# Brainmatter. A HDPE slingshot made out of 1 milk jug.



## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Brainmatter! A slingshot crafted out of the petrified brains of Goliath himself!
Or... something like that.
















...
I saw a tutorial on how to recycle hdpe plastics into a malleable gloop using a toaster oven the other day. Today I got bored and wanted to attempt this strange plastic magic,

I cut up a one gallon milk jug and its cap and put it in the oven. After much kneeding amd folding, it started to become solid enough to work with. Armed with makeshift heat resistant gloves (dishtowels) I molded it into a fork over a period of many heat>press>mold cycles until I was finally happy with the shape.
At first, the coloration kinda grossed me out a bit... looks like I pulled it out of a zombie gut...








...but that's alright.

But hey, as my third or so attempt at a slingshot, (and my first attempt at a non-tree fork slingshot) I'm really happy with how it turned out, it's comfy, it's unique and it's strong.

I'm totally making more of these in the future.


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## JohnKrakatoa (Nov 28, 2013)

Super diagusting man.  Cool though.


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## Nicholson (Sep 25, 2012)

I'll give that a couple thumbs up!


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## you'llshootyereyeout (Apr 5, 2014)

Awesome! I have never made one that way. But I love the idea of "no tools" slingshots! I guess the oven is a tool in this case but you get what I mean. You made that with just ONE jug?? That's crazy. My stuff takes tons of HDPE. How big is that beast? I suppose that by forming the shooter directly and not making a blank first you don't wast any poly from cutoffs. It's not a classic beauty that's for sure but I love the heck out of it anyway! Personality goes a long way.

I am really into the one milk jug slingshot! I will def be trying that! I smell a contest!!!!


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## devils son in law (Sep 2, 2014)

What does a contest smell like? :question:


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## Nicholson (Sep 25, 2012)

Does it become all goopy and sticky? if its not too bad I'd like to try my hand at recycling old milk jugs for this


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## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

Creepy...in a good way


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## you'llshootyereyeout (Apr 5, 2014)

devils son in law said:


> What does a contest smell like? :question:


If I win it usually smell like the inside of a pumpkin. At least that's what my wife says


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## you'llshootyereyeout (Apr 5, 2014)

Nicholson said:


> Does it become all goopy and sticky? if its not too bad I'd like to try my hand at recycling old milk jugs for this


In my experience with HDPE white tend to be the most malleable where as black tends to have the most thin consistency. The Art Of War has some good videos on the subject. Worth looking at to get started.


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

It's the perfect size to fit in my back pocket, while also being big enough to fill my grip.

The hdpe was decently hard to work with, not having heat proof gloves, a heat gun, and other small equipment things, because it just cooled so damn fast. Probably didn't help that I was doing it outside in the 45 degree weather because I didn't want any accidental fuming in the house.

There are better methods, such as pressing the hot hdpe into a slingshot mold with clamps, or cutting away pieces, but that sure wouldn't have looked the same...

It didnt ever get too gloopy, it kinda looked like silly putty but slightly harder. It did stick a bit to some of the things I was using, like my dish towel and oven mit. But it did a really good job of not sticking to the baking surface I used (parchment paper for baking). Sadly, I also dropped it once pretty far into the process and got some crud ingrained in the outside.

Anyway, next time I'm gonna try to get a more colorful result.

I'm glad you guys like it! And I hope you have as good of luck as I had with your experimentation.


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## Nicholson (Sep 25, 2012)

can I safely use an oven or microwave to melt the jugs?And I do like this slingshot, it reminds me of skinning a moose or something


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## Metropolicity (Aug 22, 2013)

Now THAT is a zombie hunter....so covert...so deadly.



Great work man!


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

you'llshootyereyeout said:


> Awesome! I have never made one that way. But I love the idea of "no tools" slingshots! I guess the oven is a tool in this case but you get what I mean. You made that with just ONE jug?? That's crazy. My stuff takes tons of HDPE. How big is that beast? I suppose that by forming the shooter directly and not making a blank first you don't wast any poly from cutoffs. It's not a classic beauty that's for sure but I love the heck out of it anyway! Personality goes a long way.
> 
> I am really into the one milk jug slingshot! I will def be trying that! I smell a contest!!!!


Thanks You'llshootyereyeout!
I used a hammer to get some shaping done and some scissors to start the fork split, but besides that, it was pretty tooless.
And yup, just one jug, and actually only about 80 percent of it because I couldnt get the sticker cleanly off the front, so I had to scrap a decent piece of it.

I hope there will be a contest, that would be fun! And I'd feel good knowing I had inspired it, because I sure wouldn't win it with all you crazy professionals around here!


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Nicholson said:


> can I safely use an oven or microwave to melt the jugs?And I do like this slingshot, it reminds me of skinning a moose or something


I would go with no...
Hdpe can be heated up to be malleable at 350f, but will fume and just be a generally not pleasurable experience at around 450, which I think the microwave surpasses.

... but hey, if you have a spare microwave (wouldn't want to stink it up), experiment, be careful and report back to us.


