OPENNESS MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND
The opening of the project wants to be the key to reading it: every component used in the procedure must verify the principles of origin. Both in semantic and practical terms, the opening of the project is the center: each source must be freely usable and modifiable by users, this also means that the final result will undergo variations depending on who will be the user of the project. Everyone is therefore free to redefine the project on the basis of their own needs, starting from the size and shape of the boxes; the subdivision of the material; the type of mould for the final product. The will is obviously that each user collaborating in the project, who intervenes on the final product or who has new ideas or suggestions regarding the overall project, inserts again into the system its changes so that a subsequent user can take advantage of them.
The articulation of the workflow is very simple: first of all it is necessary to proceed to the pellet reduction of the PLA filament, to do this there are many open source projects of machines to crush the plastic, first of all that of Dave Hakkens with Precious Plastic. But the operation can also be done with a normal cutter, a blender, or other solutions.
Once the material has been obtained in the form of pellets, it must be subdivided into the various boxes according to colour and density, according to requirements. After this phase follows the firing phase, the lower cheek of the mould, specially connected to the iron cylinder, is submerged in pellets and placed in the oven at a temperature of 160 ° for about an hour.
When the material is viscous, it is possible to take the support out of the oven through the second part of the machine, with which it is sufficient to insert the upper mould into the cylinder and slide the handles into the slots until they lock with a slight pressure made possible by a spring inside.
Once the machine has been gripped, it must be pulled out of the oven; in this phase, the second pressure boost is applied, which is necessary to obtain, as a final result, a homogeneous product without air. This thrust is given by turning the worm screw through the upper handle.
After a few minutes, when the mould has lost heat, it is possible to unscrew the mould from the cylinder and remove the piece.
The machine is ready for new production!