffee grinder, so far it just jams it up. Hand grinder may be the way to go. I'll keep on working on it though.

Meeting

Meeting at 9-10am Friday 28th

Circuit Diagram

Just been working on a circuit for the heating component of the extruder with help from Tiago.

Jamie and I bought a couple of things from Jaycar and will grab a couple more things tomorrow.

The best material to make the barrel out of is brass but we need some kind of heat insulator between the barrel and the electronics. Apparently wood is good. Its easier to explain it in person some other time though.

http://www.plastics.org.nz/page.asp?id=585

good plastic info

do we want to go visit wellington plastic extruders for more info and ideas?
check the list out at:

http://nz.vicdir.com/dir-w10015s24347-plastic-goods-manufacturers.htm

will call Leda industrial as sugested by Ross

to talk about if they do extrusion...e t c

Meeting 8am Wednesday morning

PET Melting Temperature

• Maximum Temperature: 248°F 120°C
• Minimum Temperature: -148°F -100°C
• Autoclavable: No
• Melting Point: 266°F 130°C
• Tensile Strength: 4550 psi 

Plastic Melting Tempertures

Swiped the following table from Nasa:

HDPE about 130 ºC
LDPE about 110 ºC
PET 250—260 ºC
PP 160—170 ºC
PS 70—115 ºC
PVC 75—90 ºC

Grinding mechanism

COFFEE GRINDERS!

Ben and I have been looking at grinding mechs, real expensive to buy new but I've found some on trade me, probably end up costing about $60-80. orrr we could get a cheap old skool hand coffee grinder (might have to attach a motor to it) for about $20.

The electric ones would keep everything automated but may not have enough torque to grind the PET, where as the hand grinder should be fine. as long as it doesn't break.

Chur

Teflon Bra and concept

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu44qf8eetY

pet experiments

Pet, melting at home mmm

http://www.goedjn.com/essays/botplas.html

Here's a slightly less beefy shredder.

Due for Thursday, May 20th

Come up with three concepts in terms of how we will create the process of melting and extruding the plastic bottles. Focus on how we will shred, melt, create a dye cast, and turn it into a spool.

Notes:
Melting Point is 120-130 Celcius for high density PET

sketch concepts and we will present them to each other and find the best techniques.

It would be good to do some experimentation as well!

Just SHREDDING it up

Check out these industo shredders, needa get one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qedfz8nTHO8&feature=related

how can we shred our plastic efficently?

Hey,

Sorry i had to leave today.

Jeon bin has been researching with extruding a few different types of plastics and heaps of colours for the maker bot up at kelburn . He said he had some PET extruded and it could be a good insight into the process and see whats really required for us.

I'm not sure what was talked about but i will just put my two cents in.

For initial trials any PET will work - and then extruded, but re-use of the PET from bottles could be more challenging. They need to cleaned, washed and de-labeled and possibly flaked. It could be a good idea if people bring down a couple of bottles for tue's and see if we can start the re-use process soon. I assume different colors wont mix in recycling clear might be easier for a start.

A quick experiment could be to use the press in the workshop and see if we can extrude some plastic through a pipe and a die, Pet melting point is around 250 ish and shouldn't be hard to do.

An iron might just have enough heat for we need but it could be easier to have indirect heat such as a microwave oven or ..an oven so we can heat the die, hopper...ect all at once and cool individually as needed either outside or inside the "heater"

Contact Information

Hey Guys,

I have changed the settings for the Google Document so that you do not have to be signed into a google account to edit documents/etc, and I invited the rest of you to see the document. It doesn't matter to me how much we use it, I just wanted to make sure you knew that we have it as a resource.

--Jenny

Here is the link: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=t6PM1O7ZYj4IAQmdqGOJMEA&hl=en

And here is the updated Group Member Contact list from the spreadsheet...

Name Number E-mail J-Drink 2102550592 jenny.drinkard@gmail.com uke devail 272009071 lukedevil@slingshot.co.nz Lou-sh 212350423 lou.francism@gmail.com avid vivid 273,571,599 avid_1989@hotmail.com j-wat 272228665 jonofordwatkins@gmail.com dc collindani@myvuw.ac.nz jamie yau jamie.yau@hotmail.com jason mac-attack hotcrap@msn.com P-diggle a.diggle@hotmail.com KITCHEN 273232586 ben.kitchin@hotmail.com

RECYCLE BOT is alive

Hey guys,

recycle bot is underway,

we have research groups :

Plastics research group: Avivid , Jonono, Yauu

( melting point, how to crush it, cooling times, blend? sticky? And what you think you should do)

Heating Research group: Louie, D.Cmassive, Mack-attack hot crap.

( Irons, teflon coating, Cooling how to? talk to Jen about Recycling research and how they doit. )

Precedent recearch group? : P-diggle, Lukass, Bennie

Research how plastic is actually extruded, the ins and outs and how we can apply to our project.

recycling research: Jen

(you know what to do)

Put all that you find online and bring on tuesday!!!