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Homemade Silly Putty
kinema writes "Have you ever wanted a ball of Silly Putty as big as your head? Now you can make it at home. The University of Minnesota's Chemistry Department has instructions on how to make it on their website." Isn't silly putty a copyright circumvention tool? This should be regulated before it gets out of hand.
It IS copyrighted.. so that page COULD be shut down by ( i think ) hasbro..
Gotta love the society we live in now..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Another slime recipe can be found here as well.
The instructions by themselves are not particularly instructive: "the procedure can be followed from the slime procedure above."
This is mentioned here. There's a bunch of other cool stuff in the same section, too.
It's amazing how a chemical compound created while trying to devise better ways to kill enemies works out to have recreational purposes.
And they say America spends too much on military research.
Any terrorist handbook worth its salt has had recipes for putties for years. OH! SILLY putty! I was thinking EXPLOSIVE putty! My bad.
This actually looks a lot like the recipe for Gak. The only difference is that Gak uses Borax, which, for all I know could be the same as sodium borate. Are Gak and silly putty perhaps the same except for the glue to sodium borate ratio?
Have you ever wanted a ball of Silly Putty as big as your head?
I'm hydrocephalic, you insensitive clod! I'd prefer a smaller head, thank you.
Ever wanted to know how microsoft patch their software? Gum and putty, they got tonnes of the stuff. Good'ol Bill has the worlds largest bubble bum collection, as for the putty, Ballmer keeps a lump in his back pocket
--
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
"Now you can make it at home"
Okay, sure, I'll just pull the sodium borate out of my cabinet under the sink.
Back in my freshman year Chemistry Lab 4 years ago one of the experiments was to make silly putty. I remember it was one of the simplier labs to do, but the end result didn't come out very good. It dries out very quickly, and isn't as "flexible" as the stuff you buy in a store. It broke very easily. I don't remember if the teacher gave an explaination of why the putty we made wasn't as good as the store bought stuff, but I do remember getting the impression that you weren't going to get anything high quality in a small one off run.
My cousin gave me a recipe for making this from domestic materials... Salt has lots of sodium, and most brands of the toilet cleaner contain borate. Let me see... if I just mix a little of that with some garden fertiliser, then shake the whol >BOOOM
Ceci n'est pas une signature
This recipe is a clear violation of the DMCA, in that the end device is capable of copying copyrighted materials (newspapers) and defeating their protection mechanisms (if they've been printed backwards).
Bah weep granah, weep ninny bong!
For those of you who are lazy here are a couple of links to buy silly putty in bulk.
From Crayola
Or if you would like to buy 100 pounds of the stuff you can apparently order it directly from Dow Corning. Here's a page with step by step instructions on what to ask for and who to call.
100 Pounds or More
sodium borate is borax. seems rather odd to have a recipe that includes elmer's glue combining with an esoteric chemical when there's a much commoner name that could be used...
Glue borax and water.
Its not really the same consistancy of silly putty from the times Ive made it.
Check out this link for these recipes.
... is whot bwings os tugevza tsuzay.
where would one go to buy this stuff anyways?
I want 2D games back.
Check it out.
... is whot bwings os tugevza tsuzay.
from www.sillyputty.com
"Silly Putty is a dilatant compound, a silicone based polymer..." This statement makes sense also because the inventor was (is) a Dow chemist/engineer. Dow has always been a leader in silicone chemistry.
The recipie from U of M is a borate cross-linked PVA (from the Elmer's), better known as slime. This is NOT a silicone polymer.
Before I flame UofM Chemistry dept., I will give them a change to correct this gaff.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Have you ever wanted a ball of Silly Putty as big as your head?
Why, yes! Yes I have!
Now you can make it at home.
"We went to the bars and then a house party last night. What'd you do?"
"I stayed at home and made Silly Putty! I'm going to kill myself!"
The coolest voice ever.
Anybody know how to really make silly putty? Gak is boring.
