# So THIS is what hdpe envy leads you to...



## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

I have been following the growing hdpe recyler/designer/entrepeneur movement on this forum with a bit of envy. You see, I have a better chance at seeing Moses himself buying a baguette at the bakery downstairs than I do of convincing my wife to let me cook plastic in our oven. So I watched and read about all the new SS designs people were trying out and I began to turn green with envy.
My other problem is that I live in metropolitan Paris and they don't particularly like seeing people with folding saws in the city parks fork hunting. I don't have too many tools here as they are back home in NYC in storage. So I bought a kilo of Polymorph pellets and melted them in hot water and played around with them a few times and remelted them again and again until I got a feel for what I could do as such a novice SS maker.
Here is what I ended up making and any suggestions or questions are welcome. The polymorph is slick and I had trouble getting the tubes from slipping right thru a band-type fastening with a horizontal groove in front and in back of each fork. That is why I did what you see in these pics and "chicken boned" the tips of my forks ( I don't know the term for it and the tips look like a drumstick when i am done with it so, lol). This is my first Ss made by my hands and I guess it is called " the Drumstick". Oh, i put some long 1842 singles on it with a crappy pouch I made so i could try out butterfly. I will be changing back to a normal anchor length as I have no butterfly aiming abilities just yet. It does get a lot of zip out of the 1842's though...


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Sorry mods, I guess I should have posted this in the homemade section. How do i move it over?


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## Lacumo (Aug 18, 2013)

Congrats on the "First Homemade" (which is a point I haven't even gotten to yet). Looks like time for a trip out to the countryside to try it out.


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## rockslinger (Nov 16, 2010)

Nice job on that SF, looks like a sweet little shooter!


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## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

That water must have be real hot. Looks to be a neat lil shooter. I like it.


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## Henry the Hermit (Jun 2, 2010)

SmilingFury said:


> Sorry mods, I guess I should have posted this in the homemade section. How do i move it over?


We have to do that for you. It's done.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Thanks guys. I can't wait to make different kinds of SS now. The beauty of this polymorph stuff is that you can just melt it again and again if you get sick of what you made. I have to admit that I am stupidly proud of my first baby shooter : )



reset said:


> That water must have be real hot. Looks to be a neat lil shooter. I like it.


Actually the water comes to a boil and I drop the pellets in and it forms a pliable mass in seconds. Just pull it out when it goes clear and seethrough and dab it to get the water off of it and just start shaping. I did make a ball first and then started pulling out forks and handle from that. You want to get all the air bubbles out first and smooth any folds or creases. It really is a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to work with. I think you can add powder to color it, but i have little interest in doing that. i can always wrap in whatever color paracord I like. 
Ok, enough babbling, thanks for looking!


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Henry in Panama said:


> SmilingFury said:
> 
> 
> > Sorry mods, I guess I should have posted this in the homemade section. How do i move it over?
> ...


Thanks Henry.


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## NaturalACE (Aug 6, 2013)

Nice form and experimenting. sweet slingshot.


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## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Wow that polymorph is expensive. How much would you say you used in that shooter by weight or however they sell it?


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## All Buns Glazing (Apr 22, 2012)

Holy smokes! Polymorph sounds awesome, how did I not hear of it before?

P.s. that's a great slingshot mate. I love that tube attachment method.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

reset said:


> Wow that polymorph is expensive. How much would you say you used in that shooter by weight or however they sell it?


I bought a kilo for less than €20. 18 and some change actually. It cost me about €25 shipped. The SS I made today is by no means large but it fits my bear paw nicely i got the kilo in 4 250gr bag and I have a good 65-70% of the first bag left. Depending on the size of future projects, i figure I can get around 12 slingshots out of the kilo, give or take one or two. Also you have to keep in mind that you can remelt this stuff a limitless amount of times. I guess it is subjective but I thought it was a pretty good deal. Then again I probably wouldn't think that if I had some decent woods to walk around in and shop for forks. For the record, I would love to try the whole hdpe thing, it is just more practical for my situation to put the kettle on and start shaping forks in ten minutes with my hands, a spyderco folding knife, and a bic pen! Lol! 
For goodness sake, i am shooting into a box stuffed with old towels placed at the front door of my apartment from down the hall by my bedroom!


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

All Buns Glazing said:


> Holy smokes! Polymorph sounds awesome, how did I not hear of it before?
> 
> P.s. that's a great slingshot mate. I love that tube attachment method.


