Hot Glue Ring

Recently I was at a lake with some family. While playing out it the water, my brother-in-law popped out of the water onto a paddle board and solemnly declared, "I just lost my wedding ring." There was no getting it back. It got me thinking about picking up some silicon rings so that I could avoid this situation. With rings on my mind, I came across the glue gun challenge, and this idea came to mind of how to make a quick hot glue ring. I gave it a try and it turned out pretty well. Now I have a couple I can throw on if I want a ring at work or while out having fun. This is also a super easy way to make some cheap rings for kids to play with. I've never tried making an instructable before, but here it goes. Let me know in the comments if you like it.

• hot glue gun with glue
• ring mold (RingMold.gcode)
• chapstick
• Q-tip

optional:

• exacto/craft Knife

I started out creating a mold that I could use to hold the hot glue. The inner diameter of this ring it 20mm. The attached file is the gcode for a 3D printer. Feel free to use this one, or to create your own. It doesn't have to be 3D printed, you could make one out of metal piping, PVC pipe, wood, probably even paper and tape if you do it right. The key is to make something that the glue won't stick too, or use something on the mold to prevent the glue from sticking. I did this in the next step.

Hot glue sticks to a lot of things, but some things it won't stick too. Such as metal, grease, wax, silicone, etc. An internet search will provide a lot of options. I decided to use chap stick on my mold because it was easy to access. I used a q-tip to put a generous amount of chap stick on all the parts of the mold that would touch the hot glue. This included the inside of the big ring, the outside of the center piece, and the top of the small ring on the base.

After applying the chap stick, I put the three pieces of the mold together.

Once the mold was prepared, plug in the hot glue gun and wait for it to heat up.

When the glue gun is ready, carefully add the glue into the mold.

TIPS

• Be careful not to touch the hot glue gun to the mold, or you might melt it and deform the mold and ring.
• Make sure the entire mold gets filled, or the ring will have gaps in it. I applied extra glue to make sure there were no air bubbles.

When the mold is filled up, unplug the glue gun and allow it to cool. Wait a few minutes for the hot glue to cool off and take form in the mold.

Since I put a lot of glue on the mold, I used an exacto knife to cut off the excess and make the top of the glue smooth and even with the top of the mold.

Removing the ring from the mold is pretty simple.

1. Pull off the bottom piece of the mold.
2. Push out the center of the mold.
3. Push the ring out of the outer mold ring.

If enough chap stick or grease has been applied, these steps are super easy. If not, then it'll take a little more work to push the ring off the mold.

The mold I used wasn't perfect so I had an edge that was a little sharper feeling than the others. I used an exacto knife to smooth it down. This finished product turned out pretty well and fit decently.

The mold for this was pretty basic, but adding in some design into the mold wouldn't be hard.

Have fun!