I call it Oogoo, an inexpensive silicone clay that is easily made. It can be used as an excellent substitute for Sugru. It can be hand molded or cast in forms. Or, it can be used as a casting silicone. It can be colored any color from white to black. It can also be made translucent to allow diffused light to shine through. It can even be painted on in thin layers. It has very good adhesive qualities and will stick to itself, glass, fabric, paper, wood, and some plastics and metals.
This instructable will show :
1- How to mix and color Oogoo
2- How to cast it or hand form it into different shapes.
3- How to make silicone paint
4- Several interesting uses for Gorilla tape and Gorilla Glue, see steps 3, 7, 12 and 15.
5- How to make a few projects using Sugru and a comparison of Oogoo and Sugru
Since I am mainly interested in using Oogoo to embed electronic circuits in flexible forms, this instructable will also show you how to:
1- Make a soft circuit LED pumpkin head robot display that can be embedded on to clothing.
2- Make cleanly etched conductive fabric circuits
3- Make conductive glue using Gorilla glue.
4- Embed circuits in Oogoo or Sugru
The intro pic shows a few of the silicone shapes that I made using Oogoo and a funky, smirky, flexible pumpkin head robot LED display.
This instructable will show :
1- How to mix and color Oogoo
2- How to cast it or hand form it into different shapes.
3- How to make silicone paint
4- Several interesting uses for Gorilla tape and Gorilla Glue, see steps 3, 7, 12 and 15.
5- How to make a few projects using Sugru and a comparison of Oogoo and Sugru
Since I am mainly interested in using Oogoo to embed electronic circuits in flexible forms, this instructable will also show you how to:
1- Make a soft circuit LED pumpkin head robot display that can be embedded on to clothing.
2- Make cleanly etched conductive fabric circuits
3- Make conductive glue using Gorilla glue.
4- Embed circuits in Oogoo or Sugru
The intro pic shows a few of the silicone shapes that I made using Oogoo and a funky, smirky, flexible pumpkin head robot LED display.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: How It Works
pic2 shows a 2"x2"x2" solid silicone cube that cured enough in two hours to be removed from its plastic box form.
For years I have been looking for an inexpensive way to create a flexible skin covering for robots and electronic circuits. I have tried several kinds of casting urethane rubber and silicone rubber. They all have their difficulties and either set up to fast or too slow. They are too thin or they are too thick. They are also very expensive in small quantities. Added to that is the problem that they have a very limited shelf life and usually must be used within six months. Sugru is great, but it is not affordable for making larger structures.
I and many others have tried using the inexpensive silicone caulk that is readily available from hardware stores. It is used to seal roofing and glass windows. It works fine but has the problem that it can only be used by putting it on thinly and waiting a long time for it to cure. It is also hard to work. It must be smoothed immediately while it is very sticky. Otherwise, the surface cures quickly and then forms a gummy film while the inside remains soft and wet. It has a smoothing time of seconds rather than minutes. If you put it on too thick the inside will remain soft and can take several days to finally cure. People have tried all kinds of additives in an attempt to make it cure in a more useful manner. I have found those additives to be unusable for my purposes.
So I wanted to add a catalyst that would help the silicone to cure from the inside out rather than just from the outside in.
As I understand it, 100% silicone caulk works by the moisture in the air initiating the polymerization of the silicone. So it cures from the outside in and as it does, it allows the water vapor to slowly seep inside and eventually cure the unexposed silicone. While it cures, it gives off Acetic acid (vinegar is diluted acetic acid) which is the strong smell you will notice if you use it.
I experimented with quite a few additives to try and introduce some moisture into the uncured silicone. Several of them worked to some degree, but the hands down favorite was also the least expensive.
It turns out that corn starch is highly absorbent and when sitting around in an open box it will absorb moisture from the air. It is an extremely fine powder that diffuses evenly in mixtures. By adding the right amount of corn starch, the sticky silicone is somewhat stiffened and very quickly starts to set up from the inside out. While it still sets up faster on the surface than in the middle, the whole thing will set up in five minutes to 2 hours no matter what the thickness. The actual curing time depends on the temperature, the humidity, the amount of corn starch added, and the speed at which it was mixed.
