extra sprues!

[david 56]

does anyone have any ideas on waht to do with the extra gw sprues???I already use some of my sprues for terrian witch i already have plenty of.I have about 3 boxs of extra sprues i dont know what to with them?

I was thinking since i have some moldels that i sculpted and molded.am i able to remelt the plastic and cast it into the mold??

 

[DaN]

Funnily enough there\'s an AAAAMMMMZING new article about that very subject... lol

If they\'re standard grey sprues I tend to chop them up and use them as rubble on bases and scenery.

 

[david 56]

dan if you dont happen to have a chance on knowing well i dont know the name of it but its a clear bottle that burns plastic not a lot of it but enough to remove mold lines i think the company of plastruc has them in stock??

wel what is it?

thanks..

 

[DaN]

I haven\'t got the faintest clue what you\'re talking about old chap Sorry!

It\'s a bottle that burns things?? Sorry... ???

 

[Helga]

What to do with surplus parts and sprues

My first choice would be: keep everything and all, anything will be useful sometime.

As You are having collected already three boxes full of parts you don\'t know what to do with, maybe You can throw them away. Melting down plastic sprues is definitely not an option, as plastic is cast in (at least) two components: Hydrocarbon-insert_name and a chemical trigger, which together make a poly-insert_name i.e. Plastic. You cannot melt down plastic to its components. You simply destroy it.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by david 56
dan if you dont happen to have a chance on knowing well i dont know the name of it but its a clear bottle that burns plastic not a lot of it but enough to remove mold lines i think the company of plastruc has them in stock??

You mean something you can brush on to remove mould lines? Liquid cement will do this to a certain degree, as well as chloroform and some other organic solvents, but IME you should really only use them for final smoothing - so scrape/file/sand the mould lines off, then smooth with a brush and solvent if you need to.

Einion

P.S. Make sure you have good ventilation

 

[freakinacage]

i am in the process of filing mine down into tubing as per shawn\'s suggestion for a sculpt i am working on

also someone posted a link to plastic sprue plants on terragenesis

 

[MPJ]

Melting plastic may not be feasible in the sense of being able to be re-used (at least at the home owner level) but it\'s fun as hell!

Stretching sprues has lots of possibilities, roll sprues over an open flame (candle is best) until it starts to sag then remove it from the flame area and pull the ends apart until you get the thickness you desire. Millions of household uses (well maybe not millions). It\'s a time-honored tradition for making antennas and such for model tanks and airplanes and other wire-like products.

 

[Bengoodall]

Get an old hand wound mincer,and cut them into little bits to grind up for terrain

Ok, so this takes weeks of hard winding, but you work out your biceps and triceps while recycling and making terrain.

Win all round!

 

[lahatiel]

I thought I had seen someone talking on here a while about being able to melt sprue bits to make small detail bits. While I\'m sure that it\'s not feasible to try casting entire figures this way, is it actually possible to use melted sprue for something like a small, flat-surface, open-face mold of purity seals or shoulder pad icons or like (as you might do with a green stuff press mold) -- or am I just completely misremembering what I read? (Or else I\'m remembering correctly, but what I\'d read was wrong in the first place! )

 

[CrookedEye]

I thought that Cyril had a tutorial online somewhere- it was in French but I thought he was melting sprues for exactly the type of open mould you\'re talking about.

I\'ve tried it and couldn\'t get it to work so if anyone does I\'d second the request for info.

Zach

 

[lahatiel]

Hmm, still haven\'t found whatever it was I thought I saw about just melting leftover sprue with a flame... but I did find a post along similar lines on a scale model forum, but using paint stripper to melt the plastic into goop and then using it as a gap-filler or in a mold:

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/chit-chat/5292-i-think-i-have-invented-something.html

Hmm, might have to try that sometime.

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by Bengoodall
Get an old hand wound mincer,and cut them into little bits to grind up for terrain

Ok, so this takes weeks of hard winding, but you work out your biceps and triceps while recycling and making terrain.

Win all round!

yeah i found i got wankers cramp form sanding mine down! felt much fitter at the end!