Hands up if you're here in 2023, learning new skills from Atomic Shrimp a decade ago!

nearly 10 years later and this is the material being used in british army helmets. very versatile and strong material. its also considerably lighter than its equivalent rating of steel/ceramic body armour plates, typically steel NIJ III plates are around 11 lbs, ceramics are around 6lbs whereas HDPE is usually 3lbs. insanely light and very strong.

People in the comments going "what better way is there to cut them up?", "what would be more efficient at heating?" Congratulations, you're on your way to (re-)invent large scale recycling plants XD

You are such a great teacher and you keep the audience attention. I told my nieces and nephews get on my laptop and check for something to do this weekend. Guess what they asked to make? This! You have many tween fans now! Thanks 🙏

Sat through a boring materials science class in mechanical engineering and never thought of such a thing. cool!

Never heard of this before. So many ideas wow. This could be addicting, lol. Kids names, splash guard for kitchens, beads, how about a counter top. the list goes on and on. Thanks for the great content. Now to find a large heating element.

this is sooo cool! i’m all about being green and reusing materials, so i love watching artists and creators recycle materials and make something neat out of it. great work, and great demonstration too, everything was said really clearly and super easy to follow! i was a bit concerned at first bc i thought if the colors continued to melt and mix, it would turn into some unpleasant shade of brown, or green, or grey, as rainbow colors usually turn into when mixed. but the yellow scraps give it such a cool pop of color! definitely deserves a thumbs up and a subscribe. 👍🏼💖

Reusable shopping bags sold in the supermarkets are made from recycled HDPE milk jugs.

Laundry detergent jugs are a great source of colorful HDPE

wow, i actually learned something from this video. i now find myself going around my house checking everything plastic for the triangle with a two! thank you.

This idea is lovely for decorative tiles for the kitchen. It might clean well

Thanks for the inspiration and knowledge sharing to get me started. What a brilliant material, becoming a bit of an obsession now. I have made bowls, fixed a fridge door and re-made handles for my torx drive tool now. Brilliant.

This is a fantastic idea. Watching this video has made me to decide on using this material to make roofing tiles for the house i am building out of all natural and recycled materials. Thanks!!!!

I LOVE THIS ...a thousand possibilities ...think fishing gear, lures ect ... omg all kind of plastic fittings ....

I've been binging your channel and its kind of amazing to see you reply to comments on videos that you posted well over 8 or 9 years ago. A very unique KZfaqr, I'm really starting to like you.

Whilst enjoying this video, it struck me that the sheer quality and variety of content, reminded me of a TV show that was a real favourite of mine when I was a child, in the late 1960's and early 1970's. That show was called 'How', and was produced, I believe, by the then Southern TV company, who were based in Southampton, if memory serves. The show taught me things, that, in my adult life, have helped to win pub quizzes. Probably gained more knowledge from 30 minutes of TV, than from an entire day of school. Unlike other TV shows aimed at children, the presenters never talked down to the viewer. Your videos are just like that. I've only recently found your channel, and everything on it is of interest to me. My late father was full of odd knowledge, and enjoyed teaching me things - for example, when I was about seven he showed me how to make tea properly, and a few years later, I came in one evening, feeling hungry, and asked him if he'd make me a bacon sandwich. "No" he said - "But I'll show you how to do it." Over the years, he showed me that blue cheese was nothing to be afraid of, how to prepare Herrings, just how delicious Kippers and shellfish were, and possibly my favourite, that small, sinister looking pubs in the middle of nowhere, generally were the best ones.

I've watched several, but this is the most helpful tutorial on melting recycled plastic. Thank you for sharing your process.

I have several years of HDPE all kinds of colors saved up. Thanks for reminding me to make some cool stuff with it! Thanks for sharing!

That would make a very cool cutting board for hobby cutting and for those that seem so concerned about energy usage (though this was a hobbyist type video( I am sure there are more ecological ways to melt this if you so choose. Neat video!

