Gummy Bear Axe

Intro: Gummy Bear Axe

What do you get when you cross a 5 lb bag of gummy bears, 13 oz of resin, and a wicked sharp double axe head? Sounds to me like a really bad idea...

Now, the amount of new things that I did in this are just too much for me to type up easily in one Instructable. I want to apologize for that right now. I just cannot take it on, and the write up would be incredibly long.

So instead, this is a higher level overview of the process. I glaze over some of the mold making material and I skip cleaning up the axe head altogether. Those steps are explained in more detail in the video.

Here's the long and the short of it. I bought an axe at a yard sale 3 years ago for $2. I had always intended to make a video on replacing the handle. The gummy bear in resin idea struck me as a hilarious idea on such a macho tool. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up like a lumberjack, grow a full beard and wield a gummy bear axe.

STEP 1: Prepping the Axe Handle

Step 1: Find a perfectly good axe, and dress up like a lumberjack. It should be noted the only reason I have a full beard is that I intentionaly grew it just for this video. I like it, so I might keep it for a while.

Step 2: Remove wedge thus separating axe head from axe handle. This was easier said than done. It took quite a bit of coaxing, but I ended up using a 1/4" drill bit to bore a hole on either side and thus wedging loose the wedge.

Step 3:Cover entire axe handle in packing tape. PACKING. TAPE. NOW. The reason for the tape is to make sure that the mold material doesn't adhere to the axe head, and that there are no holes (like the two on top) that would change the overall shape of the mold

Step 4: Find a cardboard box to be used for the mold. The guy at the plastic store assured me this would work. And it mostly did. Except that it stuck to the mold and took a lot of work to remove later.

Step 5: Turn box into pig trough that will hold the axe handle. It just needs to be water tight. So seal up the holes. After doing this once, I think hot glue would have worked better for this step than packing tape. I did spring a small leak was it was an easy fix.

STEP 2: Mold Making

Step 6: Spend $200 FREAKING DOLLARS on mold making material. I started off with wanting to use silicone instead of this urethane based mold, but I was told it would have been closer to $300. I like the urethane, and I'm glad there is quite a bit left for future molds!

Step 7: Mix up witches brew and say choice some words about not screwing up, because you cannot afford more mold making supplies. It's a simple 2 part mixture with a 1:1 ratio. It smells awful, but isn't prone to bubble like silicone. I secured the axe head with some hot glue, so it wouldn't float to some 1/2 dowels.That way the mold material could completely encapsulate it.

Step 8: Pour witches brew over perfectly good taped up axe handle in packing tape secured pigs trough. A little stressful as I sprung a small leak, but not awful. I ended up using 3 quarts total (1.5 from each bottle) and did this in two pours over about 30 minutes. You have lots of working time with the urethane.

Step 9: Wait 24 hours

Step 10: Remove axe handle from mold. I had to use a razor knife to cut away some material from the top, but mostly it came free easy enough. The packing tape did it's job well.

Step 11 Curse store clerk for recommending using a cardboard box as a mold as it took 2 FLIPPING hours to remove all the cardboard off the $200 now super rubbery lemon bar.

STEP 3:

Step 12: Diabetes. Secure a LOT of gummy bears! (5lbs worth to be exact) DON'T EAT BEARS OFF WORKBENCH! (I totally did. I feel fine)

Step 13: Put those little bastards into hibernation. Stuff them in the mold. I ended up only using about 7 oz of gummies. Through a mis-understanding of the amazon packaging I somehow ordered 20lbs of gummy bears. I have 15lbs in my freezer. I doubt I'll even run out.

Step 14 RESIN TIME! IMix up 13oz of clear polyester resin. I decided to go with polyester resin for two reasons. 1, it shines up so nice and 2 I rarely get any bubbles in the casting. But it's crazy fussy and super stinky. So fair warning.

Step 15:POUR. It's so satisfying! Pouring the resin is always my favorite step of these projects.

Step 16: Wait. I waited 5 days to make sure the resin was completely cured. And because I had to go to work and actually earn a living....

