Josh, don’t forget to add a craft store to your list of places to raid! I’ve found lots of items there in the past that have been very helpful. They have a wide variety of wires (in jewelry and floral depts), glues (they even have glues for using with styrafoam, fabric and plastics), clays (reusable, and also the kind that can be air or oven dried), molds (in clay and candy making depts and some can be very small) not to mention they often have miniatures for doll houses and most of the craft kits for kids contain lots of small pieces/parts. I even saw a DIY can of acrylic where you mix the parts and pour into a mold.

One product I’ve heard good things about, but I haven’t tried yet, is called ShapeLock. When heated in a microwave or with a hair dryer it becomes pliable and can be shaped or molded, when it dries it becomes a hard plastic. It is about $15 per container and is reusable. I’m not positive on this, but I think I also read somewhere that once dry, it can machined. The website for this is www.shapelock.com

Hope this helps and Happy Prototyping!

Josh,

Here’s something you probably won’t find at Home Depot, but can find if you hunt around at some chain hardware stores. Look for material assortments from K&S; example http://www.ksmetals.com/

Some stores will have one or more of their display selections. The local ACE hardware had it. You will find metals in varieties of materials (bronze, aluminum, steel), shapes (sheets, rods, square tubes, etc.) and sizes.

You can probably order this stuff online (try www.smallparts.com or www.mcmaster.com) but there’s no comparison to seeing it and holding it in your hand.

Plastruct (http://www.plastruct.com/) used to provide a similar in-store display/assortment but they’re hard to find nowadays (I can’t find easily find it in the metro Boston area)

We use McMaster all the time. If you’re looking for a massive collection of parts, figure out where products with similar parts are sold at a discount. Maybe eBay, or a dollar store, or a flea market, or a garage sale… Or if the type of products you want to cannibalize are seasonal or get upgraded every year, do some Web searches for “last year’s model” and pick it up at a discount.

But first, take a look around your house. I know I’ve got a ton of old gadgets just collecting dust that I wouldn’t shed a tear over if I was to take them apart and use them for parts. That actually sounds fun, I might take them apart just for the entertainment value :-)

Something I’ve used in the past is the acrylic made for artificial nails. It dries very hard and can be filed down and sculpted with a dremel tool. You may be able to use this with a mold if you used some kind of mold release agent.

This is all really great information, guys. I’ve been checking those links and already found a few things I think I’ll find useful. Thanks so much!