Its all relative.
as long as its got the right proportions it doesnt matter what a Large Flask is.
btw, you can buy Sodium borate at your local grocery store.
Borax: A hydrated sodium borate, Na2B4O710H2O, an ore of boron, that is used as a cleaning compound
Could someone please for all of us silly slashdotters who do not know what Silly Putty is (or maybe know it under another name) give some explanation? From what I found on google it seems to be some sort of flubber", but then, sort of, ... different.
This being slashdot, could anyone also put up some links about all models of starwars ships that have been created with this stuff?
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
Dow 3179 Dilatent Compound is. It is silicone-based, like the Horta.
You can order 50lb blocks from Crayola or 100lbs from Dow. See http://vern.com/putty/ for more info.
Slashdot editors can't even check facts on Silly Putty stories. Sad.
The latest Slashdot meme.
When you're playing with borate ions, you're playing with Hitler!!
WRONG!!! Its missing Silicon! It is a fake recipe!
:
Real silly putty does not dry out or leave much of a residue and is of course feshy-colorred.
Real silly putty has alwasy been
65% dimethyl siloxane, hydroxy-terminated polymers with boric acid
-- 17% silica, quartz crystalline
-- 9% thixotrol ST
-- 4% polydimethylsiloxane
-- 1% decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane
-- ~1% glycerine
-- ~1% titanium dioxide
and of course you can manufacture it now, out of patent, but you have to be careful how you market it.
Or you can buy it from DOW in bulk for under 10 dollars per pound.
I am the first post that mentioned this and its 12:18 PM E.S.T. , so I can't imagine how something that I knew most of my adult life was not mentioned or corrected by ANYONE else. More amusing is that no one moderates on slashdot anymore even though technically all email accounts are mostly anonymous.
But for those that care. There is the CORRECT resipe , and its totally different than the poisonous one for mere slime the article mentioned.
More importantly, someone appears to have stolen both his brain cells. The swines!
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I had some when I was a kid. It was messy, it stuck to everything, and the messes resulted in me getting a lot of spankings. Not only that, but it stank worse than my whisky farts do today.
No, I do NOT want a wad of silly putty that big. No. Damn. Way.
This post made with the Dvorak layout.
"Friends don't let friends use QWERTY"
I was a bit dubious to your military claims since the linked article only makes reference to an attempt to make a synthetic rubber. However, a bit of research on sillyputty.com shows not only that you are correct, but also lists the ingredients (boric acid and silicone oil) required to manufacture it. Read on for an excerpt:
1940 In the midst of World War II, the Japanese contine to invade rubber producing countries in the Far East, cutting off supply to the United States. This begins to hamper war production efforts, especially for truck tires and boots. As a result, the government's War Production Board asks American industry to attempt to develop a synthetic rubber compound.
1943 James Wright, a Scottish engineer working for General Electric's New Haven, Conn., laboratory, combines boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube. The compound becomes "polymerized." Wright removes the goeey substance from the test tube and in his exuberance tosses some on the floor. Bouncing putty is born.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
You can buy 5 lbs of silly putty for $60. Many people have done this before, and you can do some very interesting stuff with it. Like make a potato gun that shoots baseball sized balls of putty at brick walls. There are videos of this, and the putty ball shatters like a piece of glass because of its "silly" properties.
Its fun to do other experiments like bake it, freeze it, etc...
The recipe, well, at least the ingredients, are here.
Yup.. i missed it.. need more sleep.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
As a followup to my own post, here is the correct Silicon full recipe
:
Preparing "Silly Putty", a silicone polymer (a methyl silicone, polydimethylsiloxane), via the hydrolysis of dichlorodimethylsilane with simple lab tools.
