Homemade Injection Molding – The Cyberia Hub

Shop work: July 2020 – Tesla Turbine Project started

Posted on August 1, 2020 - September 16, 2020 by hakasays

7/8

Energy Science Conference: Day 0

Got some great tips+tricks on Tesla Turbines from some friends I met last year.

Designing/building/tuning/balancing >40krpm turbines

You could make some really interesting things with these. (Heat pump, engine, etc)😁https://t.co/RwWWUjwfbC pic.twitter.com/kYJ0n3HCKs
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 9, 2020

7/20

Working on some parts to build a Tesla Turbine.

It's a lot of 'make the adapter to attach the thing that does the operation to finally machine the actual part.

First time tinkering with high-speed turbines, if it works it will power the electrostatic converter. pic.twitter.com/Z9YkAQcOI0
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 21, 2020

7/21

Machined an expanding arbor to fit on the side of the lathe.

Works a lot like a drywall anchor, turn the nut and the arbor expands and clamps the part onto the lathe spindle.

It's part of a 'spindexer' assembly I need in order to drill holes in the Tesla Turbine blades. pic.twitter.com/fdsOIu4nFX
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 22, 2020

7/23

Needed some very thin spacers for Tesla Turbine blades so I've been experimenting turning soda cans into very thin washers.

They came out pretty good, and I can see the technique coming in pretty handy in the future.🙂 pic.twitter.com/6Pk0ZLycif
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 24, 2020

7/24

Working on a lathe indexing plate today so I can drill holes on the Tesla turbine blades without changing setups.

Drilled for both 10deg and 15deg increments

Also a shot of the ultrathin washers I finished machining yesterday (to help space the turbine blades apart) pic.twitter.com/w83Bi0eNQv
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 24, 2020

7/25

Lathe rotary index finished.☺️

Currently drilling the vent holes for the Tesla Turbine blades.🤓

Indexer lets me space the holes exactly x degrees apart (in this case every 20deg)#TeslaTurbine pic.twitter.com/JNf0zjkYKT
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 25, 2020

Tesla Turbine build update:
🤓 pic.twitter.com/k06TFlYPoY
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 25, 2020

7/26

The Tesla Turbine I'm working on will end up resembling this rig built by the folks at iEnergySupply

Hopefully with fewer explosions🤭https://t.co/wGx3aBhMP2 pic.twitter.com/RYaQ9y3HLO
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 26, 2020

Tesla Turbine project update: Making more washers to keep the blades apart.

After this I can finally start putting the rotor together☺️ pic.twitter.com/t2Q3YE20ey
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 26, 2020

Tesla Turbine work-in-progress
(just so you all can see it spinning)😊 pic.twitter.com/KuxzD3aYrG
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 26, 2020

7/27

Tesla Turbine blade stack's finished.
Came out good but I'm concerned the vent holes might be too small.

Next I have work on the air intake nozzle so I can spin it up to high speed and balance the whole thing.

After that, only left is the outer casing.🙂 pic.twitter.com/ocE8IJS61E
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 27, 2020

7/28

Tesla Turbine build update

At the moment it's about as balanced as a schizophrenic on meth

All part of the process…. pic.twitter.com/i4Y532Zs4W
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 28, 2020

7/30

Had a problem with the Tesla Turbine, whenever I tightened the nut and clamped the thing together the axle would warp and become unbalancable.

Just fixed the problem by clamping the entire assembly to itself and then fixing that to the shaft.https://t.co/W5NdgYpM6e pic.twitter.com/xfffsZOoRl
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) July 30, 2020

Shop work: June 2020 – Plastic extruding/recycling

Posted on July 1, 2020 - September 16, 2020 by hakasays

This is a tweetroll following my progress plastic extruding/recycling.

6/1

Well, I lost a day trying to braze aluminum without removing the bearing first (big mistake).
Filament pelletizer works now.

Now I just need some rollers to automatically feed the plastic.

I think the end goal is to eventually have a start-to-finish plastic recycling system.😁 pic.twitter.com/zeImO7URS0
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 2, 2020

6/3

Next phase this week is working on the plastic extruder
(homemade injection molding machine project).

