Precious Plastic USA

See what you can do to start helping in your state today! Please feel free to contact me with any questions :) https://preciousplastic.com/starterkits/overview.html

Precious Plastic Starterktis

Starterkits are packages of information with everything you need to know to set up Precious Plastic recycling spaces and start tackling the plastic waste problem.

I am looking at the viability of building a shredder in the St. Paul area. Any other MN residents musing over possible PP stations?

Boop

10:55 PM

My group is doing a project for a class and one of the members is building a shredder currently

10:55 PM

We're over at UST in St Paul ^_^

What sort of project? UST is close by

I live in central MN

We're just doing a "make a business on some idea" thing and we didn't really know we would be sticking with the pretend idea we had originally.

5:00 PM

One of our group members was already building one of these so she's using this for two classes in the end since it's easier on her load but we're just trying to determine like if this were something to be a legit business would it even make money atm. We're allowed to determine it's not gonna be a sustainable income so I'm just trying to figure out what people do with the plastic pellets. Seems many just make their own projects out of it.

5:01 PM

There are places that straight up recycle and sell the plastic to be reused but they never respond. I do love the idea I just don't personally feel like it's a money making business so I'm going to have to do a lot of digging.

There are quite a few business resources available. If you read the shredder workspace starter kit it will walk you through calculating business expenses and revenue. There are several active shredder business in the main PP discord (the US state discord has always been kind of dead) that could give you some answers you're looking for. (edited)

Yeah I'm looking now and this was also recently mentioned so maybe: https://www.army-technology.com/news/company-news/3d-printing-recycled-plastic/

Kavya Chivukula

US Army Research Laboratory explores 3D printing from recycled plastic

The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is looking at new environmentally-friendly alternatives with 3D printing from recycled plastic waste.

5:07 PM

I'm also going to go talk to recycling places near me. I'm just curious on everything lol. I already have a company anyways but it's still pretty interesting.

5:07 PM

We have such a big recycling problem I would love to see someone do more with it.

5:09 PM

@Alanson (CO) nice! I had to look at a map lol.

5:09 PM

I am not from MN so I never think to even look around at it.

5:09 PM

I FEEL like I'm further north than I really am.

5:09 PM

I'm in Blaine currently but we're moving soon.

Ah, you're pretty high energy. frederikc (ZA)#7143 on the main server could easily match your energy and interest. He frequents the south Africa and beyond plastic channels

My company is art not plastics though.

5:14 PM

This is just an assignment so I can graduate.

5:15 PM

Maybe one of the people in the group will pursue this for real. It has potential if people keep pushing towards more sustainable options.

Yeah, but he's great at answering questions, and has a wider base of knowledge. I specialize in machines and logistics, but he knows a bit about everything.

ty!

Hello! I am from Virginia, Mn which is an hour north of Duluth. I am looking for people in the area to hopefully get a mixed workspace up and running!

Took my first step and created a pin on the map! Also started a FB page to get some community members involved!

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Hi there! (edited)

7:28 PM

Central MN here

Hello Alanson

Otter Tail County recycling center in Fergus Falls MN just got a grant to start a mix workspace.

That is awesome. I am in northern mn. I am hoping an area up here can get a grant soon. I am working on trying to get a shredder made.

Thats great

7:34 PM

I am working on getting my college involved in this

Nice.

7:35 PM

My area is building a new trade school. I should contact them about getting involved

You should!

7:36 PM

@Sieara I would take the shredder you don't want, but idk how I would transport it and I don't have a place to put it. : P

7:38 PM

It's so great to see the MN community work together on this!

I know it’s nor recycling, but on Facebook I started a page #covidcleanup I am hoping families find recycled items and repurposed them.

ok cool

7:41 PM

Yeah hopefully

7:41 PM

I still dont have FB haha

Lol

Collection site getting started here.

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3:00 AM

Probably going to end up being a community site if things go well but starting small.

@Plastic Paradigm Sounds like a good idea, I think thats what I'd have to do too, just start small. Have you found any place that will buy plastic from you? Or what are your plans for the product collected?

No, I haven’t yet @Motorvill. I don’t have the business brain so that part for me is going a bit slower or at least until I find an area business that is in the market.

5:22 PM

Ideally the product collected would be sold to a shredder workspace or machine combo space. I don’t have the capital to do that, nor desire. I have found a lead on a business that may have purchased a shredder nearby but still no luck with connecting with them. Patience will be key I suppose

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@Plastic Paradigm , same here, creative brain, not a business one( I m seeking a busiess brained partners as well atm. Good luck to you!

