How to Make Recycled BEAMS from Plastic Waste at Home
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2021
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In this video, we wanted to test a method of making recycled plastic beams using our DIY recycling method melting milk bottle tops on our panini press. We came up with a simple mould made mostly from construction materials and some aluminium angle. Then we heated up the plastic and compressed it in there.
We were super surprised with how this came out. If you guys can think of a way to make this process quicker, then this could be a feasible way to make beams from recycled materials at home. Drop a comment below with any ideas you have! Thanks for watching ♻️🤙🏽
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No this does not solve the entire waste plastic problem and no it does not really replace wood or steel beams in construction, as so many geniuses have pointed out in droves in these comments while missing the point entirely.
But that is not the real point is it?
The real point is that this is a creative and "outside the box" method for putting to use stuff we were going to just throw out entirely and let it sit unused in the landfills.
Does it have to be used as a replacement or substitute beam for your deck or load bearing beam in your house?
No, not at all and no one said that you must do that at all in the first place.
But if you use your brain, anyone can see big potential for many other uses for this method if refined and improved.
Could be useful for creating many other shapes for decorative coverings and finishes too, and not just limited to one use or application only.
Wow there are so many - "I use a hammer for every problem I encounter" people out there.
It is just a video showing creative humans using their brains and imaginations to try to make use of things that would be wasted and just tossed unused. However, now that throw away plastic will be put to use and less will go into the land fill.
Why do most people state the obvious right off that bat?
Of course not one simple idea will just solve a complex issue like our dependence on waste, but these folks never claimed that either.
I say bravo and good thinking on trying something out in the first place.
And by sharing their ideas it spurs others to think creatively (at least those of us who have the capacity to) to try to come up with alternatives as well.
Lewis gets it! Thanks bro 🤙🏽🤙🏽
@@BrothersMake suggestion a pizza oven with the conveyor belt would be able to melt more plastic at one time use wax coated cookie sheet trays and drop directly into the mold and while true that you could not use it for load bearing you could use it as the roof of a green house making flat clear plastic sheeting connected to the beams for skylights ,you could also use it for decorative fencing around a garden i can think of lots of ways to reuse them
@@williamwofford2503 Plastic sheeting for outdoor use needs to be UV resistant, otherwise it will turn yellow and brittle from sun exposure.
@@armedwithjello Unless you paint them. Duh!
people just like to make noises that make them feel smart 🤓.
You should strength test the plastic beam vs. A standard wooden one to see how it compares
that the most important
Agreed. What good is it if it can't demonstrate its strength, especially for the time.
@@quest_onchannel54 . Pound for pound it's way weaker than wood . I've used it for tool handles and it splits unpredictably and chips easily with impact.
good call!
@@leerogers6423 thinking about this...just use more instead of a standard 16inch stud gap...Honestly to answer myself from my above comment...less stud gaps increases in more plastic...This is actually imo a good idea.
Current price of lumber sure has me exploring some strange avenues.
Could be a viable option! 😂
Worse part is that we had billions of dollars in free lumber but for decades the government wouldn't let us log. Then as any ecologist predicted, the high concentration of trees lead to wildfires becoming uncontrollable and all the trees burn down not just wasting wood, but also destroying the local ecosystem as well as property and lives. Here in California despite several years of basically nonstop fires, our government still hasn't learned their lesson. When they are convinced to log wood due to the fire risk they BURY the wood rather than selling it on the market. SMH.
Alaskan mill ftw!
I actually think this would be a great way to make sinks with a proper mold. 😊It’s a beautiful pattern and the sink would be almost indestructible. Also, outdoor table tops.
Honestly? The amount of work for one “board” that comes out looking otherworldly made me wonder why anyone would do this. Your ideas changed my mind. Excellent, creative ideas, You! 😊👍🏼
thanks, your reply answers my question. i was thinking of making free form planters for houseplants
just a fyi if outside the uv rays will break it down over time
Does this produce microplastics?
@@dr.jmoves1005 it probably would unless it was sealed in with a bathroom grade top coat
You need something like a crockpot to melt more and easier. Ideally, you are looking for something that can apply continuous, medium, and uniform heat over time. A pot solution would make it easier to add to the whole as the caps liquify. Also, the pot is ceramic which will hold the heat giving you more time to transfer the material to the mold.
I'm thinking bread machines. Integrated mixing in a heated pot.
Put heating elements in the mold.
@@phallusy6574 liiiike?
@@jethermukisa9554 like heating wire wrapped around mold
@@phallusy6574 100%. The aluminium sidings would conduct the heat well. No need to get everything out and press it 100x, just stick it straight into the mold and let it level out with the heat
Toilet seats, toothbrush holders, vanity tops, tubs for mobile homes or tiny houses. You guys are awesome for this, I'd like to see you grow.
Here in Australia there is a company already producing these in a product called "Mod wood" to be used as an alternative, mainly used for flooring, decking & fencing. One thing they do to help with strength is use reinforced steel mesh in the guts of it. That may help you with your product.
I've always thought that bamboo is the perfect internal material to add reinforcement strength and rigidity to these plastic beams at lower cost.
I wish this would happen all over the world. Anything to reduce the waste in our seas & landfills.
Hi, I recently purchased a tiny house and my front landing is made of Mod Wood, I do so wish my floor was the same colour as your experiment, instead of the brown wood look that I have. I must say it is great to clean, so easy, and no splinters in the bum when you sit on it. Lol. Sherie Rodrigues from Australia
@@AussieAquatic Bamboo sounds like a much better idea than the metal.
I don't relish the thought of ruining my tools by sawing through the beams. XxX
You could use almost any fibre to strengthen the plastic. Glass fibre used to be used for engineering plastics, but there were experiments using feathers as a natural alternative that showed promise, just the feather part, not the 'spine' of the feather.
Just a thought, maybe put a heating element under the aluminum with a manual nob or something to regulate the heat. That way you don't have to melt it outside the mold. Turn it on put all the plastic in the mold from the start (maybe half if the volume is to high) , apply some pressure with that fancy press :) and just let it melt into form.
