Posted by Matty on October 16, 2011, 13:41:11 Message modified by board administrator October 25, 2011, 21:52:37
(You have to imagine the following read in my best Andy Roonie impersonation...)
You know those "wide"-mouth squeeze bottles they sell all the sauces and condiments in, these days?
Click on Image to Enlarge
Ever notice when they get down to the end - and start farting instead of delivering the goods - ever wonder how much is still in there? And take the top off, and try to scrape out the last bit - only to find a teaspoon won't fit in there (top right) - what's up with that? Why would a company make a bottle - and they're all like this - bottles that you can't get a spoon in there, even though the neck could easily have been made wide enough to spoon it out (see above)? After these two mayo bottles were "empty", I cut off the bases (bottom left), and got out about TEN sandwiches' worth of mayo that was still in there (bottom right)! With a rubber spatula I could've gotten even more.
How much do you figure this costs you - all the food you pay for and then throw away - every year? I suppose you'll find out when you're reduced to picking through dumpsters for lunch! What kind of scumbag way is this for companies to make money?
No. What you're going to do, with your clear-plastic bottles - of all types - when they're "done", is to get out your scissors (start a hole with your modelling knife) and cut 'em open to get the last bit out - and then keep cutting, to retrieve thermoplastic stock for molding clear model parts:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Half of these shapes (top) are already halfway to what you will end up needing. Don't remove the labels when dry - you'll only end up stratching the plastic more than you have to. Instead, soak 'em (bottom left) - I like to use my paint remover, which is mostly alcohol (which will also work by itself) and does not craze any type of plastic. After 30 minutes or less, just about any label, along with its gelatinous, dissolved glue, will brush off easily with a toothbrush. Then wash thoroughly with soap-and-water, and air dry on paper towel (bottom right). Don't hand-dry - again, just another opportunity for scratches - meantime waterspots (calcium salts, or whatever they are), I have been finding when using Paul's good-quality gun, will virtually disappear. Likewise for small scratches, which just seem to smooth out automatically, when plastics are stretched down over the desired form (armature).
And then too, don't forget about your empty olive-oil jug:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Clear GREEN...hmmm...what ship model could use that - and for what part(s)? Hint: go up to the bridge - on anything from the mid-50s and later - and ask the Captain, or the Admiral, gazing out his windows!
Or maybe you already thought of a rather more basic use:
Especially when you discover the semi-random pattern of little wavelets, on the INSIDE of the olive oil jug's grip areas. I guarantee you will see this piece, built into a stand under one of my future naval-related aircraft!
All the above reminds me yet again of the classic line in the movie (and presumably also the book) "Catch-22", by Joseph Heller. "Nately", a young B-25 pilot lectures a 100-plus-year-old Italian man: "(I'm a warrior) because it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees". To which the incredibly ancient man replies: "You have got it backward, young man - it is better to live on your feet than to die on your knees."
CONSERVE...RE-USE...and SAVE - your cash and yourself!
Well, Paul and I got together and made a truckload of more clear parts, and - I don't know what I was thinking when I saved all those squeeze-bottles, but - we found that none of the condiment- or dish soap squeeze bottle-stock worked, at all. Invariably quite thick - which may have been the whole problem right there - all those pieces might also have just been the wrong type of plastic. Don Czech had earlier theorized that curved plastic stock was "pre-programmed" to deform/curl up when heated, but Paul and I noted exactly the same for completely flat sections - only from these type of (thick-plastic) bottles.
In contrast, the "Good Stuff" - typically from tool- and similar vacu-packaging, being about half as thick as the squeeze-bottle plastic - will actually flatten/open more when (re-)heated, becoming noticeably clearer and shinier at the same time. But the real key, which you can only truly know when holding the piece as it's heated, is that it becomes "looser" and distinctly rubbery. As opposed to the "Wrong Stuff", which tightens - pulls back on you - while curling up, and more often than not begins to cloud over, as well. Some other (even thin plastic) pieces were found to "frost over" when heated - a very interesting effect, but not what I was after. Finally, even some of the Good Stuff yellowed noticeably (it seemed) if slightly, at the moment it was heated - though that may have been my fault, holding it too close to the heat gun.
Paul and I tried to identify these classes of plastic from their recycling labels, but so far no definitive findings (which will probably require some serious note-taking). When I do figure it out, though, you will be the first to know.
Meanwhile, fortunately I had saved up a lot of scraps, of all types of clear plastic - and we employed every useable one, to make 63 parts, of a full dozen types:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Fully 5 of these types - 2 kinds of turret domes, 2 types of antenna dome and a bombardier's window - are for refitting my PB4Y-2 Privateer, although of course the spares will serve any- and every future build that can use them. Copies of another 1/72 scale bombardier panel will fit a late-model B-24 Liberator. And a 1/48 scale extended windshield of the FJ-3 Fury (right background) will also be useable for the F-86 Sabre from which it was derived, as well as no doubt many another '50s/'60s-era cockpit canopy, too. Among the easiest/most reliable parts to form, these windshields and (very similar) bombardier panels came out perfect (or nearly so) on 100% of "pulls", while more dome-like parts would come out flawless typically only 75- down to 25% of the time.
The most difficult - and surprisingly, as it was such a simple, rounded cone shape - was the nose dome of a Heinkel He-111 (left foreground), tried no less than 13 times, in pursuit of at least one perfect example:
That perfect "pull" never was achieved - the forwardmost 1/3 to 1/2 formed perfectly just about every (92% of the) time, but further back a pleat and/or tear would inevitably form at some spot(s). The problem may have been insufficiently-large pieces of plastic stock, for pulling over such a large/long form, to begin with - a part like this needs a good 6"x6" sheet of plastic, I estimate. Nevertheless, the above 13 pulls did produce 3 with completely flawless port sides (left, foreground) and - after noticing this and deliberately rotating the armature 180 degrees for subsequent tries - another 3 were pulled with flawless starboard sides (right, foreground). So, fully three of these can be assembled from (carefully trimmed and mated) halves - and no doubt several others using more fractional panels (if it were ever necessary).
OK, so I was wrong about being able to use condiment squeeze bottles (but still, don't forget to get the extra food out of them). The above however - if anything - shows just what you can do with all kinds of other saved clear plastic scrap - just wait till you see my He-111 torpedo bomber!