Needs some very fine tuning on the hinge placement (you can see in the last picture there's a tiny gap at the back - easy fix). But as I've got a bunch of slightly different sized and much better quality hinges arriving tomorrow - that will wait till then  :-)

I'm using captured nuts and long bolts to attach the hinge. Thus eliminating stress from leverage.
Plus there will be glue and/or some hot plastic to permanently lock everything in place once it's bolted together.

Basically it won't break, the hinge won't clog with clay and short of using a sledge hammer, I don't think it can be broken in normal use. 

In short you should be able to quickly knock out as many identical glandes as you like.

Next job, adding same hinge setup to the skull and smiley face moulds.

Also the plastic is made from cornstarch - no petrochemicals and will decompose in a hot compost heap. So completely enviromentally friendly.
Got to take it into consideration these days :-)

haven't tried it yet but can't see any reason we can't have custom engraving on them as an option.

Oh yeah, old and rubbery play doh does not need flour or talc for a clean release - clay does :-)

---

Schaut gut aus.

Sweet, cant wait to try it out

Very nice CA! The design has changed a lot from your original rollers!

Ich nehm eine. 😁 Bitte bitte

Looks rock solid! What weight doues a clay glande in this form have?

the 60x30 is around 60 gms when dry, though it does depend on the clay - I already know jaegoor wants a sehr Gross one ;-)

I think I ended up with 66x35 for your's christian.
The huge one I made for jaegoor just broke before I got anywhere near to closing it. To be fair I prinnted it much too weak anyway

I guess using a softer clay would make life a lot easier - but I only have the really stiff modelling clay and really soft play doh :-)

The really large ones don't work that well. The sheer strength required to compress that amount of clay is crazy.
I could make the clay release channels larger - but it starts to effect the actual shape of the glande if too large. 

Anything much larger than  80x40 is probably not worth doing with this type of mould. The rolling moulds are much better for the really large glandes. 

Plus the sheer volume of plastic involved and printing time in the large moulds makes then very expensve as well as impractical.

Right - got to sort the new hinge blocks out and test, then fit them to the 'head' (skulls, smiley faces etc moulds :-)

Am i in line after Jaegoor?

You know... now that you added handles, it reminds me of something in my kitchen. Lemon juicers  suffers from similar design challenges. I wonder if you could borrow some design ideas from them?

---

Alex. Ich hätte eine Idee für ein anderes Design. Vielleicht tauschen wir uns in Palma aus.  ;)

Alas I'm fairly sure I won't make it to palma this year.
No work, no money and no savings :-(

I'll try and get a few of these out there before the international.
As well as a best use video.

The guys I promised freebies to can still have them, but I'll need postage, yep unfortunately money really is that tight :-(

As far as lemon squeezers go. lemons are alot softer than clay. The whole swinging head just won't work with clay.

The idea of these is that they are tough and self contained. so if you go camping you can grab some river clay, use flour as a release agent and knock a bunch out to dry overnight next to your fire.

Also why the little trim/cut/mould stick is stored inside the mould itself

Can't think of any way to avoid losing the text stamps (hmm small hole for some thin cord maybe) - but you can always use the sticks to draw/write on the glandes if necessary :-)

I dont mind making a video. Seemed to help with the ladt. One i made a few yesds back

Finally got the hinge spacings sorted.

Skulls will be 40mm only at the moment.
NO idea what I did differently but my brain hurts and whenever I chage the size weird things happen :whistle:

Has there been any type of update??

Would be interested to see more details in a video! What is the mold material?

sorry folks -been tinkering with the file.

Settings are now as good as I can get them for hinge placement.
Last three have no discernible gaps once assembled.
40mm skull mould is available for ordering.
At some point I'll work out why I can't resize it without things going all to hell - actually, the last tweak I made to the glande mould about 10 mins ago - could be the culprit - we'll see.
But for me it's the ideal size anyway :-)
I might make it in 30 and 50mm.
Any smaller or larger would seem daft.
Although a 20-25mm one would make great sling shot/catapult ammo :-)
Given that the metal hinges are 40mm wide - smaller moulds will look pretty strange anyway.