I’m in process designing a heating vat that makes plastics fluid that allows you to pour into vertical mold containing a center core of used tire cord , problem is flammability and due to that can never be used in anything occupied, maybe deck boards if sun did not warp or degrade,maybe underwater rigging or foundations but that’s just putting the plastic back into the water. We are on the edge of a breakthrough and soon hope to go public
@@classless007 hi , do you know at what temperature the plastic melts and when does it start to burn and be unusable ? Also is it possible to keep the plastic in a melting state without burning it ?
@@MrRiikuo really depends on composition of the plastic, I just slowly heat until I’m there
@@classless007 thank you , il try it out
all plastics are different, but between 180 and 300, but most are around 200-220 and you can hold it for quite some time@@MrRiikuo
I’ve read that using powdered almond shells can increase the repurposed plastics strength, it would be interesting to see the comparison between the two. I’m also curious if the rate at which the plastic cools effects it’s tensile strength. Awesome video guys
The method in the video seems like a great opportunity to experiment with composites - whether they were to add in some wood dust, metal shavings, plant fibres, charcoal etc - I think it could greatly improve the material strength
the problem with that is, maybe you will be unable to recycle the material if you ever need to, so would eventually become waste...you´d think thorougly how to design and use the final piece so that in retains its usefullness for as many years as possible. Any scraps of it would automatically become waste too
Need a good blender with water to shred caps into small bits. Strain and dry out. Then use a large pot inside of a larger drum with water heated with a gas turkey fryer or similar to melt small pieces all at once and uniform.
It would be way easier to just add in some fiber glass or metal mesh to increase the strength
What about melting to 1,500 & adding aluminum & iron, etc. I realize the toxic fumes, but there's countries incinerating plastics
You guys should do a stress test to see how it handles sheer and compression forces compared to a regular 2x4. I know the point isn’t finding an alternative to wood but it would be cool to see its failure point
since thermoplastics suffer from creep during prolonged stress I think it wouldn't be a very good alternative to wood even if initial test went in favor of a HDPE beam . . .
Stiffness is also just as important as strength. If plastic deflects more, then it won't support load as much if used alongside wood, and if used in place of wood, more plastic would be needed to keep deflections low.
These kinds of planks can warp in very hot sunlight during summer days.
Recycled plastic planks in America are often used for building City Park benches and rot-proof picnic tables. And in children's playgrounds.
@@jacobshort6528 They have UV stabilisers added during the manufacture. The one in the video would become brittle in a summer.
Using a heat gun to control the heat while adding the plastic to the mold will lengthen the time to work with it.
I also think if you used an old meat grinder (the kind that clamp to your dining table) to crush/shred the caps before melting will reduce air pockets as well as increase the number of caps per melt in the panini press.
Great idea. I just wonder if that would effect color control. I would say you could easily grind by color though so yeah great idea!
large blender to cut up the caps
If you don't compress it after grinding it it's going to be 50% air bubbles.
You don't need to work with it that long. Just get it in and press it down.
Meat grinder wond do HDPE
You two are amazing if I would have had teachers like you when I was younger at school would have been awesome. Thank you for these videos I can appreciate your work very much.
It's awesome to see the thought and ingenuity that went into this. Very complex and time consuming but that can be reduced. It's also awesome to see the little ones getting involved. In 20 years they'll be WAY ahead of other folks in their knowledge and skills. Keep up the great work. Recycling (and less use of recyclables) is always where we need to go.
in 20 years they'll be living in the pod and eating bugs along with everyone else because of people like you who think you know everything
In 1995, I went to a three-day recycling seminar where they had full-sized plastic dock pilings and said that they stayed strong through the pile driving process and held up in the weather.
Aw I wish i'd seen this back in October, I'm literally making engineering plastics all day every day, if you had added 2% tioxide and 20% by weight ec10 glass fibre then it would have would have been extremely strong and fairly resistant to UV light damage
Best comment I've ever read
What about melting from intense heat like a fire or "global warming"
Thanks, that's very informative!
Where to buy or manufacture
I wonder if this technology could be used to create tornado shelters or tornado resistant homes if the plastic is stronger than stick built homes. If it is anchored into the ground, perhaps it would be less likely to shatter in a high wind.
Thank you for addressing process waste from cutting and sanding. It’s important to use what we’ve created but this is a vital detail.
Genius! Very clever indeed. Never seen this done in this way before. And tbh I thought they never going to maintain the consistency of heat throughout. Proved me wrong. And I'm pleased I were. Brilliant presentation x
One eco friendly energy source for heating the plastic is a solar oven or the use of magnified sun light using a large fresnel lens from an old TV focused on a ceramic plate in contact with the mold.
You mean: How to burn your plastics 101? Solar ovens are great but for melting plastic you want a controlled temperature. Especially with highly flammable plastics like HDPE.
@@IzzyIkigai
That's a good point, I was picturing something with a thermometer and easy opened ventilation, possibly a water basin it could be dipped into in the case of if exceeding the desired range. Although if a solar oven gets hot enough to burn the plastic, would that imply that a structure built with this material may begin to soften and loose it's form, possibly collapse on a hot day, as the attic could reach solar oven range temperatures?
I really like the idea of using an old TV screen as a lens, regardless of if it works for this use. Great thinking!
@@charfunkianmojosapian4276 i think you underestimate how hot a focused sun beam under a fresnel lens can get. In Focus on a sunny day you can melt stone with it. So you'd have to overengineer something just so your lens doesn't focus too much. Meanwhile solar panels exist and can power your electric oven. ;)
@@IzzyIkigai
Maybe just reflective siding in an insolated box would reach a high enough temperature, or if a focused point was used it, it could be used to heat water which the mold would be partially submerged in.
just bumped into this video and thanks. you guys give me hope there are more people out there who care about our addiction to throwing plastic in the trash. very inspiring
As I throw another bottle in the recycle bin I keep seeing products like this in my head. Thank-you for out of the box thinking. And trying to find useful solutions!
I've created solar ovens using fresnel lenses salvaged from rear-projection televisions.
Some of them were powerful enough to melt stone.
I'd bet that you could make one that you could use to melt plastic and other recyclables without using so much electricity.
WOW!!! That's awesome. I'm looking for an accessible solution to make an solar oven. Loved it! but how can u make that glass transparent? aren't they all dark?
@@nimaryan8710 No, all of the ones that I have taken apart have a tinted sheet and/or a grid sheet over the lens.
The lens itself is clear.