This silicone, which contains residual hydroxyl groups, will be cross-linked using boric acid (B(OH)3). This trifunctional acid forms -Si-O-Blinkages resulting in a peculiar type of gum. The commercial "bouncing putty" found in novelty stores is a silicon polymer with softening agents, fillers and coloring agents added. The actual full list of Silly Putty ingredients with colorants and softening agents is
-- 65% dimethyl siloxane, hydroxy-terminated polymers with boric acid
-- 17% silica, quartz crystalline
-- 9% thixotrol ST
-- 4% polydimethylsiloxane
-- 1% decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane
-- ~1% glycerine
-- ~1% titanium dioxide
This putty recipe is similar and equally pleasing:
Day 1: This reaction must be carried out in a fume hood.
Wear gloves to measure 20 mL of Si(CH3)2Cl (MW = 129.06, density = 1.064 g/mL) in a dry graduated cylinder. Rapidly transfer to a dry 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask equipped with a rubber stopper. Si(CH3)2Cl2 reacts rapidly with moisture to produce HCl gas so make the transfer swiftly. To this add 40 mL of diethylether and hydrolyze by adding 40 mL of H2O dropwise. HCl gas is evolved in this hydrolysis step.
The addition must be made slowly at the beginning of the reaction or too vigorous an evolution of the HCl will occur. The ether component will be warmed up to its boiling temperature if H2O is added too quickly. It is a good idea to have an ice-bath ready to cool down the reaction flask if the hydrolysis becomes too exothermic. The first 10 mL addition of water is very vigorous but less so afterwards. After this initial quantity, you may increase the rate of addition. The product has a very strong odor; be sure to do this in a fumehood!
Separate the ether layer at the completion of the hydrolysis step by pouring the mixture into your 250 mL separatory funnel. Wash the ether layer 3 times with 100 mL (for each wash) of 1 M Na2CO3.
This step is done to neutralize any residual acid remaining in the wet ether solution. Vigorous evolution of CO2 gas is observed at this stage as the neutralization proceeds. Add 10 mL more of diethylether to the flask after the first wash. Finally, perform on additional wash with 100 mL of water. Dry the ether solution over anhydrous magnesium sulfate in a stoppered Erlenmeyer flask, which you let rest for step two.
Day 2:
Decant the ether solution, filtering off any magnesium sulfate, into a pre-weighed 50 mL Erlenmeyer flask and evaporate off the ether using a water bath - not a hot plate. Note the yield of the dimethylsilicone oil (you should have approximately 9.5 g of material).
Add about 5% (by weight) boric acid (about 0.48 g for a yield of 9.5 g of oil), stirring continuously during the addition and for a few minutes after. This will cause the oil to become very viscous.
Heat the mixture to about 170-180 C in an oil bath and leave at this temperature for 2-3 hours. Allow to cool and remove the product from the flask by scraping it out with a spatula. If the gum is somewhat brittle, continued kneading will produce the desired gum-like characteristic. Once the gum has been removed, clean your Erlenmeyer flask with methanol.
Perform and report on the following tests:
(1) When rolled into a ball, does your product give a lively bounce on a hard surface?
(2) Does pulling sharply cause the gum to cleave?
(3) Does pulling slowly result in a stretching reminiscent of chewing gum?
(4) Does your product flow into a flat plate when placed on a flat surface?
(5) Is print transferred to the gum when test (4) is conducted on a flat newspaper?
General References
1. J. E. Mark, H. R. Allcock, R. West, Inorganic Polymers, Prenti
INVENTORS -- On Nov. 15 Earl Warrick, 91, who was credited as one of the inventors of Silly Putty, died at his home in Loma Linda, CA. He was a Dow Corning research scientist for 33 years.
I think this was on /. before, but couldn't find the past story.
The Elmber's Glue recipes don't make actual silly putty. They make some cheap nasty knock-off that creates a silly putty-like compound that is slimey, leaves a greasy mess on anything it touches. Not only that, but this putty goes bad over time, unlike the real silly putty, which never dries out or gets moldy.
There is a recipe for making the real silly putty compound, but it is far more difficult and requires ingrediants and tools not found in a grocery store.