@Motorvill well if I ever get a network of contacts, I’m in south eastern MN along the Mississippi, so we can always create a supply chain too

Hey, I currently run the only known workspace in the twin cities and am part of a community point with a few friends. I don’t have any precious plastic machines and get by with low tech instead. I primarily make drink coasters. https://community.preciousplastic.com/u/katla

Precious Plastic Community Platform

A series of tools for the Precious Plastic community to collaborate around the world. Connect, share and meet each other to tackle plastic waste.

6:02 PM

http://www.plasticoasters.wordpress.com

juniverse0

Second Melt Solutions

Visit the post for more.

Nice!!!

Always open to collaborate :)

That is wonderful!

6:06 PM

Do you use specific #?

6, 5 and recently HDPE

6:09 PM

So I started with the more complicated types

Loving your blog

thanks!

ello

Oh you found it, hi!

im part of a community point/(former) collection point in minnesota (edited)

6:14 PM

I work with @Rai

Lovely! Welcome!

6:15 PM

I’m down in La Crescent

6:15 PM

I’m a collection point as well

6:15 PM

Well trying to be

Oh yeah you’re that point on the bottom right corner of the state right

are you plastic paradigm?

6:16 PM

https://community.preciousplastic.com/u/plastic-paradigm

Precious Plastic Community Platform

A series of tools for the Precious Plastic community to collaborate around the world. Connect, share and meet each other to tackle plastic waste.

6:16 PM

@Plastic Paradigm this one?

Yes! I’m currently going through their kit

would you like to join our community point discord?

6:18 PM

we wanna get in contact with all the precious plastic supporters in minnesota

I would love to. This is definitely a collaborative effort

Oh you got a collection point kit?

Yes they have some kits that are specific to what you want to focus on apparently. Kind of nice

I DM'ed you the invite

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Hello everyone! We have started a Precious Plastics Minnesota discord. :D https://discord.gg/VJfyMJ4EHq

Invite to join a server

Precious Plastic Minnesota

general-chatter

@Verve only took a year lol, there’s a community point and some workspaces that have popped up in the twin cities and I run one of em.

6:45 AM

@Shandy @Alanson (CO) gonna ping you guys too haha

6:46 AM

we’d love to collaborate and expand our network

I don't live in MN anymore but alright

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Hello All, I'm in Fergus Falls, MN and working with the starting of our Lab I just built our first compression oven! (edited)

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@Verve saying hi again, saw you were potentially interested in something last year. We got lots of stuff happening in the twin cities area.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNx6EIfnbqL/?igshid=w1x1ueedtagw The full footage of PP MN’s visit to Otter Tail County Lakes Area Mix Workspace

7:04 AM

Really wild how I can record hours of live footage and insta just saves it for free.

Hi everyone

I saw the Precious Plastic videos years ago & lived the idea, but at the time the investment for machinery was a bit outside of my resources. We recently discovered the Fergus Falls workspace at an open house, & I've been back twice already. I'm still in the discover what's possible stage, so I'm scouting around for available tips/tricks/advice & will likely be asking questions in the near future. Thanks in advance!

I'm glad to see the Fergus space machines are doing so well. They had a rough time learning how to use them properly, I had a lot of 7am surprise calls to convince Cedar they weren't just 'bad tech'

Well...I did have to fix a thermocouple on the injector. I wouldn't call the tech 'bad', but it is unrefined. I imagine it's daunting for people without electro-mechanical experience?

8:38 PM

If anyone has tips on what we could do to make things more user-friendly, I could try to work them in...I think that would be useful.

Yeah the general design is minimalist especially as released over a year ago. I would expect after a year there would be some things to maintain as well, we make as many improvements as we can and they stack up. One time of many they scrambled the display and heat units on their injector and talking them down from panic was the biggest challenge. Then we used a flowchart to set everything back.

Erik72

Well...I did have to fix a thermocouple on the injector. I wouldn't call the tech 'bad', but it is unrefined. I imagine it's daunting for people without electro-mechanical experience?

What was up with the thermocouple?

CitSciWorkshop

What was up with the thermocouple?

Temp readings were all over the place, & the controller was displaying an error that wasn't listed in the instructions (I forget what it was). I eventually noticed that the temps would shoot anytime you touched the thermocouple leads, so I spliced new lugs & it's working fine now. Probably because the lugs are the common/cheap/available tinned copper ones & not alumel-chromel? I imagine there was corrosion internal to the crimp.

Yeah could have been intermittent connection that messed up readings too. I noticed that encapsulating them after crimping helps life too.

If you want to do it "the right way", you should get (pricy) lugs made of the same type of metal as the thermocouple wiring. But there's something to be said for using the inexpensive option instead & repairing when you have problems.

Suppliers should be shipping with the right lugs anyway. That's why we switched to Inkbird.

