# Gold Mallet/Milk bottle Mallet



## Racers (21 Oct 2018)

I have been saving up the gold Robinsons Fruit and Barley bottle tops for some time, in fact until they stopped making it and brought out a new range with a higher price and different coloured tops. It's taken a while as I average only 2 bottles a week. 

I decided to go with what I had, the first stage was cutting them up, a slow tedious process, I then melted then in stages in a clean can and clamped a can sized disk in the top and baked it in the oven 140 deg fan, tightening the clamp every 10 minutes to compact everything together.

I cut it free from the can drilled a handle hole and turned a oak handle which I fox wedged in.



Clamping by Racers, on Flickr



Cutting by Racers, on Flickr



Free by Racers, on Flickr



Drilling by Racers, on Flickr



Finished by Racers, on Flickr

It made a nice little mallet with an interesting patten.

Pete


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## tony_s (21 Oct 2018)

Wow, that really is a thing of beauty. Well worth the effort!


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## AndyT (21 Oct 2018)

Very stylish!


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## 8squared (21 Oct 2018)

That turned out very well indeed... nice work.


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## Andy Kev. (22 Oct 2018)

If it works half as well as it looks, you'll be on to a winner.

It's original too, which begs the obvious question: Where on earth did you get the idea in the first place?


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## Racers (22 Oct 2018)

Thanks.

Several people use bottle tops to make things mostly in sheet form, lots of videos on YouTube, so it was a small step to a mallet.

Pete


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## gwaithcoed (22 Oct 2018)

Wow, Beautiful. I wouldn't leave it in the workshop where it's going to be hammered, I'd have it on show in the house.     

Alan.


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## Ttrees (23 Oct 2018)

I never would have thought the gold HDPE would have looked so good! 
Interested to see what shape flakes you made the bottle caps into,
as it has a lovely fleck to it, nearly looks like brass.
I suspect fine pellets would not look so nice, but could be wrong.

I made a clamp head for a f-clamp using a beans can also as a form, I stuck the can in an old frying pan on the hob.
It did not go as smoothly as that though, as I had to keep stirring it because it kept going cold and skinning on top...
This stirring made the coating inside the can come into the mix, and created an awful mess :lol: 
Was only for a clamp head so no bother

Thanks for showing
Tom


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## condeesteso (26 Oct 2018)

Extremely neat idea, I imagine the density / weight is nice too. How very resourceful!
Wonder if it might work with milk bottle tops - dodgy colour (semi-skimmed) but the only tops I can think we have a decent volume of.


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## Racers (26 Oct 2018)

HDPE is the stuff to use, lots of videos on YouTube of people making stuff from milk cartons etc, so just collect as much HDPE as you can, it took me years to get enough gold bottle tops, next time I an going to use any colour. I have started collecting all ready.

Pete


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## condeesteso (27 Oct 2018)

so you turned the molded blank? - how did it turn, what speed. And you got a really nice finish - on the lathe maybe?


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## Racers (27 Oct 2018)

It turned easily with s gouge or a scraper, making long shavings that occasionally rapping them selves round the mallet. 
Sort of medium speed ish, I didn’t look at the pulleys it didn’t vibrate. 
A sharp gouge left a good finish better than sanding which left a mat finish. 

Pete


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## Jon.1976 (28 Oct 2018)

Nice, really nice.


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## marcros (30 Oct 2018)

how much hdpe would you estimate that it took Pete?


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## Racers (31 Oct 2018)

The cut up bits filled into two 600cc soup containers.

Pete


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## marcros (31 Oct 2018)

thanks. that is a good measure.


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## Sheffield Tony (31 Oct 2018)

The cutting up - how small did you aim for, and what did you cut with ? It sounds a bit of an undertaking to do by hand.

Presumably you can re-use the turning swarf.


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## marcros (31 Oct 2018)

Tony,

Looking at youtube, and my kitchen contents (rather than experience), milk cartons may be easier to cut into pieces, albeit not half as pretty when done. Quicker to collect too as I think that Pete's fruit and barley consumption is at least double mine!

Mark


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## Racers (31 Oct 2018)

Sheffield Tony":3rn7i8hk said:


> The cutting up - how small did you aim for, and what did you cut with ? It sounds a bit of an undertaking to do by hand.
> 
> Presumably you can re-use the turning swarf.



