In an earlier post I talked about vac-forming plastic. I had made three molds or plugs - tops for both two and three pass stoves, and a top for a precipitator. Since I am re-building the three pass stoves with a smaller diameter I will have to modify that mold and the mold for the two pass stove (pictured on top of a stove in the last B-Furnace blog) just didn't look right when comparing it with the historical photos. The mold that I made was essentially a half sphere, similar to the Plastruct parts. If you look at the prototype photo, the tops are spherical but, not fully half of a sphere, more like a third.
So I took the mold and put it back on the lathe and turned it down a bit more until I got the shape I wanted. I set up the former next to the kitchen stove and went to work. It's quick work as there is no dry time or anything, about 15 minutes to set up and make five pieces. I made five - four for the stoves and one for the top of the unique dust catcher. The dust catcher top appears to be basically identical to the stove tops. I used .040 plastic for forming these parts. That is a little thicker than I normally would use but I am happy with the results and should have a nice durable part.
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