@@theotherwaldo ohh! That's soo great to know! i will look for it. Thank you!
@@nimaryan8710 - how about a parabolic mirror instead of a lens? Make the dish from any material that you find suitable, and then glue tin foil strips onto the inside surface. That approach also gives you complete freedom of size and scale.
If your mold is made entirely from heat conducting metal, perhaps the heating elements (whether from deconstructed appliances, or solar) could be added to the outside of the mold itself,
to be used as a melting vessel as well as an end-mold.
OR a long oven to contain the aluminum mold so that as one beam is cooling, another beam full of plastic can be put in to melt.
Having learnt from you guys, I've now made a mould using 18mm ply and 2 plates of 6mm steel. Whilst I melt the bottle caps in one panini press, I heat the 2 steel sheets in another. Just before adding the plastic to the mould I insert 1 hot steel plate in the bottom. The melted plastic goes straight on top. I did use silicon sheets but by going straight on the steel it stops the minute brick pattern on the sheets pressing I to the plastic. Then I add the 2nd heated steel plate and then the 18mm wood. I use loads of F clamps. The result is that whilst it takes a little longer to cool, the heated steel plates makes the surfaces of the setting plastic absolutely flat with no air bubbles or wrinkles. This eliminates the need for a planer or thicknesses. I can change the thickness of the plastic slab by changing the 6mm steel plates for 4mm. Using a combination of these I can make 2mm to 14mm plastic plates, depending on what I want to make from them. So chuffed ive found you guys. You are awesome
Sounds awesome! Would love to see pictures
I love, absolutely love, people like your family. A family that plays together stays together. Wouldn't that be so cool if they could stop the pollution of all of its plastic bottle waste? Then make houses for the homeless made from plastic and old pallets, that people are just casting into the garbage, or on the side of the road. It's great to recycle!
I stared using this technique for knife handle scales but with smaller pieces. And it went awesome.
A couple of thoughts for you - a T beam mold might be worth a go as you'll reduce the mass while retaining rigidity. It's an easy enough shape to achieve using your aluminium angle and boards. Another thought was possibly trying a hotplate with a temp gauge. As long as the temperature stays below 300 C you shouldn't have any decomposition. That might allow for easier processing of larger batches compared to the press method.
I really love the marbled effect the different coloured plastics create, this could be pretty cool to include within my current textiles project all about the waste we produce. Thanks for the inspiration!
I was thinking to do same thing. I'm glad someone else begeen to think of exploring a relatively easy solutions to this problem. Sure in the beginning are many flows and work. But this is how ideas evolve!
You got it!
As a concept I find this really neat, give it the right materials to actually do the molding process and I can see this being an alternate option for potential projects. There's just a few questions I have in regards to these beams: how sturdy is it compared to wood? How long do these last in contrast to other erosive tools like wood or metal? What does the wear and tear look like; warping, splittering, some odd rusting? How would a test room made of these beams handle things like temperature or sound?
If anyone has any answers or other questions feel free to add them!
I was a process tech making hdpe lumber for 8 years. Basically this exact thing except most standard lumber profiles in up to 8 foot lengths. All post consumer recycled. You did a decent job. I would recommend adding an exothermic blowing agent. These are available in hdpe pellets. A small amount produces a uniform foam pattern internally and causes the plastic to foam and fill the mold perfectly. It also adds very good structural properties. These beams are strong. Like stupid strong.
"Park bench" strong, or "automobile bridge across a deep ditch" strong?
You know they make powder foaming agents that are very safe to use and will have the same effect without buying new equipment, right?
I was an extruder operator for 11 years and we made foamed separator tapes. We just used a chemical foaming agent and it worked perfectly. It was pretty similar to baking powder.
@@absalomdraconis you don't build bridges out of plastic because of something called creep.
Over time, stresses cause Plastics to flex and retain the new shape as the elastic memory only lasts so long.
@@notsure1350 same with wood but I think it happens a lot long time frame tho
@@absalomdraconis I'd trust it anywhere I'd trust wood.
That's awesome! With a few recycled steel rods inserted in the middle, you'd definitely have a greater tensile strength piece to work with and test for how much compression it can take before it no longer can function at 100% capacity. I believe you fellas are on to incredible building alternatives and can definitely help with the over extended disposal of plastic refuse.
Funny you say that Stefanie as we were talking about doing exactly that earlier this week! Thanks so much 😊
@@BrothersMake if you go down that road maybe use a copper coated steel rod to improve adhesion between the HDPE and steel same principal as is used on steel belts in rubber tyres
@@TheMingilator
Would electroplating the copper onto the steel work for this?
@@akseminole so I looked a little further into this and I'm not sure copper would be the best interface material, there is a paper on that subject but it's locked behind a paywall I think some sort PVD process on the steel yielded the best results but can't be 100% sure
@@TheMingilator Link the DOI of the paper anyway, as there are ways (such as asking the authors, or finding it in an online database) to read it.
We had a picnic table out back at work that was made from recycled plastic, you could see specks of different color plastic, overall it was flat grey. The boards were thicker than boards normally used for such a table and the table was extremely heavy, it would take several people, 4 or more, to move it but, it will last for centuries if it isn't damaged or destroyed. It was held together by long, thick bolts.. 👍 Great use of discarded plastics!
Bravo! You can see the swirls which could become a type of internal weakness known as cold welds. To take this closer towards a structurally uniform and useful beam, it would be great to make an low temp heating oven and to align the melting components lengthwise. You could also incorporate laminates.
NON STRUCTURAL BEAMS...DUH
That beam is so cool and magical, your daughter is literally precious absolutely gorgeous. I would love to see these produced on a mass scale from recycling facilities.
This was cool.. how about adding electrical heating coils along the aluminum of your mold. Then you can add in your material without having to preheat and mold it. You should be able to use full caps and you're saved. As each batch melts you can press it and add more
I was thinking a heated mold would be a good idea. Just add the raw plastic, wait for it to become warm, press, turn off heat and cool.
Can you regulate your temperature with this method? HDPE has a sweet spot at around 350 F. Cooler than that and it isn't moldable, hotter than that and you start off gassing toxic chemicals.
@Dwight Gordon it wouldn't be impossible, but it's not going to be as easy as adding a couple of heating coils as suggedted. I'd aim for enough coils to keep the mold from cooling too quick while setting your clamps, and preheating.