Thanks ABG, the attachment is not my idea. I saw it somewhere but I can't remember where. Oh btw, if you liked polymorph check our this stuff called sugru. As I was looking for alternative materials I saw a few vids on it. It is crap for slingshots but the applications are limitless. It is. Play dough like substance made of a silicone compound that sets overnight in whatever shape or use you applied it to. It bonds with a dozen different materials and surfaces and stays rubbery flexible. Looks like pretty cool stuff and I would have gotten some but I have to do proper wife relations management ( and I can't make slingshots out of that stuff so...).


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## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Well thats not bad then when you figure how many you can make.

What a guy wont do to shoot eh? LOl.

Ill be doing about the same soon. 28 feet of hallway. Winter is just about on us here. Getting colder by the day here.


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## bigron (Nov 29, 2012)

she looks real sweet


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## All Buns Glazing (Apr 22, 2012)

I checked the stuff out - has really good implications for education, too! (being a student teacher here) There's a lower temp version too, which will be good for clearing some safety scared teachers.

So, are you saying you used less than 250 grams of the stuff to make that slingshot? Do you think 250 grams would make something the size as a forkeye?

How do you find the finished product for strength?


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

All Buns Glazing said:


> I checked the stuff out - has really good implications for education, too! (being a student teacher here) There's a lower temp version too, which will be good for clearing some safety scared teachers.
> 
> So, are you saying you used less than 250 grams of the stuff to make that slingshot? Do you think 250 grams would make something the size as a forkeye?
> 
> How do you find the finished product for strength?


This stuff is strong enough for any of the double tube bandsets I have on my other shooters. 1842,2040, 1745. The stuff is SOLID. I cannot bend the handle or the forks unless I flip it over and grab it by the very tips and it only moves a bit before going right back to form.. I could hit this stuff with a hammer and it would be fine. I have no fear about the material giving way. The only thing is that when I made my first few attempts i was folding it over again and again to get the air bubbles out. This caused the edges to have slight faults that are still strong but I could open them with a screwdriver for example.so what I did was do the folding over and over to squeeze out air and water pockets and then made a ball and even rolled it around in hot water in a glass dish to bond the plastic where it fomerly was a fold. Then from the ball is where I started forming the forks and handle while flattening and pulling.






. As you can see, there is a full 250 gram bag and next to it there is the remainder of a 250 gram bag with the slingshot and the returned pieces I pulled off of the original ball. I cut these into small stringy pieces so they heat faster when I go to use them again. I guesstimate that it took at most 1/4 of a bag which is about 65 grams. Now i have not weighed the bags and I assume they are 250grams because I only paid for 1kilo and they sent me four bags. If they sent me 2kilos then it would obviously be off but it seems like 2.2lbs.=1kilo total.
IMO, you could make three healthy forkeyes out of one 250gr bag.


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

That is a very clever design. You are not the first to experience difficulties getting those thin tubes to stay tied. One suggestion is to insert the thin tubes into a short section of larger tube before tying the whole works down. But your design seems to work well without that fiddle. Good job!

Cheers .... Charles


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## Mr.Teh (Feb 28, 2012)

Sounds very interesting this stuff, looks good :thumbsup:


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Charles said:


> That is a very clever design. You are not the first to experience difficulties getting those thin tubes to stay tied. One suggestion is to insert the thin tubes into a short section of larger tube before tying the whole works down. But your design seems to work well without that fiddle. Good job!
> 
> Cheers .... Charles


Thanks for the suggestion of the tube within a tube thing.I have seen that done in some videos and I am actually waiting for a few feet of 5070 or 5080, I forget which as I was primarily concerned with the inner cavity of the tube. The design of the fork tip actually came to me because I had once seen a video of dgui with singles attached to a dankung in a similar way. I remembered thinking it was odd to attach single tubes to a design made for doubled tubes... That is, until today when the tubes and attaching bands slipped right off the forks! All it took was a chopstick and a bic pen to cone the holes to the " drumstick" part. I have to say, I thought it was fun to shoot these things, and I love my purchased SS, but making one has opened up a whole new part of this sport and has me pretty excited( if you couldn't tell already) about the next one.


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## GHT (Jan 22, 2013)

Cool shooter, and i really enjoyed your write up.


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## lexlow (Aug 13, 2012)

:-D well i'm glad all the hdpe talk resulted in your shooter, better than my first build for sure. loved the write up also, you are gonna go a long way with that thirst to do what you want, i was lucky being able to use the oven ;-) otherwise i woulda had to find another way to.

gonna keep an eye on this and any other threads you start for sure!


