Plastic " Trees " ( Sprues ? )

I recycle mine by cutting them  to various sizes long enough to use to stir my paint bottles. Your idea is very creative. I like it.

I've never had much luck with stretching the stuff.  I keep longer pieces around for stir sticks, but recycle most of it.

I throw it in the landfill can.  I am not a recycling type of guy.  

Thanks, tankerbuilder!  

They also make excellent cat toys, when suspended from a closet door--although that was not my original intention.  

I take a straight 4-6" piece and heat one end over a candle and while it's soft, mash it between the corner of the sink and a flat, metal thingy like a butter knife. File/sand the end to whatever shape you need.

Make a pretty cool little stir stick, putty knife, burnishing tool etc.  Since it's styrene, it won't damage the model.

Big fan of stretched sprue, however,I now have a shoe box full of it.everything else goes in the trash can for now

Hi;

   There's also this. You can cut it into 1/16 or smaller pieces and take your oldest bottle of styrene glue. You know the one that is about half full with some impurities in the bottom? Fill it up with sprue pieces .Stir or shake daily for a week.

   Now , what do you have ? You have liquid styrene filler !

Car modelers have been doing this for years. Why? Well ,what better filler than the stuff the model is made out of ? Just make sure you keep the color somewhat neutral for your projects .For Armor for instance you would want it the color of the tank or soft skin .

  Neutral grey or white is best for everything else. Now think about it .You will have a product that sands and adheres much better than Any putty out there .The only thing it can't do is be used on any vinyl based figurines or diorama supplies .

   At this writing I have three bottles of the stuff made from the TESTORS liquid and in the bigger round bottle .The Tamiya bottle has a tendency for the stuff in the corners to harden in the bottle .Every once in a while add a couple of drops of liquid glue or tube glue if you want it thicker than it will be .

    See, that's another nice thing about it. You control how thick you want it . Sprue away !     T.B.

Hey CN;

    You have something there. I also do this, and have about twenty little sprue based burnishing tools around the bench. I like the big fat sprue for making putty or sprue filler applicators.     T.B.

Here is one I do that I haven't read anyone else do yet.

Lay a piece of sprue about 1/2 inch from the edge of a ceramic tile, lay a piece of brass rod or tubing over on the other end. Cover this with another ceramic tile, and put it in the oven.

When it gets hot and you see one end touching the two tiles together, take it out and let it cool.

after it is cool, take the sprue off of the tiles. You now have wedge shaped seam filing plastic stock. you just apply cement to your gap, and insert the cut off pieces of wedge into the seam. Use White plastic on a Blue model, Green on a White model, etc. After each piece, you can cut and file. Now you have plastic models with the seams filled with plastic stock.

an alternate is to lay multiple pieces on the tile, pointing towards one end,,,,,,,,this gives you 1/4 inch wide pieces with a handle, just apply cement, stab the wedge into the gap, cut and save the long stub for the next baking session.

If you need a precision glue applicator and you don't have one handy for some reason, just "stretch sprue" the pipette and snip it on the narrow part,,,,,,now you have a "cementing pipette"

**this idea stolen from a ship modeler,,,,,,,,,save that flexible black sprue that some model ship parts have in them,,,,,,when you stretch that, you will have a flexible thin black line that will adhere with plastic cement

Rex

Very Good !

Now does anyone else have an idea We can use ?

Here's an idea for an aspiring inventor...

Make a hot sprue gun.  Tiny nozzle, able to use existing sprues or you could buy them like hot glue sticks.  That way you could melt the sticks and inject it directly into the gap.

Something based off of that 3D pen would be nice.

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You Know;

  That's an interesting idea .I have an old industrial grade glue gun .You know what I am gonna try ? I'll let you know how bad it messes up. He! He!     T.B.

As with all new experiments... Make sure your fire extinguisher is handy.

geez, and don't have any finished models out in the open

I remember the very first time I stretched sprue, I was very young and didn't realize it would start on fire so easily.

Those black sticky "smoke" clouds will stick to everything.

I use the sprue for exhausts, roll cages, vehicle suspension, tube chassis, axles and even I have heated it to make car aerials, car whip aerials, post and rail fences and  armco in diorama's.

PatW;

    I have over the years used small sprue to create the pieces for a convertible top mechanism . It actually folded up , but , my gosh It sure was fragile. The thing in dios is I do is this. Do you think it's easy to create nice rolling waves of little heighth?

     It is, if you use sections of tiny sprue under the paint and water medium . that way you can have those little wavelets that are actually created by the wind with a wee bit of spray included.        T.B.

The idea of a hot sprue gun isn't new, I have been trying to remember what the thing was my dad used to build me a couple semi's WAY BACK  when  I was a kid, the device worked very much like a glue gun, you would load white styrene plugs into the back and it had a trigger to move the plugs forward. If I remember it worked pretty well for pieces that penetrated but not so well on closed edges. That being said it would work FANTASTIC  for all those pescky pin marks.T.B great idea of using glue and sprue to create a filler, I think your on to something there.

I gotta tell ya;

  I was a big fan of Bandai's 1/48 scale full interior and engine compartment included , armor kits. I used a Very thick version for setting and creating zimmerit ! There's nothing more satisfying than a 1/48 King Tiger with a standard Porsche turret and one with the Henschel turret too ,Just covered in zimmerit