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       Stardate: 20210513.0142
       Location: xiled rumination concentrator
       Input Device: Fujitsu P1610
       Audio: Everything But The Girl - Tempermental
       Visual: Flashing LEDs of the xrc, mamono
       Emotional: Meh.  Do not want to sleep.
       
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       Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 (UMPC)
       
       I decided to make one last entry on this version of Debian before I 
       blow it away.  The laptop battery is crap and doesn't really last 
       long enough to get any real work done when mobile, but I do have an 
       external battery that I can tether to.  It is currently running 
       Debian 7.11 (wheezy.)  I will be installing AntiX.  No real concerns 
       with updates since I do not attach this machine to the network.  
       Perhaps I will with AntiX.  I still have Windows XP Tablet Edition on 
       its own partition and will keep it there since I use it for old 
       hardware that is not compatible with linux or newer versions of 
       Windows.
       
       Repurposed Styrofoam Skull
       
       The other night I melted down some dissolved polystyrene into a cast 
       of a skull.  I cut up one of the sheets of dissolved polystyrene 
       that I had drying out from months earlier.  I cut the sheet into 
       tiny pieces with scissors and put them in a silicon skull mold for 
       ice cubes.  Then I put it in the toaster oven I got from a church 
       rummage sale and let it cook for over an hour at 300F.  Afterwards, 
       I let it cool for a few hours before I broke the mold.
       
       The skull turned out ok.  The hardened skull appeared to have 
       discolored and had a tan color to it.  There were a bunch of pock 
       marks, probably from trapped air.  The skull it pretty solid and has
       some weight to it, especially compared to expanded styro.  It is
       brittle where the molding flash is and is not squishy/rubbery like
       traditional hot-melt adhesive/hot glue.  Maybe next time, I will 
       try a lower temperature and see if it keeps its original off-white 
       color.  Also, the back part of the skull is hollow, which I will 
       probably fill with hot glue or something.
       
       It just amazes me how much space polystyrene takes up and how you 
       can dissolve it into a small puddle of maker goop.  The goop can be 
       used as glue or you can cast with it.  I think it's better to cast 
       it into something else instead of it taking up space in a landfill.  
       The goop is non-toxic since I used D-Limonene to dissolve the styro.
       
       Next time I will probably try making new "feet" for my hiking poles 
       so they're not so noisy on pavement.  I also need to find a better 
       way of shredding the sheets since cutting them isn't the best and 
       is time consuming.  I saw online that people have been using paper 
       shredders for cutting up plastics.  Maybe I'll look into that.  It 
       would be even better if I could grind the sheets into a powder so 
       it would be easier to fill the mold.  
       
       I wonder if there is an easy way to do injection molding with the 
       goop.  Maybe with an improvised caulking gun or something.  I've 
       casted skulls with hot glue before, which was easier to work 
       with since the glue isn't as thick and comes out of a glue gun.  
       I thought about trying to make polystyrene hot glue sticks, but I 
       don't think it would work as well as regular hot glue.  Well maybe 
       I should try it sometime.    
       
       If you are interested in repurposing styro, this Instructable page
       by killbox is a great place to learn.[1]
       
       Here are some pics.  These were taken at different times, but shows
       the basic process:
       
 (IMG) Putting polystyrene in bucket with D-Limonene.
 (IMG) Styro dissolving.
 (IMG) Pouring dissolved styro/maker goop into foil-lined baking pan.
 (IMG) Dried and hardened goop after >1 month.
 (IMG) Goop cleanup in repurposed toaster oven.
            Goop was not as runny as I thought it would be.
            Temp set at 300F for 30 minutes.
 (IMG) Sheets of dried goop.
 (IMG) Cutting goop sheet into smaller pieces.
            Pieces are in a can on a repurposed coffee burner.
            This did not work well with goop and works better with hot glue.
 (IMG) Putting goop chips in silcone skull mold.
 (IMG) Stuffing hole in the back of the mold with goop chips.
 (IMG) Mold after cooking for over an hour @ 300F.
            Looks like there was a bubble that puked out the hole.
 (IMG) Skull unmasked!
 (IMG) Skull front
 (IMG) Skull side
 (IMG) Skull back with pour hole.
            The skull is a little hollow in the back.
 (IMG) Skull side view with penny for size reference.
 (IMG) Skull front view with penny for size reference.
       
 (HTM) [1] Recycling Styrofoam (EPS) Into Useable Castable Styrene Plastic at Home
       
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