Adventures with Home-Made Plastic
I have been experimenting (read: playing) with milk curds to produce a rudimentary casein plastic.
There's an instructable if you're interested in doing this yourself.
First attempt: a lump of pure casein took about a week to dry for me. Before it fully dried, I was able to pierce it with a bradawl and screw a PC case screw into the resulting hole. Maybe I'll use this for making my own stand-outs.
Second attempt: I thought I'd try to use it to reinforce some corrugated cardboard. When I make cardboard PC cases, making the case stiff enough is always a design issue.
I followed the instructable, but re-dissolved the casein (using a little water and a teaspoon or two of bicarbonate of soda) and soaked it into the cardboard. I also heated it in a 50° C oven for an hour in an attempt to accelerate the drying.
It was a failure: the cardboard warped and was not significantly strengthened.
Happy accident: While cleaning up with some paper towel, I decided to leave the paper towel on the wax paper to dry. It made an incredibly stiff material after three or four days of drying. So...
Third attempt: Making a rod of paper towel/casein composite.
I made a prism mould from cereal card and filled it with scrunched up paper towel soaked in casein paste. It is beginning its drying process as I type, so I will update in a few days when it is done. Early prediction: the paste has soaked into the card mould, so it will probably be quite warped by the time it has dried.
Only time will tell...
There's an instructable if you're interested in doing this yourself.
First attempt: a lump of pure casein took about a week to dry for me. Before it fully dried, I was able to pierce it with a bradawl and screw a PC case screw into the resulting hole. Maybe I'll use this for making my own stand-outs.
Second attempt: I thought I'd try to use it to reinforce some corrugated cardboard. When I make cardboard PC cases, making the case stiff enough is always a design issue.
I followed the instructable, but re-dissolved the casein (using a little water and a teaspoon or two of bicarbonate of soda) and soaked it into the cardboard. I also heated it in a 50° C oven for an hour in an attempt to accelerate the drying.
It was a failure: the cardboard warped and was not significantly strengthened.
Happy accident: While cleaning up with some paper towel, I decided to leave the paper towel on the wax paper to dry. It made an incredibly stiff material after three or four days of drying. So...
Third attempt: Making a rod of paper towel/casein composite.
I made a prism mould from cereal card and filled it with scrunched up paper towel soaked in casein paste. It is beginning its drying process as I type, so I will update in a few days when it is done. Early prediction: the paste has soaked into the card mould, so it will probably be quite warped by the time it has dried.
Only time will tell...
Comments
Post a Comment