STEP 4:

Step 17: After 48 hours. REMOVE. This came out amazing. I knew I had a winner the moment I saw it!

Step 18: Sand it. Okay... So. Have you ever sanded a gummy bear. Can you imagine what happens when abrasive and friction are introduced at 300 rpms? Disaster. That's what happened. I explain this more in depth in the video, the cliff notes version is I ended up breaking the handle in 2 places. I lost it and walked away

Step 19: After 36 hours of fixing, sticky residue cleanup and wet sanding you get to this point. A whole but fragile axe handle. It Looks great but is too weak for swinging.

Step 20: Final seal coat. Wrap those sticky little munchers in a nice coat of resin, never to gum again. I think I painted on about 3 oz of clear resin to completely seal in the candy. It looks awesome, is smooth to the touch and will hang in the shop as a cool work of art.

STEP 5: Completed

I attach the head with two part epoxy and when out in the sun to take some pictures.

It's all completed, and I'm happy to be done with it. Yes. I paid $40 for a 5lb gummy bear just for this one photo.

Pity my life choices.

Comments

[mhizuniverse20]

Brilliant Kreative, I'm gummy bears biggest fan, n that instructable was the koolest, neatest most inspiring creative object I've seen in a long time I can't remember! But thank u for sharing with the world! Wink!

[Mihsin]

I have an axe exactely like this and with a broken handle which nobody in my country has a replacement for. Neadless to say how disappointed I was when descovered you're not serious about this instructable. However, I encourage you to keep having fun.

[guinaevere]

Where axes are concerned, I believe you make excellent life choices.

[JpsManCave]

Looks like a good wall hanger. would like to see the handle cast with other materials and or candies. But as for me im with ShannoG33 im more inclined to build things that have function... that is unless the wife sais she wants something decrative lol. thanks for the instuctable I enjoyed reading it... keep the beard

[dalegribble]

popular mechanics linked you

[thundrepance]

tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny!! x^D

[icka03]

When the resin breaks those little bears come out of hibernation and gnaw the heck out of that wood so no worries, you'll get the job done either way. LOL

[wonderbrett]

Step 12: Diabetes.

[lclaiborne]

Awesome!

[Benne]

Defintely one of my favourite dipit projects so far!

[jedi_zombie]

Brilliant, looks great

[panic mode]

nice ible... thumbs up.

[chaydgb]

Now you just need to go make some epoxy gummi bears and turn this into a functional axe!

[lovethebackwoods]

That might require a whole new 'ible on how and why NOT to eat resin gummi bears!

[EmmitS]

Even if the handle were pure resin, it would still be too brittle for actual use. It would be only ornamental. I agree from an ornamental view, it would be better to cast the gummy bears in resin rather using the candy.

[Irritable_Badger]

Yes, most of the two part PMMA resins sold directly to the retail consumer aren't suitable for this project (most are actually repackaged resins used in the artificial flower arrangement market). But PMMA comes in many, many flavors and quite a few would be perfectly suited to life as an axe handle.

It's worth investigating the various PMMA resins that are available. Not only can you find resins exhibiting most any properties you require, they're often less expensive than the standard stuff targeting the individual consumer.

[Penolopy Bulnick]

This looks awesome and I love your honesty in the video :)

[Nadine Sundown]

A few suggestions : 1)put the tape on the Inside of your cardboard. It would easily strip off the resin. 2) use three pours putting Gummi in center and use less gummies. It still wouldn't be worth a tree chop but it would be stronger to at least hold up one handed and be handled without worry of breakage.

With that said, I think it looks way cool! I'd hang something like that on my walls. ?

[MooMeat42]

This really is a bad idea. If you hit something really solid that doesn't deform when you hit it, the handle is going to break right off and the head will go flying. Given any cross section of the axe, you only have so much area of strong engineering material and the rest is soft candy. Please do not use this as a tool.
- Mechanical engineer

[kludge77]

I can tell you wrote this without reading the instructable. :) It's for display only.

It's not for swinging, it's for show.