Boiling sculpey

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

NO harsh fumes here. I think it's because it's underwater. I have an old pot I use for melting wax and boiling sculpey.

Chucky and I are really just exploring other methods of solidifying the clay. We may find something useful for everybody

[Cobblepot]

This is a great tip, I'll try it myself in a while.

[CHUCKYBABY555]

There are absolutely no fumes, and I didnt tell my wife I use her pot but I wont use it for cooking either.
And to answer the question about knowing when its done...its done in a few minutes even at a 1/4 inch thick. I know when u take it out of the oven it can stil be a bit "rubbery" but out of the water its rock hard and hot so let it cool in the water. I take the pot off the stove and slowly add cold water to it if im in a rush. Id say about 5 minutes in a rolling boil and its done but I havent seen any problems leaving it in for even longer. If you want take an ice cube size peice of sculpey and try boiling it. after it cools see how well its cured.

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

I'll try the ice cube today and post pics. I know that I will never do anything that thick, so if the " ice cube " size sculpey is cured in 5 or 10 then I'm sold!

[Afterburner]

What an excellent idea....thanks so much for posting!

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

Here is what I did:

It hurt my heart to cut 2 huge chunks of sculpey for this test. Oh, the humanity!!!

Block 1 was boiled for 15 mins. To be honest it had hardened after 5 mins, but I left it in for the Nay-Sayers.

Block 2 was boiled for 60 mins. I was looking for major differences between the two. There were none.

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

Block 1 had a crack down the center , which came from not kneading the clay together. I took it straight out of the box and as we all know it comes in slabs. So that wasn't very smart on my behalf. ( the diagonal crack came after I hit it with a hammer )Since it was cracked I checked to see if the inside had cured. I poked it with a knife several times ( those are the white marks. ) It was cooked through and through.

Block 2 was dropped 5 feet off the ground 3 times and nothing happened.

I was pretty happy with the results. The dark color that I have come to love is missing but It works. I could see using this method, especially if you were just going to do a wax transfer anyway. So I'll put a figure on the line for a real world test some time soon.

[CHUCKYBABY555]

Great job Master, love the pics. Thers the proof some were looking for

[mnwolfspider]

Excellent experiment! Thanks for doing that and posting the results Master! I may try this method on a custom I'm working on...

[MASTERSHOKHAN]

I found this info on another site:

"Boiling works best on a solid Sculpey piece. If you are boiling a piece that has an armature and foil filler, care must be taken that no cracks develop on the piece, as water can leak into the piece and cause potential problems."


We might as well put all boiling info in this thread