I was working outside when I dropped the cap for my silicon grease down a drain. I happened to have a bag of Polymorph granules (a brand-name of Polycaprolactone, a type of polyester with a low melting point) which I'd been meaning to experiment with, and this seemed like a good opportunity to try the stuff. Polycaprolactone melts at 60°C which makes it easy to work with at home, even to work by hand as it doesn't conduct heat very well.
I took a small handful of granules and melted them in an improvised bain-marie (a steel bowl suspended over a pan full of boiling water). Once it was all melted (no pic, I'm afraid, but it'll go translucent eventually) I scraped it all out with a spoon and rolled it into a ball using my hands. If you try this, don't worry about any bits left in the bowl, they can easily be scraped out with a metal spoon once they've cooled and hardened. I then push the ball of soft plastic onto the tube nozzle and moulded into what I thought would be a good shape for a cap.
Caps moulded in a factory have ridges to help with grip. I didn't think I'd be able to achieve this effect easily so I just squeezed the ball flat to make a kind of rudimentary wing nut. The plastic shrank slightly as it cooled and had to be squeezed a bit tighter to maintain good contact with the screw thread on the nozzle. I eventually left it overnight and when I came down in the morning, here's what I found:
And it's pretty good. The plastic has taken on the shape of the screw thread and seems to make a good tight fit. And there's plenty of polycaprolactone left for more moulding fun.
I took a small handful of granules and melted them in an improvised bain-marie (a steel bowl suspended over a pan full of boiling water). Once it was all melted (no pic, I'm afraid, but it'll go translucent eventually) I scraped it all out with a spoon and rolled it into a ball using my hands. If you try this, don't worry about any bits left in the bowl, they can easily be scraped out with a metal spoon once they've cooled and hardened. I then push the ball of soft plastic onto the tube nozzle and moulded into what I thought would be a good shape for a cap.
Caps moulded in a factory have ridges to help with grip. I didn't think I'd be able to achieve this effect easily so I just squeezed the ball flat to make a kind of rudimentary wing nut. The plastic shrank slightly as it cooled and had to be squeezed a bit tighter to maintain good contact with the screw thread on the nozzle. I eventually left it overnight and when I came down in the morning, here's what I found:
And it's pretty good. The plastic has taken on the shape of the screw thread and seems to make a good tight fit. And there's plenty of polycaprolactone left for more moulding fun.
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