Making a maul - question?

[dikman]

GRod, sometimes you can find old pewter drinking vessels at thrift shops which might be suitable (not too big and often have a conical-type shape). We once had a set of aluminium drinking cups that were a similar shape. You can use a gas torch to melt the HDPE but you have to be careful as it can scorch the stuff, and while it will still work it looks a bit unsightly. The trick with molding this is to keep pressing it down to force it together and work out any air bubbles.

Another chap on youtube uses a sandwich toaster thingy, one that is flat inside, and uses non-stick cooking sheets to stop it sticking. Great for flat sheets, but I guess you could roll the sheet into a cylinder and then force it into a mold?

I've started looking at he bottom of plastic containers now, checking for the #2 (or 4) code! Bit of a worry.......

[dikman]

GRod, I turned this piece on the lathe to see what it was like, it's ok but could be better. There are obvious small areas, mostly on the bottom, where the mass hasn't fused properly. I think what probably happened is that because I was slowly building up the "layers" in the tin the bottom area was slowly losing heat as I got closer to the top. By using an oven the tin is constantly returned to the heat source so the mass retains the heat better.

My method using the oven was to place an enamelled tray in with the tin on it, put some pieces of plastic in the tin and also put some on the tray to melt, when I removed the tray I squashed down the plastic in the tin and used a paint scraper to lift the stuff off the tray and put it in the tin then squashed that down. Then repeat the process, and repeat and repeat......Don't put too much in at a time or it can take a while to melt.