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Major Slingshots said:


> :-D well i'm glad all the hdpe talk resulted in your shooter, better than my first build for sure. loved the write up also, you are gonna go a long way with that thirst to do what you want, i was lucky being able to use the oven ;-) otherwise i woulda had to find another way to.
> gonna keep an eye on this and any other threads you start for sure!


Thanks for the encouraging words. You hdpe guys are the ones with some real skill. I hope I can make one that even kind of looks like the stuff you are putting out. Good luck with the business. I am sure your pieces are gonna fly out of the door. Any suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for looking.


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

Smiling Fury, excellent little shooter there dude! Great size and shape. Looks like a lot of fun. And like you stated, it really is awesome to shoot with something you made yourself  Good job!


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## Crac (Mar 3, 2013)

SmilingFury said:


> I have been following the growing hdpe recyler/designer/entrepeneur movement on this forum with a bit of envy. You see, I have a better chance at seeing Moses himself buying a baguette at the bakery downstairs than I do of convincing my wife to let me cook plastic in our oven....


It is better to seek forgiveness, rather than permission. :naughty: :headbang: :neener: :rofl:


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Btoon84 said:


> Smiling Fury, excellent little shooter there dude! Great size and shape. Looks like a lot of fun. And like you stated, it really is awesome to shoot with something you made yourself  Good job!


Thanks Btoon, I admire your designs a lot. I actually want to try and make a slim pickin out of this stuff. I might have to modify it to the tips you see here. I will be sure to send you a pic if I can make one that does your design justice.


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

SmilingFury said:


> Btoon84 said:
> 
> 
> > Smiling Fury, excellent little shooter there dude! Great size and shape. Looks like a lot of fun. And like you stated, it really is awesome to shoot with something you made yourself  Good job!
> ...


Go for it dude! Please please do! Can't wait to see it


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## Lacumo (Aug 18, 2013)

This stuff is available and relatively inexpensive in US/Canada, too. A 34 oz bottle of pellets is $40 (shipped in US)..... http://www.amazon.com/InstaMorph-Moldable-Plastic-34-oz/dp/B005EM9D3O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1380319012&sr=8-6&keywords=polymorph+pellets

You can even get coloring additive to use with it... http://www.amazon.com/Color-Additive-Hand-Moldable-Plastic/dp/B00DC1NXWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1380319012&sr=8-3&keywords=polymorph+pellets


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Lacumo said:


> This stuff is available and relatively inexpensive in US/Canada, too. A 34 oz bottle of pellets is $40 (shipped in US)..... http://www.amazon.com/InstaMorph-Moldable-Plastic-34-oz/dp/B005EM9D3O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1380319012&sr=8-6&keywords=polymorph+pellets
> You can even get coloring additive to use with it... http://www.amazon.com/Color-Additive-Hand-Moldable-Plastic/dp/B00DC1NXWG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1380319012&sr=8-3&keywords=polymorph+pellets


I know that ebay is a bad word around here but I bought mine for around $30 shipped from England. A company called blrtronics ( yeah that is spelled right). There is an ebay store under that name and they have it going for $25 per kilo right now.

Here take a look : http://www.ebay.com/sch/blrtronics/m.html

34 oz is a little less than a kilo btw, I looked it up, lol.


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## e~shot (Jun 3, 2010)

Good job buddy!


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## Rayshot (Feb 1, 2010)

This has been an enjoyable thread. I like your first catty and introducing us to another material to make slingshots with. This should be quite helpful to many.

Thanks for contributing to the Slingshot world of fun.


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## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

Good work, man!

I look forward to seeing more from this stuff.

For people in Australia and NZ you can get it at Jaycar in small bags. Some places call it "Friendly Plastic". It is very useful stuff. I've used it to make "holders" for odd shaped work pieces. You can also use it to make one-off templates for inlay routing.

I just weighed some of my HDPE shooters. The smallest Fury is 47 grams and the Tornado is 87 grams.

Something that might be worth a try would be to make a mould of a finished slingshot and form the hot plastic over it to make a mould. Inversely, you could form the hot plastic by pressing it into a mould. Maybe even a chilled mould made of the same polymorphic plastic!


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## leon13 (Oct 4, 2012)

ash said:


> Good work, man!
> 
> I look forward to seeing more from this stuff.
> 
> ...


