Here’s a place to get bulk materials such as plastic, glass, metal and more:

http://www.recyclematch.com/marketplace

Not a supply site at all, but a great way to kill time is halfbakery.com which is an interesting website that people submit ideas (99% of which are crazy). Its a good site to look at and do some brainstorming.

@Greg, like the ifixit.com site. Its so easy to take stuff apart, but putting it back together is another story :)

Welcome, here’s more for mental stimulation. I was following the article on the best inventions from PopSci and noticed a link to iFixit.com that shows device breakdowns, all the secret innerworkings without mom taking away your screwdriver and sending you to your room:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown

Thanks Greg!

In the arc, but different. Thought I’d throw out the free 3d rendering package I’ve been using for the last 14 or so years:
http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/tS75...

One of my old standbys is
http://www.mcmaster.com
and http://sdp-si.com/web/html/bearings.htm as well as wm berg. there are many more but I use thes because they have a vast selection of materials, parts, bearings, and raw materials.

Re: InstaMorph, just pour the beads in hot water. As they soften, they turn clear and clump together. Then they can be fished out in one mass for molding. I haven’t worked with anything similar before. Closest I’ve done is home vaccuum forming with acrylic and polypropylene which have plastic temps around 275-300. I remember looking at one other product that I think was more expensive. The 12oz jar was 16.95. I measured my play piece at 2″ × 4″ × 1/8" at 2/3oz. Which I think comes out to 1 square foot x 1/8" for the jar.

It says it is completely reusable, and I formed and reformed that initial chunk 3 times so far.

Great info, thanks!

Kevin…Im jealous… I’ve looked at the catalogs on and off for many years and always wished I could actually go to one of their stores, but Im far away (Arizona). As far as I’m concerned, any business that sells “Robot Supplies” is a place I want to go and check out…

@Andrew, thanks for the tip..catalog requested. @kevin, wish I was closer to one of their stores (I’m in Cleve), I can definitely see spending a whole day there!

Better yet, try to get to one of the American Science and Surplus stores in person. I have been to them a number of times and can remember the first one on the n/w side of Chicago that I went to as early as 30 or 40 years ago. You hardly could tell it was even a place you could buy anything from the looks of the outside of it (small dark industrial bldg), but if you are the easily intrigued sort (like most of us here), you could easily count on blowing the better part of a day. Racks and racks of baskets of “stuff” and EVERY one of them makes you (well me, anyway) want to tap someone on the shoulder and say “check this out!”

@Diana -
Diana, yes these sites can “suck you in” and before you know it hours have passed ..LOL.. I would request a paper catalog from Am. Sci & Surplus. There are a ton of great (and also many no-so-great) products in the catalog. They have a sense of humor when describing the products and it makes for a fun reading…

@Greg -
Greg, that InstaMorph, do you just heat that in a oven? Can you re-use it over an over again? How does that compare with similar products on the market (pricewise)? Thanks

Wow…those are some cool sites! I can see spending hrs. on them. Thanks for the links.

I had ordered a jar of InstaMorph from Amazon, arrived here yesterday.

InstaMorph is a very strong plastic that becomes moldable/plyable at 130-150 degrees.

I had a chance to play with it last night. It wasn’t very playable at 130, but at 145 it was nice. It goes clear when it hits the right temperature and slowly goes back to opaque. Definitely strong. I molded a 1/8" sheet and it was slightly flexible when cool, but not very. I couldn’t break or crease it with just hand bending. Guess it’s a lot like ABS.

Appreciated. Thanks!

Here’s others of various uses:
http://www.mdfly.com/ (electronics)
http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/materials (haven’t barely begun to explore this!)
http://www.protomold.com/DesignGuidelines_Resin... (hmmm… what plastic should I use?)

Neat stuff, thanks Andrew, I saved them to my favorites ;-)=