I cut up the previous failed wheel into pieces so I can be easily re-metled them for the next wheel attempt to make.

Making Plastic wheels experiment

This is a small scale test to see if its possible to make wheels for my kiosk out of recyeld plastic.

This is the equipment I will use to form the melted plastic into a flat piece.  Using 2 nuts to determine the width.

The molten blob of HPDE is pushed between the MDF boards and tightened with block nuts.

I then cut the plastic into a circle using a band saw and disc sander. 

The HDPE can be planed with a wood hand plane to create a smooth more even surface .

My plastic extruding machines

2 extruding machines, 1 with a larger hole than the other.  Made from copper and brass tubes soldered

 together.  Including a stand.  Plastic is heated whilst inside and pushed down with a steel rod into some cool water. 

Extrusion tests.  The first one came out as a blob because I pushed the plastic out too fast,  

the experiments has a better shape with a smaller holed machine and at a steadier pressure.

Oil experiments

Here I experimented with melting plastic using vegetable oil ( same method used to melt chocolate) in a bowl submerged in boiling water.)  Got this idea from Thomas Thwaites 

toaster project book, where he used this method to make the plastic

 casing for his toaster.  

My new equipment ( 240 degree sugar thermometer, small saucepan) 

1st experiment : The silicone case flooded so let the plastic 

free in the oil. Going back to white as it cooled down

I used silicone cupcake holders from pound-land because silicone has a very 

high melting point (240 degrees)

Whereas HDPE, Polypropylene and polystyrene melt at around 130 degrees.

The plastic touching the casing is starting to melt

Quenching the whole mould in cool water to speed up the process.

Pressure Moulding

Made these simple HDPE forms by putting a square of cylinder tube on to the metal disc

 in the wooden frame and heated whilst pushing down with the steel rod.  The

 mould is then quenched in cold water and pushed out. 

Other testing with waste products....

This is a test to see if recycled newspaper can be formed .

Liquidised newspaper, then put in moulds in the oven. 

Threads found in waste textiles bin mixed with powdered potato starch fibre and then put into moulds in the oven.  Also flattened in a panini maker.

Heat gun vs Plastic

Firstly sorting out different plastics washing and then cutting into pieces

PET bottle

HDPE milk bottle

I then made a simple mould by fly pressing aluminium and created feet by bending down the corners. I also made a tapered wooden presser.

With heat from the heat gun and pressure from the plug, I woulded the soft plastic into the mould.

HDPE plastic bag

HDPE milk bottle

All the plastics that worked with this method were PP (polypropelene), PS (polysyrene) and HDPE (high density polyethelene).  The plastic that melted down the best and created the smoothest surface was PP.  PS created a sort of crystal structure.

Making plastic from food

Had a go at making plastic from potatoes (starch)  in the hope that food waste could potentially be used for my project.

Squeezing out the liquid from shredded potato, leaving the starch to sink to the bottom  

Cooking with vinegar and glycerine

More experimenting using moulds and stretching.....

When the leather is boiled for quite a long time (20 mins) it becomes very stretchy and easy to work with.  I wanted to see what would happen if it was stretched when wet and left to dry.  The result was not very successful as the leather became very brittle and broke into many pieces under a small amount of pressure.  I don't think I would be able to use this technique for my project as it would just snap under and type of pressure.

For this test I soaked vegetable tan leather in cold water and detergent; detergent helps the leather to absorb more water, for a few days.  I then nailed the leather around the wood and left until completely dry.  I was very please with the result because the leather kept the exact shape including the sharp corners.  It also gives very easily allowing to bend. The surface and structure is perfect with no damage of stretch marks.  I think this technique would be very helpful for my project in the way it moulds to a shape.

I wanted to test how far and what shapes the leather could be moulded to.  So in the 3D workshop I made a curved block to see how the leather would respond to the round shape.  I also made some right angled pieces to wrap the leather around.

Along the top of the picture I wanted to try and see if I could use Cathy de Monchauxs work to try out different techniques, so I made cut out some squares and circular shapes to use as something to restrict the leather when wet so that it would dry and retain its crushed up structure.

The vegetable tan leather would have been too thick to squeeze into these moulds so I used thinner leather.

I used a combination of techniques to try and create the desired effect. On 2 of the pieces I just soaked in water and on one of them I boiled it for 30 seconds hoping it would be more rigid when dry.

I wanted to see what it would look like to combine the materials Cathy De Monchaux uses in her work; leather and metal.  I created a quick piece to see if  like the effect.

I used the bigger mould to so that I could use a thicker type of leather and cut a metal sheet in the 3D workshop to back the pieces.

This is a quick piece I made using Cathy de Monchaux as inspiration, I made it by using the bigger moulds and thicker types of leather, I then cut out a piece of sheet steel to that there was a slight border around the edge.  I don't think this was very successful because the edges are too raw and for it to work.  For it to have come out well I would have to use another piece of metal over the the top that hides the raw edges of the leather and maybe use bolts and nuts like de Monchaux.  To progress my project I am not going to use the combination of leather and metal and just stick to my leather techniques.

Experimenting with the leather...

I brought a variety of different types of leather from Bachelors and Alma Leathers in London.  They are mostly hard vegetable tanned leather, but there are some softer thinner pieces as well.

Here are some pictures showing what I have been doing with the leather....

I used different types of plaster to try and capture the texture of the leather.   I firstly used modelling clay which did not work very well because it couldn't capture the fine detail of the leather's surface. 

Using latex directly onto the leather then waiting for it to dry then  I poured moulding plaster with water  over the latex samples and it captured the texture perfectly giving the fine detail i was looking for.  The latex pieces can also be used to record the pattern and details onto paper by brushing ink onto the surface and pressing down.

This is the more effective experiment using moulding powder (plaster casting)

I then started looking at ways of manipulating the colour of the leather using dye methods and bleach.

I used melted wax  (batik) on the leather to act as a resit to the die, this works very well and allows to build up layers of colour intensity by repeatign the method.

These are some of the bleaching experiments where I poured the bleach directly onto the surface.  They produced some interesting results, where it made the light vegetable tan leather darker.

After that I soaked the pieces in water and bleach and found it didn't effectively remove the colour but started to erode the surface causing some discolouration.

Other experiments that I did which are shown in my sketchbook are different ways of burning the leather such as baking, grilling, toasting and frying.  Although they produced interesting effects I don't thing they would be practical for my experiment because it makes the material weaker and have a unpleasant smell so would not be appropriate for using for jewellery.

One process I would like to explore further is boiling the leather I boiled pieces of leather for 1,5, 10, 20 and 30 mins and the longer it was boiled for the more stretchy and spongy it was and I did not expect this. I think it would be interesting to maybe try boiling and then stretching.  On the other hand when the leather dried after boiling it became very brittle and hard not able to be manipulated in anyway.

Bleaching the leather for me was unsuccessful the colour did not change; just a little lighter, the surface became rougher and a strong smell was left behind.  I would rather try and find a lighter type of leather than bleaching it as the results and colour change is unreliable and unpredictable.