does everyone generally heat up their clay before removing paint contaminents?

I never knew people heated up clay? I just knead it in my hand into a flat round shape disc thing, if that's what you're talking about?
 
is this supposed to make clay work better? I have trouble removing some old wax build up with my Meg's clay sometimes :o
 
wow thats a new one . . . never heard of that either. Usually just do what everyone else here is saying, works fine.
 
When it's cold out, I'll keep it in a baggie in my pocket so it's not rock hard when I need a new piece. Guess that's kind of heating it up...
 
kompressornsc said:
When it's cold out, I'll keep it in a baggie in my pocket so it's not rock hard when I need a new piece. Guess that's kind of heating it up...
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Thats about as much heat as I'll give it too.
 
Don't be a Heater. (lol) As for me, all I do is work the clay between the palms of my hands & use my body heat/friction to "soften" the clay a bit so I can mold it into the shape I prefer. While claying, I tend to kneed the clay with my finger tips & fold it into itself between panels.
 
The only time I've heated up clay was because it was frozen. I usually ran it under warm water to soften it up to work and fold.
 
You could heat (warm) the old KEL made poly clay. It helped in cold climate b/c the stuff is kind of stiff. The clay available today is already pretty soft. Warming it will make it turn to mush.
 
I much prefer to work clay as cold as possible. Cold clay, cold paint, cold water. The sticking and smearing is greatly reduced when cold.
 
In the begining, when the idea of cars was new, as was waxing them, cars had bare paint. When new, the paint was shiny and would repell water. But quickly the paint oxidized and got dirty. Then the water would sheet.



Waxing to protect paint seemed like a good idea. True waxes repell water. So the water would bead up on a freshly waxed car. As the wax would wear away, the beading action would reduce to nothing.



So beading as proof of wax being present was established. Life was good, cars shined, and the peasants rejoiced confidently knowing if their car was, or was not, waxed.



In the late 20th century, a cloud of darkness decended. It was called "polymer" or "acrylic" or "synthetic". For not all other-than-wax protective coatings repelled water, producing beads. Indeed, some of them were attracted to it, and produced sheeting action as a result.



Chaos and confusion reigned, and reigns still over "to bead, or not to bead". And truly, it's pointless.



Your best indicator is a freshly applied protective coating. Spray water. If it beads, then it will continue to bead as long as it's present. If it sheets, it will continue to sheet as long as it's present.



But wait, there's more!



Late in the 20th century the practice of clear-coating cars with "new and improved" materials came into being, furthering confusion. For many of these cars shined beautifully with no protective coating whatsoever for years on end. This has caused many an autopian to incorrectly believe they still have the magical protective elixor of choice on their painted surfaces, when in fact it is gone.
 
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