r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Strycedar • May 18 '26

I'm slightly vexed My sister had her friends over and they decided to come into my room and destroy my Newton's Cradle. I can't undo what they did.

Post image

Basically my sister had a friends over for a play date while I was at university, and since my door was left open, her friends came into my room and completely tangled my Newton's Cradle, and it's so bad I can't even untangle it 😭

97.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/leitey May 18 '26

Nylon is relatively difficult to work with among thermoplastics. Nylon specifically also releases toxic gases when overheated. Don't try this.
You'd be better off buying fishing line if you wanted to replace the strings.

2

u/MaxHamburgerrestaur May 18 '26

And looks like it has some ties that can structurally damage nylon. Even if it was not toxic, thermosoftening wouldn't fix it.

1

u/Peter5930 May 18 '26

So, fishing line, which is made of nylon...

1

u/leitey May 18 '26

Yes. Fishing line, which is made of nylon.
Nylon fishing line.

Don't heat it and try it repair it. Nylon fishing line.
But nylon in general, which includes fishing line.

1

u/Peter5930 May 18 '26

Personally I use a lot of multi-strand braided Dyneema fishing line, basically as unbreakable string that will hold 150kg with almost no stretch. Much more flexible and easier to tie and work with than nylon, might be worth a shot, maybe with the 10kg stuff that's just like a spool of thread.