does anyone know where would be the best bet to find sheets of plastic that i can heat, shape, and mold with a heat gun? something like 1/8in. black plastic i need sheets altleast 4ftX4ft though. I have tried some hadware stores in my area not one has a clue......

any clues on where to try?

 

Try midwest plastics. I believe your looking for an acrylic plastic.
I used something similiar to this. I put it in the oven at home heated it up and formed it to my liking.

dan

 

Trying for that darwin award are we?

Dont put that stuff in the oven in your home, it releases toxic, explosive fumes.

 

Just out of curiosity, what for? That sounds like a cool concept, like making an item out of fiberglass, but.... plastic.
Did the hardware store not have it at all, or not that size?

 

gravograph makes a plastic in one or 2 color format. never tried to form it, but it is .020 thick. plus you can engrave on it. thats what we use in the shop. comes in sheets of diffrent sizes, do a search under New Hermes for a supply store near you.

 

well i have been toying around making fiberglass gauge pods and custum interior parts for awhile now. trying to get really good but i have reached a limit with fiberglass and i want to try molding plastic. i want a plastic that i can mold easily with heat and will setup fairly hard. i want 4'X4' sheets because some of my fiberglass molds are that big and i want to try making those parts out of plastics insted. i also want some seperate pieces that i can toy with that won't budge untill around 850*F for some spiecial ideas i have. as soon as i finish some more schooling (still have quite a few trick i need to learn) and get my patents i will turn my weekend hobby in to a small business. right now i just make stuff at home and when friends ask for stuff i see what i can come up with. i have sold a few things but i don't think i know enough yet to open a business. i also do sheet metal work and welding so that helps me too

 

Interesting, keep us in the loop, i'm interested to know how this turns out... I imagine with that ability you could recreate factory plastic panels that would look identical... interesting..


however i'm under the impression that fiberglass would be the easiest to get funky shapes with. Since you don't have to heat it up a lot to move it around... and would be stronger.

I don't know anything about plastics though... Wouldn't you need a plastic welding kit? My buddy made two dodge neon bumpers into one like a r-i-cer kit and sold it to some guy for $$$. He used a plastic welding setup.

 

oh i would use epoxy and things along those lines for plastic i meant that it helps that i can weld to start a business

 

oh! Yea, having those skills are good to start a business indeed. I just mean a heat gun might not be ideal for forming plastics, maybe use a plastic welding setup. or epoxy I guess...
Giv'er.

 

i'm new to working with plastic too i will have to do some research on a plastic welding setup. i don't know anything about them. i have heard people talking about them before but i thought they were just all talk. i didn't there really is plastic welding setups. do you know how much they run?

 

I don't want a darwin award lol. Thats not how I want to be remembered. Certain plastics are ment to be heated so that they can be bent. Also it needs to be heated to a certain temprature.
On a large piece a heat gun will not work because th uniformity will not work out. What you do is get an old stove , not your household stove, and use it at a low temp to heat up the plastic then bend. We also have done this with a special lexan that we make guards out of at work . This is so the customer can see if there is any jams on the conveyor.

Plastic done with the gun is called poly. The gun is a fair size and not cheap. The regualr plastic there is a glue used for it .



Dan

 

Interesting, keep us in the loop, i'm interested to know how this turns out... I imagine with that ability you could recreate factory plastic panels that would look identical... interesting..

Ditto. Sounds very kule. Let us know how it works out.