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Metropolicity said:


> Now THAT is a zombie hunter....so covert...so deadly.
> 
> 
> 
> Great work man!


Thanks Metro, been a fan of your slingshots for a while!


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## Nicholson (Sep 25, 2012)

ok, no spare microwave..yet lol. are you unable to use the toaster oven to make toast now? Sounds like I shouldnt heat up the oven that I use to cook dinner to 350 degrees because of fumes huh? what are my options for heating this stuff up? I better watch youtube a bit before I ask anymore questions, I just want to try it to see if I can luck out and make something that looks and shoots decent, thanx for sharing


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Nicholson said:


> ok, no spare microwave..yet lol. are you unable to use the toaster oven to make toast now? Sounds like I shouldnt heat up the oven that I use to cook dinner to 350 degrees because of fumes huh? what are my options for heating this stuff up? I better watch youtube a bit before I ask anymore questions, I just want to try it to see if I can luck out and make something that looks and shoots decent, thanx for sharing


I'd say just get a cheapo one from goodwill or somewhere like that. I had an extra toasteroven in my garage that I used to use for baking polymer clay back when I used to sculpt.

The YouTube video I watched said it was okay to use the kitchen oven and he used his, I just wasn't sure. I was doing it late enough at night though, that I didn't want to risk a fire alarm while my parents and sister were sleeping.

Edit- actually, if you could make an air tight container in your oven with a pan and a lid (lined with parchment), that would work very well.


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Nicholson said:


> ok, no spare microwave..yet lol. are you unable to use the toaster oven to make toast now? Sounds like I shouldnt heat up the oven that I use to cook dinner to 350 degrees because of fumes huh? what are my options for heating this stuff up? I better watch youtube a bit before I ask anymore questions, I just want to try it to see if I can luck out and make something that looks and shoots decent, thanx for sharing


Oh, I forgot! Another youtuber actually heated up his hdpe in a pot of hot canola oil and pressed the goop into a mold.


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## Urban Fisher (Aug 13, 2014)

Man that is an ugly beast!!! But hey if it works why not!! 

I gotta agree...I am amazed you made that with one jug. I have a mold to make blanks. It's about 7" by 9" by 3/4" deep. It takes about 8-9 milk jugs to make one blank in my mold (though I have cut up to 3 slingshots from one blank). I didn't think it was possible to make a slingshot from one jug. Now I want to try!! I also agree with YSYEO that a one jug slingshot contest actually sounds fun!!

Couple notes I wanted to add. I melt mine at 350-375 F in my kitchen oven. Never had any fume issues and I cook a lot of food in the same oven and never had any unusual smells or anything like that. Also I would double check the milk jug lids before you melt them. Mine have the 4 in the recycle triangle. Not sure what the 4 stands for, but I know it's not the 2 for the normal HDPE that most of us use.


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Urban Fisher said:


> Man that is an ugly beast!!! But hey if it works why not!!
> 
> I gotta agree...I am amazed you made that with one jug. I have a mold to make blanks. It's about 7" by 9" by 3/4" deep. It takes about 8-9 milk jugs to make one blank in my mold (though I have cut up to 3 slingshots from one blank). I didn't think it was possible to make a slingshot from one jug. Now I want to try!! I also agree with YSYEO that a one jug slingshot contest actually sounds fun!!
> 
> Couple notes I wanted to add. I melt mine at 350-375 F in my kitchen oven. Never had any fume issues and I cook a lot of food in the same oven and never had any unusual smells or anything like that. Also I would double check the milk jug lids before you melt them. Mine have the 4 in the recycle triangle. Not sure what the 4 stands for, but I know it's not the 2 for the normal HDPE that most of us use.


Thanks urban! I made sure to check every piece of plastic!


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## you'llshootyereyeout (Apr 5, 2014)

Urban Fisher said:


> Man that is an ugly beast!!! But hey if it works why not!!
> 
> I gotta agree...I am amazed you made that with one jug. I have a mold to make blanks. It's about 7" by 9" by 3/4" deep. It takes about 8-9 milk jugs to make one blank in my mold (though I have cut up to 3 slingshots from one blank). I didn't think it was possible to make a slingshot from one jug. Now I want to try!! I also agree with YSYEO that a one jug slingshot contest actually sounds fun!!
> 
> Couple notes I wanted to add. I melt mine at 350-375 F in my kitchen oven. Never had any fume issues and I cook a lot of food in the same oven and never had any unusual smells or anything like that. Also I would double check the milk jug lids before you melt them. Mine have the 4 in the recycle triangle. Not sure what the 4 stands for, but I know it's not the 2 for the normal HDPE that most of us use.


The 4 means LDPE Low-density polyethylene


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## bigron (Nov 29, 2012)

that is one very cool ugly shooter :blink:


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## WalkingSlow (Dec 15, 2013)

Hi all , the four stands for LDPE low density polyethene , did read somewhere that they can melt together but LDPE is not as strong . soft or weak spots will occur.


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## e~shot (Jun 3, 2010)

Cool!


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