Been a while since I went looking for any.. Bought some off Ebay. must have been expired.. barely expanded at all.. The stuff does age out just sitting on the shelf.. Just found this.. Thermoplastic Polymorph Beads Moldable for Crafts 1 POUND - Etsy ,may order a pound for myself. Fredo Sent a message to seller asking if it can be expanded in an aluminum mold using boiling water..
Polymorph is very different material. At 70 pounds/ft^3 it isn't suitable for lost foam casting. The search for the Holy Grail of fresh expandable EPS beads in less than pallet size quantities goes on................. Edit: Interesting bit on how EPS beads are made: https://www.sulzer.com/en/shared/products/expandable-polystyrene-eps
Smoke, Have you tried reaching out to one of the companies and asking to buy a 1 pd "Sample" for a test batch? They don't need to know that your "Startup" is just you in the shed
If you haven't alraed you should read this threads and the other threads linked in the posts. Intended Experiment With Raw Expandable Polystyrene Beads | The Home Foundry Best, Kelly
No. My personal interest is more along the lines of small scale production. A few years ago I purchased a small quantity from a school supply company (that is either out of business or I can't find on the internet anymore) and they worked as advertised. The project that I have in mind is still viable but I haven't the time, or spare cash right now, to fully develop the product. Once that changes* I'll buy by the pallet (or simply outsource the foam pattern production) but in between now and then under 10# quantities are little more than interesting diversions. For those of us at amateur/hobby levels 50 to 100 pound lots would be a sweet spot for overall cost and practical use. These things don't age well. Even at the scale of production I think may be reasonable for my little project a 2000 pallet would likely go stale before I used all of it. If we could find someone in the same position as I am, but actually over the hump of starting production, maybe we would have a stable source of small quantities? * the bean counting numbers just aren't good enough for me to risk the few saved beans I have.
I've found a lot of aluminum duck decoy molds for sale. By expressing a real interest in acquiring a few molds might be a path to finding a bead supplier. What can a person do? The desire to build a small flock of decoys without buying a whole pallet of beads, seems impossible.. What would you as a seller of molds suggest?? Something along those lines.. Flat out lies.. No harm done other than disappointing the seller.. Not the kind of lies that'll send you straight to hell. Maybe just a little more tarnish on your soul.