I could spend a bunch of time  fiddling around and maybe save a few grams  - but Honestly, who cares lol

The first test mould (50x30) is now out in the wild and I will be hassling cairo till he makes  a bunch of glandes and sends me pictures :-)

Vetryan - your's will start printing overnight.
Going to be a 60x30

@lebslinger
The body of the moulds are made from PLA (polylactic acid) this is an enviromentally friendly bioplastic. Made from renewable vegetable matter - cornstarch mainly.
While strong and durable it is also biodegradable - in the right conditions: IE: a hot compost heap. 
Hinges and bolts are made from stainless steel.
No petrochemicals used.

Moulds are washable, but not necessarily 100% watertight.
So drain well after washing.

I'll get pics and usage video up as soon as cairo's given it a thorough testing.
I never managed to break the original printed hinges - so I need someone a bit more heavy handed to do the thorough testing ;-) 

Short of the actual mould breaking - and I'm printing these with settings that take a lot longer than my usual settings and are a lot stronger - I don't foresee any issues.

But, unforeseen issues apart - they are ready to be released into the wild :-)

I'll sort pricing out shortly.

Great. Let me know shipping price. Will be setting up paypal this week. I can always make another video if how to use it. Once our snow melts, i can go outside and dig up some clay. Unfortunately the last 3 days we had 10 inches of sniw drop on us, so it might be a bit.

snow glandes :-)
get them really dense and leave outside to freeze !

We had about half an inch of snow fall yesterday afternoon. Was gone by evening.
That could be it for this year !

So, when are you going to make an igloo ?

Okay despite battling a Storm toppled tree, Cairo (yes that is his actual name - I'm looking forward to meeting his dad) had  a quick go with his new mould.

Now I have explained the use of the trim stick - but I don't think it registered :-)
So the bumps and seams can easily and quickly be removed. Also a quick 90 degree turn and squeeze smooths them out even more.
I'll do a video :-)

But still, I think this is definitely evidence that the moulds are ready !

---

the clean ones look like this.

The big one is going to Christian in Austria, the one in the middle is going to Vetryan in america.
Not sure what size to send you yet jaegoor. But it won't be big enough to hit the 180gm mark. That kind of size just isn't practical.

And the skull, hmmm

Raffle ? :whistle:

---

I do have a different skull model almost ready and a smiley face is in the works. 

Not sure how aerodynamic the second skull will be - but it looks good :-)

---

Curious Aardvark wrote on Feb 11^th, 2020 at 6:35am:

snow glandes :-) get them really dense and leave outside to freeze ! We had about half an inch of snow fall yesterday afternoon. Was gone by evening. That could be it for this year ! So, when are you going to make an igloo ?

Thats an idea, would be fun.


I did, its buried under all the snow, and its camouflaged.  ;)

seem like a whole string of connected igloos could massively expand your living hut.

Add a larder/drying/preserving room, room to cean the dogs up in etc :-)

Alex, ich nehm einen großen. 😁

Ohhhh, those look amazing.  Cant wait. I will do a video once i have thr motions down myself and its been tried out.

Unfortunately with igloos,  and this isnt Alaska.  This snow will melt every year. So i will have to rebuild every winter, lol

I absolutely love that skull mould.

well yeah the igloos would be temporary - 'cos this time next year - you'll be in the log cabin !!!!!!!!
:-)

well I haven't posted anything yet...

Looking forward to it!
How much do the wet glandes weigh? Around 100g?
For this international I made it by hand. Waiting for the future to arrive ;)
The style of the bullets reminds me of the Carthaginian bullets like this

Curious Aardvark wrote on Feb 13^th, 2020 at 6:23am:

well yeah the igloos would be temporary - 'cos this time next year - you'll be in the log cabin !!!!!!!! :-) well I haven't posted anything yet...