Bought the barrel+screw but it still requires a lot of machined parts to fit thermocouples and bearings and stepper motors.

Basically this turns raw plastic into filament. pic.twitter.com/xnon5TxBWP
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 4, 2020

6/4

A few freshly-machined parts over the week for the homemade plastic injection-molding extruder.

Thermocouple clamp, boring out+keying a pulley, and a few misc parts to fit the bearing.

It's good practice as I'm still fairly rusty as a machinist. pic.twitter.com/KsQskAwmQG
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 4, 2020

One of the harshest lessons this week has been drilling hardened steel (prehardened extruder barrel).

HRC60 steel was invented by a masochist.😱 pic.twitter.com/wywPjsR9Px
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 5, 2020

6/6

Injection molding project update:

Working on a stepper motor bracket so I can drive the extruder screw.

The mill is a Tormach 1100 with a few bells+whistles.

(I spent many years working with a baby drill-press-sized mill to build some skills and learn how the process works) pic.twitter.com/t6RpHdhcfg
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 6, 2020

6/7

Continuing work on a plastic extruder: Machined the remaining features for the motor coupling and made another coupling for the barrel side.

Also did a 'smoke test' to make sure everything will run once mounted.

The 3d printed coupler worked OK but did not last long.🔥 pic.twitter.com/NXONcQx2St
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 7, 2020

6/8

Last bracket finished, finally testing the homemade plastic extruder.😁

I keep getting a 'plug' of semi-molten plastic near the extruder that stops everything up after running for ~20min.
Looks like I'll have to add some kind of heat sink similar to what 3d printers use. pic.twitter.com/VXyna9NziP
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 8, 2020

6/10

So the plastic extruder I've been working on has been suffering from the 'pizza roll problem'.

You know when you try to cook pizza rolls and they come out black on the outside but frozen on the inside?

It keeps melting plastic in some spots but not others…🧐 pic.twitter.com/Bb0UO0mjev
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 11, 2020

6/11

Fixed the extruder's heating problem by machining some aluminum 'heat-blocks' to help distribute heat more evenly along the barrel.

Test run today was a success, I'm getting close to being able to make my own filament.😁https://t.co/TP1xxJLEPl pic.twitter.com/PKv1VLCJSb
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 11, 2020

6/13

Picked up a heavy crosscut shredder to continue with the plastic recycling/injection molding project.

It ate through some bottles and leftover 3d printer scraps without much effort at all.🔥👍

I do need to mill out the feed area so it's not so tight a fit though. pic.twitter.com/KdZzjDz8iP
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 13, 2020

6/22

Plastic recycling project update, and a #protip.

If you're not sure something's gonna work, there's nothing wrong with cobbling an experiment together out of garbage.

It works well enough to prove the concept.
(Just don't touch the hot wire🤫) pic.twitter.com/ebbbeToJxf
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 23, 2020

6/23

Hacked a paper shredder into a plastic shredder and added a 3d-printed hopper to help it feed easier.

It bogs down a bit, but still seems to do a good job.

I've been feeding it old 3d printer scraps and a broken plastic pallet I found on the side of the road.😋 pic.twitter.com/A1pBHPOEZa
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 24, 2020

6/24

Homemade plastic extruder prototype is working so-so, but still needs some tweaking.

Managed to wind a few dozen feet of 'roadside plastic pallet' brand filament before it ran into a snag.

(Pretty bad quality, but you can't beat the price😋) pic.twitter.com/3jqPmImqge
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 25, 2020

6/25

Time to work on building a proper box to house the homemade plastic extruder's electronics.

Way too much exposed wiring just waiting to arc over
(Don't tell OSHA🤭😅)

I'm liking the 'TARDIS Blue' color pic.twitter.com/fgOtMEmmAn
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 26, 2020

6/26

Heating controller came out good. Very professional looking.

I still need a few more pieces to control the extruder motor, then the electronics *should* be done.🤓https://t.co/snkyYIGzRY pic.twitter.com/wp3xo3ChJL
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) June 26, 2020

Shop work: May 2020 – Plastic Injection Molding Machine

Posted on June 1, 2020 - September 16, 2020 by hakasays

The following Tweetroll concerns the Plastic Injection Molding machine project that came from some serendipitous thinking on 3d printers vs professional industry.