@@Frentraken heating elements, insulation, pid controller. Not super difficult
@@JordanHaisley and at least a half dozen temperature probes for something that big, plus insulation required to maintain 350f is gonna add serious bulk, which will need to be addressed for clamping. So again not impossible, but still not slapping a heating coil on and calling it a day easy either.
I stand by the idea of just warming it. Small heating elements embedded in the wood frame behind the aluminum, then some 3/4 inch hard foam board insulation, and then either another layer of aluminum, or thin wood so the clamps don't sink into it.
i have no idea why, but hearing your voice just makes feel soothed.
I think you did a great job the possibility of the things you can make are endless good job and keep thinking outside the box
I was literally just thinking the other day that it would be amazing to figure out a way to upscale home plastic recycling to building material sizes, and now I'm eternally grateful for you guys doing most it for me lol. I know what I'm building next year's garden beds out of. I'm gonna try a few experiments with HDPE grocery bags as well, since I already use those to spin "yarn" for knitting projects, but have tons of edge cuttings that aren't the right shape for it and are just sitting in a bag.
I would be concerned about plastics leaching into the soil and from there into the plants I'm growing to eat. Might be safe if you use the right liner though?
@@Shadenir HDPE is used for milk jugs and other food products so as safe as any material for garden bed.
Great idea, saw thin concrete raised bed on YT with interlocking panels, basically holes at ends (corners) that accept rebar driven thru into the ground.
If it's not UV stabilised it will become brittle and start dusting.
What did you think of our DIY method for recycled plastic beams? If you have any ideas on how this could be done quicker/bigger/better, then leave us a comment below. See you on the next one 🤙🏽♻
Looks nice.
Question we also have glass if your ok with it mybe do some plastic things and some glass stuff on the side like a glass arm rest for a plastic bench now thats would look cool but not sure how cool it would really be.
Thoughts.
I would love if you guys could experiment with
A) designing a aluminium mold to be custom made for you from a company/manufacturing etc
B) Custom make a aluminium mold yourselves either through dremeling/carving or possibly even casting aluminium yourselves
Wow that give me an idea to Melt plastic♻️ I shall gets started soon, so then I can make my project when I get a new house 🏠 And do the awesome project
I think this is affordable, and the result is impressive for the volume of plastic melted. I've been having better results with using hinges on my mold. My theory is that it helps roll out air bubbles and squeeze out on one side of my casting. Thank you for sharing! You guys are helping me come up with better ways to recycled plastic as well!
We did exactly that (A) for our pendant video - check it out! (B) is also a cool idea, would be interesting to carve a block of aluminium!
That plank came out so gorgeous love the swirls of white with light and dark green..
The end result looks great. I am concerned about the amount of electricity used to do this, but the ideas people have had for a solar heater either as an oven or for the base of the mould is a good way round that. I'm wondering how easy would it be to make a cylindrical form, either solid or tube? I think they would look great for garden structures, and maybe the 2 x 4 would be strong enough for a shed frame (sized up a bit)
curious to know about offgassing when you heat plastic. is it safe for humans and the surrounding environment? otherwise a very cool project.
I figured if thye used a mask and ventilated the space for more than 24hrs they should be fine.
If you're smart enough to think to ask it, you're smart enough to know you already know. It's not the best, so use it in applicationns that aren't right next to your face while you sleep or where your kids gonna gnaw on it etc.
HDPE isn't toxic when melted at low temperatures.
Only bad when you burn it, same is true for materials like polypropylene.
I think the best way to heat them is with something like a milk boiler or a double boiler which both work on the same principle. Vessel contains water which is seperated by another vessel in which a substance is heated using the water in the other vessel. The heat never goes above 100°c
Shush
I’m wondering about the strength of the plastic beam compared to the wooden beam? I’d love to see a structure made out of plastic beams!
Melt under the sun, or lose strength and alignment.. there's a reason why these aren't used. They've thought about this before.
You can already buy plastic decking/ fencing and Sheds. They are becoming quite popular in UK.
@@jerelsalazar7959 my plastic shed would argue otherwise
@@dusand12 yeah, i also considered on other hand other plastic based or similar building materials like vinyl, composite, etc and they do withstand heat and other variables, I may have presumed and concluded too much too fast on little experience, I concede the argument sir :)
The compression strength is the problem. Plastic doesn’t have much give before it becomes brittle and cracks.
Especially when In the elements
I love how you make merhods that can be readily built on.
I wanted to do this for years. You guys are very creative .Please become the future leaders of industry . Lateral thought is intelligence.
Great ideas here! I really need to incorporate your processes in one of my projects soon!
Yes! Do it man. Give us a shout if you need any tips 🤙🏽
Plus as a fan of both WINand win for me ❤️
What is the function of Beam and how does that function in relation to temperature above melting point?
Get a big ass t-shirt press!
Cliff! The concrete mold works great for casting plastic. Let me know if you want me to ship you some shredded good stuff.
My grandson has been enjoying Kiwico for a couple years. Loves it.
I absolutely love the thought and creativity that has been put into these videos. This kind of out of the box , every small act matters, if we all do our part thinking is what we need more of in this world. ❤️ I truly hope you guy's continue to produce videos to show more ways each of us individually could do our part to save the very thing that provides us with everything to survive.
0:59 Ideally, the endgrain should curve in opposite directions so if the board has a tendency to warp a specific direction, that warping will fight itself.
Thank you for the time stamp. I was quite confused when I read your comment. Thinking something along the lines of 'what kind of idiot thinks there's endgrain in a plastic beam.' Then I saw what you were referencing.
My recommendation to make larger beams like 8' 10' even 12' in length is to use strip heaters in the mold and add the shredded plastic directly. Make the mold taller or melt it in layers. The tricky part and I'm not sure off the top of my head how you would do it is to load it all into a vacuum chamber. Because you can't have air bubbles if there wasn't any air (ie. vacuum) to begin with.
Also with a vacuum you won't need a press because gravity will pull everything down when the plastic becomes a liquid.
It could be simplified by pre-processing a lot of plastic into a format easier to use in relatively large-scale projects.
That could create a lot of opportunity to routinely test new methods without feeling forced to commit them to projects.
