Made a start on my petal extensions ..

[Vipersan]

Hi friends ..
Very early days yet ...and much more work to do ..but this looks like a good start ..
I now have a dish petal section ..which more or less follows the curve of the dish ...some tweaking yet needed ..
But it will eventually serve as a mould to create permanent bolt on extensions of about 8 inches ..
Made of plastic ..from single plastic sheet ...taked from the backlight diffuser (broken lcd TV panel)...and shaped with a paint stripper heat gun ...some wooden blocks and a bread knife..
;)
here are the pics
VS

 

[Lazarus]

So ............... not a Gardening Thread then?



VS, have you thought about going on TV? Your ingenuity and creativity deserve an airing on a wider basis than just a Forum!


As yer man Brian would say ............. "Amazing"

 

[Vipersan]

So ............... not a Gardening Thread then?



VS, have you thought about going on TV? Your ingenuity and creativity deserve an airing on a wider basis than just a Forum!

errrr Gardening wasat then ..
;)

My back yard is my workshop ..lol..and you'll notice I _never_ throw anything away ..
You just never know when an item or piece of junk can be re-purposed..
Like my head ...just full of junk..

rgds
VS

 

[sonnetpete]

So ............... not a Gardening Thread then?...........

Well the same thought crossed my mind (it would wouldn't it)....has the Gulf Stream reached the North West and produced unusual climatic conditions accelerating snowdrop growth?

But no.......VS has begun another 'how to make summat from nowt' project. More power to your ingenious elbow mate, look forward to seeing the finished article......and your enlarged snowdrops....

 

[Vipersan]

Well the same thought crossed my mind (it would wouldn't it)....has the Gulf Stream reached the North West and produced unusual climatic conditions accelerating snowdrop growth?

....

If only m8 ..If only ...
The only thing you can guarantee up here is rain ..and if the grinning BBC Londoncentric weather -person- says 'we're in for unseasonably warm weather and glorious sunshine' ...take 6 degrees off it and add some cloud cover ....et Voila ....you're in Manchester..
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

..What I am going to need is a quantity of fibre glass matting ...resin ..and catalyst ...
Difficult at this point to work out quantities ...but I'm thinking 2 ply with sandwiched aluminium mesh or foil ..

So roughly 12 inches x 12 mtres ...
Ebay has plenty for sale at wildly varying prices ...
Anyone recommend a wholesaler ?
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

Hi Renshai m8 ...just noticed you viewing ..
I'm assuming the same guy from DN ..
Its been a while ..
Still got the dog ?
rgds
VS

 

[excollier]

Re post #5
Oh,(longing sigh) for the drought like climate of Manchester.......

 

[Channel Hopper]

Re post #5
Oh,(longing sigh) for the drought like climate of Manchester.......

Ah, but then your emerald land wouldn't be so green, the Guinness would taste like it came from the Park Royal canal, and there's a chance of snakes.

 

[excollier]

Wanna swap? I'll give you six months and you'll want back in the UK.
We have plenty of snakes, they are called the government.

 

[A nonymous]

Weve got them to, only we call them useless bast**ds here

 

[Vipersan]

...Now it gets a bit tricky ..generating even heat ..enough to change the shape of the plastic ..without bubbling and melting it ..
If I can get this bit right ..then it should be possible to make a fully functional mould ...and because the length of each segment will be longer than the original ..I'll probably have to make 7 or even 8 extension segments ..rather than 6


I may have to go out and buy a small hand held halogen lamp for a more even heat footprint..
We shall see..

rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

..Well not unexpected really ..
I'm having great difficulty applying heat evenly onto the plastic surface ..it has a tendancy to heat the air under the plastic ..causing blisters of hot trapped air ..
Not given up totally on this yet ..but may well be ..I end up going for a heavily greased surface on the dish itself ..then applying fibreglass sheeting directly and allowing to dry to a hard removeable shell ...in other words ..the dish itself becomes the mould.
Some experiment needed to make sure it doesn't bond to the dish surface and become permanent.
Don't get me wrong ..the above method worked ..but not as well as I had hoped.
rgds
VS

 

[Topper]

A grease sandwich should work fine VS, a thin layer of grease then greaseproof paper then another thin layer of grease then the fibreglass mat and resin. Even if it sticks somewhere the paper will give up its hold before the dish surface distorts

 

[sonnetpete]

A grease sandwich should work fine VS.....

Wasn't that called that bread and dripping??

 

[pgh13]

Ebay has plenty for sale at wildly varying prices ...
Anyone recommend a wholesaler ?
rgds
VS

It's a while since I got my hands dirty with GRP but these guys always used to be friendly and helpful..... they're in Southport

Glasplies

 

[Topper]

Wasn't that called that bread and dripping??

Have heard of it as a staple diet for the poor but never in this context, however even more completely off topic, as a winter remedy for a bad chest my grandfather used to swear by goose grease smeared on his chest then all convered with brown paper

 

[Vipersan]

Tried again this morning to iron out the bumps ...and finally had to admit defeat..
Yes I can get the overall contour of the dish area by using the plastic sheet ...but its simply not possible to get it accurate to within mm ...to achieve this the whole sheet would have to be heated uniformly ..and sucked of pushed into place whilst it hardened ..
..a bit like injection moulding ..
something I simply can't achieve.
So ..it looks like I shall be using the grease ..(paper ..thanks Topper)...and fibre glass mat method afterall .
I'll be trying a test sample first ..on an old mini dish...once I have the gear to do it.

I'm not giving up on this ...
There's an old saying,,,where there's a will ...there's relatives...oh sorry ..there's a way
;)
rgds
VS

 

[mouse3]

Nice project,but resin need one mould,next option it s extension from aluminium 0,6-1mm thickness.
What do You think about metal extension ?

 

[Topper]

Nice project,but resin need one mould,next option it s extension from aluminium 0,6-1mm thickness.
What do You think about metal extension ?

They would not be petals then and this dish is designed for petals