#18 in Lab chemicals
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Reddit mentions of Methyl Cellulose (Non-FDA), 1 lb
Sentiment score: 2
Reddit mentions: 2
We found 2 Reddit mentions of Methyl Cellulose (Non-FDA), 1 lb. Here are the top ones.
or
- Methyl Cellulose (Non-FDA), Water Soluable, priced per pound; 1 to 25 lb qty, priced per pound
- Excellent thickener for water based products, all types
- Imported from USA
- Part Number: SADMETCA
Features:
Specs:
| Color | Yellow |
You can get powdered MC for quite cheap on Amazon. I bought a pound (like this) and still have a lot left after years of using it. It's very difficult to mix it by hand, so I use an immersion blender. I don't measure it out, but I can tell you I start with a cup or two of water, add a spoonful, blend, and keep adding and blending until I like the consistency. You want it to have a thick, viscous, gluey consistency that won't leave your paper sodden but it still needs to be thin enough to easily spread.
I wouldn't recommend dipping, instead brush it on in a thin layer. You can use brushes but your fingers will work just fine. MC dissolves readily in water and isn't hard to clean up afterwards. Work on a hard, flat, clean surface. It's ok to rest MC treated origami on a surface, if it sticks it can be carefully peeled off without damage.
The moisture in the MC will affect the paper as you work and cause parts to splay apart, so you'll likely want to use binder clips and the like to hold parts in place after treatment. This is particularly true on thin appendages with lots of layers. On parts like this where you want the layers to adhere to each other, you can even brush MC between the layers. If the model is becoming too difficult to work with you may want to stop, let it dry, then continue to work on the remainder.
After your MC dries, the paper will be more sculptable and you can continue to apply shaping. You can apply a little water to make portions of the piece more pliable again and can even apply additional MC to parts as needed.
Here's a frilled lizard I folded a while back, with a "before" pic of the model drying after MC application below it. You can also see the liberal use of binder clips and how the back leg I didn't clip was splaying apart from the moisture.
We always used the plain stuff, like so:
We used j-lube a lot too, but we weren't really pumping it into people or anything. Likewise, I think most of the actors considered douching/enema as part of their clean up routine. (I know douching isn't exactly highly-recommended, but this kinda stuff was the exception more than the rule.)
I'd expect that you could just mix in a bit of whatever lube you prefer and it would act intuitively.