And standardization can be quite beneficial
I have my own sort of plastic recycling device that I made. It consists of a sheet of 16 in steel sheeting that I formed into a cone shape with a 8-in hole on the top and a 1.5 inch hole at the bottom. The cone is about 6 in tall and I wrapped it with pipe heating cables. The kind you wrap your pipes in in the winter so that keeps them from freezing. With this I can just continually add plastic to the top and when it is sufficiently melted it pushes out the bottom and you could just put it directly above your mold and fill it quite effectively.
That was rather impressive. My imagination went wild. I would love to see you guys diy a greenhouse using your plastic beams.
I wanna see Michael Reynolds build an Earthship using these, as they currently use lumber, which is one of the few materials they use that aren't recycled.
That came out pretty awesome.
It would be cool to vacuum degass the whole lump at a high temp so it's viscious and then wrap the whole mold in a vacuum bag after to produce a completely degassed, pinhole free product that would probably be good for high end knifemaking etc.
Wow what a concept and fabulous idea a way to recycle your plastics an make beams to build with. Bug proof, rot proof, and water proof!!!💛
This is an absolutely fantastic solution to boat deck supports. Wood is often used and rots from the water after a few years. This is light and will last about 500 years!
Amazing! I recently picked up a second hand panini press and I’ve been saving lids for a while now
Awesome!
The real way to increase production is to use a big oven with several racks. The kind of heaters used in school cafeterias would work well for this. Pile the plastic shavings onto 10 sheet pans, and load them in. You could cook several kilos of plastic at once. You could even leave some in while you work with others.
Now your talking!!
Awesome project! For the time element, maybe a future project could be a miniaturized hydraulic auger; in injection molding, the main screw turning provides about 80% of the heat to melt the plastic from the mechanical friction of twisting and stretching the plastic. They're normally huge setups to provide crazy high tonnage of pressure, but something small could probably greatly help with handling
This presentation demonstrates recycling perfectly. God help us all.
Got to love how RUclips sometimes shows you some of the coolest projects when you least expect it. It would be pretty cool to incorporate this into a desk of some kind. Appreciate the idea!
I was literally just researching recycled plastic deck furniture, and one chair was 700$ , and then this pops up, and I'm like, " Hmm, I can diy an Adirondack chair instead."
I like the mould for the wood, but the motivating principle as to "would I do this" actually comes down to the melting plastic time efficiency, make tools that automate that and you are on a winner!
For bulk processing, use a big double boiler over a gas ring. This enables consistent lower temperatures over a good surface area. Just use caution when lifting the pot out of the boiler vessel, hot plastic, steam and boiling water are not fun to spill on oneself.
A double boiler never gets much above 100degC
@TheBaconWizard plastic liquefies just above the boiling point of water. Good double boilers seal enough to get the pressurised steam to heat the boiler itself to above 100'C. Alternatively, use oil instead of water, and you can push the temps up to optimal with a good thermometer and a reliable heating element, the extended temperature range of oil will get you up to 200'C with no flash point issues.
@@thudthorax Just use an induction heater. Better still, make moulds from mild steel and use them to directly melt the HDPE inside them.
@TheBaconWizard I see inconsistent polymer bonding using heated moulds, and an induction ring does not share the same fine-tuneability as a gas ring. Inadequate bonding of beaded or shredded polymer waste leads to delamination and variables in tensile strength. I prefer the double boiler for thorough mixing and bonding of individual elements of the plastic. My industrial plastic production experience is in recovery, conversion, proofing, extrusion, and injection moulding. If you are choosing to simplify the industrial process for diy production for enthusiasts, you still need to consider the basic processes required for strong, consistent products. Otherwise, you will suffer structural failures and add to the already concerning stockpile of global plastic waste.
@@thudthorax Induction can be FAR more easily tuned than gass. One can even achieve sous-vide cooking with it, without a sous-vide machine.
I love that they use simple tools. It is more realistic. I don't have all the tools half of these DIY channels have.
I love this so much. I did a project, inspired by you guys, where I created large letters of the alphabet. I made like giant cookie cutters out of aluminium offcuts that a local aluminium manufacturer donated to me. The results were amazing. I'm hoping to work with a localish school for additional needs to pass in the knowledge too. Its definitely time consuming. But it's a start and in sure in time an answer to time saving and affordability will come.
That sounds SO cool!
I'm already saving plastic, for future projects. Thanks for the great tips, you guys are awesome.
That's great to hear, Bryan. Good luck with them!
Doing the same. In Norway we recycle bottles. But I'm keeping the caps. It's going to take ages. But I'm having ideas for Christmas 2022
I absolutely applaud the creativity and industriousness! I often enjoy thinking about what sort of things I could do with plastic waste, practically, meaning not at an economic loss... Which is a big part of sustainability.
Where I live there is no recycling industry, and for me to recycle is very cost-prohibitive being a pensioner near poverty line and far away from any place that does recycle that I would have to travel to, not to mention the manual labor effort that is no small consideration with the elderly.
Not that I would, but the state I live in does not let me burn my plastic, which I would have considered to at least recover the energy value, like a lot of third world countries do.
Co-generation incinerators, or pyrolysis for oil recovery, at least offset new carbon when engineered right, and with nowhere near as much pollution as you might think. Better some step in the right direction than no step at all.
Instead my state set up a non-economical Monopoly for hauling it away to a landfill. The state consulted environmental activists to come up with that law. So somehow that's better and more practical in the activists mind?
As usual, when money is not the object, somehow reason leaves the decision-making table. And at either table, morality never was invited.
It seems to me if we are to solve the fossil-fuel dependency problem we need something better than the leftist/activists industrial complex to help us find steps in the right direction.
Regardless, as a retired engineer I know there's a lot more to this than meets the eye of some DIY prototypers. So I am vastly LESS excited about this from the perspective of viable waste and fossil resource reduction.
There are a whole list of things I could point out to overcome before I would put much hope in this for that purpose. And I am all for those purposes, but pursuing them has to be wise. I am going to cite only two obvious issues with this propaganda effort.
1. You required vast volumes of electric heat, albeit at a lower temperature than most manufacturing, for that one-meter board. To be fair you ought to calculate and publish how much electric power you wasted doing that. There is also the energy input for material manipulation that is not quantified: twisting it, pressing, cooling it, then finishing it with all that cutting equipment. To scale this to practical production in mass, employing machinery for all those actions, you might have used more carbon generating power then you saved in that plastic board. And that is not to mention that that board still stands a good chance to become a waste product some year in the future.
