Using Fimo to make vacuum adapter?

[Huge]

How did you manage to see the adaptors that mate my jigsaw & power plane to the vacuum cleaner???

[Cuprager]

I have used it. It is quite amazing stuff and should mould to any shape you like, including threaded sections. It is fairly inexpensive and can be bought a 'lot' cheaper on ebay than it can in Maplins.

[treenoakio]

I've seen the ads and was about to buy some when Aldi had an offer of a glue gun and some very cheap packs of glue sticks. I bought some extra packs in the hope that it would be similar enough to Polymorph to be used for the same purposes. As it unsurprisingly turns out, the glue sticks need more heat than is comfortably handled for moulding purposes. I eventually used the method of building up layers with the glue gun, then smoothing out the rough finish by playing a gas flame over the surface. This was only ever done outside, on a windy day, side-on to the wind. The effects were less than perfect, but I managed to kit out a couple of my old WorkMates with complete new sets of feet, which seem to be holding up quite well.

For my current projects I'd like to produce some parts that have a less organic and more geometric look about them, so I'll try some Polymorph and see how it goes. It would be good to hear some first hand accounts of it's practical use though, because I have vague childhood memories of street sellers hawking "Make your own balloons" packs which invariably disappointed.

-- Dick Treen

[Cuprager]

I found it easy enough to use, you can mould it by hand to the desired shape or press it into a form, sheets of it can be rolled out quite easily and cut with scissors etc while it is still malleable. If you make a mess just remelt it and start again. It 'sticks' to other plastics very quickly though so if you are making an add on for another component beware that it will make a mess should you want to de-couple the components.

[treenoakio]

It sounds like good stuff. I was counting on being able to squeeze it around the threaded neck of a plastic bottle to pick up a workable impression of the thread. Maybe an initial smear of Vasaline on the neck of the bottle would help with parting.

-- Dick Treen

[Cuprager]

I think that is possible, any release agent like grease or vasalene should work. It really is good stuff, ebay is the place for it too as it is about 40% cheaper than Maplin.

[Rumble]

[e-mail] said the following on 23/05/2007 12:21:

I see you have already solved your problem, but for future reference, you might want to check out Milliput epoxy putty.

HTH

[treenoakio]

Thanks.An interesting site and the stuff has a much more Action Man ring to it's name. __ Dick Treen