Styro-Fail (Recycled Styrene Recording Blanks?)

[Kat]

Re-read the patent, looks like the T-shirt press would be good for the pre heat stage but not the final press. Looks like I’ll be doing some budgeting in the meantime to get everything together.

I could get custom CNC’d parts for the book mold but I’d like to see what improvisation could be done too.

[nikc]

Hi.
This thread is amazing! Did you get anywhere with the polypropylene? Let us know if you have any new developments. I'd love to be able cut with recycled non pvc blanks.
Best wishes
Nik

[Kat]

Hi.
This thread is amazing! Did you get anywhere with the polypropylene? Let us know if you have any new developments. I'd love to be able cut with recycled non pvc blanks.
Best wishes
Nik

Thank you so much! and thanks for your interest! I do have some updates to provide actually!

I picked up a Presto K8 that looks to be in good shape, the cutter sounds promising even without an amp yet. Good call. Kinda frustrating it took two recordios for me to figure out where cutting is really at but they look cool and I know how to re-cap now so I can’t really complain.

I’m also going to be trying out what markrob did with the Emory Cook process but cutting a few corners initially by borrowing a shop press and stealing my own PID control box from myself. That just leaves me with having to buy needles, some practice blanks, some heating elements, some laser cut molds, and an amp.

Planning to test both polypropylene and polystyrene but hopefully I don’t need to use PS cause it’s stinky and polypropylene sounds better anyway from the few tests I’ve done. Very excited to get this moving.

- Kat/Rai

[nikc]

Hi Kat,
Great, lets us know how the cuts go and good luck with your new Presto K8, and buying the rest of the gear. Good to know that you think polypropylene seems to be the best option

Best

Nik and Dom

[Kat]

It works it works it works it works. The Presto was all ready to go when the amp arrived, I just needed to throw on a disc. I started out with a couple CD records to test. Then I used a steel cutting needle with a recycled styrene record and was able to crank up the volume enough to escape the noise floor.

So they’re REAL, I just have to figure out how to make more discs and then I’m diving headfirst into production.

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[farmersplow]

Fascinating! Congratulations on the success!

[Angus McCarthy]

Awesome. And congrats!

[Kat]

I have made some progress on my Emory Cook inspired press for making my blank discs.

I have a steel plate with some angle brackets bolted on to make the shape of a 7” square. This will be sandwiched between a 7” pusher plate and two heated aluminum blocks and placed in a shop press.I just got done drilling and tapping holes for the bolts, PID controller circuits will be next.

I’m imagining the plastic needing a preheat before pressing or maybe just using smaller flakes so it doesn’t fly out of the mold.

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[farmersplow]

And the story continues!
Glad you've been working to develop this process further!
Good luck and keep showing us how it develops!

Thomas

[Kat]

Press is built and the mold is working as intended beyond a few issues with mold release (which can probably be solved with a proper mold release agent) and a varying thickness that is too small to actually affect the cutter head.

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I just got back from piaptk’s lathe cut camp and he and his employee agreed that they were pretty much comparable with picnic plates. The swarth doesnt all come off in one piece probably due to microscopic imperfections. This was made at lathe camp on an 8N.

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Still noisy but I’ve found that everyone who has shown interest in working with me is totally ok with that. Gonna reserve these mostly for farmers markets and punk gigs. Still will try heating, as these things dont actually start to soften until 200 degrees so I got room to work with there.

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Moving forward im going to start acquiring polycarbonate scrap and doing some experiments in lacquer recreation so stay tuned for that.

[farmersplow]

Great work! I don't know what to say? It's just beautiful to look at. The pictures of the pressed sheets of granulate create wonderful patterns! It immediately reminded me of the art of damask steel (see picture).
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Please continue. It's not the blank and its quality, but the art of production!

[Kat]

Update for everyone. I took some time off the project as I was unable to produce consistent discs. I was quite literally having to readjust the presto for seemingly identical polystyrene formulations. I just got my press up and running for the summer, threw a bunch of bottle caps on and made a quick and dirty #2 HDPE blank and it tracks well and sounds a lot better and can be embossed instead of cut.

I have a number of things to try still now but with reassurance my next blank wont be totally different. Still need to try lighter fluid, heat lamps, figuring out how to make disks of consistent thickness. In going with the Emory Cook microfusion theme, Id like to experiment with making a plastic puck and lathing it into shavings or even shredding plastic bags.

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So I guess we’re going with the trade name Polyphone now instead of Styrophone.

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- Rai

[kugelblitz]

looks super nice, and i love following this project!

[farmersplow]

I love it too! I would even collect bottle tops in all colours for you! It's getting better and better and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Thomas

[displacedsnail]

I really love this idea! What fun. It's really inspiring, maybe I'll start hanging onto my recycling...

[spinnertownblanks]

Absolutely love seeing more on this! Great work. We get our waste PETG recycled from making discs, wish we could send it all out to you to see if you can get anything out of it!