Fishing String as a cheap stock material

Fishing string is basically nylon, so why not use it as a base stock material to extrude. Take fishing string and a glue gun and your practically done making the extruder. Drive the fishing string into the glue gun with 2 rollers with the string between them. And the fishing line comes in larger diameters, think 40 lb test.

Figure out what it costs per pound before you get too excited. I had similar notions about using polypropylene weed whacker cord till I discovered that it cost something like $30/lb at the hardware store.

yeah, i'm working on getting a supply of thermoplastic for the RRRF store. i actually put in an order a month ago, but they still havent shipped it! i'm getting very frustrated with them. I used them because thats who Sebastien used (they also have UHMWPE..) I think i'll go back to using villageplastics. they were very nice, and very fast. i got my order in 1 week. argh!!

the prices will be somewhere between $3-5/lb as i havent figured up things like shipping and total cost and such.

Who did you order from Zach? New Image?

Has anybody had a go at Sartomer plastics?
They have a wide range of plastics although it seems you can't buy online...
They also deliver worldwide, which would give us a reliable and standardised source for source materials.

[www.sartomer.com]

yeah, i didnt want to name names, but thats who it was. i went with village plastics because they are very fast and have great customer service. judy rocks. i had a decent back and forth convo w/ new image and even sent my CC info, but my contact has dropped off the face of the earth. and still no order. i originally submitted it on May 4th.

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with New Image. I've always found them very helpful, myself, albiet a bit slow on delivery.

Forrest Higgs Wrote:
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> Figure out what it costs per pound before you get
> too excited. I had similar notions about using
> polypropylene weed whacker cord till I discovered
> that it cost something like $30/lb at the hardware
> store.

I've been wondering why I hadn't seen anyone using the stuff. I figured there must be something about the material itself that wasn't appropriate for extruding, I never thought to check the cost.

I was in our Wal-mart today and took a quick detour down the lawn care aisle. They had a 5lb spool for $15. I was in a hurry so I didn't have time to read closely, but my guess is it was nylon. At $3/lb, that gets it back in the range of what we'll end up paying for the fancy plastics.

Cost aside, is there a problem with using nylon itself? Do weed trimmer lines and fishing line have coatings or additives that would cause problems? How about the polypropylene versions? I'm sure you wouldn't want to use it as your primary plastic, but its availability is great and it comes in pretty colors :-D

I got a bunch of the stuff a while ago. I tried heating it up with my ~$20 oven (which I got per your suggestion) when I was melting some plastic bottle caps. I was hoping I could make some nice looking red parts with them, still have to see if that can work. But I did find out that nylon bubbles when it gets hot and I'm not sure if that happens as it gets too hot or shortly after it starts melting. I was a little disappointed, but don't know if that will make it unuseable or just not quite as pretty.

> Cost aside, is there a problem with using nylon
> itself? Do weed trimmer lines and fishing line
> have coatings or additives that would cause
> problems? How about the polypropylene versions?
> I'm sure you wouldn't want to use it as your
> primary plastic, but its availability is great and
> it comes in pretty colors :-D

i dont really know... its something that definitely needs more research!!!

I guess I'll have to go over to Walmart in Salinas next week some time and see if I can spot one of those $15, 5lb spools of polypropylene. My version of the Mk 2 can extrude polypropylene and $3/lb is a VERY attractive price. I'd been shy about using weed whacker cord before because of the price.

I'd always thought that places like Walmart and Costco would eventually sell bulk filament for RepRaps once they became popular. It's great that they may have started doing so for entirely different reasons a few years early.

Walmart has Polypropylene versions? All I found was nylon in Ace.

Most weed whacker filament that I've encountered has been polypropylene. Maybe it's just a peculiarity of being on the West Coast.

Nylon seems to be the norm in my neck of the woods (east coast). I'll have to look closer next time and see if polypropylene is even available.

My nylon cord bubbled and burned too, but I was using a propane torch so maybe it could be made to work with more precise temperature control.

Just looked on ebay, someone's selling 30lbs spools of 1/8" polypropylene welding rod for about $80 shipped which comes out to $2.67/lb. Didn't see any smaller lots.

Well there's always the RRRF when it gets stocked

I think that Zach said a day or so ago that he has something like 20 lbs of ultra high density polyethylene in stock already. Mind, he may intend that for personal use.