Turning 3D Printing Waste into a Skull

We’ve seen quite a few people trying out melting down 3D printing waste into these skull moulds, so we thought we’d give it a go ourselves!

After a few tries of just putting the PLA in one of these silicone candle moulds, letting it melt down, and repeating the process over and over again, we thought that while it worked well - it could be sped up significantly.

So instead, we dumped a load of PLA waste onto our panini press, let it melt, and then cut it up into little pillows. Once cool, this gave us far denser pieces of plastic to work with. Then, when we loaded them up into the mould, there were far less air bubbles, and it took about a quarter of the time to completely fill.

We also wanted to experiment with colouring the plastic, so we added some gold micah powder to the inside of the mould, which worked great. We’re unsure how this would affect its future recyclability, so if you know - we’d love to hear! Otherwise, the effect without the powder looks awesome anyway so we’ll probably just go with the natural look next time.

💀

[jenievans]

I really enjoy your videos and love that you use recycled plastic to make everything.

[ytuser]

It’s REALLY cool that you’re expanding your plastic use from HDPE to 3D printed plastic. I might just try this for myself!

[Smellyfupa]

put a some metal in the base and you have a pretty cool paper weight

[agneschrismer]

Awesome guys. Keep up the good work, our planet appreciates you.

[MrMarki]

Worst grilled cheese ever if you ask me

[niveditapandey]

Wow you guys should be having so much fun! Yes what you said was true! I can see it turned out better..❤

[tomh]

I like the job you guys did as a novelty thing. Maybe you could make the 3 skulls from the movie the phantomone of Jade, one of silver and 1 of gold and then blue glue in blue jewels. In the silver, one green in the gold 1 and red in the Jade 1 honestly. You have a product that will definitely turn heads and people who will definitely want

[absolutelydahling]

I like the panini press!Great idea! I see you have the issue of pock marks and gaps though. Any ideas on fixing that?

[greg_J..]

Ayyyyee that’s dope I have the exact same silicone molds i use them to make skate wax

[cindywalker]

I love the skull I collect skull. Keep up the good work

[peggycaputo]

That's cool🙂. Is that a silicone mold ?

[christophercarag]

Excellent artwork guys! 😍😍😍 Would like to ask, what is the temperature of the oven wherein you put those silicone mould with plastic melted? How long before the plastic melts? Thank you guys! More projects using silicone moulds and plastics. 👍👍👍 More power!

[puppytimewithrylee]

I understand the mold is silicone. However, do y’all think the food safe silicone molds, from your local craft store, will work as well? Thinking of doing this myself, with an outdoor hooded grill instead of an electric oven tho.

[moosekatdeluxe]

Cool idea. What is that you spray in the mould first?

[Anodasaj]

Making everything is cool
Using recycled plastic is environmentally friendly

[UnityDoesWhatever]

This is me just now realizing that YouTube probably kicked me off your subscriber list, not that you haven't been making stuff. 😭😭 Wtf! Great as always!

[jqdxduv]

Wow that's awesome. I think it works have worked better if you cut the pieces smaller so they melted easier and more evenly. And you wouldn't have gotten that hole in the face. But awesome for a first time.

[OttoDayZ]

So many questions. What temp does it go in the over? Where did you get the mold? What about the powder?

[goldnrccn]

So many questions answered!! Ignore me before, 3d print and recycle plastic complex on scavenging.

[GrumpyTyer]

So I've been doing this over the last few days but my skull cracks down the middle and the head has a massive divot and I don't get why