4/27

Working on a homemade plastic injection molder.

Dunno why, I just had the 'engineering itch'.😁 pic.twitter.com/cyCIlPef4g
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) April 27, 2020

5/12

The thing with prototyping is you often can't just make a part,

you gotta machine the tool that makes the bracket to make the adapter that makes the actual part you need. pic.twitter.com/yC0NFpxjiG
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 12, 2020

5/15

There is something strangely satisfying about working with pneumatics.

"PSSST, CHK, HSSSFT" love that sound🥰
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 16, 2020

Working on a homemade plastic injection molder.

Been testing out a full-pneumatic-based system, maxes out around 250lbs of force.

It's still running slow, may need to machine the piston down a bit to minimize friction,

Or use a bigger pneumatic cylinder…..😏 pic.twitter.com/fUqI4zXjV7
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 16, 2020

5/16

Fixed the problems on the homemade injection molder.
I just needed to up the temperature🙂

Test molds are coming out fully-filled and relatively consistent now.https://t.co/1LxXRlXycL pic.twitter.com/Vrb8SWJPGt
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 17, 2020

Homemade plastic injection molding machine in action.

I just love the sound of pneumatics😄https://t.co/1LxXRlXycL pic.twitter.com/4EZOb9bJT9
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 17, 2020

5/18

Homemade injection molder update.
Welded the frame together, figuring out how+where I want to mount the control box and vise.

Gonna paint it TARDIS blue at the end😋

Also did a rough test of a filament pelletizer using a really simple drillbit setup. Surprisingly easy. pic.twitter.com/Kxl7cPYoxc
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 19, 2020

5/22

Adding some finishing touches to the homemade plastic injection molder.

Designed to be somewhat modular so I can upgrade the pneumatic cylinder, swap out the injector module, or upgrade to an electronic actuator. pic.twitter.com/C5fbsf8RQ7
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 22, 2020

5/23

A couple more shots from later design+construction.

It's a pretty simple setup.
Plastic is heated in a barrel, and injected with a pneumatic piston into a metal mold in much the same way that professional systems do.

Although this one is not fully-automatic (yet). pic.twitter.com/FYYRIPCh6O
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 23, 2020

Homemade Plastic Injection Molding update,
Final assembling and testing today.

Overall I'm liking how it all came together, very clean and professional looking. Works good too.🙂

Now I just need to start making some proper molds to use with it. pic.twitter.com/bo5f7wx8Q9
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 23, 2020

The nice thing about injection molding machines is you can make damn-near anything with them. Legos, cellphone cases, brackets, keychains, etc.

Next phase will be making some molds, I'll probably make a few keychain designs just to play around with it. pic.twitter.com/vMwxT2HWlc
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 23, 2020

Here's the injection molder in action🙂

(just a test mold for now)https://t.co/XVCT3V8Vkt pic.twitter.com/ERaFgyLwEx
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 24, 2020

5/24

Machining a rebel keychain to test out the injection molding machine.

It was chosen mostly because it is a relatively simple design that can use relatively large 1/8" and 0.05" cutters.

Micro-machining can get really tricky, very easy to break bits.🧐https://t.co/52d7qaHbLj pic.twitter.com/sqIQfSBuRU
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 24, 2020

5/25

Finished the injection mold, came out really good.😁https://t.co/fxjMYAzux6 pic.twitter.com/NrdBWPPSyc
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 25, 2020

5/27

Economy-of-scale is weird sometimes.

Was trying to find a specific motor+gearbox for a project
and it turned out to be cheaper to buy an entire drill and just scavenge the gearbox assembly.🤨 pic.twitter.com/xXZDoDaUBy
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 27, 2020

5/30

Working on the next next phase of plastic injection molding machine 'lifecycle', which is converting plastic filament into pellets.

Machined some brackets+misc to mount the power-drill assembly.

Next phase is working on the extruder so I can make the homemade filament…🙂 pic.twitter.com/N3LzROqsi4
— Hakasays (@Hakasays) May 30, 2020