Okay, so the AK-47 and the M1921AC are not chemical compounds - but they were created to kill enemies AND they have recreational purposes. :sets selector to "Rock 'N' Roll" mode:
This post made with the Dvorak layout.
"Friends don't let friends use QWERTY"
The directions clearly state to mix the glue solution and the sodium borate in a 4:1 ratio.
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
So what would happen if you dropped a head sized or larger amount of silly putty from three stories up? Would it bounce or would it splash? Or would it pancake? Has anyone actually tried this?
Impersonating Tycho from Penny Arcade since before there was a PA.
This is not Silly Putty, or anything like it. I'm sick and tired of people saying that the glue and borax formula makes it, when in fact it produces a slimy concoction most similar to the Gak that Nickelodeon markets. The result of the recipe posted will make a slimy, sticky, greasy blob of crap that will dry out in a few days
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Will someone please mod the parent down? For God's sake, two people have pointed out that it is a troll and they have been modded as trolls!!
I refer to the *special* ingredient below "Food coloring" and above "Zip lock bags"
I had my students make this one time -- I was teaching a class on polymers. I had seniors in college playing with glue and boarx like little kindergarteners. Hah. They enjoyed it and learned something about viscoelastic polymers in the process, so I think it was all good.
Anyway... while fun, the stuff isn't really Silly Putty (R). That's a silicone polymer. The poly(vinyl alcohol) that's in glues these days does a pretty decent impersonation, though. You'll notice that it does feel and act differently, and it tends to dry out much quicker than the real stuff.
Just in case anyone cared on this obviously slow news day.
I'm suprised that among all slashdotters, nobody mentionned this. I think it's probably Silly Putty (TM) with more intense properties.
my 2 cents
Here we go again!
Yeah, hahahah, heh, heheh, wooo.
Thank god for that. I've finally stopped laughing. Took me 30 minutes though - take care clicking on that link if you've got to do something soon.
Get your own free personal location tracker
www.puttyworld.com
Is it sunday already?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
the name "silly putty" is probably copyrighted, but they can't shut down the site just for showing how to make it. That would be like a clothing company suing a site that gave instructions on how to sew certain things, or a software company suing because someone posted how to program their programs. Hmmm.... I'm glad silly putty has been made open source.
Esoteric reference.
There's an urban legend like this about a cookie recipe.
And this is the recipe in question.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I have been waiting for a chance to post this like I found several years ago. Ever wonder what happens when you drop 50 lbs of silly putty (from Dow chemical) off a 6th(?) floor parking garage? Well you too can find out at Silly Putty Physics Experiment. Complete with medium and large video (actually the video is about all there is to the thing). Just like McDonalds and Starbucks, there is no "small".
This is the cheapo, ghetto version of silly putty, which will likely rot (that's right, as in decompose) because of the materials used.
Real Silly Putty is made by Dow Corning (in my hometown of Greensboro, NC, in fact) from silicone-related starting materials. But if you just want something to impress the youngsters in your school science class, using glue and sodium borate will attract their attention for at least a few minutes.
I'm too lazy to find it myself, but I'm sure the patent on Silly Putty includes the real ingredients and process info. Any Karma Whores out their want to go patent-fishing?
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
I remember making putty using nearly the exact same recipe when I was in HS Chemistry several years ago.
On the slime page, the shape of that borate ion is a little bit suspicious...
In the future, all spacecraft will be made of cheese.
I suspect that all these posters aren't lawyers; they're probably some form of "geek": engineers, programmers, mathematicians, chemists, what have you. /. is heavily slanted towards computer geeks. And for that group, IP issues are a big deal (and also a popular discussion subject on /.)
However, it's not particularily representative. Within most science/engineering fields, IP is not considered the enemy, and for fields like math and foundation research it's a nonissue.
Remember, in most areas, patents work. They do encourage development and investments in research.
Now, software patents ARE a BAD idea. But don't take the computer geeks' view as valid for all engineers and scientists.
