This article presents a method of manufacturing moulding polyimide (PI) from recycling pyromellitic dianhydride‐4,4′oxydianiline PI films. Recycled PI powders were obtained by grinding PI films in high‐energy ball mill. In order to improve the sintering behavior of the recycled PI, a commercial PI powder (trade mark PM‐69) and a liquid PI resin (trade mark SP‐97) were chosen as modifying additions. PI/PM‐69 and PI/SP‐97 compositions were obtained by high‐energy ball mill. Bulk samples were obtained by compression moulding at 400 °C. The mechanical properties of the moulded PI and the reinforcing action of the PM‐69 and SP‐97 are strongly dependent on the mean size of the recycled PI powders. The flexural strength of 87 MPa and the deformation at failure −4.2% were achieved for the moulded PI/SP‐97 (10 wt %) samples. The resulting materials showed linear behavior of elastic modulus in a temperature range of 50–350 °C. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46733.