Polymorph - thermoplastic hand-moulding material

[Anonymous]

I've just bought a tub of Polymorph from Maplin at Southampton (around £20 for a large 500g tub). Polymorph is a low-temperature thermoplastic that is supplied in granules (white, semi-translucent, size of large slug pellets, looks like caustic soda as supplied in retail tins). You melt it in boiling water, when it becomes transparent and pliable and can be moulded like plasticine. Then it sets as it cools and the finish feels much like hard nylon. I think that it is then safe for temperatures up to 60C or so, much higher and it seem to start going plastic again but there is a degree of hysteresis, it seems. Don't know why that should be. It is re-usable indefinately, according to the instructions, though my lump (1cm x1cm x4cm) took a while in boiling water to go plastic and I think you'd need to put it in a pan on a low heat rather than just pour on water from a kettle.

Maplins told me that it can be machined (but the assistant wasn't exactly the Brain of Britain, so who knows and the instructions don't say).

It seems ideal for a couple of projects that I have in mind so I share that information here but equally, does anyone have any experience of the product that they can add? Many thanks.

 

[pvb]

Horse\'s hoof care...

When my wife's horse was suffering from a hoof abcess a few years ago, the vet supplied a sheet of similar material which we used to make a rigid plastic "boot" over the affected hoof to keep dirt out of it. Intriguing stuff. You can also use a hairdryer or heat gun to soften it.

It's widely used now in teaching, for craft/technology, etc. If you need any more, you can buy it from educational suppliers for about half the price that Maplin charge.