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a mould for a hollow lenticular
I have access to a plastic vakuum machine and have thought of making some lenticular wheel covers. For that I dreamed up using plywood or mdf cut as a reverse bowl by a "cnc" woodshop. I have not got a quote for that yet, so have no idea of cost....
Couldnt you do something similar?
svenhöek-
Yeah I've thought about some of those ideas over the years. Also getting a bowl spun in aluminium.
Here's a thing, if you partially vac a piece of thin plastic film into a round hole, it'll pull the surface into a spherical surface. It's how they make some mirrors for telescopes. For your covers you could do that, pour plaster of paris in and let it dry - then you've got a former. Obvs make it bigger than the actual wheel because then you'll be able to trim it back.
Having said that, I wonder if I could do something similar here with a well-sealed MDF box with the hole cut in the top and probably a vac bag for the film. The key thing would be how to get a good enough surface to laminate onto. And I'd have to take a female mould off it. Hmmm...
Jonny69
I've only got access to pre-preg. Besides, it's way easier than wet layup!
For the smaller wheel I've got a glass plate. For the bigger one we've got sheets of aluminium sandwich specifically for laying up flat items and I can stick some PTFE down onto it to prevent the surface pin holing.
Bonding the two halves together and getting them parallel is no problem. Truing it up on the hub should be no problem with a dti.
Riveting isn't a good idea in my mind, because you lose fibre continuity and I think 9323 is strong enough. It's a tough adhesive, specifically for sticking aerospace parts together and tabbing high strength test specimens.
Any ideas what to use as a mould for a hollow lenticular are welcome.