The one my high-school physics instructor used is simple enough that I still remember it after more than ten years:
One part liquid laundry starch
One part corn starch
mix well
Just because it works, doesn't mean it isn't broken.
Or buy it online if you're too lazy. (thanks google)
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
I bought some of that stuff. It was interesting for a day but got boring rather quickly. It's pretty much silly putty, but much firmer (kinda close to the sticky tack stuff used to put posters on walls).
Oobleck is much more interesting and a hell of a lot cheaper.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Poster putty holds its shape better, and its not as expensive. Plus, you can bill the company for the office supplies. It's not liuke it actually holds posters on to the walls very well.
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal -- Jello Biafra
# Large flask of 55% Elmer's glue solution in water # Large flask of 16% sodium borate This brings back memories of my summative assignment for grade 9 science, which was to develop the most bouncy ball possible using glue and borax.
A few years ago, some of my friends got together an order for a batch of Dow 3179 Dilatent Compound in its original pinkish color, and I got a kilo or so as a present for my sister's kids back east, whom we were about to go visit. In the shuttle on the way to the airport, my wife and I realized that our carryon luggage had two half-kilo baggies of plasticy clay and a digital alarm clock, and if it looked odd on the baggage xray it might be incorrectly perceived as something bad. But it was too late to turn around and still get to our plane, so we just kept going.
Fortunately, though this was after the mid-90s attempts at restricting US travel and civil liberties and resale of frequent flyer tickets in the name of national security, it was before the military takeover of the US airports, and the rent-a-guards didn't notice anything, so the only negative consequences were the usual ones involving Silly Putty, rugs, furniture, ceilings, etc.
And on the way back, we didn't have the plastic material, and our flight didn't go through the Gate Which Must Not Be Named (you do know not to refer to the 4th gate of Terminal C using the natural name that's between C3 and C5, don't you? :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I'm afraid I don't understand your sig. Mode me down -1 ignorant if you must. But why would I insert a jalapeno rectally in the first place?
At work we needed a large quantity (~10 lbs.) of the stuff for an experiment. We we able to get a "sample" quantity directly from DOW in a 50 lb. bucket. We gave half of it to the salesman for his kids, leaving us with about 25 lbs. 10 lbs. for the experiment, and 15 lbs. to make into a giant silly putty ball that we then proceeded to bounce in the lab. BAD IDEA. It's hard to roll a good sphere that size, so the thing bounced chaoticly about the lab almost taking out a computer monitor. Still, it is impressive to see that much silly putty at once.
"Uh... yeah, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?" --Pinky
Your tuition dollars at work: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/stu/putty/index.cf m
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
The stuff described on the U Minn site is NOT the real Silly Putty. The real stuff is a silicon polymer as far as I know. The Elmer's Glue/borate mix has only a limited shelflife. It has some viscoelasticity, but it does not behave fully like the real Putty.
(Material Safety Data Sheet) Safety first! You gotta check on the LD50 before you can play with, let alone eat, the Silly Putty.
(note: as previously observed, 3179 DILATANT COMPOUND is indeed the stuff)
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Hasn't anyone ever used silly putty to copy a page from a comic book? Silly putty, like p2p networks, is used to copy intellectual property of others. Thus anyone who makes silly putty is liable for vicarious infringement heh. I'm quite sure that's what the OP was talking about, because anything else doesn't make sense.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Yeah, right.
And then it turns into a IP debate.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
/tim
I remember making this when I was a kid with my grandmother. That was always fun (my grandfather's a chemist, learned cool shit from him)
35 years ago, my mom had the recipe for a home-grown recipe for Play-Dough gleaned from some womens' magazine.
