Portable Extrusion v3.1

Precious Plastic Machine Development
#1

hey there, I am still completing drawings, wiring, material bill, etc… in the library but I couldn’t resist to upload already 🙂

I needed this portable as possible, safe and easy to extend or customize. I think this variant could make it to the public market for a entry level price; still quite some stuff to add and todo : cooling (fans), nozzles for injection, a bunch more sensors, etc…

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the motor fully enclosed to make it full roundish, I am still looking for small but powerful motors to get all into one ‘box’ but those seem 3 times the price,… no biggy I guess.

Library link (beta)

#2

Very Nice!
I wonder if a heated hopper would allow you to use smaller motors.
The right side of the front panel looks kind of empty…Need to come up with a cool logo.

Great work as always.

#3

just to update links and media :

Source files on Github v3.2
Source files on Github v4.1(includes some mini how-to)

Some last little remarks regarding v4 hacking,
– our variant of the v4 extrusion removed all the special parts which were only available to dutch and french companies – we tried hard …
– there is still some special firmware in progress which assists in easy re-play of pre-recorded extrusion times. See more about on youtube.

If you have questions or need help, we answer this in on a new forum. Other than that you also all stable major versions linked in the new bazar.

The machine is maintained in the new library : https://library.precious-plastic.org/machines

720×480 60.5 KB
1390×1080 186 KB
2780×1309 479 KB

#4

I updated the extrusion hopper mount & hopper itself (video). It snaps on the barrel and you can turn it down to empty it easier. I gonna use the same ‘clip’ for the thermo-couples and heat insulation support. Full documentation is in progress.

#5

here some more details on the hopper
– you have it much more easy like this 🙂
– the hopper will be ‘plugged’ into an adapter just
– the adapter has already some nuts welded in place
– the screw mount btw. offers quite some rigidity when solid
– this way you can also hide ‘not so well welds’ better
– if you have cone drill (up to 35mm) you just make a hole in a sheet and split it along center line to make the adapter

#6

Great find, how did their shipping costs work out? I wonder if their $800 crusher https://www.robotdigg.com/product/1379/Soundproof-plastic-crusher-or-shredder is any good.

#7

@s2019, whopping 600 Euro for the shipping; back to square one. I will make some attachment for the lathe to make cones that size. I am still waiting for the shredder shipping details but i guess it’s an euro-palette, so around 1000 Euro, even though, for 1800 E this thing seems to beat the sh** out of any PP shredder around; just looking at the specs, enclosure, etc… tells me it may make sense to order 5 ahead and resell them in the bazaar; time to step up the game anyways 🙂 poor PP folks currently people seem to pay the same for the third of the quality of whats possible with the PP shredder …

#8

Great to see what you do, can you tell more about the motor and the inverter ( frequency and reference) thanks a lot

#9

i found a perfect hopper to go from here, i am ordering one and will try to get a mixer in there 🙂 230$ is just a third of what it takes to make one in the garage.

#10

@s2019, thanks as always, I like the idea of the blower as alternative heat supply system. I am afraid I have to come up this milestones with something solid as mentioned earlier. Here such feeder (kreyenborg DOT com /en/product/extruder-feeding-system-special-feed-hopper/). In top I want to make it work as plugable component, injection and extrusion, something which can also survive students in fablabs and universities (ambiguous, i know) … way to go.
Doesn’t look too hard looking at this, the cone it self is better taken from ebay/aliexpress and the rest can be done in a homeshop. I am already excited about plugging the controller to mix 2 colors. As mentioned earlier I’ve met some guys who print grinded PET bottles right on the printer, they basically use a sort of screw and pre-heat it on it’s way down to the nozzle, neat.

#11

An cheap way to try the heated hopper may be to add a screened port near the bottom and blow warm air through with a heat gun (adjustable so you don’t melt or burn the plastic).

#12

hey there, thanks thanks 🙂
@s2019 heated hopper, that’s on my list :-), the offers on the internet are just a little insane expensive (heated transfer hoses) so i have to come up with something DIY. Machining something to support cartridge heaters heatwires is a a little out of the window but or to keep the required motor power down I always turned the screw myself instead.  The motor in the picture is ‘Tausend’, 0.75Kw, 1500 RPM, with a 1:20 reducer. You can buy these here for around 200 Euro. It’s a config I used often. It runs fine without getting too warm between the min. of 30Hz til 60Hz. As always, I opened the gearbox to check the bearing, it’s a ‘6008’ – Z. A little research showed that these can take quite some axial load but I have to wait for user feedback; for now I can just hope this machine won’t fall apart, lol. I better put another angle bracket at the motor. Luckily I know for sure that our screw won’t allow for too much back pressure.

but hell yeah, it’s getting quickly expensive, motor around 200, VFD 100, screw 2–300, heatbands and eletronics another 100 and metal work another 200.

I like the idea that the whole eletronics part has enough space and being kinda isolated and it’s enclosure provides the framework for the components. the very thick metal plate on the top enables the user to update this system for another motor, or an additional thrust-bearing. I hope I can integrate a more specialized gearbox into the housing (second/top layer) already and so a user just needs to plug the motor to the system; easier and cheaper to ship …

see you in a bit, still some stuff todo on this design. enclosing the upper layer entirely seems really tempting, heat the the feeder, fume extraction, …

#13

love your work “g” what gearbox and motor are you running?