When vacuum forming the styrene dome excess material is left on the base that needs to be cut off. I cut off some of the dome material before OSFest so it would not be in the way during the convention. tonight I wanted to make the dome base and inner dome straight and smooth. We started by measuring the lowest point between the top of the wood quilting ring (glued to the dome base and used to hold the dome on) and the bottom of the dome base at several points around the base. Once all the points were marked, a flexible ruler was held along the points and I drew a line connecting the points.
I then used the Exacto knife to score on or below the line.
I used a pair of pliers to slowly bend the excess styrene causing it to tear/break away from the dome base. I methodically worked my way around the dome base until all the excess material was separated from the dome base. I then used sand paper to smooth out the edge and remove any high areas.
Jason showed up and brought his new aluminum dome to compare against an aluminum dome and my styrene dome. There were slight differences between each dome run.
The inner dome needed the same work done as the dome base, so I scored and removed the material below the bottom line.
