Hoplitespear
Sr Member
Thank you for all the nice comments!
Or getting some clear styrene from the model shop nearby and trying to vacuumform them over bucks or just with a heatblower.
-Hopli
Thank you! I am debating between cutting a coke bottle or vacuumforming. The coke bottles I have at hand seem to have the correct curve for the front corner pieces. The rest only being curved in one direction.Really great work. I probably missed it, but what are your plans for the cockpit clear windscreen?
Or getting some clear styrene from the model shop nearby and trying to vacuumform them over bucks or just with a heatblower.
Thx! As for the vacuumforming, I was indeed thinking of making a small wooden box with an adapter for my shop vac and just heating the clear styrene with a heatgun and then pulling it over. I'll let you know what contraption I put together when I get to the windows .Awesome! Also, your command of English grammar far exceeds mine of Dutch! Which is zero...sadly.
Now, vacuforming is no mystery. You obviously have the skills to fabricate the 'male' forms and a simple vac rig. I once made one from a cardboard shoe box reinforced with a coat hangar wire grid to support a window screen mesh 'platform' taped over the hole I cut in one side using duct tape. I cut some fiberboard frames of same outer dims as the platform side of the box, with rectangular cutouts of different sizes to let me match my form sizes and conserve plastic. The clear plastic sheet was secured over the cutouts using thumb tacks pushed through the plastic into small predrilled holes. A hole sized to fit my vacuum cleaner hole was cut into the end of the box and reinforced with duct tape as were the box sides and seams to ensure it was airtight. I used a couple of bricks on the oven rack to support the frames and to allow for the plastic to sag. So, hose in the box, vacuum on, once the plastic heated to the max droop point then tightened back up some, used oven mitt to grab and throw on the form setting on the platform and boom! It was done. Crude but it worked. The box would collapse a bit to relieve the suction, and the plastic would self seal the frame. The flexibilty of the setup made it work. The tricky elements were heating to correct temp, good aligment of the frame and speed!
So, moral of the story is if *that* works, I expect you can come up with something.too.
Cheers! Robert
-Hopli