Guide to Working with Plastics -- Article Index

Discussion topics include:

• Basic Cutting and Shaping
• Techniques for Joining Parts
• Fashioning Objects in Moulds
• Durable Patches and Finishes

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Table of Contents:

1. Man-made Materials: Many Uses

• A Beginner’s Guide to Manipulated Molecules
• Where and How to Buy Stock
• Readying the Stock for Cutting or Drilling
• Familiar Cutting Tools, Unfamiliar Techniques
• Drilling and Counterboring
• Rigid Sheets and Tubes Made Pliant with Heat
• Giving Luster and Polish to Edges and Surfaces

2. A Choice of Good Connections

• Intro
• Mechanical Devices: Joinery’s Nuts and Bolts
• Heat as a Means of Merging Thermoplastics
• Fast Welding with Heated Gas
• Hems or Seams in Flexible Film

3. A Primer on Poured Shapes

• Rigid Molds to Shape Liquid Plastic Resins
• Flexible Molds to Hold Detail
• Casting in a Mold: Using Resin in Liquid Form
• Glass Fibers Reinforced with Plastic Resin
• Tracking Down Fiberglass Flaws
• Laminated Surfaces Move out of the Kitchen
• Sheathing Three-Dimensional Objects a Table Intended for Laminating

4. A Wealth of Fillers and Paints

• Compound to Patch Holes in Almost Anything
• Watertight Fiberglass Patches
• A New Generation of Buffered Sealants
• Plastic-Base Coatings: Paint for Any Purpose
• Preparing a Compatible Surface for Paint
• The Fine Points of Application
• Spraying the Professional Way