How to cast from Hot Glue (Tutorial)

[Unity]

Hello everyone!


I havent seen a tutorial on how to cast from hot glue so here is mine!

Please read the directions carefully, BEFORE you attempt this method.

When you have glue sticks that are too big / too small for your gun, casting out of hot glue is a fun and easy way to minimize the space those sticks take up! I like to melt these down whenever I need hotglue . Its Fun, fast, And easy!

Example - You rae makeing a mold . You secure the moldbox to the base. But, when you glue the sides, The glue runs down and piles up at the bottom. HOWEVER, if you use Melted hot glue and BRUSH the glue on the sides, It will minimize the ammount of glue that runs down the sides!


Items needed -

.10 - 30 high temp hot glue sticks
.a mold (perferably silicone rubber, but latex will work as well but it will be a bit tougher to de-mold)
And a old pot and a wooden spoon



WARNING : Hot glue can burn you severly . I suffered a 2nd degree burn on my thumb for not being carfull the other day. Remember Safty FIRST !


#1
Melt down 5-10 hot glue sticks in the pot.

#2
Once melted down to a liquid , it should look like this

#3
SLOWLY pour the hot glue into the mold. dont pour too fast as the glue can overrun and go everywhere.

#4

Put the mold into the freezer for 20 mins.

#5
After about 20 mins. pull the mold out of the freezer. IF the glue is not cool yet, Put it back in for a few more minutes until solid.

#6
De-mold the object . in this case , its one of my handplates. Latex molds will be harder to de-mold.

Now you have a cool and fun way to store your extra hot glue!

Hope this helped!

Jacob

 

[n1njqch1cken]

how do i get the glue back to useable form? once the glue has been melted some parts evaporate so you have less glue, this isn't too practical because you loose a huge fraction of the glue you started with and there is no way to get it into your gun... how do you do it??

 

[Madsvg]

Do you have pictures of a basecoated model? It's hard to see how well the glue picked up the mold's details.

 

[n1njqch1cken]

no, it was not an intentional troll post. i was just wondering how you use the glue later, it looks cool and stuff, but if you have to melt it down and reshape the glue into a useable stick i just don't see the point unless you don't plan on using it and want to keep it as a model

btw, i like the tut, but could you elaborate on how to "revive" hte glue to useable status?

edit: i changed my first post to sound more nice because i felt bad, i don't like trolls but sometimes i just point out the bad bits a bit too loudly

 

[Unity]

no, it was not an intentional troll post. i was just wondering how you use the glue later, it looks cool and stuff, but if you have to melt it down and reshape the glue into a useable stick i just don't see the point unless you don't plan on using it and want to keep it as a model

btw, i like the tut, but could you elaborate on how to "revive" hte glue to useable status?

edit: i changed my first post to sound more nice because i felt bad, i don't like trolls but sometimes i just point out the bad bits a bit too loudly

I use this glue for molds. When I make a new mold, I apply hot glue with a gun to seal the sides. Once I do that I Brush the corners of the mold box with hot glue (the hot glue I melted in the pot) . I ALWAYS keep hot glue sticks. BUT , When you have some sticks that are too small for your gun (or too big) , this is a good way to store them (because indevidual sticks take up alot of spase).


Oh and for a comparison picture here you go! You cant tell, but the hot glue picked up the original model VEARY well. Just make sure the glue is melted enough to where it is thinner .


Here is the original model

 

[n1njqch1cken]

so this is for the sticks that are impossible to use for your gun? this may not be as pointless as i first thought, a 200 pack of glue sticks is around $2 (for me, i'm not sure about america..) so you can cast small things that won't be in contact much, like a hand plate, cheap and easy...


I GET IT NOW haha, i suppose i'm the one who has to think it through, silly me

 

[Gallard]

Could you do a base coat of paint on one so we can see how the paint adheres with the handplate?? Im kind of curious on this method!

 

[rvb18]

i used this about 3 months ago when i did my jun build. here was the results

knife blade was hot glue

the treaded top part of the shoulder was also hot glue

paint goes on fine

 

[Unity]

Thank you rvb18! I will post a pic of a painted handplate . And Yes, This is for those sticks that wont work with your gun. I thought it would be a cool way to store them!

 

[Road Kill]

cool tutorial, this will help me alot in the future

 

[sik1276]

Very interesting. Do you know if this will work for a paper mold? I remember another thread where someone just pour the hot glue/silicone, I forget, into their pepped handplate and they just rubbed away the paper to get the finished product.

 

[Boba Fett]

Very interesting. Do you know if this will work for a paper mold? I remember another thread where someone just pour the hot glue/silicone, I forget, into their pepped handplate and they just rubbed away the paper to get the finished product.

It seems reasonable, but you should probably seal the back of the paper with some sort of coating. Otherwise, it'll fuse and you'll have a ton of paper to scrape off. Also, remember, you can't sand hot glue. So whatever impression the hot glue makes, that's the final impression.

 

[Unity]

It seems reasonable, but you should probably seal the back of the paper with some sort of coating. Otherwise, it'll fuse and you'll have a ton of paper to scrape off. Also, remember, you can't sand hot glue. So whatever impression the hot glue makes, that's the final impression.

Yeah I agree with boba . I have used the hot glue strengthening method and that hot glue bonds with the paper VERY tightly. So maybe spraying some polyurethane on it before pouring in the hot glue. Silicone is heat resistant (to a extent) so therefore as soon as the glue hits it, it cools . Latex tends to bond with the hot glue more , but will stll work fine it , it just takes a little more to de-mold it .

 

[rvb18]

maybe use water to wash the paper away. might work

 

[Boba Fett]

The problem is if the paper is porous (which it is) some paper will almost ALWAYS be stuck in there. It would probably be best to use an uber-el-cheapo caulk mold and cast off of that.

 

[Unity]

As Boba said before, Paper WILL STICK to hot glue (visa versa) . you do need to put a sealer on any porous surface (paper,wood,cardboard)