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"Xanthan Gum"
Love you, too
I've experimented over the years with mixing xanthan gum and water. It requires as fast mixing as possible, so that as much of the super-fine xanthan particles come into contact with the water as possible. I was using a large bucket and a drill with a paint-stirring attachment, and creating a vortex in the water into which I gradually poured the powder. No lumps formed and all seemed good, but it only would thicken so much and no more. Even adding more powder did not make it any thicker.
So today, I took a blender/food processor, and mostly filled it with water, and let some xanthan gum powder slowly fall into the small opening in the lid while it was running. I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't added much at all, and found a huge blob of very thick mixture inside. I had to add a bit more water just to get it to pour out. I had used much less powder, but it had gone a lot farther in making the thick goo.
I just wanted to pass this along, in case anyone is using either guar gum or xanthan gum to make slime or goo. This method is fast and efficient! It will mix 8 cups of goo in less than a minute. (that's 2 quarts) I plan to mix a little tempura paint into each load of water, then pour the colored goo into a large bucket, repeat till bucket is full.
So today, I took a blender/food processor, and mostly filled it with water, and let some xanthan gum powder slowly fall into the small opening in the lid while it was running. I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't added much at all, and found a huge blob of very thick mixture inside. I had to add a bit more water just to get it to pour out. I had used much less powder, but it had gone a lot farther in making the thick goo.
I just wanted to pass this along, in case anyone is using either guar gum or xanthan gum to make slime or goo. This method is fast and efficient! It will mix 8 cups of goo in less than a minute. (that's 2 quarts) I plan to mix a little tempura paint into each load of water, then pour the colored goo into a large bucket, repeat till bucket is full.
I have a good amount of experience with xanthan gum. Immersion blenders are ideal, but it also just takes time for the little lumps to hydrate fully, I usually wait an hour or so after mixing a bunch in. I used to use a whisk and make a whirlpool with that, keeping the whisk going very fast in the middle. You would get these very small pill-sized lumps of dry xanthan basically suspended in slightly thickened water, but if you gave it an hour, came back, and whisked it back up, it would get nice and thick and gloopy. Now I use an immersion blender, it is a lot smoother. If I want thin, smoother, more traditional gunge-like results, that immersion blender is ideal. You don't have to guess how much it'll thicken once it's fully hydrated.
You can get a 6 pound bag of the stuff here in the States off Amazon for like $60, half a pound (230g, ish) is enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
The paint-stirring attachment for a drill really isn't ideal for xanthan gum, you need something that can break it up into as small clumps as possible, that stirrer just didn't work for me. Just a whisk with some elbow grease is honestly better, once you get the technique down. Just getting small enough clumps and waiting an hour or two is decently consistent for me, and whisks are cheap.
You can get a 6 pound bag of the stuff here in the States off Amazon for like $60, half a pound (230g, ish) is enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
The paint-stirring attachment for a drill really isn't ideal for xanthan gum, you need something that can break it up into as small clumps as possible, that stirrer just didn't work for me. Just a whisk with some elbow grease is honestly better, once you get the technique down. Just getting small enough clumps and waiting an hour or two is decently consistent for me, and whisks are cheap.
Bobographer said: I've experimented over the years with mixing xanthan gum and water. It requires as fast mixing as possible, so that as much of the super-fine xanthan particles come into contact with the water as possible. I was using a large bucket and a drill with a paint-stirring attachment, and creating a vortex in the water into which I gradually poured the powder. No lumps formed and all seemed good, but it only would thicken so much and no more. Even adding more powder did not make it any thicker.
I had a bad first time experience with this and glad you shared thank you
So today, I took a blender/food processor, and mostly filled it with water, and let some xanthan gum powder slowly fall into the small opening in the lid while it was running. I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't added much at all, and found a huge blob of very thick mixture inside. I had to add a bit more water just to get it to pour out. I had used much less powder, but it had gone a lot farther in making the thick goo.
I just wanted to pass this along, in case anyone is using either guar gum or xanthan gum to make slime or goo. This method is fast and efficient! It will mix 8 cups of goo in less than a minute. (that's 2 quarts) I plan to mix a little tempura paint into each load of water, then pour the colored goo into a large bucket, repeat till bucket is full.
I had a bad first time experience with this and glad you shared thank you
So today, I took a blender/food processor, and mostly filled it with water, and let some xanthan gum powder slowly fall into the small opening in the lid while it was running. I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't added much at all, and found a huge blob of very thick mixture inside. I had to add a bit more water just to get it to pour out. I had used much less powder, but it had gone a lot farther in making the thick goo.
I just wanted to pass this along, in case anyone is using either guar gum or xanthan gum to make slime or goo. This method is fast and efficient! It will mix 8 cups of goo in less than a minute. (that's 2 quarts) I plan to mix a little tempura paint into each load of water, then pour the colored goo into a large bucket, repeat till bucket is full.