I wish, i havent started on the cabin, it has been put on the back burner for a couple years. Looking at getting more land with more trees that i can use.  But the current living situation,  off grid dry tiny house is doing very well for us.

ah so the igloo extension would be a good idea :-)

@funditor - yes, I think the 66x35 should be around 100gms when wet.
I need your address.

Big Friendly Man, smells like pine liquor
Up a mountain on a wheeled tray
austria.

Probably won't get there :whistle: 

These are awesome. I've got to get a set once I've got some more of my life sorted and have a regular range set up.

Also, I really like the Skull. Gotta figure out a way to carve whistles into it at some point (molding probably wouldn't work for that...)

just poke a hole.
Easy enough to make a tool to poke the right size holes in :-)

I did make small mould a while back to do just that.

But A pokey stick would work a lot better and easier.

@Jaegoor - how big was that rock you had ?

Got the next design for you C_A  ;)

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/f40a0n/i_make_fake_product_prototypes_for_fun_so_today_i/

lol - I am considering making stamps that have images on them as well as the normal text stamps.

sling-moji's  if you will :-)

Curious Aardvark wrote on Feb 14^th, 2020 at 11:31am:

ah so the igloo extension would be a good idea :-) @funditor - yes, I think the 66x35 should be around 100gms when wet. I need your address. Big Friendly Man, smells like pine liquor Up a mountain on a wheeled tray austria. Probably won't get there :whistle:

Hahaha yes it might not come here, mostly because its not in German 😅😅😅😅😅

I will pm you ...

Any update on the second skull mould? The flat nature of the face looks like it would sit nicely in a pouch.
Who wouldn't love throwing whistling skulls?

Very nice C.A. so you have had a bit of problem going larger ?
I ask because I prefer around the 120 gram weight for my hurling
Great idea l love it I kinda gave up on clay years ago
Thanks for rejuvenating the spirit

It might make it easier if you could make consistent clay bits to form, so you don’t need to squish much of anything out of the holes. Kinda like finding that perfect amount of batter to put in the waffle maker so it doesn’t ooze out.

Maybe something like this?

https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Country-Pottery-Build-a-Extruder-gun/

It would let you extrude a consistent snake of clay. You could cut it at the right length and have the perfect amount of clay to form.

did that when i made the big pill roller.
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1206889228/10#10

There's a much easier way.
make a glande - then weigh it.
And always use that amount.

Although I find that you generally need a little more than that as while being squashed into shape, some always squoozes out round the edges :-)

Yeah, I just read that thread. Cool information.

Any updates?

just worked out which post offices are currently open and sent the first mould out to the states this lunchtime. 

We're basically up and running :-)

postage for a 66x33 is £7.
The mould was £20

Unless you want something drastically larger - then it seems a fair price and saves mucking about with calculations all the time. 

They use about 4x more plastic then than the sliding moulds and take around 8 hours to print - 4 x longer.

Mind you if the cost of filament keeps going up I'll have to change that - but until I run out of what I've got at the moment - that's the price.   

Let me know what i owe you and i will have it to you, within a week

Lol wasn't yours I posted. New guy was really keen and paypalled me almost instantly
I'll sort the original three out and get them posted monday.

I'll make a flatskull mould over weekend.
Curious myself to see how it works.
Also got a new modelling program to try out for making the round faces.

Any moment on that sith sling?

Well I found the haircrimpers - but now I've lost the shrink tubing (none of this is a surprise to anyone who's ever been in my workshop).
I think I'll just give up on that side of things for the moment and just make them the way I normally do :-)
The pouch keeps looking at me and waving it's little leather stumps and asking where it's arms are.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Apr 30^th, 2020 at 10:05am:

Lol wasn't yours I posted. New guy was really keen and paypalled me almost instantly I'll sort the original three out and get them posted monday. I'll make a flatskull mould over weekend. Curious myself to see how it works. Also got a new modelling program to try out for making the round faces.

Let me know what you want me to test out for you ;), and i will make a video of the rolller again.

