bsfman
10-22-2012, 04:53 AM
While surfing the web, I discovered a picture of square watermelons being grown in Japan and the watermelons were being sold for big bucks! Further Googling turned up a page showing how to build a watermelon mold box out of plexiglass. This started me thinking about molding other fruit and vegetables into various shapes.
I Googled vegetable molds and found a number of sites (including eBay) selling cucumber molds. The price for a set of three molds was very high - like $88 bucks not including shipping! That's a LOT of money to mold just three cucumbers! It got me thinking about making my own cucumber molds out of plexiglass.
I decided to start simple and just make square cucumber molds to test the concept. Further Googling on the topic of thermoforming plexiglass gave me enough knowledge to take a stab at it. I bought a thin sheet of 18" X 24" plexiglass at Home Depot for just under 10 bucks. I used a hand held reciprocating saw to slice it into small sheets...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polycut.jpg
then peeled off the backing on both sides and wound up with this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polycleaned.jpg
My idea was to heat the plexiglass in the kitchen oven to soften it, them use 1" angle iron as a jig to form a V shape.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polyjig.jpg
Two pieces formed this way complete the mold.
Through trial and error, I found that 5 minutes at 350 degrees softens the plexiglass to the point where it can be shaped. I used a sheet of aluminum foil tp support the plexiglass on the oven grate.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polyheat.jpg
I laid the soft plexiglass on the bottom piece of angle iron and used the smaller piece of angle iron to sandwich the plexi between the iron as I pressed down firmly and held until the plastic set. This worked pretty good and formed a nice, clean V shape, but the flat flanges of the mold wanted to warp so I used potholders to try to keep them flat and smooth until the plastic set. It only takes a minute or two for the plexiglass to cool sufficiently to set.
I used a small drill bit (3/32nds) to drill pilot holes in the flange, then used a 1/4" bit to expand them. (Light pressure on the drill is required or the plexiglass will crack.) I used 1/2 inch long 1/4" bolts and nuts to fasten the two halves of the mold together. The finished mold looks like this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/cukemold4.jpg
Soon, I had cranked out a number of square molds. Hey! If you're gonna mold cukes, you may as well do more than one at a time, right?
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/cukemold2.jpg
To use the mold, I just found small cucumbers (about chapstick sized) and slid them into the mold. A few days growth and you have this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0228.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0232.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0233.jpg
Having proven the concept, I embarked on making a heart shaped mold (I figure heart shaped pickles will be a big hit come Valentine's Day!) Building a heart shaped mold turned out to be much more difficult. I finally succeeded at it, but that will be the topic of a separate post. I'm currently working on a tetrahedral tomato mold too - also a separate topic post to follow!
I Googled vegetable molds and found a number of sites (including eBay) selling cucumber molds. The price for a set of three molds was very high - like $88 bucks not including shipping! That's a LOT of money to mold just three cucumbers! It got me thinking about making my own cucumber molds out of plexiglass.
I decided to start simple and just make square cucumber molds to test the concept. Further Googling on the topic of thermoforming plexiglass gave me enough knowledge to take a stab at it. I bought a thin sheet of 18" X 24" plexiglass at Home Depot for just under 10 bucks. I used a hand held reciprocating saw to slice it into small sheets...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polycut.jpg
then peeled off the backing on both sides and wound up with this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polycleaned.jpg
My idea was to heat the plexiglass in the kitchen oven to soften it, them use 1" angle iron as a jig to form a V shape.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polyjig.jpg
Two pieces formed this way complete the mold.
Through trial and error, I found that 5 minutes at 350 degrees softens the plexiglass to the point where it can be shaped. I used a sheet of aluminum foil tp support the plexiglass on the oven grate.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/polyheat.jpg
I laid the soft plexiglass on the bottom piece of angle iron and used the smaller piece of angle iron to sandwich the plexi between the iron as I pressed down firmly and held until the plastic set. This worked pretty good and formed a nice, clean V shape, but the flat flanges of the mold wanted to warp so I used potholders to try to keep them flat and smooth until the plastic set. It only takes a minute or two for the plexiglass to cool sufficiently to set.
I used a small drill bit (3/32nds) to drill pilot holes in the flange, then used a 1/4" bit to expand them. (Light pressure on the drill is required or the plexiglass will crack.) I used 1/2 inch long 1/4" bolts and nuts to fasten the two halves of the mold together. The finished mold looks like this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/cukemold4.jpg
Soon, I had cranked out a number of square molds. Hey! If you're gonna mold cukes, you may as well do more than one at a time, right?
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/cukemold2.jpg
To use the mold, I just found small cucumbers (about chapstick sized) and slid them into the mold. A few days growth and you have this...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0228.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0232.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/IMG_0233.jpg
Having proven the concept, I embarked on making a heart shaped mold (I figure heart shaped pickles will be a big hit come Valentine's Day!) Building a heart shaped mold turned out to be much more difficult. I finally succeeded at it, but that will be the topic of a separate post. I'm currently working on a tetrahedral tomato mold too - also a separate topic post to follow!