Awesome idea! I have don similar with other materials but I never figured on using plastics from bottles. And one thought I had if adding strength was an issue, is placing a layer or more of chicken wire or any metal screen in between the plastic before baking (Slingshot lasagna). I'v used that method on terra cotta clay and it added an extreme amount of strength. peace.
This thing is supa strong my friend, believe me. I banded up with regular rubber, took about 20 shotz stretching the rubber at max for every shotz... The pouch broke...
I was looking at the fork while shooting and it didn' t move or bended. 12 mm thick.... I think this stuff is way stronger than ply of the same thikness.
It can support 3 layers TBG without a problem.
12 mm thick is not much but this was just a test. It will support one band per side for sure, maybe two. Now i have to find a way to compress it when baking to have a nicer block.
How much compression do you think you may need? I'm thinking of a few ideas:
1. Get a piece of metal - steel, etc., wrapped in aluminum foil (so it doesn't stick to the plastic) and placed on top of your plastic, then on top of the steel, you could place heavy bricks, stones or something similar. The benefit in my mind is that you have additional direct heat transference from the steel plate and even the stones to help you get a nice smooth, melted surface on the top and bottom of the plastic blank.
2. Use the same piece of steel, and use steel 'c' clamps to put pressure on the plate. With this method, I imagine you would have to tighten the clamps just a bit during the melting process as the plastic begins to melt and settle.
Just thinking out loud here. You'll have to let us know if you come up with a good method as I get lots of HDPE plastic around here that I could use for this purpose. Of course, we have curbside recycling of HDPE in our area, so it's little work to make sure they get reused. But I just really love the patterns you can get using this method. Really cool.
Hey Be,
It is not my invention, just inspiration from other people here and on the SSF.
Thanks mate. I am sure if you try your magic fingaz on that, you will make awesome pieces.
This thing is supa strong my friend, believe me. I banded up with regular rubber, took about 20 shotz stretching the rubber at max for every shotz... The pouch broke...
I was looking at the fork while shooting and it didn' t move or bended. 12 mm thick.... I think this stuff is way stronger than ply of the same thikness.
It can support 3 layers TBG without a problem.
Fantastic!!! Thread of the year!!! How would you make an all in one mould? Would tin foil be ok? how about epoxy putty? Just thinking life would be easier if you could start with as close to the shape you want? I've been checking everything got a lot of triangles with 1's , 2's and 5's I know 2 is good but are the others usable?
12 mm thick is not much but this was just a test. It will support one band per side for sure, maybe two. Now i have to find a way to compress it when baking to have a nicer block.
Fantastic!!! Thread of the year!!! How would you make an all in one mould? Would tin foil be ok? how about epoxy putty? Just thinking life would be easier if you could start with as close to the shape you want? I've been checking everything got a lot of triangles with 1's , 2's and 5's I know 2 is good but are the others usable?
As i said before, i didn' t come up with this i have read some comments here and i had to try it out.
About the mold, it would be nice to make one that is close to the final shape of the slingshot but i prefer to make boards. I am planning to use a quality street-like biscuit box for that. Have to make a sort of press too.
About the molds you have, could you please post a picture with something beside it to compare the size?
How much compression do you think you may need? I'm thinking of a few ideas:
1. Get a piece of metal - steel, etc., wrapped in aluminum foil (so it doesn't stick to the plastic) and placed on top of your plastic, then on top of the steel, you could place heavy bricks, stones or something similar. The benefit in my mind is that you have additional direct heat transference from the steel plate and even the stones to help you get a nice smooth, melted surface on the top and bottom of the plastic blank.
2. Use the same piece of steel, and use steel 'c' clamps to put pressure on the plate. With this method, I imagine you would have to tighten the clamps just a bit during the melting process as the plastic begins to melt and settle.
Just thinking out loud here. You'll have to let us know if you come up with a good method as I get lots of HDPE plastic around here that I could use for this purpose. Of course, we have curbside recycling of HDPE in our area, so it's little work to make sure they get reused. But I just really love the patterns you can get using this method. Really cool.
Hi Withak,
I used 2 x 5kg( lifting weights) for my test.
Watch this vid from YT.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_XUJwINdLw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_XUJwINdLw[/ame]
It is 12mm thick and it can stand two TBG per side without a problem. If i had to, i' ll use three bands per side without hesitating. That stuff is rock solid!
I' ll make thicker boards as soon as i can.
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