My first time working with I messed up royally thanks for passing along this info
Paint with play and surrender
While researching slime recipes a decade ago, I ran across some info on xanthan gum. It really isn't that great as a single-component slime like methyl cellulose. What makes a "slime" (a.k.a. hydrogel) is the long-chain polymers in it and xanthan alone is just "ok". It's one those bases that really needs a cross-linking substance added as well. A couple that I saw discussed were citric acid and borax, with borax being vastly superior. Here's an extract of a fairly geeky study discussing it
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666893921000153
Citric acid is readily available from any number of places, but it's going to make the slime more acidic, which might be irritating to the eyes. Borax is kind of a universal magical additive in slime chemistry. It's also used with poly-ox and polyvinyl alcohol (glue) bases. Most of the recipes I have seen call for adding it as a saturated solution. To make that, you just take like a pint of water and keep adding/mixing in borax power until it no longer dissolves. Then you add the solution in various small amounts to whatever base you are using along with more water. At least with poly-ox it can take several minutes to activate, so be careful of adding too much thinking it's not working. It will end up thicker than you want. That's how I ended up with this scene:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666893921000153
Citric acid is readily available from any number of places, but it's going to make the slime more acidic, which might be irritating to the eyes. Borax is kind of a universal magical additive in slime chemistry. It's also used with poly-ox and polyvinyl alcohol (glue) bases. Most of the recipes I have seen call for adding it as a saturated solution. To make that, you just take like a pint of water and keep adding/mixing in borax power until it no longer dissolves. Then you add the solution in various small amounts to whatever base you are using along with more water. At least with poly-ox it can take several minutes to activate, so be careful of adding too much thinking it's not working. It will end up thicker than you want. That's how I ended up with this scene:
I learned another trick for Xanthan Gum a year or so back when I was talking to a friend who is into their cooking. It's won't dissolve in water but it will in oil. Making a paste with oil first then adding water seems to lead to a smoother slime. We've also since bought commercial Xanthan Gum slime which also instructs to dissolve in oil first. I just used vegetable oil from the kitchen which seemed to work fine, still a little lumpy, but I didn't mind that, there weren't undissolved blobs of powder still in there which is the issue we had previously. Didn't use a lot - about half a litre to make 40L of slime and the resulting slime wasn't oily or a pain to clean up.
Film it and they will come.
I had also read about pre-mixing the powder in oil and other substances as well. I will experiment next time with some 'goop' (a long-chain polymer that makes very slimy and stringy stuff) including a little goop powder in with the mixture.
I'm still going with my large blender, as it has knife-blades on the impeller and instantly breaks down the fine particles and hydrates them. Making thick, fully set slime takes under a minute for 2 quarts. Leaving it sitting did nothing as I believe it was as thick as it was going to get. (which was very thick) The mixing action also made it fluffy as well, creating a nice substance.
I'm still going with my large blender, as it has knife-blades on the impeller and instantly breaks down the fine particles and hydrates them. Making thick, fully set slime takes under a minute for 2 quarts. Leaving it sitting did nothing as I believe it was as thick as it was going to get. (which was very thick) The mixing action also made it fluffy as well, creating a nice substance.
soundguy said: While researching slime recipes a decade ago, I ran across some info on xanthan gum. It really isn't that great as a single-component slime like methyl cellulose. What makes a "slime" (a.k.a. hydrogel) is the long-chain polymers in it and xanthan alone is just "ok". It's one those bases that really needs a cross-linking substance added as well. A couple that I saw discussed were citric acid and borax, with borax being vastly superior. Here's an extract of a fairly geeky study discussing it
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666893921000153
Citric acid is readily available from any number of places, but it's going to make the slime more acidic, which might be irritating to the eyes. Borax is kind of a universal magical additive in slime chemistry. It's also used with poly-ox and polyvinyl alcohol (glue) bases. Most of the recipes I have seen call for adding it as a saturated solution. To make that, you just take like a pint of water and keep adding/mixing in borax power until it no longer dissolves. Then you add the solution in various small amounts to whatever base you are using along with more water. At least with poly-ox it can take several minutes to activate, so be careful of adding too much thinking it's not working. It will end up thicker than you want. That's how I ended up with this scene:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666893921000153
Citric acid is readily available from any number of places, but it's going to make the slime more acidic, which might be irritating to the eyes. Borax is kind of a universal magical additive in slime chemistry. It's also used with poly-ox and polyvinyl alcohol (glue) bases. Most of the recipes I have seen call for adding it as a saturated solution. To make that, you just take like a pint of water and keep adding/mixing in borax power until it no longer dissolves. Then you add the solution in various small amounts to whatever base you are using along with more water. At least with poly-ox it can take several minutes to activate, so be careful of adding too much thinking it's not working. It will end up thicker than you want. That's how I ended up with this scene:
Wow, I didn't know it needed a cross-linking substance, I'll be sure to try it with borax. I felt something was missing with my slimes...
I really do love this slime chemistry stuff. Especially as someone who's entire life is math and science, it is really fun to apply it elsewhere. Certainly more fun than any of my chemistry coursework, they don't let you cover yourself in your experiments. A wise man said, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down...
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