Oogoo
As frugal and creative off-gridders, we are always on the lookout for good DIY projects, recently I “discovered” a product that can be made with 2 simple ingredients, one of them I’d be willing to bet you have in your kitchen cupboard right now, the other one you might or might not have BUT it’s easily purchased inexpensively from your local store, even the dollar stores carry it.
The commercial version of this product is called Sugru, it’s basically a silicon molding product, it has many uses from the obvious, creating small molds of nearly anything, to creating rubber coatings and bumpers on items. The only drawback to Sugru is it’s expensive and not readily available.
There is a DIY alternative that seems to be every bit as good as the commercial product, and it’s very inexpensive to make. It’s called “oogoo”, look it up and you’ll be intrigued as to what it can do. The two ingredients to make it are corn starch and 100% silicon, that’s it, unless you wish to color it or make it electrically conductive.
A few days ago, I purchased a big tube of 100% silicon, I was going to get a small tube, but when I compared the price, I could get the larger tube for just a few pennies more, I couldn’t pass up a bargain, and besides, if I don’t use it all, then PB will use it on something.
The way this works is you use about a 50-50 mixture by volume of silicon and corn starch (it’s also referred to as corn flour), you mix mix mix until the starch is fully incorporated, do this is a well ventilated room or outside, it does release fumes that smell of vinegar, it basically smells bad and can irritate you eyes and lungs. Once mixed, it’s like a soft clay that can be shaped, molded, or you can stick small items into it to create a castable mold.
You can experiment with the ratios of silicon and starch, the more starch you add, the quicker it sets, you can add graphite powder to make it electrically conductive, I’m thinking things like making your own stylus for your tablet or phone…
Silicon by itself takes longer to cure, but mixed with the starch, it cures inside and outside at the same time and much quicker. This can act like a glue, it sticks to other items very well, but can be removed, it also sticks to itself very well, so you can add more layers of it after it cures.
I did some searching to discover what this can be used for, I am thinking that it will be perfect for repairing PB’s mukluk boots, the rubber heel part has worn through, they are basically unusable as they are now, so if it works great, if it doesn’t work, then we haven’t …