Styrofoam and Acetone

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

After watching some YouTube videos of what acetone can do to styrofoam, a lightbulb went off in my head. Depending on the ratio of acetone to styrofoam in the mixture, I came to the conclusion that it could be possible to make styrofoam have the right consistancy for mold making. How plausible would a complete Stormtrooper kit pulled in acetone-treated styrofoam be? I don't have a lot of knowledge of this stuff, so berate me as you see fit, but I figured I'd share this info because of its "interesting" factor.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRxTX7amBLk

[Dark CMF[Staff]]

Wow... I'm intrigued, but I'm like you.  I have no clue how to do all of that, or if it could be useful for mold making / armor pulling but it is pretty freaking cool and as you said, interesting.

[gazmosis[501st]]

The Stormtrooper armor sets endorsed here are made from positive molds. The molds(forms) themselves come very close to the exact shape of the final product. The plastic sheet is heated to a stretchy state and laid over the forms and sucked down with a vacuum. What you are describing would need a NEGATIVE mold for the material to be poured into.

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

The Stormtrooper armor sets endorsed here are made from positive molds. The molds(forms) themselves come very close to the exact shape of the final product. The plastic sheet is heated to a stretchy state and laid over the forms and sucked down with a vacuum. What you are describing would need a NEGATIVE mold for the material to be poured into.

I know enough about the process to understand what you're saying. What if you used a negative mold for creating the flat sheets themselves? You could pour the right amount of acetone into the mold, and keep adding styrofoam until the desired consistency is achieved. After that, you can apply to the hardened styrofoam sheet the same tried and true method of pulling Stormtrooper kits using positive molds.

I bet there's a lot of unnecessary effort associated with this, and will probably never be practical compared to using ABS, but I'm interested to know if it could theoretically be done. I don't have much of an interest in attempting it myself.

[walt[501st]]

Still have to make the first peice,,,,,there is no short cuts...i have tried them all....plus..as a general rule of thumb.keep flameable things away from heat

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

Because acetone...is flammable....

Well that just goes to show...how lacking my knowledge of this stuff is. I think I better stop now lol 

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

Not to mention, thermoplastics are "thermo" plastics... they soften with heat. This is what makes them form to the mold. There are many kinds of plastics, and I believe styrofoam is a heat-sensitive type that will melt under low heat, which makes it not ideal to make sheets from. Crafting foam is similar, and it is mostly air. I'm just talking out of my a very impolite person, here, because I don't know the chemistry, only my observation of what happens to these things when you heat them. Many other plastics are hard and do not soften under heat, and obviously don't work for vac-forming.

 

And then not to mention the smell!