sculpey drip tips - make em shine?

[yiddleboge6]

Before severe, agressive rhuematoid arthritus, I was an artist creating fairly high end sculptures from polymer clay. Please buy a toaster oven that you will dedicate soley to this use, if not please make sure to clean your oven thuorghly before cooking any food in it. It will leave a film on your oven. Never forget to take it out at the specified time as fumes from burnt polymer are TOXIC. I had a separate convection oven just for my clay. This is not something I would use to create a object I'm going to put in my mouth. Uncured clay stored in a plastic container will eat through the container.
I'm not trying to rain on anyones parade here, just want you all to be safe

 

[Lethalp]

I bake my polymer clay in my regular oven, but I do it in a dedicated pan and I put another pan over it,not nessisarily because of fumes, but because I read that would help with the heat. Is that good enough?

 

[Chopper71]

Ive done mine in our oven for near a year now without any health problems.I use non toxic clay and I bake it on our cookie sheet which we still bake cookies on.I just lay the tips on wax paper on the cookie sheet.

 

[hitman4274]

elmers glue. drys clear and shiny... just an idea..

 

[dragonbone]

Awesome thread!

 

[OasisMike]

just wanted to add that my experience of using a dremel with a buffing wheel to shine things hasn't been great...it seems to cut into the surface in spots.

but, I can imagine putting a 510 atty into a drill to spin the tip, and using really fine 1500 grit sandpaper, instead of turning it in a lathe...I think that would knock down the surface and yield a nice shine cheaply (perhaps using thin strips of sandpaper 1/8" x 3" wetted in water).

 

[StereoDreamer]

"JewelzBagz" and "Prettycat191",

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but as a glossy, water-, saliva- and e-liquid-proof shiny finish you might try a cyanoacrylate finish (SuperGlue). Several of the official vendors on this forum that make their own drip tips from wood, polymer stone and other composites use it as a finish. It is also used by people who make pool cues, hand-turned custom pens, and other small wood and composite
items that need to be made shiny and sealed against moisture.

You have to apply it quickly because it dries fast, but you can buff out any irregularities in the finish, and if you put several coats on before the final buffing, you can get a high-gloss, VERY protective finish. You start with 400-grit sandpaper, and go up to 2000 grit wet. You can then polish it on a wheel (or use a dremel with a cotton buffing wheel and jeweler's rouge) to get it mirror shiny.

Here is one source, but any good woodworking supplier will carry it:
Cue Finish<BR>With Cyanoacrylate

 

[Lethalp]

Hey stereo,
Thanks so much for the info! I am wondering if u can answer another question? Would the CA be safe to put on the inside of the tip? To seal it? Would it make the tip safer to drip through? This thread is sort of slow, but I still check it, I always find something new!
Thanks again!

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

 

[aheatedatom]

I haven't read all the replies, so apologies if this was covered- but I used to build sculpey sets for stop motion animation so I can tell you what you need to do...

Get the finest grade dry sand paper you can find, and the finest grain wet/dry sandpaper you can find. Auto supply store will have both. Shininess means removing all scratches, then polishing. Polishing will make it shine, but scratches will become more apparent. Keep sanding gently with the dry, then fill a bowl with water, and use the fine grain wet sand paper under water, and let it dry.

After its dry, rub it in a circular motion against denim jeans.

Get a jeweler's polishing cloth - you can get one at a jewelery store, or you can use one intended for iphones. Keep polishing it while you're watching tv- the more you rub it, the shinier it will be. Periodically look at it- on your first few tries you'll probably see shininess with scratches. If there's scratches, you have to sand again before polishing until they're gone.

You can get baked sculpey very shiny that way, the next step is using some varnishes intended for flooring. These work great and can make it look like glass, but I don't know if I'd want to put them in my mouth. I don't think I'd want to vape through raw sculpey either, so I'm assuming you have some other material underneathe.