h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I delved into plastic around 20 years ago and found that most plastics were quite expensive. To reduce cost and make plastic the affordable product that it is to day wood flour is added to it. some plastics are upto 90% wood flour. Case in point, in most parts of Australia car pannels are repaired after a colision with a 2 part plastic puty we call BOG (body filler). The plastic material is mixed to a ratio usually of 50:1. Some of these puty fillers are upto 97% non active material only there to make up the bulk, the plastic being strong enough to do the job in such small quantity as to make it cheap to use.
I also use better quality BOG to make parts and moulds for casting other types of plastic or plaster items. I recently made a pump body out of this type of plastic and a control valve for the pump the same way. First I make a plasicene shape and cast the BOG. Then clean the bog which will be the mould and with a knife and file trim it to exact size and shape. (Some times themold is made up of 2,3 or 4 parts) This is a slow stage and takes a few days. With in the mould to obtain exact and smooth surfaces I use pieces like chromed brass pipe nylon screws and plastic parts cut from aerosol lids. (You get the picture) I have been able to repair thing s for which parts are no longer available. I am curently making a starter motor soleniod part that has been destroyed (was out of bakelite).
Another use for the stuff we call BOG is to stick bricks to bricks. This way I have made a set of shelves onto which I place tiny flower pots on brick walls. A large spoonfull is enough to hold a brick to a wall. I have also fixed a gate latch to a brick wall without drilling by using BOG.
BOG is only one of many plastics and it would take a lifetime to explore the many uses of plastic. Many plastics can be worked at home by ordinary handy man. I fixed the plastic bumper of my car using a hair drier and a lot of time (would have been faster with a hot air gun) that had been depressed in a car park. It only needed heating till it was soft enough to push back into its original shape.
I love plastic.

Plastic is great and it's incredible ability to form composites with widely contradictory abilitys make them incredibly useful. And I love them too .