[UPDATE 10/21/2021 -After 2018 I started posting my updates on my Patreon page, and so I'm filling in the back-logs for this project retroactively so the whole story is in both places. You can also read all of these posts with their original photo formatting here]

September 30th, 2019

Hello dear Patrons!  

Here’s what happened this month! 

We set up the Trash Printer at Portland Mini Maker Faire, and printed a sign thats says TRASH PRINTER out of trash!

I built an interactive, animated 3D diagram of the Metabolizer in Unity3D, to help visualize the flows of resources and energy between the different systems. Still a work in progress, but an exciting start! If you know anyone who's really good at Unity, let me know!

Dave Hakkens, the founder of the Precious Plastic movement, and a big inspiration to me, became one of my Patrons! Dave's detailed documentation and helpful videos are what got me started working on plastic recycling, and I aspire to make stuff as useful and accessible as he has. Thanks Dave!

What I learned: 

Printing on glass with a heated bed made out of a radiant floor heater doesn't work very well. The PP just fall right off as it cools...

But printing on a sheet of solid polypropylene, with polypropylene, with the heated bed works pretty well! I made this little Extinction Rebellion emblem for the Climate Strike.

I made this little token using a combination of 3D printing and molding making. I made a laser-cut acrylic mold, and then just manually extruded the plastic into it. This one turned out OK, and I think the process has some potential!

What I'm going to do next: 

Claire and I are taking the Magic Tool Bus on a road trip for most of October! We're starting out by showing off the Trash Printer at the Arcosanti Convergence!

Then we're going to do a demo regenerative tech at the Institute for the Future's 10 Year Forecast conference in Richmond, CA!

And finally, I just got accepted to install the Metabolizer at Portland Winter Lights Festival at OMSI in February, so over the next few months I'll be getting ready to show off the Metabolizer as a whole working system instead of a set of mostly-functional parts for the first time! Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for your support!

Here's how I spent your money this month:

120V Radiant Heater - $60 

Aviation Plugs 4-pin - $7.99 

Insulation Pads- $6.96 

3/4” Cable Housing - $11.25 

2x High Temp Thermistors $25.98 

PP Office Mat - $29.95 

16-pin Aircraft Connector - $34.18 

10mm to 10mm Shaft Coupler - $9.40 

8mm to 6mm shaft coupler - $7.59 

6mm to 10mm shaft coupler- $9.29 

3x High Temp thermistors - $10.99 

Raspberry Pi 4 - $70 

Polypropylene sheet- $30

Coroplast - $48