The best tutorial for melting HDPE I've ever seen on YT. thanks for sharing.

Gr8 idea, hopefully a plantpot making company will see the potential in this and we could buy their recycled muticoloured plantpots and gardening tools..I for one would enjoy the bright muticoloured design's and it's the sign we are helping the environment too.👍😀

My dad turns pens on a lathe and recently the recycling is not being collected so, this is great I can recycle the plastic myself and make dad blanks to turn pens. 👍

This is far better than my current method of throwing a pile of inch square chunks into a toaster oven and having it burn and stick to the tin. Thanks, I'll be using this method from here on out

It's nearly 10 years later but this is still a useful video. I like the nuts to give the plates the right height! Cheers 😀👍

Fantastic! Love your enterprise, creativity, enthusiasm and skill! You have inspired me to give this a go with my students at my school as part of a STEM project...... awesome job "AtomicShrimp," huge kudos!

Love anyway to recycle what hurts the enviroment for useful things. Amazing ideas and I'm now going to see what ideas I can come up with to use this idea in my home

Wow this is the oldest Atomic Shrimp video I've ever seen! 2012, awesome Mike! Didn't know the channel was over 10 years old!

I like this method of melting, most other people use a mini oven, but the good thing about this is that it applies pressure at the same time, It would be good if you could rig up some metal hooks onto metal chain (because of the heat) down to some bungee cords or springs secured at the floor, this way you could put the hooks on and it would keep applying force and save time. next project should be a HDPE shredder :-) ....or you could use the life hack that uses a craft knife blade and washers and 2 screws to make a long plastic cord in a matter of seconds...

I think this is a great idea for a material to use to repair and replace broken/missing parts, and great for crafts such as making beads. Maybe even embed some kind of mesh and make small decorative wall tiles for the kitchen and bath. :)

I think a very hot clothing iron over aluminium foil can be used to fuse the Polyethylene pieces together use the food grill for intended purpose, this was my thought while watching the video.

I wondered where your funky knife handle was from. I assumed it was handmade, and I've found the video of how the handle was made!!!

This is very educational. That finish product can be made into various items from flower vase to clothes hanger to knife handle to a non leathal weapon such as plastic dagger. Endless possibilities!

I am so happy I stumbled across your video. Have you discovered, or thought of, any way to melt the plastic on a larger scale? Such as boards for shelving or fencing, poles, etc? Please keep sharing your ingenious ideas and methods!!!

Oh great! I get through tons of milk and am always looking for ways to reuse the bottles! Thanks.

I like your energy and focus on what you are doing. Seems you have a good amount of dopamine. You are reminding me to manufacture my own dopamine and GET MOVING! 🙏🏼

Brilliant idea! Definitely will be trying this! I save all my old milk cartons for vacuum forming! Works great heated to 180-190. Can easily make interesting ice cube trays and chocolate Xmas tree decorations!

I use a household blender...makes tiny flakes faster and melts faster.

This is absolutely incredible!! Cant wait to tell my friends about this :)

I used to operate a plastic blow mold machine. We recycled our plastic scrap by sending it through an industrial shredder, which is like a very big paper shredder.

You're a genius! The nerd that I am, it's been in the back of my head for ages to find a better way of processing all the HDPE I've been saving. (Not that I have anything to make yet.) 😜 Thanks.

it's primitive, *But It WORKS!* Thank You for showing folks who can See The Way Forward. --Rick

Great idea using the sandwich toaster! I might have to try to find a way to modify our george foreman grill lol

Oh! the bowl is really pretty! On a recent trip to the beach i was struck by how many plastic water bottle tops were mixed into the sea weed and drift wood. I am looking for projects to make useful and decorative items out of water bottle tops. Your video and blog are really helpful! Especially love the bike pedals to rotate the meat grinder to shred the plastic idea! Thanks!

You can use an old blender to chop it up too. Saw that on another channel.

awe coool. Im gonna make a milk bottle complete with lid.