We had tons of fun making and playing with it and i don't think that the ingredienghds did anyt long-terrm damaggee
You can add more elmer's glue, or more Borate to the mixture to thicken and harden the resultant mixture. It becomes rather rubber-like and it bounces more than you would imagine. You can add more water to the mixture and end up with a slimier putty. I had loads of fun with this stuff before I got too old to get high and play around with equipment from the chemistry lab.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
... the structure of silly putty is well enough known to be publicised in several introductory-level organic chemistry texts I have seen, and it is not too hard to reproduce.
Silly Putty (R) is a registered trademark of Binney & Smith / Crayola. See www.sillyputty.com.
You can also buy tins of a similar stuff in really neat colors from www.puttyworld.com.
I thought Silly Putty was non toxic :-D
DISCLAIMER:
I don't believe what I write, and neither should you.
I tried to make some kind of silly putty when I had a pretty good chemistry set for a kid, like 25 years ago. (a store-bought totally un-understandable chemistry kit and a ton of antique chemistry glassware my parents found in shops!).
Alas the putty (which was probably more the borax type I guess) was extremely hard to make and it seemed very sensitive to the ratio of ingredients.. I do remember that washing with I guess alcohol maybe, I ended up with a stringy white mass. After a couple tries I got something like putty but kinda nasty..
Anyway my question to offset these sickening legal posts. Do you think the stuff would conduct electricity, or be susceptible to heat from wires? I would guess no on electricity but yes on heat.. anyway wouldn't this be kind of cool material for an embedded linux project (if it is not conducting)?
You could wrap some circuit boards and leds together and bind the whole thing in a mass of putty (maybe thinkgeek's glowing green one, though the blue, white, and black ones are intriguing and the copper one looks good wrapped around buzz' leg..)
presumably the green one would afford a persistence of vision kind of effect like tv phosphors that glow for a long time after being stimulated. I'm a little worried about whether heat or time would melt the stuff, or could it cause a fire.
Could putty be our best friend? I mean you could drop the stuff and even if the putty shatters, that's energy that went into breaking putty bonds and not your hardware! I wouldn't mind buying a 2 1/2 inch hard drive encased in a globe of black smartmass putty, with a black USB wire coming out the back (or wireless!). Well we can dream anyway.
How do they make those slimey figurines (called "Stickies") which feel cold and slimey. You can stretch them, and they return to shape in seconds.
eg: This or these
...wouldn't mind a little head. (You knew SOMEBODY had to do this.)
It's been archived here
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
For a lot of putty related info and putty of various interesting colors, check out www.puttyworld.com.
"I would rather have your time than your money" --Henry Rollins Jan 14 2003 on the topic on internet file trading
The stuff from Crayola is a bit expensive. I ordered two pounds of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty and absolutely love it.
Press any key to continue, any other key to quit.
> Just heat the oil to 600c and feed it into the distillation column in your backyard.
Finally! Now I have a use for that old distillation column that's been sitting in my back yard all these years.
WTF???
Mod parent down because he didn't get the joke. Mod me down because this is probably redundant. Mod a random person down because you can. Mod idiots up. CHAOS!!!!!! Moo haa haa
Eat at Joe's.
> Large flask of 55% Elmer's glue solution in water
> Large flask of 16% sodium borate
So, of course, 55% glue in water would mean 45% water, but when it says 16% sodium borate, does that mean the other 84% is water? They didn't really say that, but is it assumed it's in water? Otherwise, 16% of what?
I was once dared to drop a pound of Silly Putty seven stories inside a building, but could only imagine the trouble I'd get in. It was our office balcony. I bought a pound of Silly Putty directly from Dow Corning for $6.00. I've never gotten more comments on any desk toy than I have with my pound of Silly Putty. Here's an interesting thing to do with a pound of Silly Putty: hang half of it off the edge of your desk at the end of the day. It freaks out the custodial crew, causes them to look up at the ceiling to see where the leak is coming from.
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
Borax is sodium borate, not the borate ion B0H4 the recipe calls for. You can buy borate here: http://www.nmclay.com/Clay&Raw%20Mat/glazemat.htm# gerstley
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.