Leftover Sprues

[GoTakeANap]

Hello everyone. 

 

What does everyone use to cut the leftover sprues and defective baits up with for remelting? Ive always used a pair of scissors but open to trying something different especially if it helps the heating process. 

[Apdriver]

If you can find a meat grinder, I hear they work great. 

[Driftwood]

I have an electric meat grinder from  Harbor freight. They run around $55.00 and work great.

[GoTakeANap]

Will it cut the plastic into small pieces or basically make it look like ground beef?

[Apdriver]

I haven't used a meat grinder on my spruces and leftovers as I don't want to contaminate mine with plastisol. I use it to process venison. That said, a meat grinder cuts meat into small pieces and the pushing action of the screw makes it look tubular and the water and soft tissue tend to bind the small pieces. I have talked to one of the moldmakers and he said grinding your spruces works very well for reheats. With them chopped in small pieces it takes less time to remelt and lessens the chance of burning the remelts.

[McLuvin175]

Whether hand cranked or electric most meat grinders will do a good job breaking up scrap that can be re-used or recycled. Without some sort of lubrication though the scrap will look like ground beef and kind of stick together making it harder to re-use. Use some worm oil, softener, or even off-spec virgin plastisol you might want to off load to act your lubricant in the ginder and the plastic should cut up into decent pellets. You can either pre-lube the scrap and then dump it in the grinder; or dump it in dry and then pour in some lube. Just make sure whatever lubricant you use is compatible with plastisol.

Sort your scrap if possible and re-use in the same color or look alike colors. For instance you should be able to use Watermelon scrap in some Green Pumpkin your pouring with no issues. As a rule I try to use no more that 25% scrap to Virgin Plastisol. Remember that your scrap has been through decent heat cycle and has probably consumed some of its heat stabilizer so add some if and only if needed.

[Cub48]

I have a hand meat grinder it works but not very well. It is hard to turn and is not worth the time. if the holes were larger it might help but mine has about 1/4" or smaller so make sure it has different size plates. Has anybody tried a blender?? Cub48

 

[Basseducer]

I got the electric meat grinder from Harbor Freight. Works great. I tried a hand grinder first and had the same problems as Cub48.

[GoTakeANap]

Thanks for all the help guys. I ended up getting the meat grinder from Harbor Freight and boy it makes remelting plastic alot easier. 

[mark poulson]

On 6/1/2017 at 8:20 AM, Basseducer said:

I got the electric meat grinder from Harbor Freight. Works great. I tried a hand grinder first and had the same problems as Cub48.

Does regrinding sprues with salt affect the grinder?

[Basseducer]

I haven't had any problems with salt.

[McLuvin175]

It depends on what the grinder is made of. Salt will eat up the metal through corrosion. But other than that it shouldn't have an adverse affect.