Sunglasses to sell

Polymer Craft General
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Hey y´all,
First of all, congratulations Dave and for what you brought to life! It´s really inspiring to see what kind of movement one mind can start!

Im a 25 year old preciousplastic greenhorn from Tyrol, Austria, Europe. I´m about to purchase a Sailboat to sail around Central America and eventually around the world. I´m pretty good in the use of any tools and have a lot of experience with metal and wood… and also a little with electronics, so the building of the machines shouldnt be the problem. I thought about collecting plastic waste from beaches and the sea during this journey, just as i did in my other journeys i already made. Just to “do something good”. Now that i found out about preciousplastic i could imagine building the shredder and an injection machine and install it on the boat to create some accsessories like Sunglasses or neglaces to sell them. With this i want to earn some money to keep on sailing and collecting even more waste.

I thought about selling them for a not yet fixed price which includes the Sunglasses (or other accsessories) and the promise that we collect about 10kg of waste beside the waste that is used to create the products.

Does anyone of you have any experience in making an injection mold for sunglasses? what type of plastic will work best? I just picked sunglasses because i think people are more likely to spend money on lifestyle products than any other… and if they are doing something good for the environment even more…
The Product we sell could also be Smartphone cases or else… Let me know if you got a better idea!

I havent yet tried to build a Sunglass out of recycled plastic. I think only a particular one will work. Out of all the other plastics we collect i would try to make building bricks or roof tiles to give away to the poorest of the locals to build or improve their houses. Of course i will also spread the idea of the machines to the locals during my trip, hoping to inspire the one or the other.
Maybe i could also sell (just for the shipping costs) the collected and shredded plastics to you guys.

Since this idea came in my mind just hours ago i havent had the time to think about all the problems that might come with it. I just wanted to share the idea with the community and would love to hear what you think about it, if you see any problems or to get some tipps of you guys.

I will start to build the shredder and the injection machine soon before leaving austria since i got my workshop and all the tools to build it here at home.

for bricks, you think mixed shredded granulate will work?

Looking forward to your advice and ideas!

Greetings from the freezing cold Tyrolean mountains.

Emanuel

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2

Sounds like a cool idea! I’d love to see the results from this project.
How are you thinking of doing the glasses for the sunglasses? Will you order them separately? I haven’t seen any examples of somebody making clear plastic products with the machines but it would be interesting to try.

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Hi Emanuel,
We are currently looking into making sunglass frames here in Sri Lanka as well.
I think you might sail smoother with an easier product to produce on the site. You will need the right plastic so it does not morph in the sun/heat and the glasses pop out. And fitting glasses into a frame is quite tricky I think. You would also need hinges.
You might be better of with an easier product.
With our injection we experienced a big difference when the pipe is exposed to wind. You should definitely insulate the pipe if you want to install it on a boat.
Let us know when you anker in Sri Lanka, we can make the sunglasses together on firm ground.
Cheers,
Henry

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i forgot to write that. The glasses of the Sunglasses i would order from Carl Zeiss Optics. Since it is really hard if not impossible (without a chemical cleaning process) to get a transparent end product. I also want the glasses to be polarized and usable. I would only produce the frame in an injection machine and eventually a Case for the glasses too.