Using mouldable plastic

Recently used some mouldable plastic - where you tip granules into hot water and get a mass of clear plastic. Useful stuff but I found hard to manage.

Are there any easier ways to use this than attempting to handle a hot, incredibly sticky mass. I did my job OK but found avoiding blowholes and water pockets a bit of a problem. Even getting the stuff off swmbo's saucepan and ladle was a problem.

Search for Formcard. There was a post on here about it not long ago (thanks Fizzy),that's how I know about it.

David.

You don't need to use hot water, I have found a hair dryer works well but you have to contain the granules or they blow all over the place until they start to melt and stick together.

Doug

Why not take this a step further and isolate the water and plastic from each other? boil a saucepan and place a glass bowl over it, let the steam heat the bowl and let your granules melt into that instead?

Buy a cheap pyrex dish from wilkos or wherever and keep it for the granules. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 23/08/2016 09:22:01

I think you are right track, Michael

... Re-inventing the traditional wood-workers' Glue Pot.

MichaelG.

Thanks for the replies all. I think I was heating up too much. Instructions said boiling water which is probably a bit too hot, as the stuff cools down it gets more tractable and less sticky. Other instructions say 60 degrees C which looks more sensible. I'll know next time....

You've got the answer! It works well at 60*C but if you go much hotter it actually melts and acts like hot melt glue. There is a lower temperature version available as well - in one of my jobs we used it to make personalised pencil grips and the like for disabled children. I've never used it for any precision jobs though.

George

I always clean out and hang onto those microwave food dishes because they are fine up to boiling point and can be used for any guffy jobs which crop up