How many chemists are in the house/forum/messy-pit-o'-luv??
One thing I'd love to know is if there's any non-Newtonian fluid with similar properties to cornstarch, but that won't go rotten and... grow things? (Like if someone wanted to make a diy home oobleck-ish pit...)
Also looking to source local FL bulk suppliers of sodium polyacrylate and polyacrylamide!
Back when I was doing work with the gunge tank I built about a decade ago I had to come up with some designer slimes to use with its quad tank feature. As part of that did some major deep diving on non-newtonian fluids and consulted with some people I knew in the chemistry department for it.
Long story short: Many colloids we could think of that were Dilatant in behaviour were that way because they large solid particles suspended in small amounts of liquid for instance like wet sand which meant there was a good chance the sand/grit could irritate eyes if dumped in large quantities on someone. So in the end we stuck with a modified version of Oobleck (we added a stabilizer to keep the cornflour in suspension for if you left it a couple hours the mixture tended to separate with flour gathering at the bottom) in the end. However I don't think it'll help much with your pit as the stabilizer we used was for short term use and would probably have issues before the cornflour itself.
Ended up using Oobleck twice with the Gunge Tank, created an interesting melting effect. Was also very slow to fully empty a large tank of it - did at one point want to have someone in the gunge tank receiving a long Oobleck based gunging that would because of how long it was act as like a human egg timer for another game two other people played in some split screen video but alas never got round to trying it...
I have no clue how much one would need to create a bucket of slime, but based on the qty used in the video not a lot was needed.. could be interresting..
Do they not have that Gelli Bath stuff in the Americas? That stuff is sodium polyacrylate with colouring and will save having to go down the chemical company route. If you want a better idea how it turns out Messysupplies has a page for their own brand of the stuff here: (https://www.messysupplies.com/products/1l-slime ).
And to clarify Sodium Polyacrylate solution isn't a dilatant like Oobleck if that is what was being hoped for.
Regarding Sodium Polyacrylate - Fred at Studio 588 has a large pit of the stuff indoors but rarely uses it.
Dave at MPV produced MPVBleck after making some minor proprietary changes to the traditional oobleck formula. Which we used in very large quantity with great success.
Given the work involved in both - it's a long story - This is for certain how you know you have a messy fetish. Not because you watch it but because you put all the sweat and treasure you can muster into creating it.
"The Fetish is strong with this one." - Dave Lodoski (Using his best Darth Vader voice )
Love you, too
