Tuesday 30 August 2011

Making Plastic from Milk?

I've just been searching the interweb and came across this hobby site. The article I had originally followed was for using pink and blue foam for terrain, but on the main site (http://www.stormthecastle.com/) this article and video caught eye - making plastic from milk. To be fair he uses vinegar as well. But that's it. Apparently the idea was from Leonardo Da Vinci.


In a hobby where resin and plaster are commonly used to create scenery how good (and cheap) would it be if we could use milk & vinegar instead? More investigations are needed...

7 comments:

Dethtron said...

never thought you could use cheese as a substitute for plastic.

nice find.

Witteridderludo said...

that's not plastic, just dried out mozzarella...

Krisken said...

Interesting. I wonder how well primer bonds to it...

Jim said...

This TOTALLY works. I used some old expired milk to make this plastic. Once you get a blob of it, microwaving it to heat it/melt it a little bit more is a good idea. I made a "magic ring" prop and it did a little work with a Dremel afterward. I painted it with acrylics, no primer, and it turned out great.

Sam Pate said...

Just a case of seeing what consistancy it comes out as for moulding.

user@example.com said...

It may not be that cheap, but if you want something more temporary, buy some polymorph off ebay. Wonderful stuff - plastic that goes soft and malleable at about 60 degrees C, and hardens at room temperature. Doubt it'd take paint well, but it's useful for quickly making small parts for various things. Reusable, too, just boil the kettle and dump it in a pot of hot water.

Also, making caesin plastic tends to smell bad. I don't think it stays smelly once it's made, but make sure you clean the hell out of whatever you heat the milk in. Ew.

user@example.com said...

When I say temporary, of course, I mean reusable. Or something like that. Polymorph isn't temporary once set, and won't melt by accident, but it's trivial to trash it and start over if you want to.