Turn a pizza oven into a Sheet oven

HDPE

On this tutorial I will show you how we do plastic sheets with a pizza oven and a Cardboard/PET press.

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Table of Contents

  1. We got an old pizza oven for free from a local restaurant. Then we sand it down, cleaned it and added a PID controller. The thermometer is in the middle of the oven.

  2. We created a mold out of square steel tubes. Here is important to do a mold the size of the oven, but you can also use simple bread trays.

    I think the magic and complexity of good sheets lays here in this step. We keep making new molds that are far better. but in this case we use steel that was laying around.

    For next molds:

    • We will use aluminum sheets
    • We will add a frame to "limit" the compression width
  3. Now, we add vaseline to the mold and afterwards we add around 3 kg of shredded HDPE and put the mold lid.

  4. Now we turn on the oven and regulate the temperature depending on the plastic. We got good results with 160°C, but remember, this was measurred in the middle of the oven.

  5. We let it heat for 40-50 minutes and then take it to the press. We use a press that is made to press PET and Cardboard at the local recycling center (www.huertoromaverde.org).

  6. Here are the first 3 sheets we made,

  7. Check out the first part of the video where I show how it works: youtube.com: youtube.com/watch?v=gxkcffQD3eQ&t=131s

  8. Plastic Sheets are very versatile to create different products, we mainly use them after cutting them in the CNC mill.

    But we also have cut them by hand and made boxes, signs and even a skateboard.

    Try it at home and share it with the community,

Tools

  • PET/Cardboard press (Functionality demo)
  • Steel tube molds (custom-made to oven dimensions)
  • Bread trays (alternative mold option)
  • Petroleum jelly (for mold lubrication)
  • Mold lid with fastening system

Hardware

  • Pizza oven retrofitted with PID temperature controller
  • Centrally mounted oven thermometer
  • Square steel tube mold frame
  • Aluminum sheets (planned for upgraded molds)
  • Compression width-restraining frame (future implementation)

Software

  • PID controller interface for temperature regulation
  • No additional software cited in the process

Note: All components were adapted for HDPE sheet production, with oven modifications focusing on precise temperature control at 160°C (320°F).

References

Articles

YouTube

Opensource Designs