Magic Sand

Magic sand is awesome stuff! It's based on hydrophobic material. It's also one of the coolest science projects you can do as a kid. I mean come on. What kid doesn't love this stuff?

Magic sand can be bought at lots of places like hobby stores and craft stores, but its super easy to make at home and you can make large batches of it for a lot less! Plenty to share with your friends!

Before you follow along with the rest of the steps, take a minute to watch the video on making magic sand. It provides insight and additional details on making this projects.

Once your'e done, head on over to step 2!

To make your very own awesome magic sand you're going to need several items. Most of them your probably have laying around the house.

Items List

1. A flat pan or baking dish (even a pizza pan)
2. A sheet of aluminum foil
3. Some sand
4. A can of spray Scothgard Protector

Notes:

Beach sand works fine. However, I've found that hermit crab sand from your local pet store give superior results when making magic sand,.

Be sure to acquire Scotchgard protector. The cleaner product does not work. The cans look identical, one says cleaner, one says protector.

Either use a pan you don't ever plan to cook with again or use aluminum foil to cover it. You don't want to mix Scotchgard with your next meal. If you don't care about the pan and don't ever plan to cook on it again, the feel free to skip this step. This is not a joke. Scotchgard will not come off the pan.

Spread the hermit crab or other sand out over the pan. Make as thin a layer as you possibly can. The thinner the better. Then spray a good amount of Scotchgard over the sand. You want to completely saturate the sand but do not allow any of the chemical to pool. Use just enough to get it nice and damn.

Now stop and wait 15 to 20 minutes for the protector to dry completely.

Once the first coat is completely dry, use your fingers to stir up the sand. You're going to want to try to move every grain around. Lightly shaking or vibrating the pan also works well. Then smooth everything back out into a flat surface.

Coat the sand once again, exactly as in the previous step.

You'll probably want to repeat these last two steps three to four times (three to four total coats). If you find your magic sand isn't working well, you need more coats. With hermit crab sand three to four seems to be sufficient. With something like beach sand, you may need more.

Before you use your magic sand, its a good idea to test it. Do this by putting just a small portion of the batch you made into a spoon, and drizzling it with water. If the sand is getting wet, you need another coat or two. If it's staying dry and the water is repelling to the edges of the spoon, you're ready to go!

If you enjoyed this project, you'll probably like my other ones too! Check me out here on Instructables and at my website The Geek Pub. Also, be sure to check me out on YouTube at YouTube.com/c/TheGeekPub.