More on Methylcellulose

[Fishgoth]

Finally got my hands on a small back of methylcellulose from ebay.

Before I use the stuff and make a complete mess of the flat, I have a few questions. I was wondering if any of the methylcellulose gurus could help...

1) The makers suggest mixing 5g with 100 ml of water (first 50 hot, next 50 cold). I don't have access to a set of microscales. How much is 5g in cookery volume terms? One teaspoon? Two?

2) Secondly, the search function tells me about using a CPS value to measure viscosity. The value on the power I've got is 600. Wolf suggests 2000 is ideal. Would doubling the power double the viscosity? Or am I about to discover the world of 'trial and error'?

3) After I've mixed 100 mls of gloop, what sort of surface area would it cover, if I was using it to sandwich two layers of tissue or mulberry paper together?

Regards,
Fishgoth (The F is for foilbacked paper only )

[wolf]

1) Heaped or level teaspoons? How dense and how densely packed is your MC powder?

2) No, the CPS value is independent of the amount of powder; rather, it's a property of the MC polymer chain itself.

3) Depends on how much MC you've put in. It's not so much the final volume of the solution that counts, but how gooey it is.

It's hard to give an exact recipe for MC because of the differences in powder viscosity and personal taste. I'd suggest just dissolving about 2 heaped tablespoons of the stuff in 1 litre of water for starters. If it's too gooey, just add more water. If it looks too thin, add more powder. MC takes a while to dissolve, so be sure to let your goop sit around for 20 minutes or more before you judge its consistency.

[origamimasterjared]

You're not making a bomb here--no need to be so precise...

I use about one teaspoon of powder in 100 mL of hot/warm water. Shake/stir it up and leave it out for a night.

Since there is more to methyl-cellulose than simply covering a paper in the stuff pre-fold it's hard to judge how long it'll last. I saturate the paper with MC before folding. Then, once dry, I fold until some point I ordain as "the base" (The point at which shaping and details become an issue). I selectively paint small sections of the model, every layer, with MC, and shape accordingly. Next I let/make that area of the paper dry. Once that area is dry and ready I follow the same procedure for the rest of the figure. If part of it doesn't dry as wanted, you can always re-wet that area and reshape.

You can make some really good-looking origami this way.

[mike352]

I was flipping through Michael LaFosse's Advanced Origami book the other day, and I noticed his recipe, pg. 20:
-2 ounces of MC powder to 20 ounces of water
-Sprinkle the powder slowly onto the surface of the water as you mix it
-Allow it to sit for at least a day or two

I've never used MC powder before though. I instead use Eric Gjerde's method of using heavy clothes starch -- it's cheap and sprayable. He discovered this method by noticing that MC was an ingredient in clothes starch spray. I just noticed that MC was the main ingredient in a laxative medicine the other day .... hmmm. I don't suggest making powder out of laxative medicine though, hehe.

[wolf]

Okay, here's some more concrete information.

Metylan Normal is the MC-based wallpaper adhesive that I used previously for resizing and backcoating. The product information can be found here:

http://www.metylan.de/Metylan_normal.1361.0.html

Contents is 125g of MC. The table at the end of the page gives you a rough indication of how much use you can get out of it. Quick English summary:

Sizing: 125g in 10 litres of water, covers approx 100 square metres
Light wallpaper: 125g in 8.75 litres of water, covers approx 50 square metres
Normal wallpaper: 125g in 7.5 litres of water, covers approx 40 square metres
Heavy wallpaper: 125g in 6.25 litres of water, covers approx 30 square metres

What I've used before is somewhere between light wallpaper and normal wallpaper, both for resizing and backcoating.

Again, bear in mind that the viscosity of this Metylan product may be different from what you have. I'm guessing what you have is less viscous, so you're going to have to use less water, which means less area of coverage.