This is very instructive and makes me wonder why governments don't do this rather than incinerating it together with other garbage. Industrially, I'm sure it could be reused to make waterproof building materials to cover roofs for example... Or use it to make decorative furniture :)Thanks for sharing.

i am going to try and make a kayak for fishing with what you have demonstrated here. Feeling a bit optimistic but i think it's worth a try and costs essentially nothing beats paying $600 for a kayak. winning :)

Thanks AtomicShrimp-you have inspired me! I can think of dozens of uses for this stuff-I just need to collect dozens of Milk containers!.

I’m loving this channel atm. I started with scam baiting & now I’m adding this to my “shit to do later” playlist. My sandwich toaster looks similar to yours, is there any way to test its temperature though?

Awesome. Thank you for teaching us how to do this. I'm trying to make handles for lock picks that I'm going to be making out of 1095 High Carbon Steel Feeler Gauges. (+1 : 660)

Only yesterday I watched your video the first time. And today I watched it again and again and ag....... After that I read all the comments. Some were very constructive, to the point. And you answered to all the questions. Now and the next days I´ll watch your other videos on hdpe and I´ll visit your web-site. One day I´ll try this (I already looked around if we have some hdpe bottles or so and the answer is yes. Making the hdpe bottles will take some time. And I need to find a way to "melt" the hdpe. I do not have a toaster (yet) Maybe I´ll try another method. As long as I do not burn (overheat) the material I can try over and over till I´m satisfied. Thanks for sharing the video.

Thank you for your accurate explanation. At last someone who cares about precise melting temperture! 190º C degrees, isn't it? Subtitles says 180 C but i've heard 190 C

Nice job mate. Screw the recycling, I'll be keeping my plastic from now on.

There are organizations that re-use the bottle caps and turn them into prosthetic limbs.

Hi Shrimp, I'm from the future, you're going to refer to this video in a future video soon. Just a heads up, love your channel :)

It was a lloonngg slow process, but the overall finale was awesome... who knew? I can see lots of uses for this DIY ! Thanks

Very cool you did a very good job of instruction. I think I want to attempt to make a pair of bolsters for my automatic knife. Thank you for the information.

As much as I like recycling, the chopping and cutting is a full time job

Very cool! They make counter tops like this too. You could make tiles too. Great video!

Continuing to be impressed and totally entertained by the variety of content on this channel. It's probably just me but at 12:48 I could see an animal face in the design (lion/tiger??) - very reminiscent of a style of jigsaw puzzle designs I have seen 😃

Wow how gorgeous for bath tiles!

I did this, in my oven on a metallic tray. Next time I am going to try and smith those bad boys into cutting knives for the kitchen

Just when I think I can't be more fascinated with the doings on this channel...🤗

very good vid been looking into melting(smelting) plastics for a bit now and this is the best method i think I've came across yet. We go through a lot of milk in my house so i'll be trying this soon. I don't have a toaster like that but I'm going to try baking it in the oven between to baking trays and that heatproof paper you used and just compress it myself every now and then. hope it works for me thanks for the video

I think this omelette would be tastier with a bit of cheese in it.

This should be required work for plastics industry lobbyists. For every hour of lobbying they do, 100 hours of hand cutting plastic into tiny pieces... for minimum wage.

"plastic milk bottle" In multiple other videos you said you get glass milk bottles delivered... We are onto you Mr. Mike!

Love your collection of 80's table cloths.

Thanks. Now I can make my own clown barf sheets.

dad why is there melted plastic in my grilled cheese?

FWIW - I have an ex-office paper shredder I bought off ebay that cuts into milk bottles into strips. I just tested it - no jams or issues. I cut the tops and bottoms from about 20 bottles, sliced them to make large sheets, and fed the sheets in. It is a pretty heavy duty unit though, and, sadly, doesn't cross-cut.