By the way, This is already done for decking boards, and those boards cost a lot more than wood, but they're finish lasts much longer than stained wood, which is their only market advantage.
2. From a building construction perspective, you implicitly suggest this is a candidate to replace wood products in construction material. Well if the construction industry only cared about showing that they've replaced wood for recycled material that might mean something. But the building industry has a very deep and vast concern for fire safety. Thermoplastics are going the opposite direction at high speed when it comes to fire safety. And when I talk about fire safety, I also mean, retaining structural integrity during a fire for the sake of permitting evacuation, not just the concern that they add a much denser fuel to a building fire. (Remember the value I mentioned for offsetting new fossil-fuel production).
On the positive side, I suppose as an artsy-fartsy mantle piece it is a DIY project worthy of note.
That is what our children should learn and practice making in schools.
Absolutely beautiful❣ It's great to see people actively recycling and sharing how to do it yourself. Thanks.
Damn, you guys killed that one! Super clean and totally accessible 👌🏼
Thanks so much, brother 🤙🏼
This is really cool, love the quality of the video and the music is awesome. Keep up the good works guys!
Looking into some materials engineering videos, especially with 3D printing, you'll find the many times using less material, while adding internal system of scaffolding actually increases the load bearing strength of the beam. If engineered properly, it can be stronger in all directions.
How is that possible? A solid beam already has whatever internal scaffolding you can think of and the rest of the area is filled in with plastic.
It's important for many that, if you show how is the strength of the beam you just make here. And also how we can we melt this types of plastic wastes if we don't have a microwave or a toaster?
Just wanted to say you are doing great educational projects and please do keep it up and reach out to millions around the globe!
I melted mine in my kitchen oven granted your house will smell like hot plastic if you over heat it so id suggest getting a used kitchen oven and doing it outside or in a garage/shop
Try a handmade solar oven, if it's hot enough where you live.
Oh, and a microwave oven won't work. HDPE doesn't absorb / get heated by microwaves. It was a toaster oven they were using.
This video unintentionally shows how flawed plastic recycling is. The amount of effort and energy needed to create a single beam of plastic is immense. The beam of plastic is smaller than the beams of wood they used in the mold. If you need a beam of that size for a project, the wood would work just as fine and would not create additional waste when its use is done (wood decays naturally)! And that doesn't even take into account the energy/power costs. This about how much power was needed to create a single beam... If people actually want to help clean up the environment, we need to stop using plastic in the first place.
Yeah. Recycling is all well and good, but as they said, the best way to reduce plastic waste is to not make it in the first place.
@@user-pn4py6vr4n wood decaying is a problem, not a benefit. The wood sold for decking these days only lasts about five years before your elderly parents fall through it and break a leg. I built a deck 20 years ago, and then added a section 5 years ago, both sections rotted and became dangerous at the same time. I sure wish I would have used plastic.
It's not this difficult for a diy project but like anything there's capital requirements
All you need is a chipper and a heated press. You gonna have to buy or build both and it's not cheap but neither are the tools to make heat treated 2x4s efficiently from scratch
But yeah wood is clearly a superior product (and it's production consumes energy too)
@@JP-vx2sr the plastic facia that I put on my house has a fifty year warranty. The wood needed repairing patching sections every couple of years. The wood has zero warranty. I’m going with the product that has a fifty year warranty, and will likely still be like new when the rest of the house is gone. To me that’s the superior product.
All that energy used to melt the plastic… has anyone considered that ??🤔🤔🤔
That marbling is just delightful.
Hey Bro's, just seen this video & am planing to have a crack at this myself, ive opted to work with molten PET, ime going to use an old distilling double lined pot with an element in the liner,
the element is rated up to 320C which is way more than i really need for PET,
ive followed your lead on the mold construction but used stainless steel construction instead of wood allowing me to remove the piece from the mold easy & have longevity of the mold,
i am using butchers bock/mineral oil as my release agent.
brilliant video folks, you got my instant subscribe for this one, how i have not seen you guys before on youtube i have no idea, brilliant well produced fun videos's.
Inspirational video. I think aestheticaly the combination of melted plastics looks a bit like green marble- highly decorative and the potential to make it into something like planters for the garden or house is great- though making a hollow former may be more challenging.
I kept seeing candy making in this video...I wonder if the old fashioned candy making equipment like the heated table and taffy pulling machine would make this process more efficient.
That's a really interesting idea!
Or the big flat grill from a burger van.
These will be perfect for my garden beds.
I had this idea like 15 years ago, nice work!
Most of the methods I've thought of so far involve basically reinventing injection mold casting, that or just cooking your plastic in a giant hot pot of some kind, though I assume one of the main concerns is having an even distribution of heat and maintaining a constant temperature, so possibly an electric slow cooker or a double boiler set up for doing large quantities of plastic all at once rather than the slow laborious task of melting small amounts in a panini press.
I've worked with plastics for years, and I laughed the whole way through this video. "We recycled this plastic!" well, yes you did, but the amount of time and energy used was phenomenal!
(math warning!) You can buy new plastic for $5 per kilo. It takes six hours of labor (that's two guys times three hours each) then you come to the conclusion that they're working at $0.83 per hour. Alternatively, if you figure you should pay $10 for grunt labor (no brains attached) you come to $60 per kilo of recycled plastic. Either way, clearly something is out of whack by an order of magnitude.
@@geraldfrost4710 r/whoosh
The point of the video isn't how practical it is, but to inspire others into reusing recyclables. Recycling & learning new ways & things you can do with them is good thing!
You said you laughed the whole way through the video which is weird because I only laughed at your reply. Your math definitely needed a warning because it's wrong. If it's $5 per kg & they use 1.8kg then the price of the plastic new would be $9, 1.8 x 5 = 9, not $5 total like you used. Next, as you said it took 2 people 3 hours to complete, so 2 x 3 =6. Last, $9 divided by the work hours gets you the price/pay per hour of work, so 9 ÷ 6 = 1.5 or $1.50 per hour.
Maybe learn math before you try & sound smart next time! Thanks for all the laughs & I wish you the best!
