I could never get it to work well with a hair dryer. I tried several times and it didn't work. A heat gun is a must in my opinion.
Packaging Ideas?
- Thread starter TashaBird
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Good to know. Thank you.
Hair dryers vary so much; I would only use one if I was traveling and had brought the shrink wrap but not my heat gun. I never bring the shrink wrap with me when I travel; too cumbersome.
I prefer a heat gun that has a built-in stand so that I don't have to hold it in my hands. I hold the wrapped soap over top of the heat gun, which allows for better control.
I use the DeWalt model D26950, but there are many options. Here's a good video by Amy Warden on how to efficiently shrink wrap soap:
She no longer sells the smell-through shrink wrap, so when I run out, I'll have to find another source.
I prefer a heat gun that has a built-in stand so that I don't have to hold it in my hands. I hold the wrapped soap over top of the heat gun, which allows for better control.
I use the DeWalt model D26950, but there are many options. Here's a good video by Amy Warden on how to efficiently shrink wrap soap:
She no longer sells the smell-through shrink wrap, so when I run out, I'll have to find another source.
Someone listed a link earlier int he thread. National and Nova have it.
https://thenovastudio.com/product/national-shrinkwrap-system/https://www.nationalshrinkwrap.com/soapmakers.html
I don't do a lot of shrink wrapping but when I do I've used my hairdryer... it gets too hot to use on my head but it seems to do the trick for the soap... have to keep it moving so I don't burn my hands. Hair dryers really vary in power.
Yeah, that was me, actually. I contacted them in the past. At that time they did not sell small quantities of the olefin & I am not even sure it is the same stuff I have been using that I got from Amy Warden. What I am talking about is the SMELL-THROUGH shrink wrap. Maybe I should just contact her and ask who her supplier was since she is no longer stocking it. Maybe she would be willing to share that information.
The description on those sites says the perforated is smell through, but that even the non perforated is smell through after a little while. But, if you find out, I’d be interested. National has rolls of 18” x 500’ for 90. But, the system is cheaper through Nova, which also has free shipping.
I’m still currently on the $8 biodegradable plastic wrap roll from amazon.
But, I’d like to try shrink wrap next.
I contacted Amy and she graciously gave me the information I asked about, including the detail needed to find the exact product elsewhere since the company she used to purchase from no longer carries what she used to buy.
There are several vendors online who sell it, but the price I'd have to pay from most of them was formidable (I am a hobbyist, not a large corporation). However, I did find a bargain for a roll of this product on Amazon & snapped it up quick. I'm glad I did because the price went up a lot right after that, so for once, the impulse to buy immediately, rather than leaving it in my cart for days, served me well. It's still a whole lot more than I will probably ever use on my own, but on the plus side, I will never run out and it was a huge bargain.
The product is Syfan's SYTEK polyolefin. It's the 45 gauge that is smell-through apparently, maybe another gauge may be as well, but this is what I used to buy from Amy & I know it worked as advertised & I was satisfied. It comes in different widths & the bargain I got was the 12" width, with a center fold, which will fit my impulse sealer even better than the 16" width I used to get from Amy. It is available in other widths, but this was the best bargain I could find, & I am happy with it. It has a center fold, so the actual width is double were it to be opened up. With the center fold, it's fairly easy to slip the soaps inside the fold & create a seal around the soap, without having to fold anything over.
I ordered a roll of 5830 feet, which is just over a mile of shrink wrap (the least I was able to purchase anywhere else I could find), so it will certainly last me a very long time! And it weighs 24 pounds in total, so no shipping with Amazon, was really great, too.
Sometime in the future I may have to sell off some of it, so it doesn't go to waste, but I'll have to figure that out later. Right now, I'm just glad I won't be scrambling to find a new source when I am out of what I last bought from Amy.
It is not listed as biodegradable, but it does have the #4 recycle code, so at least it can be added to the plastic grocery shopping bag bins for recycling. I wonder if I should start adding that to my labels; I'll give that some thought.
I've bought polyolefin (smell through) shrink wrap bags from TwoWildHares on Etsy. They have several sizes and quantity listings available. I don't use shrink wrap very often, and considering I wasn't very adept at making my own bags from a length of the material, this is a reasonably priced option for me.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/575115...gs-smell-through?ref=shop_home_active_4&crt=1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/575115...gs-smell-through?ref=shop_home_active_4&crt=1
Does anyone know if the perforated biodegradable shrink wrap can be used for bathbombs and shower steamers or does it let too much moisture in? I wanted to be able to let my soap continue to cure while shrink wrapped but it's really expensive to buy both perforated and standard biodegradable shrink wrap.
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