So that's it. Oogoo is corn starch and clear silicone caulk mixed together and then molded by hand or by forms to create just about anything you can imagine that needs to be adhesive initially and solid yet flexible when cured.
For years I have been looking for an inexpensive way to create a flexible skin covering for robots and electronic circuits. I have tried several kinds of casting urethane rubber and silicone rubber. They all have their difficulties and either set up to fast or too slow. They are too thin or they are too thick. They are also very expensive in small quantities. Added to that is the problem that they have a very limited shelf life and usually must be used within six months. Sugru is great, but it is not affordable for making larger structures.
I and many others have tried using the inexpensive silicone caulk that is readily available from hardware stores. It is used to seal roofing and glass windows. It works fine but has the problem that it can only be used by putting it on thinly and waiting a long time for it to cure. It is also hard to work. It must be smoothed immediately while it is very sticky. Otherwise, the surface cures quickly and then forms a gummy film while the inside remains soft and wet. It has a smoothing time of seconds rather than minutes. If you put it on too thick the inside will remain soft and can take several days to finally cure. People have tried all kinds of additives in an attempt to make it cure in a more useful manner. I have found those additives to be unusable for my purposes.
So I wanted to add a catalyst that would help the silicone to cure from the inside out rather than just from the outside in.
As I understand it, 100% silicone caulk works by the moisture in the air initiating the polymerization of the silicone. So it cures from the outside in and as it does, it allows the water vapor to slowly seep inside and eventually cure the unexposed silicone. While it cures, it gives off Acetic acid (vinegar is diluted acetic acid) which is the strong smell you will notice if you use it.
I experimented with quite a few additives to try and introduce some moisture into the uncured silicone. Several of them worked to some degree, but the hands down favorite was also the least expensive.
It turns out that corn starch is highly absorbent and when sitting around in an open box it will absorb moisture from the air. It is an extremely fine powder that diffuses evenly in mixtures. By adding the right amount of corn starch, the sticky silicone is somewhat stiffened and very quickly starts to set up from the inside out. While it still sets up faster on the surface than in the middle, the whole thing will set up in five minutes to 2 hours no matter what the thickness. The actual curing time depends on the temperature, the humidity, the amount of corn starch added, and the speed at which it was mixed.
So that's it. Oogoo is corn starch and clear silicone caulk mixed together and then molded by hand or by forms to create just about anything you can imagine that needs to be adhesive initially and solid yet flexible when cured.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
I would love to know how they are holding up? Do they last as long as the rather expensive consumer ones?
Thanks
SS
It can be glued with silicone to PLA and acrylic,
I might be getting crazy here but is it frowned upon to ask questions here?
I don't think it would work well.....but an intriguing idea if someone has an extra can with some left.
Why shouldn't somebody ask if other, similar experiments have been tried?
What is the point of this *community*, if not to share ideas, knowledge and information?
Yellow2121's question is as much a suggested idea as it is a question, and valuable for that reason.
I think your response should be rethought, mikey77. (I am following the 'be nice' policy here....)
Where I live they don't sell it and none of the other brands that are similar to Gorilla Glue.
He told me that he had actually built the large dome structure his store is in. There are a hundred or more large triangular panels joined to make the structure, each one with 30 or 40 feet of joints. When he had built it, he used a silicone caulk to seal the joints ( the construction method is: panel-silicone rubber gasket-panel with a bead of silicone caulk on the outside, covered by aluminum flashing) the original Home center type silicone started failing after about 2 years, causing leaks. He wrote to some other dome owners he knew and was told to buy either 100% silicone aquarium sealant (expensive!) or "contractors grade" 100% silicone caulk, and to remove the old caulk and reseal with this stuff. He took their advice and it had been over 9 years without a single leak. He was so impressed that he started stocking the "contractor grade" stuff (both to sell and have on hand "just in case") It really didn't cost much more than Home center caulk, so I picked up a tube.
