molding acrylic

[reef165]

ive seen many dyi skimmers and ammazed at the craftsmanship and was wondering abought the technices used to mold the tops from the base to the neck, not sure what to call the part but i just saw one thats done with a dart pump and he'd made a dome, but most look like a inverted funnel.

[staticx]

The guy that made the dome is crazy good at skimmer builds. You have to heat the acrylic and then you can use something to push the center of it to form a dome.

[reef165]

thankyou, thats a good start but im looking for a more in depth instruction, ive tryed the whole heating up the acrylic and such with no good results the acrylic eather bubbles or rips, and ive read that heating in the house oven isnt a good idea because of gasses released.

[culdublvd]

I read about someone using his bbq to heat the acrylic.

[purereefer]

the dome wasnt made, but bought from glabal plastics. to make the cone shaped versons, you need to build a few jigs, one for the top of the cone, the small part, and one for the bottom, the big part, and one more piece the will be the plunger, or piece that pushed the plastic into the cone when heated.

there are a few threads on here that detail how to make this part you are asking about. if it were me though, i wouldnt wasnt my time in making a cone, just go buy a dome from global plastics, they are only like 20-30$ or something like that.

[Douglas LEHMAN]

Hello
Here is how I formed the cone for my latest skimmer...
1) Forming fixture is 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood 16" square with the needed size hole drilled, top 8" dia and 3 1/2" in the lower piece to index the riser plug.
2) Heat 1/4"x12" acrylic/plywood sandwich for 20 minutes at 355 degrees F.
3) Slide assembly over a 3 1/2"x 3" tall nylon plug and clamp in place to cool.

The results can be seen in my gallery...

[prance1520]

I've been looking into this as well. I think it will be well worth my time to get the dome from global plastics. Anything that isn't too big will cost you $30. Good luck! Post results.