Here's some more math for ya'll... I'm not sure of the exact specifics, but I recon it costs about 86 cents worth of electricity to run the two 1800 watt oven/hot plate for the 3 hour duration (at $0.08 per kWh). Not much overall cost, but where did that electricity come from??? If not from your backyard solar panels or an up-stream hydro plant, then that's some CO2 emitting fossil fuels being burned for this.
Still, great idea and very useful - if even on a small scale. We never get an even trade with anything, but I'd rather see this recycling than plastic end up in the ocean. I have some cable runners made from recycled plastic. You can clearly see the different colors and chips used in the press. Very durable and it makes me smile that they were made from old water bottles and such!
@@bryanblaze4982 Yo, dude, you didn't understand him and all talked down to him through your whole reply. It's shameful, and it makes you look stupid, not the educated guy who speaking about his own field.
*New* plastic is $5 per kilo.
If 3 hours of labor from two people is worth $10 an hour, that's $60 in addition to the price of materials.
You didn't calculate anything. You just showed your ass on the internet.
Inspiring others to use recyclables?
But what those guys did is harmfull.
It is recycling but same way rape is sex, technically the same but there is a huge difference. Recycling is good because it reduces the impact on environment and pollute planet less. But what those guys did is far away from it, the energy they wasted to melt all that plastic was more polluting than having to make a fresh plastic beam out of non recycled materials would be. Its like trying to save starving kids in africa by burning a whole village saved foods and crops to cook 2 steaks on that flame for a whole village to eat for next year... Yeah you are "feeding" the hungry but you end up fucking them more in long run.
Love what you’re doing here! Someone may have already suggested this but how about making your own wood fired (or alike) smelting pot? You could melt a lot more plastic at once, not use electricity and it might be faster 🤔
Burning wood releases a lot of CO2
I started the beginning of this year by saving the gallon jugs we use for water at work. We go through about 3-4 a week.
This is awsome dude keep it up !
@Brothers Make - Just finished your Video. This seems very online with how: Skatelight & Gator Skins have Revolutionized the Top layers for Ramp Builds. If your process can do that for the rest of the Wood needed for builds...the Possabilites would be insane.
Also try doing one but adding in Carbon Fibers into it for more Strength.
I love it! Great idea to use up as many caps as possible. Imagine using the in a retail store setting? Local skate shop, kids clothing stores or art supplies shop anything fun, could look amazing if done properly! 😁
Absolutely! That’s a great idea :)
I admit this is quite innovative. But, how do you use it, I wonder. And can it replace wood or any other material for home construction or furniture?
The marbled effect is beautiful. I can imagine construction being done with beams like that instead of wood, given whatever additions are necessary to make it UV-resistant and at least as strong as ordinary softwood --- someone suggested using (recycled) fibreglass for extra strength. I can see a 21st-century construction style developing which uses only marbled plastic-wood, used to show off its beauty, and little or no drywall at all.
This would actually, potentially, have three ecological benefits:
1) Recycling the plastic to keep it out of the oceans (and landfills).
2) Replacing wood in building, thus there can be less denuded forestland.
3) Leaving trees to grow and remain as carbon sinks.
Admittedly 2) and 3) are closely connected -- the connection is that trees that are not used in construction can continue to grow and sequester carbon. I can add a fourth potential ecological benefit if the construction style above takes off:
4) Less use of drywall with whatever ecological problems are (probably) associated with its manufacture.
There is financial and ecological cost, such as energy use and off-gassing, associated with the manufacture of plastic-wood too; it would have to be studied to determine to what extent plastic-wood's costs are offset by the removal of the costs of making plastic-wood instead.
Would need to worry about high summer heat. I have seen pictures of plastic objects that have melted ( fences, traffic cones, etc )
been following this channel for a short while now, these video's have really shown me the potential of working with HDPE and have experimenting with it for a few weeks now and have a few observations I've made about it so far I thought I'd share (and apology's in advance for the large wall of text)
hpde's pliability allows it to be easily used for living hinges and or springs (meaning there's no glue or rivets that can fail between a spring and a part)
its strong enough that when cast as two hollow parts and welded together with heat it can still be a mechanically functional/stress bearing part
it floats easily even when its a solid part
when using white/translucent hdpe that turns transparent when heated its possible to color it by using both natural and artificial pigment powder, and this pigment powder douse not affect the thermal property's of the plastic nor douse it cause any fumes, this works for all pigments which includes metallic and color shifting pigments (have only attempted this with white HDPE as I doubt it would work with colored hdpe but this is a test I'll attempt in future, even if changing the color is not possible it should still be possible however to turn a unappealing slurry of color into black HDPE using dark pigment for example charcoal powder though I again have yet to test this but this is the next test I have lined up as I have a bunch of orange and dark green bottle caps, which is not the most appealing color combo)
it seems when it comes out of the panini press to lose its heat fast enough that it gets below 200 celsius soon after, this means it should be possible to use HPDE in its clay like state in a resin two part mold, be this a conventional resin mold or even a 3d printed resin mold (most resins crack at 200 c) have only tested this so far using press fitting resin prints into it but that worked great
high temperature hot glue seems to be able to bond pieces of HDPE together at least temporarily especially on a rough sanded surface, I am going to be trying a few type of two part epoxy's to see if I can get any better result aswell
it is very much possible to use both woodworking and blacksmithing/jewelry smithing methods on this material which opens up a whole new world of possibility, (one thing I've not tried is casting methods as I'm afraid the temperature at which HDPE becomes liquid enough to cast is also the point at which it starts burning/fuming)
and lastly but not least back to the strengths of HDPE and where I'll be focusing my efforts most in future after I complete all the testing, when molded in the same way as you would mold steel to increase its impact resistance (rounding and fluting primarily) HDPE seems to have about half the impact resistance as its equivalent in steel whist being far easier to repair... or in other words a piece double the thickness is potentially as strong as whist being potentially lighter, so far I've tested a few pieces of varying thickness and density and the results are promising.
looking around elsewhere online I seem to not be the only one interested in this particular application of HDPE as there are a few company's producing H.E.M.A. gear out of HDPE (though most are focused on high volume utilitarian gear), currently the best way for the arms and armor community to get beautiful genuinely looking armor is either A. commission a custom hand forged steel suit which costs between €5000-€10.000 not to mention the oil required to keep it from rusting (as buying a handmade suit out of stainless steel is impossibly expensive and labor intensive) or B. buy an aluminum suit which cannot be used for sparring...