A few weeks later, I ran my aluminum duck skiff on to some rocks and ripped about a 16" gash in the bottom. I took it home, flipped it upside down, hammered the ragged edges flat and used some sheet aluminum to make a patch. I put a bead of silicone around the hole and pushed the patch in place. I opened my toolbox to get a drill and my Pop rivet gun -found the drill and the rivet gun , but no damn rivets! My brother-in-law must think rivets are magically replaced by the Pop rivet fairy, because he was the last one to borrow the rivet gun and had used *every* *single* * rivet*!. (I always suspected him of being feeble minded, as he married my sister but this proves it beyond a doubt.)
I didn't want to run to the hardware store, so I put a sandbag on top of the patch, and went in the house for a cold one or two or.... A few days later, my son needed to work on his car in the garage, so he moved the boat behind the garage. It sat there from October until the opening day of fishing season in May. I was out on the water with my son drowning worms, when I noticed the patch on the bottom of the boat. I also remembered I had never gone back and riveted the patch to the boat. It was simply "glued" by the silicone sealant. That was about 2004..
I now have a new Bass Tracker boat (sweet!) and my son has the old duck skiff, with the original 8 year old glued on patch. No leaks, no runs, no errors!
OK, this has been a long rambling pretense to this point, but there seems to be a lot of variability to "100% silicone sealers." Some seem to have durability measured in months, others in years or even decades. I'm about to pull my Formula Ford out of it's winter storage for the season, so I'll be needing parts. I will buy some of the contractor grade silicone and a tube of the home center stuff. I wonder if anyone has tried certain brands or types and found a clear winner? If not, I'll try your excellent idea with both, and report back ASAP. I can think of about a dozen places where I want to try oogoo, thanks for the idea!
The paints should also work to color the Oogoo.
I also noticed that the brand of silicone caulk i bought has two types that are clear and give off the vinegar smell, they stick to different surfaces better, one for bathrooms, one for windows household, i will use them all and see what happens. My original question was concerning the colored caulk, and i caught the answer, It should still work for some uses, i noticed the artist paints in tubes are linseed oil based, and i have linseed oil to thin. hopefully we can get a cliff notes of what all the different mixtures , such as talc and chalk and bicarbonate soda have worked for something or not. I know the original baby powder from talc also had additives, when i was a scuba diver, we didn't use the baby powder on our dry-suit seals, only talc from the pharmacy, the perfumes and additives could cause the seals( latex) to breakdown.
Great information and thanks to all for sharing their trials and errors. I agree with the early response od do it and see what happens, as long as it is not a possible dangerous reaction. The added bonus of thinning the silicone for mold making and quick drying, i will also try. Thanks for the info.
Cant wait to make a soft robot you are amazing
I've got a project where I need to fit a tube through a stopper (not necessarily air tight). I'm thinking of using Oogoo to make the stopper since the glass is an odd shape and drilling a 3/4" hole through its center.
Feasible?
A better way is to cast the hole in the Oogoo as you cast the stopper and use a 3/4 inch metal or plastic tube to create the hole. You can then remove it and replace it with a more permanent tube.
People prone to allergic reactions just have a "programming error" in their immune systems at a low level. Once that happens, you can get reactions from a wide array of substances that perfectly innocuous.
The major source of chemical irritation in this case is going to be vinegar in the silicone. It is an acid and it is pure i.e. undiluted by water. Back in the day, when vinegar was widely used for many processes, people were killed by breathing vinegar fumes because the acetic acid destroyed their lungs.
I dont have that sensitive skin but this rash like thing is rather bad.
I hope this helps you.
Also if you are making jewelary try testing a small bit of it before doing anyting to adventurous.
Since it is totally inorganic, and based on silicon, should be compatible and not rot.