I recently found out you can melt down HDPE plastics easily and without creating harmful fumes if done right. I was planning on making a mallet, a cutting board, handles for tools of mine, and some boxes. What else should I build? HDPE is used in a lot of everyday bottles and containers so getting the plastic isn't too hard and pretty much free.
It's not that easy, actually.
You also need to compress it to make anything hard.
I bought a small electric oven at a thrift shop and that works well for the melting.
Helpful tip: buy a junky blender to crush the bits into really fine bits, if you cut the plastic into chips they don't melt together like you want.
And do it outside unless you have a really well ventilated work shop, it will smell regardless when it melts
>>934316
It's great to make runners with for drawers, very slippery and lasts forever.
But yeah, generally you have to grind it and ram it into a mold for melting down. So generally bricks of it in bread tins and then machined down. look up small or scrap wood woodworking projects, you can do pretty much the same things with hdpe.
