How to make acrylic piece into car shaped body? 3D?

blow molding?How to make acrylic piece into car shaped body? 3D?
Options are:





1.Blow moulding into a mould.





2. Vacuum forming. Cut a shape of the car out of any suitable material, wood would be Ok. place in the bottom of a suitable Vac mould. Draw sheet down onto it.


160 to 180 'C should be Ok.


If sheet is opaque then any moulding marks will be on back surface








See this for more details:





http://www.lucitesolutions.com/solution.鈥?/a>How to make acrylic piece into car shaped body? 3D?
Acrylic sheet softens nicely in the oven at about 240F, so you handle with it with smooth cotton gloves to move it without marking.


A good thing is that if you blow a molding run, you just reheat the sheet and it flattens back out.


For total reliability, you need an inside and outside mold with the right space between them, so you can lay the sheet down on the outside mold and push the inside mold into place. Plaster mold heated in the oven to the same temp keeps the plastic from cooling off too quickly.


One way to make this work is to sculpt the inside mold to somewhat smaller than your car, then dip it in wax to make a layer as thick as the plastic. Carve the wax with car details then mold plaster over the wax and heat to melt the wax out, leaving a space between the inner and outer.


A bit more complicated but easier to conceptualize the car body is to sculpt the body in soft plasticine clay and make a plaster mold from that. Then pour melted wax in the plaster and slosh it around to coat the inside in a mostly even layer. Pour plaster inside the wax coating and after hard heat to melt the wax and release the inner mold.


This answer assumes you know or can find out how to work with plaster of paris including relief angles and avoiding undercuts and know how long to wait for the plaster to be strong.