Recycling PLA scrap

[1druid1]

Hi All

Wasn't sure where to post this as its sort of an out of the box question.

While doing my 1:100 Bismarck project I have accumulated a lot of scrap PLA filament, broken prints, support material ect and I thought that there must be a way to recycle this scrap.

Has anyone come up with good ways to recycle scrap PLA plastic. My biggest thought was the possibility of melting the plastic down and use it to pour into moulds, for example instead of 3D printing lots of ship hatches for example, print one, create a mould then use the scrap plastic to melt down and pour into the mould.

Is this feasible? Has anyone tried it?

Cheers

Druid

[awerby]

I don't think that's going to work too well. The viscosity of melted PLA is still quite high; imagine trying to pour toothpaste into a mold. If you want to recycle it, consider investing in a Filastruder or similar machine that produces filament from your scrap. You'll also need a heavy-duty grinder of some sort to break it up into small enough chunks.

[bigben4001]

look at redetec.com for their filament extruder i saw it at maker faire this year and it looks really cool