"hey ho lets go " 4 making molds it is suggested to spray some " WD-40 " in the molds ,and thats something i most deff. gonna try out

this forum Rocks !!!

oh for german interests i found this side : they sell a kilo for 19,90 € plus shipping

http://www.plaast.de/index.php

have a nice weak end


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Thanks e-shot!
Thank you too Rayshot. You guys contribute so much to the sport so I am glad and humbled that you like the Drumstick and the post. This is a great forum with alot of innovators and free thinkers. I am positive someone else would have made a shooter out of this stuff sooner or later. Glad if I introduced this versatile material to anyone who hadn't known of it before. I hope people start using it and the ideas and techniques start to be exchanged. The majority of the videos online are for making awful looking jewelry that I am sure won't travel at a respectable speed when shot from a slingshot. : )


ash said:


> Something that might be worth a try would be to make a mould of a finished slingshot and form the hot plastic over it to make a mould. Inversely, you could form the hot plastic by pressing it into a mould. Maybe even a chilled mould made of the same polymorphic plastic!


The wd40 or any lubricant is definitely necessary as the hot stuff sticks to the cold stuff immediately. I would use mineral oil as it doesnt really have the smell that wd40 has, plus it is what i have around as I use it on my pocketknife collection( so I don't have to think twice about using the knives on food). I would be super curious about a mold out of HDPE as it has a higher melting than the polymorph. I would love to see it!

Leon, that is the best price I have seen yet! Great find and share!


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## Jeremy Chan (Aug 31, 2013)

Oh wow, how did you get it into that shape? I just made a HDPE sling out of Milk Bottles, but it looks un-appealing.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Jeremy Chan said:


> Oh wow, how did you get it into that shape? I just made a HDPE sling out of Milk Bottles, but it looks un-appealing.


Jeremy, as the polymorph cools slowly, it gets less and less flexible from the outer layer towards the center. As it cools this allows you to make a general shape and then make finer and finer adjustments to a hardening fork. The thinner one makes the fork the shorter this window of opportunity gets. My suggestion is to just get some and play with it. One of the best things about this stuff is that it comes with a limitless "do over" button, just like hdpe I believe. Just remelt and try again. I did have to soak this frame several times to get it to how it looks now. Not that it is pretty but I am in the learning curve myself. The more of us that work with this material, the more ideas and discoveries we can share. Or at least that is what I am hoping for...

Thanks for looking,
SF


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## All Buns Glazing (Apr 22, 2012)

Thanks Ash, I might pay them a visit. Definitely a mold would be good. I still want to follow on from Hrawk's thread about resin casting, but this polymorph stuff looks fun to play with!


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## lexlow (Aug 13, 2012)

i want some


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## ebooks886 (May 27, 2011)

polymorph is incredibly strong, I believe it has similar strength properties to nylon. It can be easily colured using watercolour powder paint by melting it then folding the powder into it much like colouring cake icing. For those in the UK it is available on Ebay at a good price, think I paid £18 for 1KG a while ago. The only thing to be aware of is that there are many different types all being marketed as polymorph. Some are not very strong at all!


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## ebooks886 (May 27, 2011)

it is also a good product to use for grips as can be custom moulded to your hand. Another poster mentioned SUGRU, there is a homemade version consisting of silicone caulk and corn starch which is useless for SS but would be an excellent material for grips.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

I mentioned the sugru also. I have a buddy who has done some work for them.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Ok, so I have been playing around with the polymorph for the second day in a row and I made another catty. I tried a few things I have seen on this forum and wanted to try out. So I put the shooter from yesterdays post in the first picture to offer a comparison. I made the 2nd shooter a bit thinner in the profile but wider at the forks. It is kind of a chalice shaped fork, kind of. I like dayhiker's chalice so I figured why not?
I also would love to have a fork that had the forks tilted back like wingshooter's designs and like nathan's hairsplitter line, so I bent the forks back while holding it in alignment with a pyrex dish of all things! I read a great post that MJ wrote about a bump on the front of his handles for his pinky to take the bulk of the stress off of the rest of his hand while shooting, so I added a pinky hook.
And just for good measure ( and to keep the tubes from zapping me in the face) I made the "drumstick" type fork ends and attached the tubes the same way as on my first one. 
I guess this one has a bit from a few different designs and it is not really pretty so I guess it would be appropriate to call this one Frankenstein. Hahaha!

Here are some pics...





































Thanks for looking.
Be well,
SF


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## lexlow (Aug 13, 2012)

i really like the shape of that second one, now go shoot , or you'll end up getting stuck in the making zone like me, and there is nooooo escape from it lol!

