Ace-Garageguy

Small scale styrene injection molding, desktop-size, is possible as I write this. I posted links and vids some time ago. Recycled sprue would be ideal in that application...make your own styrene parts. The dies can be 3D printed, but the downside is it would require many multiples of any part made to be worth the time and effort involved. How many '37 Caddy hubcaps can you really use?

That's most likely a patentable idea. You should build a prototype, patent it, then see if you can sell it to a model company...or somebody.

A good idea at first thought, as polystyrene is relatively easy to recycle, though not necessarily back to its original application. Because of the likelihood of contamination, and mixed colors and formulations, it's doubtful recycled styrene would end up as kits again. Also, there has to be the incentive to do it, and that always involves money. An employee would have to run the show, manage finding a suitable recycler, shipping the stuff, etc. And unfortunately, recycling plastics is more complex than many assume. Quoting below from a solid source: "High Impact PolyStyrene (HIPS) is a recyclable material For a world that needs to reduce its plastic waste, using a 100% recyclable plastic packaging solution, such as HIPS, is not a problem, especially for organizations that want to reduce their carbon footprint. Because High Impact Polystyrene is a thermoplastic that can be easily formed using heat, it can be recycled in a wide variety of applications. Not only does this show how flexible the material is, but it can be useful beyond its original purpose. However, High Impact PolyStyrene (HIPS) and other recyclable forms of polystyrene are often not acceptable in recycling plants. In the UK, for example, only 30% of the UK population has access to factories that allow the recycling of HIPS products such as glasses and disposable tableware. Unfortunately, this is part of a global problem where only 14% of the world’s plastic packaging is recycled annually. Because most recycling plants cannot sort and reprocess up to 50 different types of plastics. This wide variety means that plastic recycling is a complex task, especially when compared to how other materials are recycled.

Solvent glues accessible to the general public don't work on polyethylene. Glues that DO are a PITA to use. Quoting somebody who knows his stuff: "PE and PP are hard to glue because they have "low surface energy". Very crudely, they have little interest in sticking to anything else, including adhesives. One technique that works is to apply a chemical "surface activator" then use cyanoacrylate adhesives ("superglues"). Until recently, surface activators were not marketed for retail, although anyone could buy small quantities from a Permatex distributor like a bearing or power transmission industrial supply house, or from similar sources. Recently, the Locktite brand has started retail marketing of a product called "Plastix" that is a kit of surface activator and compatible cyanoacrylate adhesive. The literature for Plastix indicates it is suitable "even for" PE and PP."

If you use a truck like I sometimes do, the new electric Ford Lightning is probably not for you. But hey...it has a chicken platform.

Uh, Tom...the issue isn't "cotter pins". The issue isn't even the definitions of clevis pins and cotter pins, or the fact that they're entirely different in form and function. The issue is the responsibility of people who use technical terms to use them correctly, and the responsibility of anyone presenting himself as an "expert" or "authority" to self-fact-check prior to publication. I've made my share of mistakes, and when I do, I appreciate being corrected with the actual fact(s). The truth is important, even in small things.

SHRINKFLATION: "New smaller package!!! Contains less !!! Costs more !!!" What a deal.

Good to see you reserve the use of your apparently limited leisure time for the really important stuff, like counting people's posts. EDIT: And now that I think about it, it strikes me as comical that I should be ridiculed for excessive posting by someone who, in almost the same breath, had earlier been accusing me of being "troubled" and "bothered" by technology. See Michael, I have these little magic boxes I carry around that let me take a moment here and there during the day, while having coffee or lunch or chasing parts online for instance, to look in to see what participants in my third-favorite hobby are up to. One final point from me: you say "The world of model car building is not exactly a raging cauldron of activity here in Europe". Well sir, what y'all may lack in quantity, you certainly make up for it in quality. Some of the European builders who post their work on this forum are among the best on the planet. I notice we haven't been graced by any of yours. Why not? This is a site primarily about model cars, n'est-ce pas? It's a curious phenomenon that so many "modelers" who seem to delight in criticizing me personally don't seem to take equal delight in actually building models...or have nothing to show here, at any rate.

Yeah, it's hard to keep cool when stuff like this is rampant...which it is, everywhere. But I'm making a serious effort to not let the constant deluge of incompetence, ignorance, excuse-making, and outright betrayal get to me, at least not to the point it ruins my day. Remember...you can't fix stupid...and it's stupid to let it spoil even a single moment of your life.

If so, he was doing the best imitation of a pizza I've ever seen.

I saw a dead possum.

While we're lamenting the demise of factual accuracy in print, take a listen sometime to what passes for "documentaries" on YouTube. Many of the copy writers have little comprehension of what they're writing about, the voiceover talent has even less, and they don't know words. American "education" has fallen into the toilet, and it's not unusual to see even degreed "journalists" confusing things like materiel and material, ordnance and ordinance, copy writing and copyrighting, and even there, their, and they're. I know a lot of folks think stuff like this doesn't matter, and that only a grammar-Nazi would care, but a person is often judged by how well he communicates. An older and wiser fella once chided a woefully ignorant young hot-rodder with "You want to build a car? You can't even build a sentence." The point being that sloppy use of one's native language often goes hand and hand with sloppy use of other tools, and incompetence in general.

Not to pile on MCM, but the concepts of "editor" and knowledgeable "fact checking" in journalism as a whole are largely things of the much-maligned geezer past. Generations conditioned to swallow whole the FIRST result vomited up by Google for the most part don't care about whether it's RIGHT or not. It can be frustrating going through life actually wanting to know the TRUTH, once you realize you're in a tiny minority.

Whatthehell? You expect people to actually READ the thread prior to posting in it???? Get real.