I recently stumbled across an Australian company advertising a moldable plastic product.  The product came in pellet form.  You dumped the pellets in hot water, let them soften, then combined by hand.  You had a few minutes to work before the cooled too much and hardened.  Searching around, there are many companies selling essentially the same thing.  It is a polyester thermoplastic that melts at around 140F.  I picked some InstaMorph up a week ago thinking it would be good to keep around.  Here is the melting process.

In the jar

Place in warm water

After a few minutes

I quickly found a use!  My house key had a rubber protector on it that made gripping easier and kept it from scratching things up.  It completely fell apart recently.  Lets morph a new one!

Pull it out and start playing

Shaping it around my key

Finished product with leftover material

I ended up putting way too much into the cup.  That isn’t really a problem though because you just put it back in the jar and melt it again for the next project.  Zero waste!  Green and saves money.  Thermoplastics are amazing!

Speaking of thermoplastics; the pricing works out to about $1.50 an ounce.  3D printer PLA can be had for about $1.00 an ounce.  Printers usually make things sparse on the inside so they are typically very material efficient.  3D printing parts is cheaper, but $17 gets you a 12 ounce jar.  That is a low cost of entry considering you just need a hot cup of water.  That, and there is no such thing as waste, you just throw what isn’t used back in the jar and heat it next time.

Kind of a trivial first use, but it was easy and fun.  This is so quick I could find myself reaching for this stuff a lot.  I discovered after making the key that they sell color pellets on amazon as well.  DIYers, People more artistically inclined, and those with kids should definitely try it out.