Flexible items often make good raw materials. Rubber is a prime example of such. Due to its flexibility and durability, rubber is a widely used material in various fields. It is an essential item in the fields of car manufacturing, arts and crafts, technology and even in sports. You will probably find several rubber components in almost every device that you encounter.
Creating Homemade Rubber is Possible
Rubber is formed and processed with industrial machinery. Creating it by hand seems like a daunting task, but if you know the logic on how to process rubber, you’ll find out that the job is actually easy, at least for one type of rubber.
Types of Rubber
Rubber has two general types.
Natural rubber
Synthetic rubber
Both types have a multitude of uses. In some cases, their uses even coincide. In fact, synthetic rubber sometimes serves as a more efficient substitute product to natural rubber.
Natural Rubber
Natural rubber, commonly known as latex, is produced from the sap of a rubber tree. The sap is mixed with the juice of another plant to form the stretchable substance. Its properties make it a popular raw material for many industries.
Common Uses for Natural Rubber
Latex is the binding agent of paint.
Sterilized latex is an ingredient of some chewing gums.
Spandex is made from processed latex.
Latex is a common material for condoms.
Most medical facilities provide latex gloves to their personnel.
Catheters are made from natural rubber.
Making Natural Rubber
Creating natural rubber requires a trip to a forest area or your garden, if it has a rubber tree and a patch of morning glories. Your task is to collect sap from both plants and mix them until you form the latex.
Materials Used:
rubber tree
morning glories
knife
tapping spout
bucket
long wooden stick
plastic container
Procedure:
Observe the trunk of a rubber tree and find spots that have hardened rubber.
Use your knife to pry off the layers of hardened rubber.
Make a tiny hole on the tree trunk, then insert the tapping spout.
Position the spout’s bucket hook properly, then hang the bucket. If you fail to collect a satisfactory amount of rubber sap, look for another formation of hardened rubber on the tree trunk and repeat the entire process.
Break the vines of several morning glories and collect the juice.
Mix the morning glory juice with the rubber sap.
Stir the mixture with a long wooden stick until it becomes thick and sticky.
Store the natural rubber in a plastic container.
With the latex formed, you can start creating different items. You can even make your own latex-based inventions with the material. As long as you have a rubber tree and morning glories on your backyard, you can produce latex items anytime you want.
Synthetic Rubber
Between the two general types, synthetic rubber has more uses. Almost every industry processes synthetic rubber to form products, tools and gadgets. If you compare the properties of synthetic rubber with its natural counterpart, you will see that the synthetic rubber is actually an upgrade of latex. It is more durable and can be shaped to produce more items.
Common Uses for Synthetic Rubber
Enumerating all the common uses for synthetic rubber will probably make a list that is as long as a full-length novel. You will probably find at least five items that use synthetic rubber in almost every location.
Buying Vs. Creating
Synthetic rubber can be divided into dozens of subcategories. All the subcategories are derivatives of the original item. Synthetic rubber, in turn, is derived from the combination of several monomers. Each monomer is created by mixing and processing petroleum with different chemicals. Clearly, the process of creating every monomer is confusing for average Joes and time consuming, much more synthetic rubber. You’re better off ordering synthetic rubber from rubber manufacturers. It isn’t too expensive, so you shouldn’t worry about the costs.
Silly Putty Deviation?
In 1943, James Wright, an engineer for General Electric, attempted to create synthetic rubber using common materials. He noticed that he lacked raw materials for the project so he picked up random substitute items. After processing the materials, he was able to create a rubbery substance but not exactly synthetic rubber. It turned out to be the very first silly putty or silly goo.
You can follow Wright’s lead if you want to produce a makeshift alternative to synthetic rubber. Just tweak with the materials needed and follow the procedure for making silly putty and may even stumble upon a pretty interesting invention yourself. Of course, you must do your research first before trying anything funky.