3D Printing

Problem solved! I transferred all the junk PLA parts into a cardboard box ready to take to the local tip. I left the box outside my shed at the bottom of the garden. Unfortunately the fence between our property and "next door" has a loose panel that has needed replacing for a long time. Fortunately, "next door" have been boarding a goat for a relative who is away on holiday for a few weeks. As you know, goats are inquisitive and will eat almost anything, it must have butted aside the loose panel and investigated the contents of the cardboard box. The PLA was a tasty snack, crunchy too! Even one corner of the cardboard box was chewed off.
How fortunate was that? Saved me a visit to the tip, and with a chunk missing, the cardboard box was easy to fold up and put into the Big Bin.
Glad I didn't mend the fence last year.

That's awful! Eating your plastic without prior knowledge. Dread to see what comes out the other end. Possibly a decent looking billy wing.....:lol:

PLA Composting
Biodegradation of a PLA bottle
Biodegradation of a PLA bottle Source: Dr. Mariano Ramirez / sustpkgg.blogspot.com
If you can’t turn PLA into recycled plastic through conventional means, there’s another interesting way to deal with it without sending it to a landfill. One of the unique features of PLA is that it’s a biodegradable plastic, which means it can be broken down over time by bacteria and fungi. You can take advantage of this fact by “composting” your PLA waste.

Composting PLA involves breaking it into small pieces and leaving it in a microbe-rich environment like a compost pile. Depending on your local conditions, it can take a very, very long time until the PLA is fully broken down. (Expect up to a year in wet climates, and even longer in dryer climates!)

I think it'll take less that a year to compost now that the goat has made a start on the process! So far there's a cluster of small round balls that glow slightly in the dark, easy enough to combine with the contents of the compost heap. We don't grow vegetables so it won't do much harm if the flower beds fluoresce gently through the night.

So if you loose a 3D printed model in the crops - how long before all thats remains is just the Electrics and pushrods ?

Not a problem Kevin, John Bannister would spot it on his early morning patrol, and leave it in the Club hut. Sorted!

I should have opened the box from Hobby King, then I wouldn't have felt so smug a couple of days ago. Yesterday evening I had an email from HK asking what I would like to do about the brushless motor that I'd ordered but they didn't have any more. Funny how an item goes from available to "back order" as soon as you try to buy it. Naturally, nothing worth doing is ever easy, the original folding prop assembly won't fit any other motor than the one from HK, so a replacement for the motor will include another prop/spinner/blades.