No clue what brand of thermocouple it was, but it was connected to an Inkbird controller. I'd assume that they came as a set? Maybe not.

With auto profiling the controller will probably adapt. The reason for the same materials in wiring and connectors is all the dissimilar metal junctions make thermocouples! If you have a programmable controller like some it will take thermistor, as well as thermocouple inputs. On thermocouple type j iron constantan, type k chromel alumel. You are probably a type k which if installed correctly the connecting wires are the same alloy so check color codes of wires and make correct connections. Will try to put link for omega site on thermocouples.

9:42 PM

"Resources" https://www.omega.com/en-us/resources

9:44 PM

If the moderator sees above and thinks some place else is better please move. There seems to be a lot of questions on this topic.

If you add a dissimilar metal lug it will increase the resistance, but if you use dissimilar lugs on both branches, it balances out. The bigger long-term problem is oxidation and/or galvanic corrosion, which is likely the problem I saw.

Corrosion is bad. The resistance is bad. A thermocouple generates microamps of current. So anything that changes that can have an effect. The dissimilar metals joined together make another thermocouple junction it might add to system or subtract from system. If you have a CRC Handbook there are tables of thermocouple values for given dissimilar metals. That is why you want chromel to chromel junctions, chromel to zinc/cadmium/copper will be another thermocouple value to add or subtract from system.

The transition from alumel-chromel to copper will be a cold junction (not a thermocouple), but that's just terminology, yes I agree with your point.

Connecting Thermocouples to Other Devices When connecting thermocouples to other devices care needs to be taken to ensure that the proper polarity is maintained. Thermocouples manufactured to the ANSI/ASTM color-codes always have the negative wire as the red wire. This is opposite the normal electrical standard of positive wire is red. Also, when extension wire is needed, thermocouple wire must be used to maintain accuracy. The crossing of the polarity, and the use of non-thermocouple wire as extension wire, are two of the most common causes of errors in installing thermocouples. This is from omega.com website.

Another use of thermocouples are Peltier devices. Instead of measuring the voltage generated by the couple you put a voltage into it one side of the couple gets hot the other side gets cold. Usually there is more than one couple in a Peltier device. Fun stuff.

I found tables on thermocouples in wikipedia.org. CRC Handbooks might be hard to find now.

5:05 AM

second? injector in the state!

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Great..!

it is now the third apparently

Hello Minnesota

JohnNephew

Hello Minnesota

hi John

Cold there too?

Just a little. -28 wind chill overnight.

7:15 PM

10 degrees F now, so not so bad

Jeez

7:16 PM

Ice storm over here in NY

Sounds downright tropical!

7:22 PM

Actually, I prefer -28º wind chill to ice storms. Less dangerous tbqh

You and me both

7:25 PM

2 in a row

GamingFedora

Ice storm over here in NY

Same in MI

1:45 AM

At least on wendstay

1:45 AM

Power is out for tones of people

@JohnNephew hey we got a server for mn folks, want to hop on?

Rai

@JohnNephew hey we got a server for mn folks, want to hop on?

Yes please!

okok!

JohnNephew

Yes please!

https://discord.gg/CsKUk44H

Rai

https://discord.gg/CsKUk44H

Would love to hop on the MN server too if possible!

Emery

Would love to hop on the MN server too if possible!

here you go !! https://discord.gg/gua6vejC

Thank you!

Folks from the regional waste authority came out to visit our Replay Workshop this week and shot a bunch of video. Teaser clip: https://m.facebook.com/wlssd/videos/replay-workshop-sneak-peek/256575307146687/

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JohnNephew

Folks from the regional waste authority came out to visit our Replay Workshop this week and shot a bunch of video. Teaser clip: https://m.facebook.com/wlssd/videos/replay-workshop-sneak-peek/256575307146687/

Was this like an audit or safety inspection? Or a hype video

(edited)

11:57 PM

Looks like a cool hype video to me

11:58 PM

Nice shop BTW!

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Can I get an invite to the MN server?

HAL_9000

Looks like a cool hype video to me

Yeah it was a hype video. They are enthusiastic about our project and set aside large PP/HDPE/LDPE material for us at the Materials Recovery Center. There is more than what we can currently use. (Sadly, whatever we don't take goes to the landfill.)

Avery

Can I get an invite to the MN server?

I got u

Atlas Games has done 14 previous successful Kickstarters for game products, but this is our first for Replay Workshop and our plastic recycling venture - now live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/infunity-tiles?ref=askjz2

Atlas Games

InFUNity Tiles: The Puzzling Brainteaser for All Ages

InFUNity Tiles turn an amazing math discovery into a freeform puzzle that's infinitely expandable. Back it Oct 17 at 10am Central!

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Pledged!

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