Polymorph - anyone used it?

[Howard]

A friend of mine recently told me about this product, available in the U.K. from Maplin.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...&doy=search

I expect it's available in the U.S.
Here's a few FAQs from the Maplin site:


Q) Is polymorph reusable? - Kevin Gough
A) Yes. You just have to reheat it in hot water so you can mould it again.

Q) Is it opaque or translucent? - Stuart McGraw
A) It is opaque.

Q) How long does it take to harden? - Peter
A) Not long, once it has started cooling it will start to hold it's shape fairly rapidly.

Q) When malleable, what is its consistency like? e.g. milk, clay, gelatine etc. - Josh
A) Like clay I would say.

Q) After it has hardened, can you drill / file / saw it ? - Chris
A) Yes you can.

Q) Can moulds created from polmorph be used for forming products, such as candles or soap (hot liquids) - Lisa
A) Yes this can be used for hot candle and soap moulding.

Q) what tempreture at which it becomes a liquid? for casting or other pouring aplications - Peter Fawdon
A) it becomes mouldable at 62 deg cent - this is the only information we have

Q) Hi, is this material conductive or insulative. IE: Is it suitable for covering PCBs to prevent shorts? Thanks, James - James
A) polymorph is an insulator

Q) Do you have a COSHH datasheet for this? - Muad''Dib
A) Yes, available on request at the point of purchase

Q) Hi, can you dye this product while it is heated and soft? i.e. can you put in a colour so the material is uniform in colour right through? Thanks - Julian
A) yes - this will accept acrylic based colours

Q) Can it be made to harden permanantley ? - Simon
A) Only if not used with anything involving high temperatures (over 60 degrees Centigrade).

Q) Is this suitable for making parts of robotic arms etc... where it will be under a bit of stress? Thanks. - David
A) it is suitaqble for this purpose as it sets very hard but not brittle

Q) Is polymorph safe to use on food related products? - luke
A) it is non toxic so can be used as part of food preperation but must not be consumed.

It sounds like an excellent mold making material - has anyone tried it?

 

[kurtyboy]

Sounds awfully like Gaflex which must be the US equivalent.

Trooper Master over at MEPD uses it. He talks about it in this thread:

http://www.mepd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2358

More about it here: http://www.tiranti.co.uk/data/ASP/showsubd...ivision=Gelflex


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Howard @ Mar 18 2007, 07:21 AM) [snapback]1442548[/snapback]</div>

A friend of mine recently told me about this product, available in the U.K. from Maplin.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...&doy=search

I expect it's available in the U.S.
Here's a few FAQs from the Maplin site:


Q) Is polymorph reusable? - Kevin Gough
A) Yes. You just have to reheat it in hot water so you can mould it again.

Q) Is it opaque or translucent? - Stuart McGraw
A) It is opaque.

Q) How long does it take to harden? - Peter
A) Not long, once it has started cooling it will start to hold it's shape fairly rapidly.

Q) When malleable, what is its consistency like? e.g. milk, clay, gelatine etc. - Josh
A) Like clay I would say.

Q) After it has hardened, can you drill / file / saw it ? - Chris
A) Yes you can.

Q) Can moulds created from polmorph be used for forming products, such as candles or soap (hot liquids) - Lisa
A) Yes this can be used for hot candle and soap moulding.

Q) what tempreture at which it becomes a liquid? for casting or other pouring aplications - Peter Fawdon
A) it becomes mouldable at 62 deg cent - this is the only information we have

Q) Hi, is this material conductive or insulative. IE: Is it suitable for covering PCBs to prevent shorts? Thanks, James - James
A) polymorph is an insulator

Q) Do you have a COSHH datasheet for this? - Muad''Dib
A) Yes, available on request at the point of purchase

Q) Hi, can you dye this product while it is heated and soft? i.e. can you put in a colour so the material is uniform in colour right through? Thanks - Julian
A) yes - this will accept acrylic based colours

Q) Can it be made to harden permanantley ? - Simon
A) Only if not used with anything involving high temperatures (over 60 degrees Centigrade).

Q) Is this suitable for making parts of robotic arms etc... where it will be under a bit of stress? Thanks. - David
A) it is suitaqble for this purpose as it sets very hard but not brittle

Q) Is polymorph safe to use on food related products? - luke
A) it is non toxic so can be used as part of food preperation but must not be consumed.

It sounds like an excellent mold making material - has anyone tried it?
[/b]

 

[Howard]

Thanks Marcus.
I'll check out the links you've posted.

Howard.

 

[Howlrunner]

Yeah, I've used it. Great stuff. Not found a real application for it yet, but I used to use it for taking molds of my teeth and making fake monster dentures (I was young and it was for Halloween ). It picks up a LOT of detail (just handling the stuff, it's possible to take great casts of your fingerprints) and it can make nice looking molds if you press something into it (I experimented by pushing a Cryptkeeper model kit head inso it and it left a great impression of the face with wrinkles and everything).