Tin snips and a unwilling helper helped, about 6mm wide mostly triangles through the top and side like a pizza slice.

I did think about saving the swarf but didn't, mind you it will be in the bottom of the shop vac.

Pete


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## Racers (31 Oct 2018)

marcros":33i6ajgh said:


> Tony,
> 
> Looking at youtube, and my kitchen contents (rather than experience), milk cartons may be easier to cut into pieces, albeit not half as pretty when done. Quicker to collect too as I think that Pete's fruit and barley consumption is at least double mine!
> 
> Mark




4 mugs a day! saves a fortune on coffee!

Pete


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## xy mosian (31 Oct 2018)

Would a large piece of milk bottle cut up with an office shredder? Nice mallet by the way.
xy


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## Racers (1 Nov 2018)

Thanks. 

I would think you would need a big one suitable for shredding cd’s etc. 

Pete


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## Lons (1 Nov 2018)

Nice mallet Pete, love the colours.

I made one a few years ago using milk bottle tops and some of the cartons, red, white blue and green. It was as hard as hell once made and my brother eventually pinched it as I'd decided to make another. never did though as my missus strongly objected to me using her oven and the stink in the kitchen as it heated up.

I can buy a mallet or make one out of wood while I can't afford a divorce! (hammer)


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## Phil Pascoe (3 Nov 2018)

Anyone looking for a bit of colour? Chewing gum drums are polypropylene and sometimes coloured if you know anyone who uses the stuff.


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## Lons (3 Nov 2018)

phil.p":3hfg1pfh said:


> Anyone looking for a bit of colour? Chewing gum drums are polypropylene and sometimes coloured if you know anyone who uses the stuff.



I'm not sure from memory if it's a good idea to use popyprop Phil, can't remember from my plastic days tbh certainly it has different properties to HDPE which milk bottles ant tops are made from. 
Another source is Domestos bottles which you can get in dark blue and yellow.

The symbol, usually on the bottom is a triangle with a 2 inside and sometimes HDPE stamped under.


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## Phil Pascoe (3 Nov 2018)

Ah, sorry. I thought for some reason it was polyprop he was using.


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## Lons (3 Nov 2018)

phil.p":1vfk24q4 said:


> Ah, sorry. I thought for some reason it was polyprop he was using.



Polyprop might be ok, I can't remember the differences these days Phil. They shouldn't be mixed though I guess.


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## Racers (5 Nov 2018)

I used No2 HDPE, I should have used No1 PETE :wink:  









Pete


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## ColeyS1 (5 Nov 2018)

The mallet looks really good Pete, Smart job !! I was having a tidy up yesterday and noticed this on the bottom of a part plastic container.




It just seemed quite brittle to be the right stuff for mallet making. I could snap it into tiny pieces with minimal effort. I started collecting bottle caps which seem much more flexible but I'm thinking this would be much quicker (and I've got quite a bit of it.) Any thoughts ?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


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## thick_mike (5 Nov 2018)

That’s the right stuff. If you are fussed about the colour, put the stuff you want for the colour around the edge of your mould, and put the white stuff in the core.


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## ColeyS1 (6 Nov 2018)

thick_mike":vbhv2574 said:


> That’s the right stuff. If you are fussed about the colour, put the stuff you want for the colour around the edge of your mould, and put the white stuff in the core.


That's a good idea Mike. White would be fine at least as a temporary fix. Is the brittleness anything to be concerned about or is it just because of the thickness?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


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## Racers (6 Nov 2018)

Its the right stuff to use, I would try melting some and seeing if it's still brittle when its cooled.

Pete


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## ColeyS1 (6 Nov 2018)

Racers":2vblyj1p said:


> Its the right stuff to use, I would try melting some and seeing if it's still brittle when its cooled.
> 
> Pete


Thanks Pete. Final question did you use your oven you use for food? I'm just wondering if it might harmful.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


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## Lons (6 Nov 2018)

ColeyS1":x3vlgvkp said:


> thick_mike":x3vlgvkp said:
> 
> 
> > That’s the right stuff. If you are fussed about the colour, put the stuff you want for the colour around the edge of your mould, and put the white stuff in the core.
> ...


