We are on Zanzibar for almost two months now, Christmas is getting more close. This means that we only have one more month left for the finishing touches. The engine took a really long time to come all the way to Africa. PostNL even became so enthusiastic with their Christmas preparations, that the engine broke during transport. But as everyone says on Zanzibar: Hakuna Matata, no worries!
After some nuanced adjustments (read super glue) we were able to glue the broken parts together. Now we finally have a working motor we have to find a proper shaft to connect the motor to the screw. Eddie (our local handyman) already showed us a friends place where we can make this shaft. His friend (a local mechanic) added the last piece to our puzzle.
Now we could finally enter the final stage of our project. The testing stage of the machine to find all the right settings for the machine. We made sure that the band heaters heated the barrel properly, entered the correct speed on the VFD and threw in shredded plastic into the machine.
THE MACHINE WORKED!
A long tread of plastic came out at higher speed than expected. We now only need to adjust a few settings to make the tread how we want it, but this finetuning can be done within a week. We came up with a collection plan so that after Christmas we will have enough plastic to test with.
For now, the best wishes and a happy new year!
