Anyone try / use this moldable plastics?

[autocadplease]

Has anyone had experience with the moldable plastics that are available - shapelock (http://www.shapelock.com/) or friendly plastic (http://www.sunshinecrafts.com/dept_view.php?DPath=JEWELRY~JWFP~JWFPPEL&Page=1)?
Might be a chep way to make knobs?

[fordgt40]

Grant

I tried Polymorph, a similar product, to make some encoder type knobs. It was a limited success! The material is difficult to form around shapes which have recesses, eg the flutes in knobs - you need a lot of pressure whilst keeping the material within its right temperature range for forming. For simple shapes, probably ok, there again it could just be my incompetence!

Regards

David

[phil744]

Nah, i tried it aswell, you really need to put it under pressure to get it to form correctly, if you had the mould made from metal you could do it.

[Ronson2k9]

The idea of the plastic at a melting temp that becomes moldable seems like a cool idea. Molding it while hot though is perhaps not the best of options. So you need a mold first. You could start out with one exemplar (Knob/button) or your could create your own out of wood or other such material to be used in making the mold. From there you need the materials you will be making the copies from. The mold should be strong enough to stand up to a certain number of castings.

Something like this perhaps would be better..?

http://www.smooth-on.com/index.html