(cant wait to see your next one


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Major Slingshots said:


> i really like the shape of that second one, now go shoot , or you'll end up getting stuck in the making zone like me, and there is nooooo escape from it lol!
> (cant wait to see your next one


Hey now you are an independent business owner and you must set aside at least a few minutes a day to sling some projectiles to keep in touch with what got you started in the first place. I am sure it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day, and days in the week, but you have to get your anti-stress/mental health time. I have been shooting down my hallway in an apartment in Paris! It drives my wife crazy.
Aside from the obvious reasons, my wife said she seduced me the other day to get me to stop shooting in the house! 
There is a short list of stuff I like more than shooting slingshots...

Be well,
SF


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## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

Great work, SF. Looks like you've found your ideal canvas 

I used some of my Friendly plastic for a work job today and tried some of it to fill air bubbles in an HDPE shooter and it seemed to do the job quite well.

Mine might be some of that "different" stuff as it seems to melt, or rather solidify at a lower temperature than 62 degrees. More like high 40s.

I discovered a way to colour it is to use it with dirty hands > Filthy grey coloured plastic!


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## lexlow (Aug 13, 2012)

yes smiling fury i get the chance normally when i am making, i stop for ten minutes and test or just grab a slingshot thats close to hand. definate perks of the job 

although my wife does not seduce me to get me to stop :-( lol i should start being more annoying ;-)

nice idea for filling the cracks ASH, have you got a thread on that or anything?


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

ash said:


> Great work, SF. Looks like you've found your ideal canvas
> 
> I used some of my Friendly plastic for a work job today and tried some of it to fill air bubbles in an HDPE shooter and it seemed to do the job quite well.
> 
> ...


Yes the coolmorph is the one that melts at 40-42 degrees. Yeah Ash, I found out the hard way that this stuff sticks to whatever it touches instantly. Two materials that I use to handle and form it are glass and wood. It won't stick to either and when they are wet it is even better. I use chopsticks left over from takeout sushi to handle it when it comes right out of the boiling water.

The timing aspect is so important with this stuff as the major shaping has to happen when the mass is most flexible and the finer adjustments as it cools but you can't rush it as it will just continue to deform once you have it how you want it. I had to remelt the second slingshot about 6 times to get it finished and also use a bowl of ice chilled water to solidify parts I thought I was done with. I also tried a few different designs with absolutely no success(harpy,slim pickin, ferret hunter, and a patriot). My skill is way behind my desire at the moment, but getting there is half the fun. 
Thanks for looking,
SF


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

I think I might have a problem...
I was looking at the scrap pieces of polymorph that I had left over from the first two slingshots I made recently and started thinking " I bet I could make a SS out of that right there" 
I like btoons bb shooters alot so I figured I would take a hack at it since I couldn't make a respectable slim pickin yesterday. I didn't come close to making anything as nice as what he makes, but I did make a mini shooter with 1745's on it that packs a punch using marbles. 
I made a little scoop on the end of the smaller handle so it could go in between my ring finger and my pinky. Same fork endings and attachment so nothing exciting there, but here are some pics anyway. Like I said, I think I might have a problem...







This is the one from yesterday







The mini


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## stej (Jan 16, 2013)

Thanks for sharing, it looks quite interesting and also much easier to work with!

It's a little bit expensive but when I think how much energy I burn with HDPE in my own, then it's not so bad


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

stej said:


> Thanks for sharing, it looks quite interesting and also much easier to work with!
> It's a little bit expensive but when I think how much energy I burn with HDPE in my own, then it's not so bad


Stej, if I was back home in NYC, I would have a small toasteroven out on the patio and bags of bottles, buckets, and laundry soap jugs everywhere! I love the idea of the whole hdpe process and the recycling also. This is just my way to be a part of the creative side of the forum without having to buy tools and an oven. Not to mention the time it takes to collect the material. I kind of cheated. I paid my €27.59 and I avoided a few of the harder parts of the process with polymorph. What can i do? I really like making them with my bare hands though.
One day I will be back home and I will give hdpe a real try. For now polymorph is a pretty great substitute!
Thanks for looking,
SF


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## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

I calculated how much electricity it took to make my first HDPE block. It was about $1.


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

I have seen your finished product. The woodworking skills and toolwork you apply to hdpe surely have to be valued at a substantial hourly rate? I am a hack who is fingerpainting next to you davincis


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## SmilingFury (Jul 2, 2013)

Here is the first polymorph thread I started for those who are interested


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## TSM (Oct 8, 2013)

SmilingFury said:


> I have seen your finished product. The woodworking skills and toolwork you apply to hdpe surely have to be valued at a substantial hourly rate? I am a hack who is fingerpainting next to you davincis


I know the feels, bro.


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