Polymorph Drive Cage Build

[Tmt97]

So im working on making a hard drive cage out of polymorph plastic. Figured i would post my progress for others to follow. So far i measured out pieces of plastic and cut them from sheets of polymorph. I simply heated the ends in hot water to connect the pieces together since it fuses. For the screw holes im using a leather hole puncher which just happened to make the perfect sized hole. So far its pretty sturdy, it jiggles a bit but it isnt breaking when i do the ogre test. I think when its inside a case with metal on 2 sides it wont move much. Heres a pic.

Edit: now that i think about this, it might need to be put under build logs. Can a mod move this?

[Tmt97]

Heres a little update. The frame is about half way done. Its not the prettiest drive cage in the world but it still seems to be working.

[W-L]

Heres a little update. The frame is about half way done. Its not the prettiest drive cage in the world but it still seems to be working.

 

Is that the polymorph in the background, in powder form?

[Tmt97]

Is that the polymorph in the background, in powder form?

Yea, it doesnt really come in powder though. Atleast not the tub i bought. They are little pellets, kinda like when you break apart styrofoam and you get the little white balls.

[W-L]

Yea, it doesnt really come in powder though. Atleast not the tub i bought. They are little pellets, kinda like when you break apart styrofoam and you get the little white balls.

 

Oh ok from the photo I was thinking it was powder and wouldn't it dissolve or melt into a paste 

 

Everything seems to be working out, you might want to add some rubber grommets or isolators though if you have a bunch of drives going in.

[Tmt97]

Oh ok from the photo I was thinking it was powder and wouldn't it dissolve or melt into a paste

Everything seems to be working out, you might want to add some rubber grommets or isolators though if you have a bunch of drives going in.

Thats actually a good point. It already jiggles a bit when you move it, I wonder if it will spontaneously jiggle on its own when the 4 drives are running. Gonna have to test that.

Also, the polymorph does kinda turn into a paste but not on its own. Once the pellets are heated they stick to each other so you mix the water and it all kinda congeals into one lumpy blob. Then you gotta knead it like dough a bit to get rid of the pellet texture.

Edit: I wonder if i can just suspend the entite cage with bungee cords and just let it do its jiggling thing.

[saab_gobbler]

how sandable, paintable & pliable is that stuff? I wonder if it would be any good for use on models

[Tmt97]

how sandable, paintable & pliable is that stuff? I wonder if it would be any good for use on models

Im not sure about painting it after its been created, but it mixes well with dyes when its in the gooey state. There are actually powderd you can buy and mix into it to get whatever color you want. It absorbs stuff so well that i managed to turn some of it black once by using a lighter to melt down some of it, it picked up the smoke given off by the lighter essily.

As for pliability, that obviously depends on thickness. If you stretch it super thin, you can get it to behave like paper. If you look in the photos, at the thickness i had the cage, it was bendable but it snapped back into position. Ive had thicker chunks of it that were hard as a rock. Also if you want to bend it at an angle in one spot, the trick is to just heat up that one spot.

I dont know as much as far as sandpaper goes. I havnt tried it yet, but i can get some sandpaper from a friend tomorrow and see what happens.

[Tmt97]

Also ne careful when you work with this stuff. When you heat it up, it sticks to everything: wood(even with a finish), most types of plastic, fabric, paper, clay, rock, and pretty much anything that is porous. You can only really use metal and glass while working with it. On the bright side its non-toxic and biodegradeable..

[saab_gobbler]

Very interesting! I'll have to pick some up sometime & play around with it. Thanks!