Zemillard90
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
- Messages
- 59
- Reaction score
- 45
Hello All,
Just completed my vent hood build on my way to full electric brewing. I didn't want to spend a bunch on a stainless steel hood so did some browsing at Menard's and came across these for $60. HDPE panels are waterproof, temperature resistant, mold resistant and can be shaped. I'm pretty happy with the results but do need to do some finishing work on the corners (some sort of corner guard). Hood is 2' x 5'. A router, jigsaw and a propane torch were utilized. Build pics below!
Finished hood:
Laying out the template:
Found that using chalk on the underside of the panel worked pretty well for marking cuts. The 90 degree and 45 degree marks refer to the type of router bit to use.
Post-routing:
Routed over the lines. This creates a billion little black specs of plastic everywhere, you have been warned.
Carefully pressed on each panel section to start shaping the sheet into a hood shape. Constant pressure with a board against the panel and the panels start to bend. This is not a brittle plastic so it will not break (I did test on a small piece to be sure).
Using a homemade jig (piece of board attached to a vise), bent one end at a time up to the 90 degree corner and then melted the edge with a propane torch. Be careful, it will flame/smoke a bit, and I am not a professional so there is probably a better way to do it. I threw some of those black bits into the groove to help "weld" the two sides together.
Utilized some ratchet straps to create a jig for the long ends and repeated the welding process. After each seam cooled, it held its shape nicely! Like I mentioned, the corners still have some work to do. I tried welding them, but they wouldn't hold. Will get some vinyl corner molding or something to cover them.
To install, I attached some channel strut to the ceiling and bolted the hood in. Happy with how it looks and hope it will last a long time. Cheers!
Just completed my vent hood build on my way to full electric brewing. I didn't want to spend a bunch on a stainless steel hood so did some browsing at Menard's and came across these for $60. HDPE panels are waterproof, temperature resistant, mold resistant and can be shaped. I'm pretty happy with the results but do need to do some finishing work on the corners (some sort of corner guard). Hood is 2' x 5'. A router, jigsaw and a propane torch were utilized. Build pics below!
Finished hood:
Laying out the template:
Found that using chalk on the underside of the panel worked pretty well for marking cuts. The 90 degree and 45 degree marks refer to the type of router bit to use.
Post-routing:
Routed over the lines. This creates a billion little black specs of plastic everywhere, you have been warned.
Carefully pressed on each panel section to start shaping the sheet into a hood shape. Constant pressure with a board against the panel and the panels start to bend. This is not a brittle plastic so it will not break (I did test on a small piece to be sure).
Using a homemade jig (piece of board attached to a vise), bent one end at a time up to the 90 degree corner and then melted the edge with a propane torch. Be careful, it will flame/smoke a bit, and I am not a professional so there is probably a better way to do it. I threw some of those black bits into the groove to help "weld" the two sides together.
Utilized some ratchet straps to create a jig for the long ends and repeated the welding process. After each seam cooled, it held its shape nicely! Like I mentioned, the corners still have some work to do. I tried welding them, but they wouldn't hold. Will get some vinyl corner molding or something to cover them.
To install, I attached some channel strut to the ceiling and bolted the hood in. Happy with how it looks and hope it will last a long time. Cheers!