I hope to add an option C. to this in the form of custom on commission basis HDPE suits of armor, they won't offer as much protection as steel so they can't be used against polearms or for jousting, but they should be able to protect against a longsword and anything below 380 newtons of force (which is what most schools and tournaments are designed around these days), whist being cheaper than aluminum.
will this be incredibly labor intensive and still be an expensive item? yesn just form the labor hours alone.
but form my experience if there's anyone willing to spend big amounts on finely hand crafted items its the arms and armor community... plus the appreciation of the past helping the future by reducing plastic waste is a thought I very much enjoy.
p.s. sorry to anyone that did not expect to be reading a damn essay on HDPE when they started to read this comment xDDD , but I very much appreciate it if anyone did in fact read all of it, any suggestions as to any additional tests I could preform would be much appreciated and ofcorse I welcome any and all questions about my findings.
Now that was a long comment! But it was all super interesting stuff, some awesome finds in there. We've saved your comment down to keep for future reference too, so thank you for that! Really interesting application idea for armour - I imagine it would still be super labour intensive, but like you say any set of armour would be. Also, keep us posted on your findings regarding being able to glue it if any of the epoxy you try ends up working!
This was awesome! Share more!💕
Thanks for the comment. I am doing some research too. Actually planning to incorporate HDPE and PP sheets into modular furniture design. I’ve already read a ton of scientific papers and it turns out PP, HDPE and LDPE are all relatively safe. Still being cautious when handling them in melted state is reasonable as You never know what kind of additives there are. In terms of mechanical properties PP seems to be the best, also being slightly less dense. On the other hand HDPE has lower melting point and is much more resilient to low temperatures. This month I will be carrying out tensile strength tests of recycled HDPE from detergents and milk bottles to see how it differs from virgin material. Also have designed a no-tool furniture connector that I wish to prototype trough injection moulding soon. I will post results online in my engineer thesis when its done and approved.
P. S. Really glad people start to realise how plastic pollution literally kills us.
@@pawewojtas88 I'd love to see that when it's ready!
Good read. How you think this recycled plastic can react to uv exposure? Let’s say I want to build a bench for my backyard. Do I need to add anything to prevent deterioration?
Thank you
I just discovered your channel and absolutely LOVE what you do! I am not a super DIYer, but I enjoy seeing this type of videos and getting inspired. I too feel......well, know, there is a LOT of plastic waste so anything that helps is worth looking into. Perorally, I will start looking at what can be done with this and action figures! 🙂 Keep up the good work!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I Love it!
How about a propane smelting furnace to melt the plastic it would definitely get it to a liquid state a lot quicker.
Plus, a bigger furnace means a bigger crucible or more than one crucible. This makes me wish I had a garage so I could have some fun the possibilities are endless. God Bless the two of you.
Great video, very interesting! A good way to repurpose old equipment would be a discarded dryer. They have a ton of heat output and you can probably find one with a broken drum to save from becoming scrap. It would take a bit of DIY but you could make a huge convection oven that could be controlled on the timer. Set it and forget it melting a whole bin of caps (under supervision of course).
Since you’re primarily using bottle tops, I think there’s a faster way of melting them down potentially. It involves a steel tube with a large enough inner diameter to feed the caps through, and an induction heater coil (or a few along the pipe). Might have to add a rheostat to control temperature, but once dialled in I’m sure it would work like a plastic melting conveyor.
This is a great idea. It would take lot of trial and error but the end result sounds promising and efficient
That sounds exactly like our injection moulding machine. Check out a couple of our other videos and you’ll see it in action!
I love this! I could make flower planters and all kinds of outdoor things. My creative gears are going.
I had watched this or another video and at the end you asked for tips on making this process less labor intense not sure if you got any responses. But years ago I worked in plastic recycling plant what you need is an extruder basically just a pipe with a screw drive in it and wrap pipe with multiple e!extend heat bands that you can adjust to different heat settings since different plastics will melt at different heat and you can have one band hotter or cooler and by the time it comes out it will be perfect temperature you want for molding your boards. If you are interested I could draw you a picture and explain how it works if you guys haven't already figured it out for yourselves. Good luck!
This could be really cool to incorporate into some sort of furniture build. I'm thinking a table top with alternating wood and plastic boards.
Cool idea!
Here's a thought for you guys. Being that the frame is metal, you could place a silicon heating pad (with built in thermostat) on the metal frame itself, preferably the underside length as that would make the most sense. They use these silicon pads in some 3d printers to heat up the beds for plastic adhesion.
You'd be basically creating a direct heat box instead of melting the plastic in your ovens.
At that point its arrange your plastic in the frame, plug it in, wait for it to melt and press/form it. Then unplug and wait for it to cool.
I'd like to see this be tried! Smart thinking :)
@@sleepingbag2424 That would basically be the Precious Plastic Sheet Press with a mold for rectangular pieces in it instead of the square sheet mold
.
How about the blending and air bubble removal?
Great idea! Definitely one we'll have a think about. Thanks 🤙🏼🤙🏼
Possibilities endless... rather than panini pans maybe some kind of kiln/dedicated oven situation to melt?
Love the marbling effect!! And sparkles!!
def want to try on smaller scale for various applications. Thanks guys!!
Ps.. so far as i could see every scrap of waste was recycling into more shavings, can be remelteted, remoulded?
Not so worried myself re stress testing in terms of beams... seems to defy the point of working on a small scale/diy project!
I wonder, if you planed it thin enough, what the effect of led lights behind that marbling could be... thanks for the vid... inspired!!
This is an extremely good idea. People can introduce this in the housing industry. Less plastic in the land fills and more building materials. It's a win win. People who cut it should be able to collect as much plastic as possible and the roughing should be done at a special place so the small plastic bits doesn't make their way to nature.
I think replacing the sandwich press with a Pizza Oven would speed things up, and using a heat gun on the mold could give you more time to press the plastic in. I would love to see fence palings made with this method
I could just imagine it taking a year of very dedicated work to make enough palings.
Fence POSTS (Primarily for farm use) are commercially made in New Zealand, mainly from milk bottles and pallet wrap.