Making 8" PVC ports. Flare Achieved!

[P4killer_]

Ill work on the private vids thing but ill be at work all day ftl.

ok they should be ok now.. gotta run

[Purplehaze]

The vids are there, we can see them. At least I can.

First, I think the pipe is fine. You won't find much thinner at that size.

I think the bowl you are using is one problem, and possibly the method is another.
But that bowl looks bad, is that a bunt cake pan?

I think you need something a little smoother, with a little less pitch. Like maybe a metal lampshade?

And third, you need to really research it, make sure you know the process 100%, and are doing it right.

And lastly, I just don't see this being "quick and easy" no matter what. It's a slow and tricky process from what I have seen.

Good luck! I'll be tuned in! Very cool, indeed.

[P4killer_]

Ok so i gave it another go today. And all in all i think it went well. I did a test run of sorts real quick with the new bowl on the 10" pipe. I used the heat gun on high (12a) instead of two guns on low.. that way the one gun was able to get much hotter than using two lower heat guns although the coverage was better, it wasnt hot enough to get practical results inside of like 5 hours lol.

pics:

new bowl

old bowl vs new one

ten inch pipe, woofer fits nicely, possible future project

pipe on the bowl

After about 20 min of heat and the bowl not secured so i couldnt really get it towork right, i managed a tiny flare. keep in mind i barely put any time into it, but at least this showed a lil hope for a full effort on the 8"

You can kind of see the flare as opposed to the bowl there is a smalllll gap kinda showing that I was just at the edge of getting to work after approx 20min

We took off the mauled end lol

Approx 35-45 min later: ya know cuz we were trial and error kinda feeling the process out, we got some results

Results

The flare was about maxxed out there, the bowl could have given us a lil bit more, but after that it starts to drop off and you only deepen the existing flare, not actually flaring it outward any more

This pic shows the old bowl as opposed to the flare we achieved. Basically it wouldnt have been nearly as wide, which is NOT what we wanted.

The original inner diameter was like under 8" and this picture shows a new ID of around 10". IIRC we got ~2.5" of flare out of it.

Now we made an MDF ring to go around

Put a roundover on that ring and BAM much tighter almost perfect

Then we fiberglassed it to the pipe, after using same CA glue with activator to hold it. We also used hot glue all the way around to seal the underneath edge so resin didnt leak through onto the front.

The fiberglass:

Not nearly perfect, cleaning it up tomarrow

Today we applied the new technique to the 8" pipe and got to working on it. Ill revisit the fryer tomarrow likely on a piece of scrap to see its viable and if so use that method later on on the other end of the port. We'd have to test etc first to find the right length before flaring the opposite end.. otherwise wed have to flare test cut, and repeat which isnt ideal.

Anyway some simple vids uploading as well, ill post when they are done.

lemme know any ideas etc. Your guys' advice def helped to create some progress here

[Skullz]

That stuff is way to thick to try and make aero ports out of, your wanting something at 1/4" or thinner for the port to heat and bend.

Another option is to route mdf as the curved mouth of the port, but to be honest just using round ports increases efficiency by quite a bit over squared/rectangle ports.

[P4killer_]

[TaylorFade]

I've done this using the same size pipe. I do NOT have the patience to do it with a heat gun.

I used hot oil in a big ass crawfish pot. IIRC, 350* was the sweet spot for temp.

What I did for the flare part was to make a jig out of wood and bondo. It was tapered and flared so it gradually pushed out on the pipe. Hot oil turns PVC into butter. It's a messy business, but the results are awesome.

Remember... the flare rate is just as important as it being flared in the first place. With a custom jig, you can manipulate the flare rate however you see fit instead of trying to find a bowl that's "close enough".

[P4killer_]

yea but idk if we could find anything thinner in 8" or larger.. after bondo it should come out ok. I was think of the mdf rind on top

like you said... but id need like a huuge roundover like 1" or something to get it flush ish. Thats the biggest one weve got at iirc like 3/4" ..

[Brandonbkd]

Is the flare on the end necessary? I know nothing about any kind of areo port lol

[Kevin M]

Is the flare on the end necessary? I know nothing about any kind of areo port lol

Yeah it is preferred. Lowers turbulence. If you can do it at both ends it's even better.

[P4killer_]

I've done this using the same size pipe. I do NOT have the patience to do it with a heat gun.

I used hot oil in a big ass crawfish pot. IIRC, 350* was the sweet spot for temp.

What I did for the flare part was to make a jig out of wood and bondo. It was tapered and flared so it gradually pushed out on the pipe. Hot oil turns PVC into butter. It's a messy business, but the results are awesome.

Remember... the flare rate is just as important as it being flared in the first place. With a custom jig, you can manipulate the flare rate however you see fit instead of trying to find a bowl that's "close enough".

Yea that seems like alot of work, to make a flaring bit out of wood and have to bondo it smooth etc. and heat gun does take masss time. well like 30 min..

Youre right about the fryer though.. we did that and lol yea butttter. but it cracked. ill be testing that tom. 350* it is thanks for that info. and hopefully itll go smoother this time. a less steep flare will hopefully minimize the cracking.

thanks. maybe a pic of your bondo'd flare jig?