I melted some HDPE (2) from a laundry softener bottle into an aluminum star shaped mold meant for foodstuffs. It has a low glass transition, it was rubbery feeling when hot, even when very hot. (500 F) When I kicked it up to 500 it started to brown a bit, but it never flowed freely. From browsing the web I found that HDPE doesn't have benzine attached to the polymers like in PS, that is a big positive, the HDPE didn't smell at all, unlike PS. The result seems very strong and not at all brittle like PS as well. It never smoked. To mold this by hand you'd need to place the plastic under some amount of pressure, it seems to have a bit of memory to overcome. Pieces added to melt would stick, and then shrink and get thicker. It stuck well to the aluminum.
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