Starting again

[Painter1]

I have been away from this hobby for 3 years while rearranging my life after a divorce.  I now have a shop again and though it isn’t set up, everything is in there.  The jugs of plastic show that the material is separated.  Do I need to discard that and order new?  
 

I probably need to flush the pots, pipes, etc to get old residue off.  Ideas on what to use?  
 

thanks. It’s good to be back

[Apdriver]

Didn’t know about your misfortune but glad to see you back. That plastic you can still use just mix it well, of course, and add heat stabilizer. I’ve been trying to work through some old plastic myself (5 yrs. old) and adding heat stabilizer really helped. Otherwise it tended to burn easy. To clean pots, Pyrex, and other equipment just a regular old spray cleaner like Fantastic works for me. Worm oil for your injector but some guys spray it with Pam. 

[SlowFISH]

Good to see your back - I would recommend watching that plastic on the first heat.... I had a bottle sit for a solid 2 years over the course of moving to a new house and then waiting till our renovation was completed....  it must have absorbed a ton of moisture cause it foamed/bubbled so bad I just tossed it...  just a watchout.

J.

 

 

[Les Young]

Welcome back. Since you already have everything yo you need you could always buy a vacuum chamber if you don't have it now  too incase it's as slowFish said & it has drawn moisture that way you'd have all of the bases covered.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Les Young

[Vodkaman]

Buy all the molds and other expensive equipment you ever wanted now, before another female moves in

Dave

[Frank]

Good to see you back. For cleaning go to an automotive paint store and get Wax and Grease remover. It will blow you away how well it works. It does not melt it down and become sticky and will leave a slick feeling when done. Use it on all things that come into contact with plastic. You could use other things but when you try this stuff you don’t know what you are missing. 

[basscatlildave]

Welcome back. I have some old plastic just mix it up well. 

[Basseducer]

Welcome back and you can send me all that old plastic and I'll test it out for you.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Basseducer

[Painter1]

Thank you, gentlemen, for the welcomes and the good advice.  I have everything in the new shop but now have to organize and set everything up.  I haven’t yet found any mixing tool that will fit through the opening of a gallon jug.  Suggestions are most welcome. Again, thank you. 

[mark poulson]

1 hour ago, Painter1 said:

Thank you, gentlemen, for the welcomes and the good advice.  I have everything in the new shop but now have to organize and set everything up.  I haven’t yet found any mixing tool that will fit through the opening of a gallon jug.  Suggestions are most welcome. Again, thank you. 

Take a wire coat hanger, double it, put a U bend in the bottom that will fit through your bottle's opening, and use a drill to mix the plastic.  You can also use a long piece of thin wood to slip into the bottle, reach the bottom, and get the settled material loose, so it can be mixed into the plastic again.

Edited May 6, 2021 by mark poulson

[Apdriver]

Heck, just shake the snot out of it now. My gallon jugs are semi opaque so you can see if there’s any hardpack when you turn it upside down. Then you can let it rest a few days until you get ready to use it. Is it Calhoun’s? I do this without any ill effects.

[bryanmc]

21 hours ago, Painter1 said:

 I haven’t yet found any mixing tool that will fit through the opening of a gallon jug.  Suggestions are most welcome. Again, thank you. 

A friend gave me a gallon of MF bounce that had been sitting a few years.  It was hard-packed probably 1/2" deep on the bottom.  I poured off about half of the liquid, then cut the off the top of the jug where it starts to neck down.  This let me get to the hard pack with a scraper and a drill mounted paint mixer.  It took a while but I was eventually able to get all the hard-pack dissolved into the remaining liquid and then combined it in a new jug with what I had poured off in the beginning.  

Sounds like a lot of work bu not too bad.  As an aside, I really like that plastic.  I poured some 6 3/4" cut tails with it and when you put them on a shaky head the back 1/2 of the worn floats up at about a 45 degree angle.