 

[dijinn]

Does anyone know where to get this stuff in the US? Interested in purchasing a medium sized quantity of it and playing around before investing more $$$ into it.

- J.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Howlrunner @ Mar 19 2007, 07:24 AM) [snapback]1443194[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I've used it. Great stuff. Not found a real application for it yet, but I used to use it for taking molds of my teeth and making fake monster dentures (I was young and it was for Halloween ). It picks up a LOT of detail (just handling the stuff, it's possible to take great casts of your fingerprints) and it can make nice looking molds if you press something into it (I experimented by pushing a Cryptkeeper model kit head inso it and it left a great impression of the face with wrinkles and everything).
[/b]

 

[tk8456]

Out of interest, which one would be better for our needs?

I'd like to make cast of this

But am not sure how to go about it.

Could one of these be used to help?

Could it be used to make moulds? Melt this in a jar, dip your model in. Wait for it to cool. Smash the jar, cut in half, take the model out and then bingo, 2 halves of your mould

Or is there a simpler way to do that. LOL

 

[dansmith]

as above it sounds alot like Gelflex. which you can get in the UK.

Gelflex come in a couple of grades, theres a soft one for moulds with large undercuts and harder version. You can mix the grades when you heat it.

cheers
Dan

 

[dropshipbob]

I remember getting something like this years ago. Unless the heat that it congeals at is lower than the stuff I had, it will be too hot to handle. And when it does cool off, it's too cool to form it into anything.

 

[juno]

Here's stuff I've bought in the U.S.:
http://shapelock.com/

 

[Construct]

Polymorph and Shapelock are brands of polycaprolactone (PCL), a non-toxic, biodegradable thermoplastic that melts at 150 degrees F (60 degrees C)*. Basically, you pour your granules (i.e. bits of chopped sprue) into hot water, wait for them to soften together, pull the ensuing modeling-clay-constituency mass out and try to mold it to shape before it cools and solidifies. From memory, if you heat PCL much over 60 degrees C it breaks down, so whilst it's quite happy in a temperature-controlled injection molder, pouring it into a garage mold is probably out of the question. :lol

Gelflex is a PVC resin that melts at 150 degrees C. This one you do pour into molds.

*The PCL blends sometimes used for dental casts obviously soften at less than that.

 

[BlindSquirrel]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Mar 22 2007, 08:30 AM) [snapback]1445479[/snapback]</div>

Here's stuff I've bought in the U.S.:
http://shapelock.com/
[/b]

I see that they have a little sample pack for $4.95. Sounds interesting.

What's your review on this stuff? What did you use it for and how did it work? Any pics?

 

[dijinn]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BlindSquirrel @ Mar 24 2007, 10:45 PM) [snapback]1447488[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Mar 22 2007, 08:30 AM) [snapback]1445479[/snapback]

Here's stuff I've bought in the U.S.:
http://shapelock.com/
[/b]

I see that they have a little sample pack for $4.95. Sounds interesting.

What's your review on this stuff? What did you use it for and how did it work? Any pics?
[/b][/quote]


Well, after someone clued me into Shapelock... I bought a medium sized jar of the stuff. I tried it out this past weekend on an action figure head. It works just as described... I dropped pellets into some 150-160 degree water, it turned clear and all globbed together immediately.

Using some tongs, I took it out and it was very malleable, sort of like a stiff clay. I sprayed some PAM (the anti-stick cooking spray) on a figure head and wrapped it in Shapelock, pressing it into all the nooks and crannies. It took about 5-10 minutes to cool off. As the Shapelock cools off, it turns from clear back into an opaque white color. Once it was all white, it certainly is hard. It reminds me of delrin... it's hard like plastic but has a tiny bit of flex to it and the surface is slightly slippery.

Anyway, after it cooled off I realized that I couldn't get it off the figure's head because of all the undercuts. I didn't think things through clearly, I was too excited to just try out the stuff. The only way to get a mold would be to cut the plastic in halves and that would destroy the detail in the mold where ever I cut through. So, I dipped the entire block of Shapelock, including the figure head, back into some hot water... waited for the Shapelock to turn clear and then just removed it from the figure head. I wanted to see how well the detail it captured was so, I split the Shapelock mold into halves and let them cool off. I'm very surprised at how well it captured detail... even got the figure's sculpted eyeballs and hair follicles.

So, the moral of the story: this stuff is GREAT for making one part molds without any undercuts. Something with one large flat side would be perfect for this stuff. Making a two part mold... probably not a good idea unless your master could be split in half first.

- J.