Heya,
this idea is too late for the current batches of laptops, but I was wondering if it wouldn’t be easier and faster to mill the laptop plastic parts out of recycled blocks of plastic (“plastic lumber”) with a CNC mill.
The advantages are as follows:
* suitable plastic lumber can be made from a wider range of plastics than 3d printer filament
* plastic lumber can be made from readily available plastic waste. HDPE from plastic bags make for cheap sturdy blocks of material.
* a CNC mill cares much less about the melting point of the work piece during operation than a 3d printer
* there are fewer concerns about material shrinkage at construction time, because the work piece isn’t partially liquid at any time of the CNC operations.
* processing the work piece is faster because it doesn’t require as much motion as printing sturdy zig zag patterns.
* even rather unsophisticated CNC mills can be used as the work piece is rather soft compared to the usual CNC mill work pieces such as aluminium.
The most obvious disadvantages are:
* there seem to be much fewer vendors of plastic lumber than there are vendors of high quality 3d printer filament
* this approach isn’t quite as common, so it may be harder to find good advice from experienced people.
What do you think?
(I’m currently in the process of setting up a plastic recycling work space for my plastic lumber needs.)
-- Ricardo
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