The best material is HDPE as Steve used as not all others are suitable and you need to be careful with some plastics as they produce some rather unpleasant fumes when heated.

I did know the differences but have forgotten most details as its over 30 years since I was in the industry.

Look at the item for the HDPE stamp before you cut it up, base of cartons and inside the caps, don't assume that because the base is stamped the cap is the same material and vise versa as not always the case. My strong advice is if no stamp then don't use it or at very least don't heat it indoors.

I melted mine in an old deep oven tray, never thought of a can like Pete did, #-o although I wanted a sheet of material but it needs to be something you can afford to destroy if it sticks solid otherwise make a sacrificial former to sit inside the baking tin. I used tin foil first time, big mistake as it wouldn't come off and I ended throwing the lot away.  

Stank the house out so almost a divorce but doesn't harm your oven, best of luck convincing the missus of that however.

Do a youtube search there's a lot of info and it's not just mallets being made. HDPE when reformed as thick material is pretty resilient and takes some breaking but turns and machines well.

cheers
Bob


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## Fergal (6 Nov 2018)

I've done some experiments melting HDPE milk bottles and forming cylindrical billets using an empty aluminium deodorant canister as the mould with clamping pressure applied while it's cooling.

I managed to sneak it in the back of the oven for about 2 hours at 180C while roast was in there 

The billets come out quite nicely and machine easily, but you must be stringent with cleaning the HDPE chips before melting as any milk residue on them contaminates the resultant billet with brown stains. 

I've had better results with the HDPE from clothes washing liquid containers (Bold etc) which is a more opaque white colour and seems gooier when molten resulting in better flow and fewer air bubbles in the final billet than the milk bottle HDPE. The billets also retain a nice smell 

The next type of HDPE to try is that from motor oil containers which are often available in gold and silver.

Fergal


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## Fergal (6 Nov 2018)

I forgot to mention in my previous post my method of shredding the HDPE. This is a tedious process as the chips need to be quite small for best results, less than 10mm square ideally. I tried an old manual meat mincer which didn't work, I also tried an old food processor and promptly killed it as the HDPE is pretty tough. I eventually resorted to doing it manually with sturdy scissors.

I've since acquired a faulty heavy duty office shredder for the princely sum of £1 off ebay. Like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rexel-Mercury- ... B0031YP7GO

I intend to extract the shredder mechanism from it and hopefully it will be robust enough to shred HDPE bottles.

Fergal


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## Phil Pascoe (6 Nov 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUR6_bQLU-E

I doubt very much the domestic controller would approve the use of the blender.


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## Racers (6 Nov 2018)

ColeyS1":2bus7dld said:


> Racers":2bus7dld said:
> 
> 
> > Its the right stuff to use, I would try melting some and seeing if it's still brittle when its cooled.
> ...



I did use the oven in the kitchen at 140C I didn't notice a smell, I used a heat gun to do the initial melting them a bake and compress in the oven.

Pete


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## Phil Pascoe (9 Nov 2018)

If you want some colour, the tops of milk cartons, many flavoured water bottles and two and three litre cider bottles are HDPE.


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## Racers (10 Nov 2018)

I cut a couple of milk cartons up today you get a useful amount of plastic from them, I have been saving bottle tops so a white and speckled mallet will be next.

Pete


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## marcros (10 Nov 2018)

I have 3 milk bottles and tops ready to cut up. I wonder how many it will take.


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## Phil Pascoe (10 Nov 2018)

I weighed a six pint carton - it was 59gms, so I suppose fifteen of them would do a reasonable mallet. All the supermarkets here have got rid of their recycle skips, otherwise I'd just go and get what I needed.


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## marcros (11 Nov 2018)

A bit less in the 2L cravendale, but a very white plastic, so I am going to be needing 20+ I guess. Job for the spring!


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## Racers (23 Mar 2019)

Well I made a big milk carton mallet, it took two goes as I ran out of milk cartons.
I had to bake the half full can in the oven at 160 fan for ages to soften the first lot then add more plastic.
The white bits are washing liquid bottle and the coloured bits are bottle tops.



