Although I remember playing with Friendly plastic sticks as a kid, my interest in the material came from a futile search for replacement wrenches for my son’s construction toy building set.
The Friendly plastic I ordered came in a 28 oz bucket, but smaller quantities are available (4 oz samplers). It is also available in sticks, and from what I’ve read, it’s all the same material as Shapelock plastic.
My goal was to replace a plastic wrench (photo below) from a toy of tubes and connectors that can build full-size structures and wheeled vehicles. The version I had got very expensive and didn’t seem to be available anymore. There was some evidence of similar items, but I didn’t want to take a chance on the compatibility. (This is a wonderful toy, but that’s a story for another day). One by one we’d lost all the plastic construction wrenches, until it became unusable. My son struggled along with taking the tubes apart without the wrenches for a bit with his friends.
When I became aware of the Shapelock (Friendly) plastic, I ordered a container of it, and started to prototype a replacement wrench tool. Within fifteen minutes, on my first try, I had a working replacement wrench that was completely functional, albeit not terribly attractive. Ironically, the arrival of a replacement wrench so inspired the neighborhood kids to start building again, that within the same day they “located” one of the original wrenches. That’s just as well, because it makes this tutorial a little clearer if you can compare/contrast with the original wrench. The photos below show the original wrench and how it attaches to the pipe.
Basically the Friendly Plastic is clay-like and very pliable/formable when hot, and when cooled it forms a hard solid plastic. It can be reheated and reformed indefinitely.
The white pellets melt and turns into a clear bubble-gum consistency goo at about 160 degrees. My suggestion is not to take food safety for granted and use non-food containers to heat the items in. I am not aware there is a materials safety chart available for this item, so please use good common-sense on how you handle and use this (if someone has one, I’d be pleased to included it in this article.), and don’t use this material for anything that will touch food. For my tutorial, I used a clear glass container, which is nice because the pellets don’t stick to it, and you can see it changing from white to clear.
Measure out about as many pellets as you need to make the ‘prototype’. Since it’s completely reusable don’t worry about overestimating, it won’t go to waste. Heat the water (below boiling, that’s too hot!), and put the pellets in, and wait a few minutes for them to become transparent. Using some a stick you can stir them around and pull them out as a blob. It may be hot, so let it cool a bit. As long as it’s clear or translucent you can manipulate it.
In my case, I formed the blob around the tube, ensuring that a bit went into each indentation on each side that forms the the little keys that enable the wrench to ‘unlock’ the tube from the connector. Then I formed a handle, and strengthened the sides and back and the ninety-degree handle angle to give it a bit more solidity.
These photos show the tool cooling and becoming opaque white.
When fully cooled, you can remove the item. Since I’d located the original tool when I made this ‘demo’ wrench you can visually compare them. Do not try to use the new tool until it is fully cooled, unless you are still ’shaping’ it, as it will deform readily.
Once cooled you can test it. Mine worked great!
In a maker’s hand these material has numerous uses.
In my electronics projects, I’m always searching for custom battery holders. By wrapping a small amount of this material around the battery cells, I get a custom battery holder that can have special connectors or tabs, or fit snugly into a larger holder. Similarly you can make replacement battery covers that are always getting lost.
For another project I needed to temporarily make my X10 appliance connectors ‘tamper-resistant’. Originally I used plastic ties, which worked fine, but the Friendly plastic can make an attractive and slightly more resistant material . (You could even put your ‘mark’ on it which would make it very easy to tell if tampering had taken place). Obviously this technique is for casual use only.
I’ve found fairly high variability in prices online for the material, from about a low of $30 for the 28 oz container to a high of $45. If you just want to play around a bit, smaller quantities are available.
Note that because of it low temperature (re)melting point, you want to be careful of the kinds of application you use this in. For instance, for the battery cover/holder, heat may be an issue (and create a real mess, and perhaps a safety issue!).
You might also be interested in these tutorials
Plastic You Can Mold In Your Home
Friendly-Plastic-101 by Jana-Ewy
Or these vendors (I have no affiliation with them)
Stewart McDonald (seems to be a good price as of this writing)
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