PDA

View Full Version : Making a vegetable mold



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!

David - WI
10-22-2012, 06:36 AM
That's pretty cool actually.

If you're going to make more, you might want to look into a flexible strip heater; so you can heat just the area that you want to bend without making the whole sheet "floppy". Example: your flanges would stay straight(er) if they stayed cool and you just heated the bend.

[attachment=0:3nkjznl5]001 (2).jpg[/attachment:3nkjznl5]
This one is 24" long from USPlasitics (I think):
Heater is designed to heat to maximum of 280 deg F, to prevent accidental burning. It will bend up to 1/4 inch thickness.
I usually fold the heater in half and heat the front & back of the bend (if the part is 12" or less across) because it softens the plastic faster if you heat both sides.

urbanfarmer
10-22-2012, 09:37 AM
:-)

JCO
10-22-2012, 09:46 AM
SO..where did you get the heater strip? :mrgreen:

David - WI
10-22-2012, 10:13 AM
I didn't want to get yelled at for posting a link, but if you google "plastrip heater" you can find lots of places to buy them.

I think I got mine from USPlastics, like I said.

dead_sled
10-22-2012, 10:19 AM
Those cube-cumbers look nice! :mrgreen:
Thanks for sharing the idea.

keith_r
10-22-2012, 01:03 PM
my cukes didn't do very well this year (in the yard).. i did get a few "lemon" cucumbers, they're a round variety that's yellow.. they'd make nice little blocks for stacking on your shelves
i can see it now.. veggie tetris

davidstcldfl
10-24-2012, 06:05 AM
:lol: ...very cool Bsfman... 8-)

bsfman
10-24-2012, 06:15 AM
:lol: ...very cool Bsfman... 8-)

Thanks! As I mentioned, I also built a heart shaped cucumber mold. That was a lot more involved than the square mold. I'll post info on the heart mold later, but here's a teaser: my first jars of pickled cucumber hearts!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/Veggie%20Molds/heartPickles0267.jpg

nachomx
11-09-2012, 05:52 PM
hello bsfman...

I saw your post and it's amazing!!...too many bucks between 88 dlls and 10 bucks at home depot for the plexiglass!!...

i tried couple of times your method but I dont get it...do youhave a video or more photos for details??
where can I watch heart shape molds??...

thanks!!

bsfman
11-09-2012, 07:18 PM
hello bsfman...

I saw your post and it's amazing!!...too many bucks between 88 dlls and 10 bucks at home depot for the plexiglass!!...

i tried couple of times your method but I dont get it...do youhave a video or more photos for details??
where can I watch heart shape molds??...

thanks!!

No videos, but some pics. I'll collate them with a "how to" narrative and post in the next couple of days.

Lordshandyman
11-19-2012, 09:16 PM
Very cool.

Using a heat gun to just heat the area that bends is what I usually do. I heat both sides and then bend the plastic over the edge of a sharp table or counter top. I suppose on such a small mold, it could be pretty hard to heat just the bend though.

Awesome idea for my next project, although I still have two more grow beds to build first.

I wish my cucumbers were doing as well as yours. :mrgreen:

WYveggies
04-27-2014, 02:43 PM
You can buy them at www.veggiemold.com (http://www.veggiemold.com) at reasonable prices, they are on ebay also

blidders
01-26-2021, 03:36 PM
where did you get the heater strip?