Milk carton mallet by Racers, on Flickr



Milk carton mallet by Racers, on Flickr

It was a tricky thing to turn I got lots of catches, a round scraper turned out to be the best thing to use.

Pete


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## fiveeyes (24 Mar 2019)

A confetti mallet...nice job sir.


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## Racers (3 Apr 2019)

I didn't like the handle, I made it from a too small piece of teak, so I remade it with a bigger bit, I did two swells so you can choke up on it or give it some power.



Milk bottle mallet by Racers, on Flickr

I did use it over the weekend to carve a bowl from an Apple trunk from the garden and it felt very nice.
This arrow popped out as I was carving it.



Arrow bowl by Racers, on Flickr

Pete


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## marcros (3 Apr 2019)

which size do you prefer of the two? I have a reasonable amount of hdpe now.


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## Racers (3 Apr 2019)

The big one is a nice weight for big stuff, I guess one in the middle would be a good all rounder but why should you only have one?

Pete


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## Phil Pascoe (3 Apr 2019)

Yeah ........... how on earth do people manage with only one mallet?


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## marcros (3 Apr 2019)

The small one was a bean can wasn't it? What was the larger one?


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## Doug B (4 Apr 2019)

Excellent job on the mallets Pete, particularly like the gold one =D> 

After drawing back some used motor oil quenched plane blades in the oven years ago I’m banned from using the oven for anything other than domestic cooking :roll: obviously I blamed Jim (lurker) :lol: :lol:


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## Racers (4 Apr 2019)

marcros":3odix69b said:


> The small one was a bean can wasn't it? What was the larger one?



Cow and Gate baby milk powder tin from when the the kids where young.

Pete


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## Phil Pascoe (4 Apr 2019)

Doug B":kj76a9fg said:


> After drawing back some used motor oil quenched plane blades in the oven years ago I’m banned from using the oven for anything other than domestic cooking :roll: obviously I blamed Jim (lurker) :lol: :lol:


I have had no problem at all melting the stuff in the oven after washing it in the washing machine, but I have drawn the line at some cosmetic and deodorant bottles as I don't want to take the chance of leaving a taint. 
I suspect there'll be one or two of these given as S/S presents this year ........... just a thought ...........


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## Starjump (10 Apr 2019)

Inspirational!


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## Phil Pascoe (4 May 2019)

Due to start soon.


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## Racers (5 May 2019)

Oooooo nice keep us posted. 

Pete


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## Racers (30 Jul 2019)

Well he has a friend!
I started this a while ago but ran into problems, I didn't mash the plastic down hard enough and ran out if plastic.
I extracted it and their were gaps, so once I had enough plastic and tops I popped it in the oven to soften it, that took ages bit eventually I got it soft melted more milk bottle pieces and cut up tops until it was full.
I drilled it and turned it, had some problems with catches even with sharp scrapers, I eventually finished it using a goose neck scraper held low down it made nice shavings and no catches.



Mallets by Racers, on Flickr

Its got some nice swirls caused my me pushing the melted plastic down the edges of the can.
I had to destroy the can to get it out so its the last one for me.

Pete


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## Andy Kev. (31 Jul 2019)

These mallets have attracted a lot of praise. They represent an original and creative use of material which would otherwise have just been binned. Then there is the aesthetic appeal: the bottle top one is simply a very attractive object. I suppose that because this is a highly practical forum, most people would also be interested in how functional they are in the workshop. Incidentally, if they are you might want to patent them because in these days of increasing ecological awareness I can imagine a firm nicking the idea and marketing "green" mallets.

However, it also occurred to me that if the kind of waster who makes a fortune in the ridiculous world of modern "art" were to stumble on the idea, they'd be going for hundreds of thousands. Can you imagine if that p**t Damien Hurst turned out a four foot high one (and I wouldn't put it beyond him) for which some gallery would doubtless pay him more than a million and then had loads of the normal size ones made. They'd be going for hundreds of quid a throw. They'd be seen as making a vital statement about our relationship with the planet.

If I were you, Mr Maddex, I would consider going public with them while talking complete and utter b***locks as often and as loudly as you can and this time next year you'll be supping brown ale in your mansion in Mustique.


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