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smash moulding


SA80A2AR

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10 hours ago, SA80A2AR said:

does anyone know how to smash mould??  is it the same idea as vac-form or what?

You kids. Always wanting to smash something. :dull:

I've never heard of it and a quick Googleise didn't show anything of interest. Perhaps it may be another name for vac-form, maybe someone didn't thing that vacuuming sounded dynamic enough. With your skill making a vac-form box would be an interesting project.

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Here's Perdu smash moulding some helicopter rotor blade fairings

Smash moulding is vacform moulding without the vacuum.

Make a male mould, mount it on a stick, heat some plastic up until it goes floppy, burn fingers, drop plastic, stick hands under cold tap.

Dry hands, put on gloves, find some clamps to hold plastic, heat it up til it goes floppy and pull (smash) over mould. Hold til the plastic goes stiff, cut plastic away from mould and examine, throw in bin because result is rubbish.

Repeat.

After a few goes you'll get the hang of it and maybe a half decent result.

It takes some experimentation to work out how hot and floppy the plastic needs to be and how hard you need to pull it over the mould.

This will depend on the type and thickness of the plastic being used, the size and shape of the mould and how quick you are at getting from the heat to the mould.

Once you get the hang of it though, you should be able to mould identical parts quickly and easily.

Can be used with clear plastic over horribly thick kit canopies to get nice clear thin ones as well a scratch building parts as Perdu is doing above.

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36 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Here's Perdu smash moulding some helicopter rotor blade fairings

Smash moulding is vacform moulding without the vacuum.

Make a male mould, mount it on a stick, heat some plastic up until it goes floppy, burn fingers, drop plastic, stick hands under cold tap.

Dry hands, put on gloves, find some clamps to hold plastic, heat it up til it goes floppy and pull (smash) over mould. Hold til the plastic goes stiff, cut plastic away from mould and examine

Exactly! 

 

It has been many years since I last did this but it is a viable method and there’s one guy in the aviation section who is very good at this. He does all kinds of amazing things with it - I’ll try to find him for you - sorry can’t remember his name. Judging by the comments above it’s probably not @perdu

 

In polite company this is called plunge moulding. 

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Have a look at ‘plunge moulding tutorial - VC10’ by @DMCSorry, I don’t know how to post a link using my phone here - but the tutorial is under ‘Scratchbuiling’ same as this thread so its not far away! 👍

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I have been doing this since Alan Hall showed moulding in Airfix Magazine in the late sixties

Usually find the first ones are the best, 😀 but practice does let you become quite proficient

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32 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Have a look at ‘plunge moulding tutorial - VC10’ by @DMCSorry, I don’t know how to post a link using my phone here - but the tutorial is under ‘Scratchbuiling’ same as this thread so its not far away! 👍

Here you go Steve, this one

 

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41 minutes ago, Gorby said:

That sounds pretty similar to plunge moulding.

It is, all variations of thermoforming plastic sheet

Smash or crash moulding you're pulling the softened sheet over a fixed mould

Plunge moulding is slightly more sophisticated, you're plunging the male mould into the softened sheet held over a fixed female cutout.

And then there's vacforming....

 

1 minute ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

That’s it! Thanks Dave! 👍

You're welcome!

 

7 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Sorry @perdu I just noticed that that was @Dave Swindell burning his fingers not you! Got a bit mixed up there. 🥴

I'm sure @perdu's had his fingers burnt at some point as well - no pain, no gain!

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Is totally true, including during my recent marathon rotor fairings sessions

 

I wonder if the sacher-masoch element isn't an essential in modelling anyway

 

"Who can honestly say they have never...?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M.Python has much to answer for...

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