Any kind of an update?

lol - yeah they finished and ready to go.
Even got two skull desings and a smiley face.

I tend to go through phases and then get distracted by something else.

I'd blame the internet, but I was exactly the same before it was invented.
Always get to the point that the idea is ready to go - at which point I start something else. Just never had any stomach for the nitty gritty administrative side of business.
I should be stinking rich by now :-(

I will get something into the post this week.
Also need to do a 'buy these they are brilliant' thread.

What i actually need is someone to do all the admin type stuff I hate.
But where do you find such people ? 

So that's the excuses out the way.

Keep nagging me.

Chuck my sith sling in the post if you get there (just nagging as asked)

Thats ok. Lol, if you were to start an etsy page, and sell custom molds. U could definitely make some money. Its super easy to set up. But i believe most of us are the same way to an extent. Its all good.

I can keepnagging if u want

A post? Pandemic update on postage.

To the states.
£16.60
Add £2 for tracked.
Which is fun

To Australia
Around £19
£ 21 tracked, which I would recommend as knowing that it's still sitting in a hangar in the UK a week and a half after posting, saves a lot of stress.

Hinged Moulds are still £20
And rollers are now a fixed price of £10

You'll get extra text stamps and some kind of mystery bonus item.

I think you need to make these a website CA .
This is the best option for anyone wanting consistency and a hard hitting ammo

Yep - I think Im gonna have to invest in one of my next few paydays...

Looks the goods!

Mersa wrote on Sep 9^th, 2021 at 6:58pm:

I think you need to make these a website CA . This is the best option for anyone wanting consistency and a hard hitting ammo

post some pictures :thumb:

particularly of the crystal skull mould itself - that thing just came out beautifully, if I do say so myself.

The transparent filament just 'feels' good to hold and looks amazing.

Yeah I need to do some website work.
Got to add a bunch of stuff to curiousaardvark.com

I'm just crap at doing work for myself - someone else gives me a job I'll work till they tell me to go home lol

But doing something for myself that will actually make me money, meh :-(

It's why I'm permanently on the verge of bankruptcy, rather than stinking rich.

https://youtu.be/h7df5dsA8wU


Made a video of the mold, and some extra of everything else u sent to me. I didnt gwt any actual fottage of slimging, but might be able to soon. I have to apologize in advance for the noise level. My geese decided to follow me today, and investigate what i was doing.  Lol. Be warned

Just to be clear to anyone intending to watch that new video by Vet if you have a bird phobia do not click the link. Its like an unholy goose snuff video is going on in the background. And those sick b@stards the roosters are cheering it on the whole time.

Dont lie, U liked it

vetryan15 wrote on Oct 7^th, 2021 at 7:26am:

Dont lie, U liked it

I can honestly say ive never had a better time watching a goose snuff video than watching yours Vet.

Morphy wrote on Oct 7^th, 2021 at 7:32am:

vetryan15 wrote on Oct 7th, 2021 at 7:26am: Dont lie, U liked it It can honestly say ive never had a better time watching a goose snuff video than watching yours Vet.

;D ;D ;D

vetryan15 wrote on Oct 7^th, 2021 at 7:35am:

Morphy wrote on Oct 7th, 2021 at 7:32am: vetryan15 wrote on Oct 7th, 2021 at 7:26am: Dont lie, U liked it It can honestly say ive never had a better time watching a goose snuff video than watching yours Vet. ;D ;D ;D

At least the geese will go viral, if this video doesn't

Thank you very much for the mould, it's very quick to use and gives ammo in consistent size. The advice of using flour to prevent the clay from sticking in the mould is essential for a good work flow  ;).

---

Nice one:-)

So what I want now is a picture or video, of you slinging from the deck of your ship :-)
Assuming it won't get you keel hauled ;-)

Looking grrreeat... I might have to get one of my own in the near future...

Y'see... turns out I suck rolling out biconicals by hand, this could be a real time saver for sure!

And it would be great to mass produce target ammunition... because I really ought to get back to slinging.