The Power of Smallᵀᴹ

[bhigdog]

I just milled, turned and drilled a 7" chunk of PVC to make an inlet strainer for a water pump. Hmmm, wonder what you would call what I was doing? Plasticing? Syntheticing? Plastismithing?........... Miserable stringy "chips", BTW..............Bob

 

[FLguy]

In 40 yrs. of machining I would hate to guess how many tons of plastics I've machined at companies like Rosemount Eng., Lockhead, Stratisys. SiMed, Boston Scientific, Mentor. Plastics are a BIG part of the machining world.

 

[JimDawson]

Based on cubic feet of chips produced, I'm sure I have machined more plastic than metal.

Here is one run just doing a secondary operation on a couple hundred parts

 

[mmcmdl]

Jim , that mess will be a picnic table some day soon . Our scrapped Unilever detergent bottles were recycled and made into picnic tables , signs etc and donated to all of our countries national parks .

 

[MarkM]

I Really like the idea or movement of gathering plastic for manufacturing to maybe combat this load on Mother Earth. Also a movement to the possibilty of more local work in the Machining Industry. I am small. I do think there is a positive movement happening to more of the power small and local manufacturing. A Mind Set has somewhat changed for the good. I think! People still need to be educated and not throw everything away.

 

[C-Bag]

My small biz exists because there is a bunch of folks who love that they know the guy who makes it. They don't want something that has been churned out by a mega corp by the millions/billions. Granted this is a percentage of the whole, but I've talked to others in other fields and they see the same thing. Unlike the mega corp's we don't need it all. Just enough to make it worthwhile. In my case it's my retirement as I never worked for anybody who offered a real retirement like my dad has.
It's interesting this is being pitched to this forum. For me it's because I've always been a junkyard dog repurposing before the word was popular because I HATE waste, planned obsolescence and never was a chaser of the latest and greatest. Some us saving old iron and keeping manual techniques alive seems to dovetail. But I'll admit plastic is not my preferred medium as I mostly work in mild steel and aluminum. I love UHMW and Delrin for their specific wear properties but don't see making a machine or tooling out of it. I guess I just need more examples of applications?

 

[Plastiblocks]

Ok, you have piqued my interest. But I'm a bit confused after seeing your vid as there was no machining plastic mentioned but only molding.

Your opening statement "remember when?" was something that is very timely and close to all our hearts. One MAJOR component of this statement that's missing is more jobs have been lost from automation initially and is now really ramping up in the offshored jobs too as they are being replaced by automation. There is now 1/8 of the workforce that was being employed just a couple of years ago. Quickly the jobs of even tending machines is even going to dwindle. But these mega factories have a hole and that's specialized small runs. This is where small,smart, light, local and fast is going to find a niche IMHO. I believe the relatively cheap transportation over vast distances is also going to play havoc with bottom lines for even the mega corps. So a bleak as it looks right now there might be a place for the right next thing.

Problem with plastic is there needs a drastic evolution. It's synonymous with cheap throw away so this stands in contrast to your "remember when they were durable, repairable and they would last for a very long time? "

I guess, I had a mixed message between the machining and stuff that lasts forever made of plastic.

Regarding the perception of plastic to be cheap, it wasn't used to be like that and we are working hard to change it. You possibly could be interested to subscribe to our mailing list on our website or to our YouTube channel so that you are kept in a know for the developing technology we will be introducing in the coming year. we are trying to enable local distributed manufacturing, we call in "The Power of Small".

We had another post on this forum about how to machine, drill etc different plastics. We started with very basics, as we had a lot of basic questions from people who come from woodworking or metal working background. So we felt that it is important to start how to videos from zero ground.
We just posted another video, and here is our channel with all the videos we have to date:

 

[bretthl]

Wow! Now I know, thanks!

 

[Plastiblocks]

My small biz exists because there is a bunch of folks who love that they know the guy who makes it. They don't want something that has been churned out by a mega corp by the millions/billions. Granted this is a percentage of the whole, but I've talked to others in other fields and they see the same thing. Unlike the mega corp's we don't need it all. Just enough to make it worthwhile. In my case it's my retirement as I never worked for anybody who offered a real retirement like my dad has.
It's interesting this is being pitched to this forum. For me it's because I've always been a junkyard dog repurposing before the word was popular because I HATE waste, planned obsolescence and never was a chaser of the latest and greatest. Some us saving old iron and keeping manual techniques alive seems to dovetail. But I'll admit plastic is not my preferred medium as I mostly work in mild steel and aluminum. I love UHMW and Delrin for their specific wear properties but don't see making a machine or tooling out of it. I guess I just need more examples of applications?

To understand a bit better were we are coming from, perhaps you'd be interested to see 2 short videos where Wayne Conrad (our chief scientist) talks at Ignite event where young enterpreneurs were given awards for their innovations:
Enabling Local Distributed Manufacturing
Knowledge economy and core manufacturing

We (Omachron) are working hard to make sure that all this is not just popular sound bites, but that there is an actual very affordable equipment available to people, this equipment can be installed in their garage. In 2019 we will be introducing small injection molding, plastic extrusion and small CNC equipment. It is going to be a long path, but hopefully worth it.

 

[P. Waller]

I look forward to seeing your IM equipment.
I often make hundreds of parts from extruded plastic materials (noun) because the quantity is to low to make a mold an economical choice.

Also if you can produce a PET product that is not terrible to machine I would be very thankful.
I have turned Ensinger's TECAPET which they consider "modified for improved machining", I hope to never turn the unimproved version.