ABS Plastic

[Brother]

Some of you guys mentioned working with ABS before.

So, How do you do it?

Where is a good place to learn if you don't want to share the short or long version here?

[bell]

what are you making out of abs?

[Jack Olsen]

What are you looking to do with it?

[Brother]

Saw a post by Wil Ferch about making a oil cooler scoop out of ABS. I thought that sounded pretty cool but I didn't want to hijack the other thread.

Something like that or maybe other little pieces.

[widebody911]

ABS is very formable with heat. For simple stuff, you can heat it with a heat gun and form it to your heart's desire. You could probably also heat-form it over a simple mold.

[Brother]

Are we talking regular hairdryer or a real heatgun?

[widebody911]

A real heat gun.

[Quicksilver]

I used to have a link to a site where a guy showed how he made a vacuum forming rig using a Coleman electric grill turned upside down for a heat source and a couple large cookie sheets (the type with a raised edge). He drilled small holes in one of the cookie sheets and sealed the lips of the two sheets together. He hooked a shopvac up to the chamber formed by the two sheets to get a vacuum source.

The ABS sheet was clamped to a frame below the electric BBQ and he said the basic technique was to turn it on and when the ABS started to sag you simply lower it down over the mold until you have a nicely formed part and then turn the BBQ off.

Seemed pretty simple but you need to build a bit of a contraption.

Wayne

[Wil Ferch]

Brother:
Just saw my name get referenced here....and to be clear on my other post....the roofing vent pipe flashing I used wasn't reshaped with heat....I simply cut away the unused material to get the end-result I wanted. No heat or plastic reforming required. Sorry if I wasn't clear or if I misinformed you.

Wil

[Brother]

Originally posted by Wil Ferch
Brother:
Just saw my name get referenced here....and to be clear on my other post....the roofing vent pipe flashing I used wasn't reshaped with heat....I simply cut away the unused material to get the end-result I wanted. No heat or plastic reforming required. Sorry if I wasn't clear or if I misinformed you.

Wil

Picture please if you have the time.

[BGCarrera32]

Originally posted by Quicksilver
...a guy showed how he made a vacuum forming rig using a Coleman electric grill turned upside down for a heat source and a couple large cookie sheets.

Was it this guy?

[RickM]

Vacuum molding table planes:

http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html

http://members.aol.com/GCGassaway/vacuform.htm