Hama Ironing Beads

[raminator]

Hello everyone.

i just made some tests with Hama Ironing Beads. linky

since those beads melt whily ironing i thoughed i could try melting them in the oven.

i made a "negative" form of the Gladiator´s sword and hacked some of that beads into small pieces.

with a good "negative" form and the right temperature it should be possible to make easily and cheap (1000 beads = 2 €) custom stuff.

another possibility is to use those beads for customizing spears and other stuff.

it´s a bit tricky but it works.

has anyone tried this before?

Pic 1 shows the sword i mentioned.

Pic 2 shows some stuff you can do with this beads.

[Flobnomdob]

I can definately see the imperfections in that Gladius

Actually, even with that colour it looks like an ancient rusted blade. Perhaps it'd work for a museum moc...

[Lego_Hero]

Is the poor quality of the sword a factor of inadequate melting temperature or poor molding? I'm vaguely interested if the process can be improved.

[raminator]

it´s a combination of both.

the form made in sculpey was not that great and the temperature was around 100°C.

higher temperatures should give better results.

another thing is the size of the "hacked" beads.

if it would be more like powder the process should benefit even more.

best and most expansive way (~90€+) would be to make a stainless steel 3D print at shapeways for the form.

this way you could use it in the oven or just ironing it.

a cheaper (less than 5 €) way would be to make the form out of ceramics at shapeways.

this way you could at least use it in the oven + because it is cheaper you can add lot´s of swords to it :P