Warm Clay = better???

[zesty-man]

the other day, i was claying my mom`s tires and lower back of her SUV, when i realzied something. it was a hot day that day, and it was really easy to knead the clay, and was a lot eaiser to use. however, on other days ive noticed taht the clay has been really hard, and at times sticky, so it gets really annoying. do you guys notice a differnce between warm clay and cold clay?

[keeotee]

Absolutely. Last fall I attempted to clay and it was probably only in the 40`s or maybe lower 50`s as best I recall. I found it quite difficult to knead the clay. I did some claying just last night in fact and being so warm, it was much easier.

One thought, I would think, and I`m only offering a guess here, but it would seem that warm clay would also do a better job of removing embedded contaminants from the paint as well as being easier to knead.

[zesty-man]

the fact that the clay was sooo malleable made it easy to make the clay nice and wide, so i could cover more space. also, it made claying really fun!!! maybe i should microwave some clay next time....... bad idea/good idea? will microwaving clay do anything to my clay, or my mom`s microwave?

[keeotee]

I don`t know this for a fact, but I doubt microwaving is a good idea. And it won`t be but a few minutes in the cold again before whateber benefit you might have gained from microwaving will be lost.

[zesty-man]

hmmm, i want to find a way to get the entire clay warm, not just the surface............. anyone have any ideas?

[karll]

you clayed the tires?? first i heard of that.

[clean4u]

Maybe just leave the clay inside where it would be room temp.

[wifehatescar]

It depends......some clay falls apart when warm. I use Autopia clay, the cheap stuff, and it falls apart when warm or hot. I just try to use it out of direct sunlight.

[Beemerboy]

Clay on the tires? not heard of that one before. You can warm clay up in the oven. Turn on low and let warm up set inside fro 5 minutes and that should do the trick to start. However it will cool down as you use it but you can get most of the car done before hand.

[keeotee]

Well, here`s a thought on keeping the clay warm when temps outside are such that they cause the clay to become cold and difficult to knead...

You can try a number of different yet similar things, such as heating up a pan of water, not too hot, put the clay in a sealable baggie and take the whole ting outside with you. When not using the clay while wiping off what you`ve just dine, put the clay in the baggie andin the pan of water.

Another possibility would be to get a small container that is used to keep food either cold or warm, buy one of those items, whatever they are called that allow you to either heat them up or make them cold, heat that up, put it in the container and keep the clay in there and take that outside with you.

Those are just a couple ideas, but anything along that line ought to to the trick I would think.

[Bill D]

Originally posted by Beemerboy
Clay on the tires? not heard of that one before.


I`ll third that. Wouldn`t the clay be trash instantly? :huh

[zesty-man]

my bad. i meant clay on rims.....


hmmm, very interesting ideas.

[Gary Jones]

You can always run warm water over the clay, that should make it more plyable and easier to work with.

Gary

[willbjew]

what does clay even do???

[Maxtorque02]

I`ve used the microwave and it works great to soften the clay. Be sure not to do it for a very long time, as you just want it to get warm so it`s easily pliable. I think I did it in 10 second intervals about twice to get it warm enough.:)