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.