Recycling Milk Bottle Vacuum Former

cults3d

I was curious to see how simple it would be to mold PE plastic from milk bottles using vacuum forming, and it turns out you can do just that. The temperature and timing need to be adjusted, but the first test came out better than I had expected. After further experimentation, the vacuum forming process could produce fantastic forms. The tool is built from plywood milled on a CNC machine and a 3D printed vacuum cleaner nozzle. The main plywood and 3D printed parts are glued together, and the plastic holder screws together with a PE sheet pushed between them. The PE sheet is cut from the side of milk bottles - the bigger and flatter the better. The plastic holder is placed in an oven to soften the PE plastic, and the nozzle is attached to a vacuum cleaner. A buck or pattern is positioned at the center of the vacuum bed. Once the plastic is softened and bows downwards, it's ready to form over the buck. Remove from the oven and place it quickly and carefully over the buck/bed. Turn on the vacuum to seal the plastic over the buck and shape it once in place. Once cool and solid, the plastic sheet can be removed and cut to create the formed part. Check out this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WnLDfev1n8 Stay up to date with new parts and projects by following these links: Project page -> https://tinkersprojects.com/project/recycling-milk-bottle-vacuum-former This Thing -> https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3059877 My Profile -> https://www.thingiverse.com/haybailes/about Twitter -> https://twitter.com/TinkersProjects See other projects at http://tinkersprojects.com