Great video!! To keep the round shape in the form:maybe melt top a little with heat gun before removing the cardboard form. You might have to do that (melting top)in smaller thickness increments till its as thick as you want then remove the cardboard form & sandwich press cook it

You deserve more subscribes

looks like good flooring material, hard plastic tiles maybe?

It's a real BAD shame milk jugs and tons of plastic just gets wasted left in land fills when it could easily be melted & repurposed in to other useful items, just think of how much better the world would of been if we did that! I really like your video! I've been collecting and mincing a few empty jugs to make a mallet head seeing how hard your plastic came out has me excited to get on it! 😁

my local organic shop has recycled floor/wall tiles that i guess are a small business somewhere. somehow they manage to get film wrappers for sweets/biscuits/crisps etc inside the mix, shrunken but still readable. they seem to have a softer texture than your end product and the floor tiles are three quarter inch thick but they feel so warm compared to ceramic. a nice, quirky alternative for an unheated downstairs utility or boot room.

Hmm HDPE is used in combat robotics, interesting I wonder if I could use this method to make armor and a chassis for a 3lber?

Love the table cloth!

Ive tried this tech. and it is great I could only find a small cooker wich messures 11" x 5" but have gotten some great results so far and after reading your other page and trying some of my own ways of working this stuff Im hooked Iv used an old Clothes Iron and a couple metal pans got a nice disk Have made several thicknesses My best one so far is a board 5/8" thick by 5" wide by 11" long and it is real strong I read about your boat Idea and wantted to offer this

How about making lawn furniture? Tables, chairs....so cool. Great video!!!😁😁😁😁😁

Suggestion: Cut up pieces may be easy with 1. Shredder 2. Blade Paper Cutter.

The nastiest pizza I've eaten in quite a while.

Can you control the design at all to create recognizable objects? Or use molds for Christmas ornaments or jewelry?

Fabulous and inspiring video. I don't understand why I could smell melting plastic in my house around the middle of this video, though.

good idea. I would make a mold for my soap making process

Had to admire this guy... he just happened to have handy a large piece of iron girder to flatten the plastic - where would you get that from? Not sure I would have the patience to spend so much time just to end up with a piece of flat plastic. Maybe the prison population could make good use of their recreational hobbies inside, but could they be trusted with this equipment?

Most helpful HDPE recycling video I've watched, thank you

Thoroughly enjoyed your video. Think I will be trying this. We use a lot of water bottles, milk jugs and coffee containers and I have seen videos on dying plastic. Thanks for the brain food.

Send it through a paper shredder to save your hands n fingers

Brilliant creation

I'm watching your videos! You are amazing! So many great ideas. Bye for now...just off to watch some more.

If you could make it in thin sheets you could make your own window blinds. Learn how to make molds and make your own plates & flatware. Use shreds as pillow stuffing. Make "Dutch" style shoes. Garden rakes. Edging. Decking planks. Garden pavers. Bird houses, feeders, baths.

FANTASTIC , WHAT A BIG IDEA GRETINGS GOD BLESS YOU !!!!!!!!!

Use an old coffee grinder or a blender to chop the plastic. Better yet, a wood chipper... lol

I am very excited about this idea as I am always useing plastic panels insted of wood in my projects as it lasts longer and is already waterproof I also rework Grociery bags into cordage and rope and the like to recycle those to keep them out of the land fill

I wonder what the sandwish-toaster inventor would feel like if he saw your work. Nice work by the way

It's hard to live plastic free. I'm trying but I like the idea of atleast taking all the plastic that comes into my possession and transforming it to something else.

I'm 5 minutes in this is borderline asmr

I think the key is to make larger pieces. You can use plain newspaper. I imagine you could put the chips between newspaper and then some corrugated the heating on both sides and get a coordinated sheet when you get done

Thanks for the reply mate. I made a kiln type device where I wrap some stacked pre ironed sheets of HDPE in aluminium foil,place in an old pan and heat on the hob. it fuses the plastic into nice thick sheets. I learned the trick from an Australian artist called Mark Vaarwerk.